Rosetta Phoning Part 3

Read part one here 

Read part two here

Factional: I wanted to move on to, I guess a good place to start would be how long have you guys been planning this? First I was aware was when Mary mentioned it at last year's Armageddon.

Bethany: Think I have first drawings and concept art from early 2013, and we were talking about a full on comic and story sometime in late 2013 before sitting down and planning in 2014, and trying to get a blog set up and get some people interested.

Fac: How important was the setting? Did that come first or were you both interested in the time travel part of the story and then settled on Ancient Eygpt?

Bethany started with a bunch of nameless characters.

Bethany: I can't remember what came first. I just had a bunch of characters that had no names, including some vague Egypt related thing and some silly thought I blogged about one day like "haha wouldn't it be funny to travel back in time and just predict the future with Wikipedia?" I was honestly just really into making silly jokes and far out situations out of a genre and idea that's already pretty popular and well known.

Mary was the one who really wanted to do the Ancient Egypt setting and obviously the New Zealand one was well, since the comic does, briefly, unfold in NZ. But both of us I think had a big interest in Ancient Egypt!

Mary: Fools [Bethany] already had the characters, in very primitive, non-fleshed out forms. And, we've both always been interested in history, but my favourite was always Ancient Egypt. Since I'm the writer, Fools suggested that we do that since we both have a lot of prior interest-led research about it. Having the modern teen character and the pharaoh one, time travel was an inevitable in the story - annnnnd, yeah setting it in Egypt of the past just strengthens the need for our research we've been passively doing our whole lives. So they sort of all happened at the same time? I love time travel/stories about the characters being displaced from their original setting. I've never really experienced that feeling myself, and reading/writing about that feeling is like living that by proxy. All the problems and internal conflicts that happen as a result of being taken completely out of your comfort zone - out of place or out of time. Mum once suggested I read Cross-stitch because that's basically what that series is about. It was terrible.

Fac: She meant well Mary, she really did.

The art looks real slick Bethany. Did that influence the way Mary approached the story? (When I first saw the concept art it was like looking at something produced by Disney or Pixar.)

Bethany: Haha wow thank you! What a comparison! Uh, well I don't know! I kept it all bright and colourful to suit the light hearted nature of the story!

Fac: It does seem light hearted but it has an edge to it. The real cosmic opening took me by surprise (also I think the guy in the back of the bus stop should of been a dead dude!)*

Bethany: He was totally dead no matter what Mary said. Cover up all your artistic failings by just saying the character is dead.

Fac: So, has there been in surprises in the development and execution of RP?

Bethany: Kind of? I was mostly surprised that people enjoyed and liked the sound of the idea because it's not new or even revolutionary, there's been plenty of "the liar revealed" type stories and time travel stories, but people seemed to really respond to our initial posts and planning stages. I'm surprised that so many people are invested in it when it's only just started.

Slick, researched artwork.

Mary: The only real surprise is that it was intended to be silly and humorous and I am struggling to do that as I keen thinking about it so seriously!! The Nu is a very important concept and entity to me so I find it very hard to not want it to have serious elements? However the Egyptian pantheon is filled with myths that are very silly and humorous, the gods do ridiculous things. Horus tricks Set to eat his semen on a salad. The Nu doesn't really have many silly stories to go with it though, very little compared to the main pantheon of gods, I think that The Nu wasn't really worshiped, but just sort of an ever present thing. So I'm finding this weird internal dilemma between wanting it to be serious and respectful to the cosmic egg I love, but also kinda causal. A being that is everything ever would be pretty casual to hang out with, because you are them. I don't know. I'm surprised.

Fac: Were there similar tensions in Nothing Fits? I found while it was funny, and the style Alex used leant itself to humour, there was a real angry energy to events (I really liked that about it).

Mary: Not really. I think maybe it's the research element that makes my brain think: research = serious. Nothing Fits had very very minimal research/none at all.

Fac: You guys seem to have a lot of projects on the go. Is it difficult to juggle all of those different worlds?

