Interview With Dave Shabet

This week Dave Shabet was kind enough to sit down with me to discuss his webcomic Dead Winter. He is releasing a collection that I'd highly recommend.

Koltreg: How would you describe your webcomic, Dead Winter?

Dave Shabet: You mean thematically? In short it's a character-driven adventure comic set to the backdrop of a zombie apocalypse. In even-shorter short it's a zombie comic for people who don't like zombie stuff.

Koltreg: By zombie stuff do you mean focusing on zombies and gore or something else?

Dave Shabet: I mean the general culture and media-presentation of zombie movies and comics as the same run-scream-die human buffet of the living dead that lots of people either don't care for or have grown tired of.

Koltreg: Is there any zombie media like that, that you enjoy?

Dave Shabet: I like Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead- up to a point- and I've enjoyed the handful of zombie films I've seen, but a lot of the one-shot print comics I've seen come out really haven't been very fulfilling, like they were just dogpiling on a zombie craze. No interesting or sympathetic characters, no real motivation to survive. They were really so bland I couldn't even tell you their names.

Koltreg: Ah yeah. I ended up getting the Walking Dead Compendium. It is a pretty great series, it has me excited for the tv show.

Dave Shabet: I have to get back on reading it. I've seen a little past the part I left off at and it seems to be picking back up

Koltreg: I will probably wait a few years for it to build up as well.

What was the first webcomic that you ever read?

Dave Shabet: The very absolute first webcomic page I ever read was a page of Real Life Comics where techno-prankster Tony changed all the laptop marquis screen savers at a local Fry's to say "All Your Base Are Belong To Us"

Koltreg: And I'd take it that you don't read it anymore?

Dave Shabet: Not for a while, no.

Koltreg: What was the first one that you found that you still enjoy?

Dave Shabet: That's hard to say. After I first found out about webcomics at all I just kinda jumped on reading a whole bunch- at a point I had like 50 bookmarks. Nowadays I try to keep up with the ones I link to- that little linkbox is like my bookmarks, in addition to friends' twitters- but now that I'm making one I don't have the time to keep up that I used to.

Koltreg: What got you to start making Dead Winter?

Dave Shabet: After college I did some freelance work here and there and I didn't really care for the jerky nature of starting out in that business so I decided to build an art business for myself. And I was tired of drawing one-off poses and pictures so I decided to try stringing together a narrative to keep me drawing different stuff. The comic originally started as a sort of artistic laboratory and quickly grew into itself from there

Koltreg: What did you study in college?

Dave Shabet: Illustration. It was a watermedia and oil-heavy curriculum. Lots of classical painting and portraiture.

Koltreg: Your art definitely does have a very digitally painted feel to it and I like that. It is a lot more organic looking that just filling in with the paintbucket tool.

Dave Shabet: I don't use the paint bucket at all. It's probably a waste of time but I paint in all my flat tones with the brush, just to make sure it all gets under the black lines how I like.

Koltreg: You are coming out with a book collecting the first few chapters of your comic. Is there anything else that the book will have in it?

Dave Shabet: Yes. It'll have adjusted artwork from the old pages- anatomy and proportion stuff- in addition to a couple pages of additional concept art and sketches in the back

Koltreg: That sounds pretty awesome. I look forward to getting it.

What is one webcomic you think everybody should read that not enough people are?

Dave Shabet: HMMMMMmmm.... Heliothaumic ( http://www.thaumic.net ) is definitely an underrated comic. It is a wonderful comic about a world where magic meets science and the author puts a lot of thought into every little detail building the world.

Koltreg: You hear a moan outside the front door to your house and you look out. A swarm of the undead line the streets. Do you have an escape plan in case of zombies by which I mean the classic slow styled ones?

Dave Shabet: Yes. I have like three ways out of my apartment.

Koltreg: When I interviewed Jenny from The Zombie Hunters I felt silly for having a plan for escape when she did not.

