Ask Me A Question!
Recent Responses
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Ah sorry, the forum is gone. I'm not sure if BEC will get off the ground again someday, I had way too many things to do at once and had no time to do a proper job of it in the end. Not the kind of job I'd like to do - a good quality, well-researched one. Maybe someday in a new form. With help.
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Yeah! They were my cool buddies. But I couldn't join them as I was working full time back then and saving money. Hopefully one day!
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It's fun to make songs about extraordinary life circumstances, or life situations different to your own, about your own life or things closer to your level. But that's an answer to a compliment veiled as a question, I guess. So - thanks!
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Good question! For sure, I feel like living in new places adds so much to life, and gives you more than you could ever anticipate it will. I keep going back and living in Japan, it's hard not to. But perhaps somewhere in Europe sometime...
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Nathan? Maybe! Only if I feel he's got a decent story to tell.
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I am always finding new ones, forgetting old ones, remembering old ones, forgetting new ones... honestly, they come and go all over the place. I've never had a couple of very specific ones. Different people for different aspects of my life and different aspects of those aspects.
It's a typical answer but this is the honest truth, my major role models these days are my friends! Not generally - I mean specific friends for specific things. I won't go into it because you don't know them but I think about how well a specific friend of mine does something I struggle with and it inspires me to push myself further in that direction, or copy what they do at least.
That said, I bet you want names so let me have a think.
Australian politicians like Bob Brown and Adam Bandt are very inspiring to me. I look at the way they basically sacrifice their lives to work tirelessly for the good of society and the planet, working to understand everyone, to deal with all kinds of people and points of view, and to do it largely publicly. They must grit their teeth privately in the bathrooms sometimes... having to not only speak and discuss and convince on a face to face level, make decisions that balance the needs for change ("How can we change something in time to not have the environment collapse in on itself?"), but dealing with the eye of the media, the paperwork and beaurocracy of government on all levels, and also deciding which sacrifices to make in the interest of what change they can realistically expect. They have to give up a lot of idealism which I'm sure is quite crushing - idealism and anger is much, much easier than compromise. I look up to them for being the heads out there doing the difficult work I could never do.
Jim Henson is one of my big role models. I think about him a lot. He's one of those people that seems like pure creativity. He was able to take any confines, any limitations, and still produce something of genuine quality, with real humour and comedic timing and charm and grace. He took to any medium, he threw himself into it and seemed somehow to be such a magical combination of things that he didn't lose himself in that. I know very few examples of people that can be truly great artists - people who don't sacrifice what they really want their art to be and to say - as well as really wonderful people that all their colleagues speak well of, and on top of all that, a GREAT business man too. He was a crowd pleaser, a staff pleaser, a company pleaser as well as somehow managing to stay a completely genuine, friendly, personable and happy man. Most people really can't do that, even if we try. We're very human and that's a beautiful thing. I could never be a Jim. But I think about him when I need inspiration, or when I think that it's just impossible to be a number of things at once, or that your art has to suffer for popularity or business. He carved his own new way. And thankfully he did it with the help and support of a LOT of other talented people, which is a GREAT relief.
Windsoy McCay is another one. I won't go on, we all know what a genius he was. Far, far, far beyond his time. His existence barely makes sense. But he mainly inspires me in the way that he constantly pushed himself. He pushed himself to get good at doing amazing things, so that he could do them without much effort and make a show out of it. He created new ways of doing things and he made you love them.
Tove Jansson and Diana Wynne Jones are both incredible ladies that will stay with me forever. They are masters of understanding humanity. They are masters of communication. They are masters of world building, and masters of fun, everyday magic. I love them and I will chase them my whole life. I can't speak enough about their talents and what they've meant to me.
Game designers like Tim Schafer and Kenichi Nishi and Anna Anthropy, people that have wonderful senses for great, fun design and pour themselves and their philosophies into their work. People who create what they think ought to exist, what makes them happy, what they have it in themselves to give to the world and who do it with a great sense of inclusion and joy.
Too many cartoonists to name, but so many are friends that let's say they fall into that first category.
Douglas Adams in more ways than I can name for just about every reason I've already stated. And so many people share this one, why reiterate. We all understand. He's had an enormous impact on my life at all stages since high school. A truly wonderful man.
Kate Bush is another incredible artist that just has a lifetime of fascinating work behind, beside and in front of her. She pours herself in and all over everything she does. I was amazed when I discovered her - it was like finally the reason I didn't give a shit about so many other artists suddenly made sense. I had been looking for someone like her.
Gonna stop now because otherwise I'll go on for hours. Covered some major ones. It was really inspiring just to think about them all! Great question, thankyou. -
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Probably not exactly, who can pick one?
But Giftpia would sometimes be my answer, without a doubt. That game is incredibly fun, beautifully & lovingly-made, it has such a spirit. It somehow manages to hit all of the right spots with me in terms of the characters, the sense of humour, the sense of mystery and adventure and exploration, the settings and the objects and the creator showing his ideas and feelings through them, the game's attitude towards life, the style, the music, even the philosophy behind the score which is half-comprised of excellent street bands from Tokyo. It's colourful and is that very perfect mix of being uniquely mysterious and creative and wonderous at the very same time as being familiar on an everyday level.
