INTABYU DESU!!
Good thing you could make it to this installment of "It's an Interview!!" Today, we get down to the business at hand with one of the prominent Fan Art-ists of CastleVania on the WorldWide, MIKE ERICKSON!!! TSUINBII IKKIMASU!
DCTP Intabyu Desu: Michael
Erickson
MAIL DATA: luyoga@yahoo.com
SITE DATA: someday....somewhere....out there
DCTP: Dude, it's an honor. Glad you could make it today.
MIKE: No problemo. The honor is all mine.
DCTP: When did you first encounter CastleVania?
MIKE: I saw "CastleVania 2" at a friend's party on a big screen TV many years back. I thought it rocked. Loved the music, too.
DCTP: Ah, CV2...Ah, CTMV W26K R5KN SIBK... Yeah, the beats to Simon's Quest were kinda hot. Gotta like that bounciness of the Mansion theme! I will now sing.
MIKE: Always liked the town theme (daylight) the best.
DCTP: Oh no doubt. You've gotta love that 'walking back an forth laughing along with the rhythm's peak like a drug addict' theme. When exactly did you come across The CastleVania Dungeon and Kurt Kalata's story, "The Bloodlust of the Countess"?
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MIKE: I came across the "Dungeon" back in its infancy and have always made it a regular stop while web surfing. I came across "Bloodlust" while contemplating making a CastleVania based comic.
DCTP: The early Dungeon was a frequent stop for myself as well. What possessed you to go all out and do a full blown comic adaptation of Kurt's story? You were first observed submitting Fan Art of the sexy evil female Symphony of the Night stars surrounded by Konami references only true Konami connoseiurs could point out. Circo Porto, indeed.
MIKE:
I had done a few fan arts for the CastleVania Dungeon and after seeing
"vamp1.jpg" and "vamp2.jpg" (a 2 page comic with Alucard meeting Maria)
in the Dungeon's art section, I knew I wanted to do a comic, too.
I was going to make one based on "Symphony of the Night" until I read
"Bloodlust of the Countess". I had seen a video about Countess Bathory
during a fiber class (?) a couple of years back and recalled the
fun I had with "Bloodlines". It was then that I decided to instead
go with the "Bloodlust" comic.
DCTP: Hmm, another mystery solved. Have a cookie.
MIKE: Doomo arigato gozaimasu.
DCTP:
For all the readers who wonder what he just said; Japanese: "Thank you
very much." No prob. I was going to offer some to CastleVania
Otaku but they were still in the oven. I remember dropping the hint
to include Slogra somewhere in the first comic. WHO IS SLOGRA, indeed!
MIKE: I had seen the your "Who is Slogra?" poster on the CastleVania Dungeon some time before working on the comic and knew from the start that I had to place it somewhere in the background. Can't have a CastleVania comic with out an appearance by Slim Sloggy, ya know.
DCTP: Heh, I can easily respect your decision on that one. WHO IS SLOGRA, the scratchy grayscale drawing premiering around early 98...back when I still played Symphony of the Night frequently...
DCTP: Would you calls your works "manga" or "comics"?
MIKE: I would call my works "manga inspired comics" as I have always considered true manga to be those comics that originate in Japan by talents such as Masamune Shirow and Rumiko Takahashi.
DCTP: Oh NO doubt. Masamune Shirow is THE MAN. Intron Depot 2 Blades is HOT TO DEATH. Big UP to my evil friend Bert the Caliban. He bought that and Intron Depot 1.
MIKE: Thank the gods
for japanese book stores.
DCTP: Amen, CastleVania Soul Brother. One love to Kinokuniya
and Asahiya Bookstores, and big UP to Andre, guard of guards. In
your works, it's noticed that your rendering and everything looks
fine, precise, and supa dupah fly! Care to leak some of your art
techniques? Your drawing methods were always a question of mine.
It looks like you make the sketch before inking it over, and in some pages
it looks like certain characters were drawn seperatley before being inserted
into a scene during post production. Do you use templates of any kind,
such as for the narration scrolls?
MIKE: Not too much to it. I come up with a concept for a page in a sketchbook. It then goes to Bristol paper in pencil. Then the ink is added and cleanup is done where needed. Next it is scanned into Photoshop and further cleaned and arranged. The final step is to add the text into the narrative scrolls (and elsewhere) on Photoshop and send it off into the vast world wide web.
DCTP: Hee hee. I printed out all of your comic pages and your colored "WHO IS SLOGRA" picture's taped to my locker at work. Portable Erickson!
MIKE: ROCK! Good to hear my work gets around.
DCTP: Under which conditions do you work best? I find myself in top form late at night with a freezer-cup full of Rich Chocolate Ovaltine and with CDs ranging from the Steam Detectives vocal album to Dr. Dre's Chronic 2001 in my player.
MIKE: I too work best at night with a huge cup of iced tea. A mix of DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) Sound tracks and Rob Zombie must be in the CD player. And above all, I have to have BLACKBLACK (the triple action caffeine gum from Japan) at the ready.
DCTP: Caffeine? Yikes. Mind if I ask if what you're staying awake for besides drawing? Don't you have work the next day?