Mary: A little? I imagine it's harder for Fools, because she's actually actively working on her other projects.

Juggling projects can be a struggle.

Bethany: It's hard for me, I've got my own things going in and at the moment I'm working on publishing some of my stuff and having to deal with editors and the whole publishing process while also doing art for Rosetta Phone and other personal projects. It's a bit of a struggle but I'm managing it.

Fac: Anything you want to add in closing?

Bethany: Nah I don't think I have anything to add? Except probably that the creepy cat was my fault if anyone is looking for someone to blame for that idea.

END
Read part one 
Read part two

Follow the progress of Rosetta Phone here

*Eagle eyed readers can follow the controversial ‘Case of the Disappearing Commuter’ on pages 4 and 5 of Rosetta Phone. The smart money says he’s dead.

Rosetta Phoning Part 2

Read part one here

Factional: Do you guys think of that time, doing your first webcomics, as an apprenticeship? Are you applying any particular  lessons you learnt to the production of  Rosetta  Phone?

Mary: I'm not sure what you mean by apprenticeship? 

Apprenticeship seems more like a time where you are mentored, and our previous experiences with webcomics were just more... I don't know. We put our all into our past works, I don't see them as practice runs or experiments. Just us wanting to tell good/enjoyable stories. We definitely learnt things by those experiences, my number one lesson being to plan the whole story out before starting production. Which we have done! I would like to get the majority of it written before we get too far through Rosetta Phone, but we have planned it out pretty thoroughly, so we won't run into some of the problems Nothing Fits did... which was not knowing how it was going to end!

Also having experience with Kickstarter campaigns, I know that next time it is vital to have a good video. And I would probably plan out expenses more thoroughly next time, I did have a dilemma with the change in postage prices last time and having plans and back up plans in place for stuff like that is something I will definitely have next time. 

Nothing Fits

There are some things I can't cross over from Nothing Fits, and some times Bethany can't cross over from her previous works - as she hasn't worked with someone like this before and working with her is very different than working with Alex McCrone. Alex took more of a backseat, as she doesn't have much of an online presence, whereas Bethany does. I'm feeling like I'm taking more of a backseat promotion wise. I've released more control, as Rosetta Phone is more equally mine and Bethany's, while Nothing Fits was really more mine. 

Fac: I guess by apprenticeship I mean a period of learning and development but I see where you're coming from in terms of mentorship being part of that process. Though from both what you and Bethany have said perhaps your peers acted in that capacity to some extent.

Moving on, Bethany can you remember what you liked about Nothing Fits?

Bethany: I really liked both the art and the fun, quirky twisted story book nature of it, I liked it because it reminded me a lot of Roald Dahl  and Terry Pratchett. It was just really fun with these bright children's book-esque  illustrations and then a dark underbelly of murder and chaos.

Fac: That 'quirky twisted storybook' nature of Nothing Fits, I saw that too. I can also see it in Tempus by Bethany. I wondered if you were influenced by writers like Diana Wynne Jones or Margaret Mahy or Joan Aiken? You guys seems to have the same kind of energy and sense of play that I associate with them. 

Character sheet from Tempus

Bethany: God, Tempus, that's a blast from the past! I wrote and drew that while I was still at school!

Well I said it before, that Mary's storytelling reminded me a lot of the late Terry Pratchett, who is among my favourite authors and story tellers, so I was immediately drawn to it for that reason. I could see his hand and influence in a lot of her stuff, and you can see it in Tempus and my other projects as well. It later turned out Mary was also a fan of Pratchett's Discworld series, and apparently  both Mary and I always came up with similar  kinds  of  chaotic,  quirky worlds and that we also had the same sort of humour. Most of the time our planning days are really just us cracking awful jokes at each other!

Tempus

I can't really think of any other influences we both share, I was influenced a lot creatively, especially in story telling by writers like Jonathon Stroud, Garth Nix and Isobelle Carmody.