Terranigma is a game that has always been very dear to me, as is Breath of Fire II. Terranigma as I was growing up was, well, by nature an all-emcompassing game, talking about the nature of life and history and the Earth through a comforting and friendly small-lense. I loved the way you could create history, inspire or hinder genius and invention.
They were both, as unusual it may sound, formative games for me. Very immersive, they both created worlds and characters and lives that intruiged me.
There is some quality in these, some particular way I feel about them despite loving PLENTY of other games that compels me to think of these when asked about my "favourite". So perhaps they are. I don't consider them the greatest games ever made in critical terms (Giftpia, though...) but they mean a lot to me personally for my own largely-inexpressible reasons.
It's too difficult not to mention 50 more titles though, there are so many more games I could also easily place in their own 'favourite' catagory. Games have been just about the biggest part of my life, and even though I don't own any consoles these days, they still continue to be ever-present. Ever since my first NES and C64, they've held my hand through life.
But I won't mention 50 more because I think lists don't do things justice. Just follow me on Twitter, I blab about everything sooner or later. I never shut up about games. -
No! But I am a huge Moomin fan and I don't doubt that Moomin influences sneak into my work. In fact, sometimes I open the gate and offer them pie.
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Nah, not really. I've done it plenty. In fact, if I really need to go, that basically removes all hesitation. Needs are needs. If I went in there to powder my nose or something, I might feel a bit sheepish.
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Humm. A tough one.
Perhaps it might seem strange, but I have a real fondness for my guest comics. I like being able to try to strike a balance of so many things; imitating another artist's style, incorporating my own style, blending the elements I like of my sense and theirs, trying to do something that their reader's will enjoy and that I feel proud of, etc. It's an interesting opportunity for me to spread my stubby little duck wings out!
I'm generally happy with my Me and G comics as well. They're pretty fun to do and simple enough in style that I can usually just concentrate on pacing, and making often terrible jokes enjoyable. Plus, I enjoy inventing imaginary interactions! I do that a lot.
There are lots of KinokoFry comics I have a particular fondness for. Often not the ones that are the most popular, which is usually the case for any creator. There are always those elements in a page which were particular challenges or points of pride for us, which a reader obviously can't pick up on. For example, sometimes readers will never know that you couldn't draw a dog, and now you kind of can draw one okay.
No single one stands out for me though, but off the top of my head, I'm quite happy with;
Night of the Living Cupcakes (#7: http://kinokofry.com/archive/kinokofry-007/ ),
Where Babies Come From (#8: http://kinokofry.com/archive/kinokofry-035-where-babies-come-from/ ),
Perfect Ten (#46: http://kinokofry.com/archive/kinokofry-046-perfect-ten/ ),
Who's Hungry (#56: http://kinokofry.com/archive/kinokofry-056-whos-hungry/ ),
Animal Facts (#90: http://kinokofry.com/archive/kinokofry-090-animal-facts/ )... among others because I think they're pretty well-told/paced jokes.
(I lied, I looked them up in my archives)
And I have a lot of strips I was really pleased with visually, which include all the strips I've made prints of, of course. Also the little sequence of #75-#78 ( http://kinokofry.com/archive/kinokofry-075-domino-effect/ ), #98 ( http://kinokofry.com/archive/kinokofry-098-the-trickle-down-effect/ ) ... ah, a bunch of others.
Sometimes I forget I am proud of my work, generally!
A fun question to answer because I haven't looked at a lot of these comics in awhile. -
I use Paint Shop Pro predominantly, which is a great little program. There's a little about it in my KinokoFry: Behind the Scenes PDF.
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I will be making more, and thankyou. But they will come when they come. I have a great many kinds of comics I would like to do (and never enough time to do them all).
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I will try!
But travelling is difficult and expensive. Perhaps when I find the right time and event. I would really like to attend more conventions and markets this year (but obviously, these will mostly be in Melbourne). I will see though! -
Thankyou! This is a really wonderful and humbling thing to hear.
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Hmm. More that liking any individual song above any others, Sexy Synthesizer music is more about a sound I like, which is why I can happily listen to so many of their covers (even covers of terrible, terrible songs like Dream Girls).
Ugh. I have honestly been trying to pick my favourite song from Rock and I can't. They are all great. They all go together. Sexy Synthesizer music is unifying good times.
(Though, Happy Song, well, makes me very happy). -
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I am!
I'll be sharing the table with Andrew Fulton and I'll have a bunch of prints and posters, and perhaps some zines and original art. We shall see.
I have no idea what Armageddon will be like. I hope: Good.
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Rebecca Clements’s Bio
Melbourne, VIC
Cartoonist and illustrator. I write and draw KinokoFry, and other comics.
