After the first chapter of Zeldanime ended, North Castle was straight in there to ask creators OniChild and Crazyfreak a few more choice questions about the how the comic is progressing, as well as congratulating them on their first Lozzie Award and the popularity of their fanart competition...
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1. Well since chapter 1 finished its been a real busy time for you both! What with the official Zeldanime site launching, polls, the fanart competition, forums...
OniChild: Busy time indeed... Not even with Zeldanime stuff, but, school's started again and for Crazyfreak, I know that her job can sometimes take a lot of time away from working on Zeldanime. For me, my main distraction is school work. Because I'm at art school and my major is animation, you can imagine just how time-consuming my projects can get! I'm trying to keep up, though. We're pushing ourselves to get the "episode" done by mid-late Spring 2011. At this rate, I'm going to have to pick up the pace. It's been my fault for why things have been so slow lately. Sad...
Crazyfreak: Actually I'm not that busy, school hasn't been so busy as I hoped for and my work, well, that's just a part-time job to save some money. The website is, I think, a big success! From the first week of May 2010 up until now, we've already received 250+ unique visitors a day! I hope we can hit this number to 300+. But that means we really got to work harder on those pages and show people we're here for the long term.
OniChild: Sorry...blame my school!
2. Congrats on the lozzie! Were you expecting that?
OniChild: Thank you! (and congratulations to you, too!) Honestly, I had no idea such a thing existed, so you can imagine my surprise! I hope we can keep up with everybody's standards!
Crazyfreak: Not at all! There are so many new innovative fan projects around the Zelda community, I was really surprised when we received the email from the website "Legend of Zelda". I knew about the Exploding Deku nut award and was hoping to win it next year (haha! dream on...) but then out of the blue, came the Lozzie award! Stuff like this really motivates us to keep the project going!
3. Are you guys happy with the fan response so far? I thought your artwork competition was a great idea to interact with your readers!
OniChild: Very! We were hoping for more submissions but we are very happy with what we got! We hope we can see more submissions for future contests from those who submitted in this one and from new artists, too! (Just a heads up to those who want to enter in the contests, they will most likely be themed, so keep that in mind!)
Crazyfreak: We really are! This project from the start was a bit of a risk, mainly because it didn’t focus on the newer games but instead focused on the first two games and heavily on the cartoons everybody “loves”. We really wanted to create that old “cartoon” feeling giving Link, Spryte and Zelda similar personalities. At first, we got great responses from the fans that love the cartoons. They told us they were happy that the cartoons are given some respect by creating such a project. Later on we’ve received more responses from the “older” Zelda fans. Although some responses make me laugh, like the ones that ask us why Link has brown hair instead of blond.
4. There were some amazing pieces submitted for the art contest – did you both had a hard time judging?
OniChild: “Very yes.” Originally, we weren’t supposed to have nine winners total. There was only supposed to be three. We made categories so that our contestants would have a better chance of winning, making it more fun and rewarding for entering. I’m sure we’ll have a similar format for future contests (which we have a few ideas for) so, we’ll see how it goes.
Crazyfreak: Like Onichild said, yes. We were discussing constantly and when we figured it out a new fanart submission came which had a high chance to win. So in the end we thought it would be best to create three categories which would make judging seem easier and have more winners.
5. I have to admit, I was very flattered by my cameo at the end of chapter 1! There’s been lots of fun easter eggs like Eiji Aonuma, Crazyfreak’s OC Damiane, can we expect more and can you hint at who they might be? Will we see other Zelda community people in the comic anytime in the future?
OniChild: Glad you liked it! We thought it was right considering you and Crazyfreak were the one’s who started the whole thing back in 2007! We’ve included a ton of other easter eggs during the market scene, too, such as the Happy Mask Salesman, the woman with the pot on her head, That hunched over old guy from OOT--there’s even the flute from Spirit Tracks in there, too! As for what can be expected, well, you gotta have Miyamoto. So, he will definitely make an appearance. I’m sure you’ll get to see a keaton or an owl in there, too--just keep a lookout. I personally love little things like that, so I will shove them in the comic whenever I can.