Mary: Yes! Terry Pratchett is a big big influence on my writing, as well as Neil Gaiman's work. Darren Shan's  Saga of Darren Shan  and Derek Landy's  Skulduggery Pleasant  series were also big influences. A lot of dark humor and fantasy settings. 

Yu-Gi-Oh as well.  Always Yu-Gi-Oh.  Very important influence. 

END OF PART TWO.
Read part three here

Follow the progress of Rosetta Phone here

Rosetta Phoning Part 1

NOTHING FITS was one of my favourite discoveries of last year. Starting life as an webcomic it made the transition to print with the help of a successful Kickstarter campaign. Combining hover cars, shirty, aggressive young woman, clones, mummies, Egyptian gods and talking rats it blew you along its slipstream, delivering with all the appeal and wit of a cheeky punk single - think Buzzcocks or The Undertones. Finishing the volume you were left wondering what would come next from it's two creators Mary Tamblyn and Alex McCrone. 

For writer Mary the answer is Rosetta Phone, a new webcomic she has developed in close association with her good friend Bethany Hughston. Drawn in a bright, attractive, fine line style it combines a humorous time travel narrative with a creepy cosmic undercurrent. Rolling out at the rate of a new page every Wednesday morning it marks a highlight in my working week, normally in the bleary early morning as I'm rolling to work in the cozy confines of Auckland public transport. 

Mary and Bethany were good enough to agree to take part in what turned out to be a lengthy interview with Factional. Here is part one of three. 

-Kelly

Factional: What are your respective origin stories? And what lead you both to comics?

Bethany Hughston: I don't really know how to describe it honestly, it wasn't really some cool lightbulb moment. I got into art and drawing at a young age because my mum was an artist and my older sister and brother were both creative as well, my sister as an artist and my brother as a writer and musician, and our parents were very supportive. I also went to schools that had a leaning towards the arts and stuff.

I got into comics really early! My brother was a huge comic lover, especially of Tintin, and when he outgrew his massive collection of Tintin comics, I got them. And I read them cover to cover and really got into telling stories visually, and by the time I was in school maybe at 15 or 16 I discovered webcomics and read heaps! I started drawing and doodling my own stuff, like just comics about my friends and things and then eventually into full on webcomics when I was 16-18 and I've been doing them ever since.

Rosetta Phone planning sketch

Mary Tamblyn:  I never liked art when I was younger, I was obsessed with Ancient Egypt and I wanted to be an archeologist or forensic detective. I didn't actually start drawing till about Year 4 or 5, when I met Alex Jones (AJ), who was mad into comics and making his own little comics about his characters. He'd put them on the class book shelves and everyone would read them during silent reading. I started to draw, mostly animals, which then led to making Rayman fan-comics with my cousin. We did these for a couple of years, they were... very unique. They soon stopped being about Rayman and more about our own characters we made along the way.

We had compulsory art at Intermediate and High School, and I had really good teachers for that - while I had really bad teachers for science. This made me way more invested in drawing and creating. I wanted to be an animator. I continued making short comics, with the characters that then went on to become a part of Nothing Fits. I was never that into comics, I was more into novels: staying up into the small hours reading most nights at Intermediate and High School. I'm still... regrettably, not very good at reading comics. Art School makes you hate everyone and everything and really apathetic at actually reading anything. I'm getting better at it though. So I only really got into comics because of AJ and only continued with them because of Alex McCrone's interest in them. Finding ComicFury as a webcomic host got me more into comics, and meant I met a bunch of really cool comicy people.

Fac: Webcomics seems the most natural step for young cartoonists to take now days, I presume that is where you guys met.

