the goods

[essrose]

and now it's time for 20 questions with ms. serenity rose (me), local witch, presented from this point on with proper capitalization. so no whining.


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1. So... are you really a witch?

Yes. Yes indeed.



2. Like... really really?

Yes. I can float around and move junk with my brain and conjure up great gobs of ectoplasm and blah blah blah. Nobody knows why it happens, but every now and then a person is born seemingly "unstuck from physics" and is forced to live out a life of intense, soul-crushing alienation from all the "stuckies". Except that "alienation" part might just be me.



3. But if all this is real, why can't i find Crestfallen on any map?

Well, reality isn't exclusive you your plane of existence, right? It's a dimensional problem.



4. Who the hell is AARON A?

Aaron A. is a sad little man with just one meager little power: he can stick his head into my dimension and have himself a look-see.

He found Tess and i skeet-shooting Crazy Town CDs out behind Cruel World one day (i was making them fly like bats while Tess pelted them with her five barrelled 12-gauge bb gun), and decided on the spot that our "story" needed to be "told." I figured that would be fine as long as it was all extra-dimensional and all. So he went home and worked up a pair of school projects on the subject of me, two short animated films called "Serenity's Plot" and "Good Guys Wear Black" (also the title of a Chuck Norris film wherein he high-kicks a car). At first, he thought maybe my journals would make good subject matter for a TV cartoon series... until two years spent actually WORKING in the animation industry (on the now-defunct "Invader Zim") effectively rid him of that fantasy. Comic books are a much better idea, methinks.

When we started the web-comic version of "serenity rose," aaron was dead set on keeping his name off of things. Partly to avoid turning the whole thing into some big dumb "Invader Zim" sideshow, but mostly out of good old-fashioned un-extraordinary "Shy Person's Terror," the kind i know only too well. But I figured if he wanted to put just MY name on there, that was fine with me; i don't care if swarms of people i'll never meet know who i am. HOWEVER, once Slave Labor put us on the road to publication, it was decided that mr. a should quit hiding behind extra-dimensional witches of questionable reality and make himself available for signings and conventions and other things that make introverts like us wish for a quick and painless demise.

Someday we'll have to share with everyone our theories on cross-dimensional doppelgangers and parallel consciousnesses (short version using Star Trek reference: if aaron is Spock, then i'm Spock With a Goatee), but there's been enough confusion for one day, right?



5. So what exactly is this ectoplasm stuff, anyhow?

Ectoplasm is absolutely anything, actually. Everything "conjured" is made from ectoplasm. Any witch worth her salt can convert molecules of any earthly substance (oak, concrete, Joel Schumacher) into molecules of a malleable goo called ectoplasm, which can then be twisted into anything the witch so desires. Anything. I usually make monsters, but i could make footstools, lava lamps, perfect replicas of President George W. "Dubya" Bush, cows, whatever.


Ectoplasm usually disipates into nothing after a few days, but some of the more powerful witches have been known to bang together stuff that lasts centuries or more (like the goblins, for instance).


Sometimes it appears as though a witch is conjuring ectoplasm out of thin air. This is misleading; oxygen can be "plasmed" pretty easily, actually.



6. What happened to your parents?

My mom wasted away and died when i was four years old. Nobody knows why. I was so distraught at the time that i froze Blind Creator Bay over for six days in August.

My dad perished in a car crash on an icy road when i was 16. My reaction to that particular event culminated with six dozen federal agents, one burned-out husk of a school bus, and a court-appointed psychologist for the rest of my natural life.



7. What's this "bus incident" all about?

See issues 1 thru 5 of serenity rose comics, published starting in October from Slave Labor Graphics.



8. How come you wear goggles all the time?

It gets pretty windy when you float around six stories in the air. Also: i like 'em.



9. Why are you so short?

Genetic malfeasance.