Dave Shabet: Jenny's a good person, don't be pickin' on her or you'll need an escape plan... from me.

Koltreg: Oh she is.

Dave Shabet: (do you have one of those??)

Koltreg: Yes, yes I do.

Dave Shabet: You're a man of great forethought.

Koltreg: Indeed. "Never talk to somebody without picturing them dead." Somebody said that. I just did. I prequoted myself.

Any important things you'd like to say on the record about your comic, grudges against people or anything else like that?

Dave Shabet: Grudges against people are not something one should hold or foster, since they bring everybody down and no one wants that. As for my comic: I am happy people enjoy it.

Koltreg: Well I am glad to hear you are against beefs. I wish you luck with your webcomic and continued success in everything else.

Dave Shabet: Thank you kindly, sir.

Coming up this week, more Socialfist in the Making.

Happy Shanksgiving (Belated)

Because creating holidays for your multis in KoL is so much fun.
The NaNoWriMo was ended early after 10,000 words at which point I mentally rewrote what I had a dozen times before calling it quits and so because of that, a random reader and the fact that I am now another year old (11/21) I decided to drop another blog.

Anyway, two quick reviews to tide you over.
Truck Bearing Kibble by Jeremy Kramer and Eric Vaughn
Truck Bearing Kibble is a good strip but I don't care for it. My main problem is that it is unlucky enough to exist in a world with Perry Bible Fellowship, the now essentially defunct comic that stopped creating comics when it figured out how to turn a profit. TBK is a nonsequitur comic seeming to focus more on pop culture references (or nerd culture/childhood memories) than anything else. The jokes have humor but some are much weaker than others especially if you miss the reference. The art itself is very solid and well done but its always the same and I hate to say it, but after PBF's variety of art styles, it is hard to deal with the same overly complicated stuff time after time. There are a few comics that would actually be better if they were drawn in another style. Another small thing is the lack of an update plan which is a pet peeve of mine. My final comment though, is that the site really bugs me. Too many comment areas are dispersed throughout the pages, the controls for scrolling are difficult and it bothered me enough to remember it a week after reading through the comic. Overall it earns an A- and its worth reading. My complaints were mostly personal issues so go and read it now.

Dead Winter by S. Dave Shabet
College has literally destroyed me sleep schedule so I am writing this at 5 in the morning after reading through Dead Winter. Dead Winter is a zombie comic. Plain as that. I myself am a zombie fan. To celebrate my birthday I went to the mall where they filmed the original Dawn of the Dead (Good trip, visit the zombie museum in the toy store!). It annoys me though that there are several zombie comics, or I might just be crazy right now. From the start the comic seemed a bit generic writing wise but then again I had the voice of Yahtzee (Zero Punctuation) voicing the female lead which made it a bit tedious. Once the comic gets going though, its an okay story, you have your generic lucky characters and the overall badass and all of them doing things to make Max Brooks (Zombie Survival Guide, World War Z) cry himself to sleep. I will note though, I was surprised to find myself in 100 in what seemed like only 40 pages of reading so that means that it actually moves effortlessly. The art sort of bothers me because throughout reading it, I continued to tell myself, "Wow, does Ant draw this?" because the two styles are similar. I am fairly certain though, that Dead Winter was first but that gives you an idea. The comic is mostly greyscale with some bits of color ala Sin City speckled throughout. The art changes though which is mostly an improvement, except where it suddenly looks like done in a half hour on MS Paint. Overall though its not bad to read and I don't hate it despise its genericness. Looking back I am also pretty sure there are no other zombie comics (that actually dead with normal zombies) though so disregard that section and feel free to the give the comic a shot. I give it an A-.

Thanks to those people who actually chat with me on here in the text box. I do need to fix my IM links though so you readers can contact me (since I apparently have readers!). I have a good list sitting but I might do some graphic novel reviews just because I paid money for them and such.

Peace out for now.
-Koltreg