Bethany: Yeah both me and Mary met through webcomics and through Comicfury.com, I'd already been on there for a while and I had established a name for myself with two comics I wrote in high school which had become really popular on the site. Mary and Alex came onto the scene in 2012 I think, and I remember seeing Nothing Fits and really liking it and telling some friends of mine to go read it. We started just generally chatting on the forums and the then website exclusive chat which was just a bunch of artists and writers talking to each other about nothing, and then we got each other's Facebook. We were only talking about this the other night trying to remember how we even started talking to each other but it was something along the lines of a mutual friend of ours wanted to talk to me more but was nervous so Mary volunteered to show support. Eventually we realised we got on really well and exchanged Skype info, and since then we talk and webcam frequently, we've met up and traveled a bit. And we plan to do much more of it!

Mary:  I must admit that coming to ComicFury I did feel very threatened by Bethany, just because she was very well known and popular, and yes, I was very jealous of this. It's embarrassing to say this, but I initially hated her. However, as she said, once we got talking one on one, we became close fast. I love her intense and in depth world's she has created and her utter dedication over the years to stick with them. She is a better writer and artist than I am, comics wise, and a very good friend.

Fac: What do you think is the most important thing about entering that world?

Mary: Webcomics are the quickest and easiest way to get your work out there, and getting almost instantaneous feedback is very rewarding. Also means you aren't stuck in a void of creating without any viewer feedback for the process of creating the work - which can take years.

Bethany: I don't know, really, it's hard to say. A positive and safe community is really important when starting out, and he web provides near instant feedback for your work, which is really important for growth. ComicFury was great because it was just a bunch of normal people who happened to write or draw comics, and everyone was willing to give people a chance! There wasn't any nastiness or mean spiritedness and everyone was always willing to help and listen to others. That was really important to me starting out, because I was so scared that people would hate me or hate my stuff and I would be hounded for no reason. So having a positive environment to post on was great!

Rosetta Phone detail

Mary: Also, a  good, clean and easy to use website layout is key. It doesn't have to be fancy, but it needs to be functional. ComicFury has a number of default layouts that work well, which is a bonus for people who are new to webcomics. They also have a bunch of great people willing to help improve/fix layouts if you need help (which is actually how I met my boyfriend, ha ha, he made the Nothing Fits website for me... actually him and Bethany worked on making the Rosetta Phone one too).

Fac: Do you think it is a nurturing environment? When I wrote my review for Nothing Fits I went and looked at the ComicsFury site and was amazed by the community that seemed to grow around the comic, it seemed like a really healthy environment to produce work in.

Mary: ComicFury was really welcoming, apart from my initial stupidity and jealousy, but at times it can be toxic. Most of my toxic interactions weren't surrounding my comics themselves though, but happened on the forums, mostly during political/social issue discussions. Which are heated topics in any art community.  

The most important part about coming into these communities is knowing the difference between subjective and objective feedback. A lot of critiques thrown online don't come from people considering things objectively, rather just their personal opinions (and often come from people with hardly any more experience than you have yourself). It's also important, as it is a way of getting direct feedback from viewers - to listen if you do something wrong (unintentionally being racist or sexist for example), this platform allows you to amend and fix things, because its not printed, and its not set in stone, you can make up for your mistakes. Webcomics are a great place to experiment and evolve your art making and story telling skills, and quite often you can see a clear difference from when you started your comic, to where you are now (vast improvements usually). Really, it's just a great way to get your idea out there right now without having to stall, and redo your comic forever as your skills get better, you can just grow with the story.

Bethany: I don't know, really, it's hard to say. A positive and safe community is really important when starting out, and the web provides near instant feedback for your work, which is really important for growth. ComicFury was great because it was just a bunch of normal people who happened to write or draw comics, and everyone was willing to give people a chance! There wasn't any nastiness or mean spiritedness and everyone was always willing to help and listen to others. That was really important to me starting out, because I was so scared that people would hate me or hate my stuff and I would be hounded for no reason. So having a positive environment to post on was great!

I also think it's really important to speak with artists and writers of all different ages and backgrounds and just be around them and see how they all work, just to figure out where you stand and what you like and what you can learn from them. That's why being on the forums and hanging around and participating was so beneficial for me, I got to learn so many things and I got to share my own ideas and knowledge without worrying about being attacked or made fun of.