10. Why do you hate Jhonen Vasquez so much?

I don't. Anybody who does spooky comics just gets kind of tired of the inevitable comparisons, is all. I actually quite like Squee!

And yes, aaron did work as a character designer on Jhonen's short-lived alien themed children's series Invader Zim... but ask him any questions about it and he'll give you a look like you just tore off his cat's head with your teeth.



11. What are your most infuencey influential artisty-type people?

Tim Burton, Bill Watterson, Dave McKean, Edward Gorey, Lane Smith, Hayao Miyazaki (and the rest of Studio Ghibli), whoever's responsible for Cowboy Bebop and FLCL, Dan Clowes, Chris Ware, Adrien Tomine, Mike Mignola, Stephen Gammell, EC comics, Yukito Kishiro, Katsuhiro Otomo, Neil Gaiman, Philip Pullman, H.P. Lovecraft, J.K. Rowling, the Brothers Quay, Nick Park, Terry Gilliam, Sam Raimi, Wes Anderson, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the Coen Bros., George Romero, Johnny Depp, Siouxsie Sioux, Bjork, Melora Creager, Switchblade Symphony, Meg Lee Chin, "Mad Bob" Smith, Moz, and Homer J. Simpson. And a billion other people i'm forgetting, every one of which i'm proud to say is a part of who i am. Oh, and Jhonen, of course.



12. This comic is real funny lookin. How it done drawed?

Aaron uses the same technique i do out here in dimension x. All it takes is one mechanical pencil (0.5 HB), a few migraine-inducing black markers, cheap-ass xerox paper and oodles and oodles of patience. If you have any interest at all in making your work in any way "clear" or "publishable," then by all means avoid this technique like grim death.



13. If i send you a fan art, will you put it on your site?

Yes! We love every single drawing we get and proudly display them in the fan art gallery. Honestly, a lot of the stuff in there puts my work to absolute SHAME.


14. So does that mean you can help me get published? By SLG?

Um... no. Slave Labor is one of the few publishers left that takes unsolicited submissions though, so by all means send your stuff in. They have some guidelines on the official site, but nothing too terribly complicated.

Special Note: And if you do happen to suffer the misfortune of the rejection letter, please, please, PLEASE, for the love of god, don't take it personally. Or worse, start burning bridges all over the place. 'Specially if you're right at the beginning of your artistic career. A) Folks remember pissy little brats, B) word gets around, and C) a thick skin is your ticket to rent-payment.



15. Where can i FIND your comic? It's not like it's Witchblade or anything.

Most comic shops now carry at least a few SLG comics (there's a list of retailers on their site, if you wanna make sure). If you don't live near a comic shop (which i think is like 90% of the human population at this point), there's a bunch of sites on the net for ordering comics. They'll fix you right up.



16. Will there be any official merchandisey-type stuff?

Oh yes. Yes indeed. Even if the comic crashes and burns and leaves me a twisted wreck of human waste, with god as my witness, there WIILL be sera dollies. Just you wait.



17. Are you gonna be making any public appearances anytime soon?

Not without a LOT of gummi worms to "take the edge off," no. But the dimensional discrepancy mentioned above makes that sorta unlikely, anyhow. *sigh of relief*

Aaron, however, will soon be cringing beneath the SLG table at a comic convention near you. "Near you" taken here to mean, of course, "closer to the greater Los Angeles area than not."



18. It says in issue one that Tess has six piercings, but i only count five. What gives?

Tess has had part of a screwdriver stuck through the top of her head since she was 6 years old. "Piercing" is the only explanation she'll ever give me, so "piercing" is how ii have it listed.



19. Is Tess, y'know, single?

You have a sick watermelon fetish. Call an ambulance.



20. No, seriously... isn't 4'10 like, midget territory?

"Little people" are BELOW 4'10, thank you very much.



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if y'all have any more questions you'd like ol' witchy to answer (or aaron, for that matter, or tess), please don't be a stranger. We like company.