Crazyfreak: Certainly more cameos will appear in the future from the other Zelda games! Miyamoto will certainly appear and old forgotten characters as well (Remember Error? yeah he’ll be in it for sure) As for Oc’s, well we got 9 winners of our contest, all of their OC’s will make a short cameo in the comic.
6. I really enjoy seeing the concept artwork too – how long do you spend on those sketches?
OniChild: I’m glad you like it! It doesn’t take me as long as you might think; Or at least, it doesn’t feel like it takes too long because I usually will doodle the designs whenever I can and then just make a more developed illustration on Photoshop. I guess it’s safe to say that each concept piece doesn’t take more than, I guess, half an hour to illustrate, and even so, thinking about the design takes much longer than actually drawing it.
Crazyfreak: Not long, at least mine aren’t. It doesn’t take more than an hour to illustrate something we’re brainstorming about. The most important thing of the concepts are to get that Zelda “feeling”. When I designed the blue dress from Zelda I first started with the original pink one she was wearing in “The adventure of Link” game. But it was too simple so I sketched out two different dresses that had more of a mix between “A Link to the past” Zelda and “Ocarina of time” Zelda. Still, I wanted the dress to be unique. The design process is very important, because we know how critical Zelda fans can be when it comes to getting that Zelda “feeling” right.
7. One character we’ve yet to meet is King Harkinian – he looks amazing in your spoiler art; how big a role will he be playing?
OniChild: He will definitely appear frequently--in fact, he’s actually got a scene coming up soon in the next chapter! We have quite a few ideas for him in the future, so hopefully we can last long enough to get there!
Crazyfreak: I remember someone saying he looked like Sean Connery, so I’m keeping that image and that voice of him as the king. I think a lot of fans will be pleased with Harkinian, especially the ones that love the cartoon.
8. I know I’m biased but I’m loving Link’s look – have you overall had a good reaction to his dark hair?
OniChild: People have been turning around! In the beginning, we’ve gotten a lot of questions and complaints as to why Link has dark hair, but, some people have actually taken a liking to it. We haven’t heard much about it lately as much as we did in the beginning, but, it seems like our Link’s started to be accepted by Zelda fans!
Crazyfreak: Oh his hair, those are my favourite comments next to the “Anime stands for animation”. Like Onichild said, it’s true! In the beginning people had to get use to the idea of Link having the original brown hair back and the (new) green eyes. I usually told them that it fitted with our Link’s personality. The reason why is that Link represents Farore or Nature, green and brown is the perfect combination to make Link look like he represents those qualities and just to add that he isn’t that special looking. He’s a warrior, not a pretty boy.
9. How are you finding it juggling other projects, school, work, social life etc? Roughly how much of your free time do you spend on Zeldanime at present?
OniChild: (Somebody...make it stop!!) A giant chunk of my time goes towards school. Now that I picked up martial arts, that’s even less time to work on Zeldanime, but, again, I’m trying my best, and luckily, I do get a few days here and there where I can pretty much dedicate the entire time towards the comic pages. A lot of times, I’ll feel like I have a lot of time, but then, BAM! Curve ball! Here’s a project that’ll take five hours and it’s due the next day. Sad face. Or rage. Sometimes both. Er, but anyway, I spend about maybe, five to six hours on Zeldanime a week. Luckily the pages are going fast, it’s just a matter of getting the time to work on it.
Crazyfreak: Yes; sometimes I feel bad to say “no” to friends because I want to finish a Zeldanime page. But overall, I can juggle [my personal life and Zeldanime] pretty well, especially since I don’t have a lot to do for school. Of course this will change in the future.
10. Finally, how soon will we see some interaction between Link and Ganon? Is that a long way off?
OniChild: Not as long as you might think.
Crazyfreak: All I can say about that is: Ganon doesn’t care about Link. He only has his eyes focused on Zelda and the Triforce of Wisdom. Link is merely Zelda’s last struggle for hope in his view.
