Today we have responses from BobbyJoeX who creates the comic Royal among other things. Learn about the artist, then be sure to check out Royal!
1. Who are you?
My name is Crystal Avery, I go by BobbyJoeX online. I’m a Canadian freelance cartoonist.
2. Where are you from?
Ontario, Canada
3. Introvert or extrovert?
Mixed, I tend to hide in my house but if given the opportunity to talk to people, i take it.
4. What’s your sign? (Interpret this however you wish. Any system or a literal sign.)
Virgo, Dog.
5. Is the above sign accurate or not? How so?
Not at all. 😀
6. Pets. Do you have or would you like any?
Bailey, he my dog, best boi 1000000/10.
7. What are you currently working on?
Royal and some other projects, both comic and non comic related.
8. What do you call your work and why? (Comic, webcomic, webtoon, graphic novel, etc.)
Webcomic and hopefully in the future, I can call it a graphic novel because I plan to get it printed.
9. You have three to five words to convince me to read your work. What are they? (Bonus points if you can do it in fewer.)*
Who gave these dumb-asses magic?
*Bonus points have absolutely no value.
10. Are you working with anyone else on the above project? If so, who?
Nope, Royal is my baby, but i do have friends help me with small things, notable people would be:
Neysun, Creator of Trashhead Talks
Galactic Potato, Creator of Trip Across the Multiverse (Tapas)
and Mr. Toontastic, Creator and author of Sonia: Legends of Eternal Darkness (Tapas)
11. What comics or other projects have you worked on in the past?
A comic called Adrian’s Bane, it had 4 failed start ups but I plan to just overhaul it and try again … 5th time’s a charm …
12. Do you have any formal art or writing education?
I don’t need no education. >:p
13. Have you had any education that has unexpectedly proved useful in your work?
I can barely spell, I don’t think so. 😛
14. What do you feel you still need to learn?
Pacing and flow of stories.
15. What have you done to educate yourself about art, writing, comics, or life?
Most was trial and error in doing it myself, other than that, Youtube and bugging friends to teach me their awesome skills.
16. What is a quote that resonates with you?
“Find a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” [ — Confucius?]
17. What genres do you most enjoy when consuming entertainment?
Urban Fantasy.
18. What genre/s does your current work fall into?
… Urban Fantasy.
19. Why did you choose that genre for your project?
Its neat to show a modern society with the abnormal being normal.
20. What creators, comic or otherwise, do you draw inspiration from?
My style kind of looks like Rumiko Takahashi, at least her older works like Urusei Yatsura, this was accidental, other comics i take inspiration from are One Piece and recently MHA cause of how similar it is to my setting. I also take inspiration from an old RPG called Earthbound, actually all of the Mother series. My friends are sick of me talking about Earthbound, its funny. 😀
21. What is your favorite comic?
One Piece.
22. Have you tried to adapt some aspect of your favorite comic into your own work?
Yes, very much, more so aspects of the storytelling.
23. What tools do you use when making your comic?
Clip Studio Paint and a Wacom Cintiq 13HD.
24. Can you walk us through your creative process?
Well first i say f**k the Script, i have a bullet sheet that i quit following a long time ago, ok i loosely follow it… then i think about a page in my head, then maybe 8 of them before going back and roughing, then go back again and line and so on and so on.
25. Do you listen to music at any point in your creative process? What kind and why?
A lot of everything really, mostly listen to stuff before 2013, some new stragglers got through to me though.
26. What is the best beverage and/or snack while working on your comic?
I dont usually snack when working on comics, drink? coffee, no sugar, just cream or milk.
27. How long did you spend planning your project? Is this normal for you?
well the Royal boys existed since 2011 but it wasn’t til 2015 with the creation of Lane Jolley where i got my sh*t together and decided to plan.
28. What is your favorite part of your comic?
Seeing the characters come to life in a way.
29. What do you feel your strengths are as an artist?
Movement.
30. What do you think your strengths as a writer are?
Being able to pull it out of my ass and managed to not f**k up so far.
31. What do you want people to get from your work?
An enjoyable adventure.
32. How do you decompress when you need a break?
Watch dumb YouTube videos and work on other stuff.
33. How do you define success for yourself? What is your goal? (This may or may not be related to question 31.)
Having it in book stores, but a more personal goal is, I collect Manga, and seeing my series in it’s entirety on my shelf will essentially complete my collection.
34. What is your favorite dynamic between two or more characters in your story? Describe it briefly.
Danny and Oliver so far, the enemies to lovers dynamic is what i’m trying to pull off even tho this dynamic is planned to be resolved before the next year in the comic starts.
35. Why does the above dynamic appeal to you?
The whole being jerks to each other while secretly liking each other was oddly inspired by Usagi and Mamoru in Sailor Moon. Guess its just my childhood creepin’ in.
36. Who do you think your audience is in no more than ten words?
Older teens to young adults.
37. What, if anything, would you like to get from the/a comics community?
If you mean a fandom… a fandom!… a nice one… please don’t send hate threats to each other… plz? [I meant a community of comic creators and/or readers, like the Ink, Sweat, & Tears Discord, or the forums on Comic Fury, or any other group of creators/readers, but this is an interesting answer as well and probably still applies.]
38. What is the most important thing you’ve learned? (Comics related or otherwise.)
Don’t strive for perfection cause it doesn’t exist.
39. You can choose one person to be your mentor for a day. Who do you pick and why?
ONE because he managed to do what he wanted to do as a career by doing it for sh*ts and giggles and was noticed.
40. You can hire anyone in the world to create an original soundtrack for your project. Who do you pick and why?
The issue is that a lot of them are dead… Can i just pay my friend, Neysun and some other acquaintances to do it? [I guess I should have specified “living or dead”. Apologies.]
41. Early bird or night owl. Why?
Night Owl… well i get up at around 8-9 am and don’t go to bed til after midnight, I don’t know why really, I blame Bailey.
42. Pick a card. Any card. (Standard playing card, Tarot, Pokemon. I don’t care.) Why that card?
That old Simpsons trading card where Homer is passed out, Drunk under the Christmas tree. No idea why, it’s just amusing.
43. What is your favorite tabletop/board game?
Does Crazy 8s count? It’s pretty much Uno before they started to market it as that. [Sure, I think card games count here. I was just aiming for a physical game as opposed to a video game.]
44. What is your favorite video game?
EarthBound.
45. Do you have any hobbies that have worked their way into your comic?
Does making Lane a video game junkie count? [Yep.]
46. If you were going to recommend one comic aside from your own for us to read, what would it be and why?
Just one?? 😫… I cant choose! Can’t i just say go back to question 10? [Yes, you can.]
47. Where can we find your work?
On Global Comix and ComicFury (<-Main Site).
48. Do you have a Patreon, Ko-fi, or any other page you would like to point people to?
Heres my Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/helpmeplz
49. If it has not already been revealed, what is the most important thing we should know about you?
I’m an Idiot but I’m trying. 😀
50. What, if anything, would you like to ask me?
Can I see YOUR work process? [Of course. See Tait in 50 Questions or Less in addition to the following:
If I’m starting a new story then I will typically brainstorm by doing some stream of consciousness writing or doodling until I find a direction for what I want to work on.
If I’m working on a story that’s already in progress it typically starts with me figuring out what needs to happen next in the story. Once I have some idea of that I’ll start doodling thumbnails and working out dialog in my head. Once I feel somewhat confident about where it’s going I’ll scan the thumbnails and digitally rearrange them to come up with my page layout. Then I do inking, sometimes jumping ahead to flatting colors if I need a break from inking. I go back and forth until the basics are done and then I’ll add in details until I feel it’s finished.]