END OF PART ONE.
Read part two here
Read part three here

Follow the progress of Rosetta Phone here

Nothing Fits by Mary Tamblyn and Alex McCrone

My initial introduction to Nothing Fits came in the form of a particularly unimpressive Kickstarter video. Despite a well edited introduction montage and great atmospheric music, Mary Tamblyn and Alex McCrone were more dead than deadpan and mumbled their way through a script asking me for my hard earned cash. 'Put some effort in' I thought and half-heartedly clicked through to their online strips for a perfunctory glance.

Five minutes later I was back and pledged my financial support.



The comic that I had read was instantly appealing not to mention engaging, funny and smart. Underlying the strip's many virtues was an impressively snotty attitude. There was something brashly confident about the drawing and writing.



The opening pages introduced the scenario, characters and circumstance with admirable economy. There was nothing on those pages that did not need to be there; words and pictures complimented one another perfectly. This is perhaps reflective of Mary Tamblyn's (writer of Nothing Fits) background as an artist, born with the confidence that a picture can tell a thousand words but it must also be the result of a close creative relationship between writer and artist. Each seeking to support, rather than eclipse, the other.



If Nothing Fits reminds me of anything it is books from my 70s childhood, specifically the work of Joan Aiken, Diana Wynne Jones and Margaret Mahy, (the Godmother, the Materfamilias, of New Zealand fiction). On hand was the same feeling of mad, offhand invention, of imaginations that could be opened on a whim to gush dreams and drama. Hover cars, mummies, mad science labs, wizards, Egyptian gods, castles, snotty girlfriends, giant snakes, ghosts, strange rat people, formal gardens, foreboding forests, clones, magic portals and gods are all crammed together under one cover - but nothing feels out of place or forced.

Nothing Fits also shares with those grand dowagers an underlying tone which hints at the tragedy and disappointment of life. This nuisance is present throughout the whole comic, right up to the final illustration of the finished book, which provides an unexpected emotional punch to the gut as you saunter through the exit-simultaneously upending your readers perspective on the story you just finished.



The Wynne Jones/Mahy 70s connotations are reinforced by the art. Alex McCrone's scratchy pen and ink style brings to mind Pat Marriott and Quentin Blake, (with perhaps a touch of Tove Jansson). Giants of childrens illustration. What's strange about that is that I hated those guys when I was a kid (not Jansson!) and I love Alex's art. The pictures and storytelling in Nothing Fits have an effortless feel, as if it all just flows out from pen to page. I doubt this is true. What's on the page is probably the result of blood, sweat and tears. The product of a lifetime spent drawing.

Whatever. Alex McCrone's drawing chops are impressive.



Nothing Fits is a great collaboration between two equal, complimentary creators. The easy synthesis is reflected in the components that make up the whole. Monochrome colours wash over the inks in lovely gouache hues. From what I can tell they are painted, high-wire style, directly onto the page. That's pretty audacious. Look Ma, no hands! Makes me nervous just thinking about it. Equally as impressive, in an unassuming way, is the lettering. The font, created from the artists handwriting (I think), lends the dialogue an energy, underlying the scripts sass. No small accomplishment.



Nothing Fits started life as a web-comic. While you could quite happily experience it just on the page I'd recommend checking out the site where it all began. Along with the comments section banter there are some lovely Easter-eggs to be found in the attached process blog. Sketches, notes, additional mini-strips, fan art and asides give extra life to the main comic. It's from these features, viewed together and at a distance of a couple of years, that you feel the fission a web-comic like Nothing Fits can generate. There is the sense of things fermenting, of a community coming to life around a smart, beautiful strip devised by two young students from the arse end of the world. It's a heartening glimpse of the way the world is now, and the things that you can achieve with some pretty basic resources and a big imagination.

Nothing Fits can be brought here and read here.

Kelly Sheehan
Faction Comics + Earth's End