1. It takes two of your to create the White Ninja Comics * who does what?
K: What we do is we take turns being funny. So when one of us is being funny, the other one is laughing. And if that person doesn’t laugh, then we have to switch places.
2. How did you guys meet?
S: It’s kind of a long story. Kent, you see, has very smooth skin. You might not notice it to look at him, but it is deceivingly smooth. Anyways, Kent used to have this really bad habit of wearing sleeveless shirts and brushing up against people he’d see on the street, just in case they might want to compliment him on his rose petal touch. One fateful day, while out fishing for compliments, he brushed up against my exposed skin, and I was all like, “Hey, You have smooth skin!” And that’s how we met.
3. How long have you been doing the comic?
K: ‘Bout ten years now. Crap I’m old. You want to know how old I am? I’m twenty-one years old! Guess how old White Ninja is? He’s Ten! Every year that the comic has been around translates to one literal year in the life of White Ninja. It’s not like those dumb comics where everybody always stays the same age. When we started out, White Ninja was zero years old.
4. How did you come up with the idea for it?
S: Well, it’s kind of embarrassing to say this, but about ten years ago I was diagnosed with having multiple personalities. Two, to be exact! At one moment I could be the most charming guy you would ever want to meet, and the next moment I didn’t have the social skills to hold a proper conversation. Everybody liked my first personality, but everyone was afraid of my second. I couldn’t even be in the same room as somebody without making them feel uncomfortable…I couldn’t even be in a room by myself without wanting to turn the lights on and off and on and off and on and off. So my shrink told me if whenever I found myself slipping into this less sociable personality, to which we applied the totem of a “white ninja”, that I should record my feelings on paper, rather than acting them out in person. It’s gotten to the point, now, where its like I’m not just the recorder, but I can consciously control the White Ninja – Like I’m the author of an amazing comedy/action comic book hero. And Kent is the editor.
5. Ninja is primarily an online thing * right? How many people visit your site on average?
K: First of all, Scott is a total liar about that last question, and second of all, White Ninja is only online because not enough papers will pay us money to put White Ninja in their comedy sections. But here’s the thing, it doesn’t have to go in the comedy section. I don’t even think its that funny. But you should check out our website anyway, because there’s a lot of cool stuff there that you don’t see in the papers…Like fan art, and shirts and underwear that you can buy WITH WHITE NINJA ON THEM! Everybody who’s anybody visits our website. Actually, just about everybody visits our website, even if they are no good dirty skunks. Take everybody you know and multiply it by a hundred, and that’s how many people visit whiteninjacomics.com everyday.
6. How many publications print your work? And how many countries is it in?
S: Its tough to say, because so many people steal our poor resolution images off the internet. But there are a number of well-established papers, besides this one, that White Ninja is regularly printed in. White Ninja is in Scotland, Singapore, and a bunch of places in Canada and the United States. I’m totally blown away by the all the different people and places that like White Ninja. I didn’t expect anyone but me to get it, but its totally universal.
7. Is it hard to come up with ideas for the strips?
K: Not really, because the White Ninja can do anything. Like, if we want him to have super powers, then he can have super powers. Or if we want him to be married with children, he can be! Or if he needs to have an unlimited supply of cash, or three eyes, or a minstrel in order to make a comic funny, then he can have all of that. We’ve really locked on to a key formula: No rules = stupid comics.
8. Which cartoons/cartoonists do you admire?
S: For Better or For Worse
K: He’s lying again.
S: He’s right. I said it to be funny.
K: Seriously though, we’ve discussed this before, and Bill Watterson (Calvin & Hobbes) is the king. There has never been a cartoon even remotely as clever as Calvin & Hobbes. Everybody should go out and buy some of his books, and then write him a letter and ask him politely to come out of retirement.
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9. Do you make a living off White Ninja * if not what do you do to make a buck?
K: We definitely do not make a living off White Ninja yet, but we do make enough to cover our costs and then have enough left over for Christmas presents. Fingers crossed, we will be making enough to live comfortably on the comic within the next four or five years. So we DO plan on making comics for a very, very long time. White Ninja was around for eight years before anyone ever heard of him, and he will be around long after everyone has forgotten about him.
10. How long does it take to make a cartoon from scratch?
S: From scratch? As opposed to ripping off other comics? It can take anywhere from ten minutes to a couple of years. The comic “is White Ninja a Unicorn?,” for example, was almost six months from the time we drew the first panel until we completed the last. “White Ninja and the Chinese Pug,” on the other hand, took about fifteen minutes to draw and ink. And I have one in the works that I began over a year ago. Four panels are completed, but I just can’t seem to get the last two. But when I do, you are all in for a treat.
11. If they made a White Ninja movie, who would play the lead?
S &K in unison: Charles Grodin!
K: ….or David Duchoveny….If Charles is busy… or dead.
12. Why do you think your comics appeal to so many people?
S: White Ninja has a heart of gold, which is tremendously appealing. He is also more pure and innocent than anyone could ever hope to be. I guess there’s just an element of Joy in the comics, which is about the most honest and sincere form of humor. Let’s face it, most of White Ninja strips don’t have any of what most people would refer to as “jokes” in them at all.
13. What’s the most important thing about being a cartoonist?
S: The most important thing about being a cartoonist is to be funny. No, actually the most important thing about being a cartoonist is to be Happy. Neither of us can draw a half-decent comic if we are in a rotten, or even an indifferent frame of mind. When you try to be funny without that sense of Joy, the humor just turns into sarcasm and flippancy (which is the style, sadly, of most cartoons…especially webcomics).
14. What is the significance of the ninja?
K: White Ninja was once a man, like you or I. But one day he stumbled upon – and proceeded to drink – a vessel of mysterious “ooze!” This “ooze” caused him to morph into a ninja, YAH! He is no longer a man, but a ninja (which is a lot cooler than being a human) wandering aimlessly over the earth, spreading joy and happiness, and occasionally saving the day.
S: There was also an alternate origin mythology that we created which involved an entire vat of “ooze,” and Aslan (from the Narnia books) killing White Ninja’s rock band.
K: It doesn’t really matter which is the “correct” origin, the moral is the same for both: Ninjas are cooler than people.
15. Have you always been interested in comics?
S: I still don’t like comics that much.
K: Yah, I’d rather be…I don’t know…. Skiing, or something.
16. Could White Ninja ever become a series of linked strips rather than one-offs??
K: Nope. Six panels is the limit. White Ninja isn’t the type of character that would have an attention span long enough to stick with anything beyond six frames. He would be bored. And so would we.
17. What personality traits do you need to succeed as a cartoonist?
S: You have to be persistent and unafraid of what others think. Most people are going to tell you that you suck. But even if they tell you that you’re good, you still can’t make a buck.
K: Amen.
(Printed at Auckland Student Movement magazine., Auckland, New Zealand, October 5, 2004)
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