...and then I went to art school at VCU in Richmond so I would have the formal training I figured you'd need.

By the time I was 10, it was clear I only wanted to draw

And by the time They made me answer the question for real: what do you want to do when you grow up?

...in high school...

The answer had become very clear. Only I wanted to work for ILM. I wanted to work in special effects.

I never did that, but the funny thing is, working in computer games... it's all one big special effect. So I got my wish.

It's getting better, but my initial work in computer games was very frustrating, the stuff you couldn't do

Limited polygon budgets, limited texture sizes...

But the biggest reason for those animation project offshoots is the chance to tell stories.

Stories are what I'm about, and animation is a great medium for that. Of course, it's also a very time-consuming one.

But you can really tell your story your way. The only better way is comics, where not even the animation limits you...

...cuz there isn't any. :)

THAT's what I do for a living, that's my day job.

All the stuff you know me for, that's not my vocation. It's my avocation. It's the stuff I do in my spare time.

And I use every square inch of my spare time to exercise my artistic desires. I'd do more if I could.

The job is great, and the projects are great. I feel very lucky to have such a fantastic job working for this company.

Most artists don't get to work in their chosen field, let alone make a living at it.

And they are very tolerant of my extracurricular activities. They know what makes me tick...

...and I think they understand if they tried to make me stop I'd explode. My projects are a pressure valve.

(previous question) :)

But of course I've been thinking about it, writing it, designing it, and preparing to make it for years now.

Even though I thought it would be an animated film, not a comic. I sort of backed into it as a comic...

...but now it seems perfectly reasonable to do it this way.

I draw and draw and draw, and come up with every variation I can think of.

In that regard, Moon Town is the most complete visual preproduction phase I've ever gone through for my own projects

And that preproduction phase, because it's a personal project, can take as long as it needs to.

If it were for my job, or a contract or something, I'd have to limit it to the time allotted.

But that's the luxury of a personal project.

Once that's done, I have the designs, I just plow into the daily work of telling the story visually

I pencil first, on paper, then I ink over that on a light table, and then I scan that and color it in Photoshop

I use a Cintiq at work, and I love it, but I still really love the feel of pencil and paper, or pen and paper.

Best of all, you have an honest-to-God artifact of the creation process - original pencils and inks!

And because the strips are all posted on line anyway, it's not like I'm spoiling my own book.

As for the bigger question, why am I posting the book online as a webcomic while working on it...

...I was hoping that it would help me build a reader base, a fan base.

Jury is still out whether that has really helped me much.

But I have met a lot of good people through the comic, so that's something.

You can only do so much as one person...

So, we're sharing resources, supporting each other, and eventually will bring other people into the process of creating more stuff

Unfortunately, duty calls, and I must go.

So, until next time, then?