MIKE: Gomen. Forgot to mention that this applies only to weekends. I usually do roughs during the week.
DCTP: Ah, okay. As if I needed to ask, when did you first get the idea to use original Japanese labels and entries for your first monster dictionary Fan Arts? Okay, okay. I'm being bad now. I'm normally humble, but must now go maverick to get to the bottom of this trend I may triggered. I did it in early '98. But this kid's scanner...and the looseleaf...grrr...anyway.
MIKE:
No need to apologize good friend. The idea to use the characters'
original names came in part due to your very own "sechupa.jpg"
picture on the Castlevania Dungeon. That and the fact that my brother,
Davin the Raven, had provided translations on another Castlevania
site.
DCTP: AH HAAH! VIVA CHUPACABRAS! I KNEW IT! I DID SET IT OFF! WAAAAAGH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HAAAAA! I AM NOT RAY...I, LORD VIGO, SHALL RULE THE EARTH! Hmm...would that other site happen to have been Darkhugh's Den? That's THE place for the definitions.
MIKE: That very site! By the way, nice "Ghostbusters 2" reference .
DCTP: Heh heh. Ghostbuster's 2 is one of THE films. Have you checked out my incomplete adaptation of Kurt's "CastleVania: The Darkening of Blood"? It's rather sloppy.
MIKE: Hai. I thought it was quite entertaining. Perhaps someday I will take a stab at it. HAR HAR HAR!
DCTP: Heh. I'll watch my step, but glad you liked it. Do you have another free art tip you'd want to share?
MIKE: For those interested in a "manga" type style of drawing I would recommend a series of books published by the Graphics-sha Publishing Co., Ltd. They are called the "Manga Techniques" series and while in Japanese I have found these to be among the best "how-to" books on the subject. They can be found at most Japanese book stores and the series has recently begun to be published in English. Now you know, and knowing is half the battle. YO JOE!
DCTP: Oh yeah! I'm familiar with those. I got the translated volume of Techniques for Drawing Female Manga Characters and it's quite useful.
DCTP: Can I stick you with some non-Slogra requests?
MIKE: Fire away.
DCTP: Akane from the Parodius series! She's BAD! Her torpedo scatter in Sexy Parodius combined with the Carrot Shot is FIERCE! Princess Meloura, too. She's more of a surpremely beautiful woman of royalty than Toadstool, Daisy, or Peach will ever be. Sorry, Yoshi. Have you seen the artwork of her from TwinBee RPG? It's like half the cast attained puberty or adulthood during the game replays, and Meloura was one of them. Right Kurt?!
MIKE: Let me see....there, how's that for an Akane picture.
DCTP: WAAAAIIII! Where's my Chronic Album?! Track 3! Aaaah... "Swing down, sweet chariot stop, and, let me ride!" MAN this song...THIS SONG!!! If DigiWan's song is Wu Tang's "C.R.E.A.M.", Dr. Dre's "Let me Ride" is MINE!!! Speaking of the driver, how about if I stick you with some Slogra requests?
MIKE: Just bring it,...er them.
DCTP: It would rule if Slogra...hmmm...oh! To see Slogra pop up in your comics again.
MIKE: Now that you mention it.....
DCTP: Okay, now for the general stuff. The 'template' CastleVania questions.
MIKE: Okelee-dokelee.
DCTP: Okay Flanders, which CastleVania is your favorite?
MIKE: "Castlevania: Bloodlines" I would have to say. Not much of a surprise I guess.
DCTP: Spit. I shouldn't have had to guess, Mister Bloodlust.
DCTP: What do you think is so cool about CastleVania?
MIKE: The setting, the characters, the references to monster mythos from all over the globe. But, I would have to say that the music is the coolest part of the CastleVania series. CV:SOTN in particular.
DCTP: SEE Harpies drop Mole Men on you or DECAPITATE them with your lance! WATCH the old lost dude and his dog from Dizknee World's Ghost House fly through the air! WORSHIP the possibly Scottish demon Berrigan as it impales you on its beak! THRILL a devastacion del AT FIELD de las Chupacabras! Voy a la tienda a comprar mantequilla y queso! Symphony's music is the highest acheivement since Super CastleVania IV.
DCTP: Do you have a favorite character?
MIKE: Eric Lecarde.....O.K. so I have a bit of a bias.
DCTP: Spit. I shouldn't have had to guess, Mister Lecarde's-Chapter-First. I wonder where they got the name for the Lecarde Spear. It certainly has 3.23% to do with the now overblown Alucard. I wonder why Eric's weapon resembles another popular character's tri-dented weapon.
DCTP: How about favorite evildoer of the series?
MIKE: Countess Elizabeth Bartley, especially after researching her real life counterpart. Just plain evil. She needs to be in another Castlevania game!
DCTP: Most definitely. I read up and discovered she was a VERY bad girl.
DCTP: Describe your favorite CastleVania memory.
MIKE: Watching my brother play through "Dracula X: Noctoune in the Moonlight" for the first time. I was amazed at how great it looked and sounded. The game is and always will be a piece of art.
DCTP: Agreed. For me, CastleVania Symphony is as much of a triumph as Super CastleVania IV, though I haven't played the earlier in several months.
DCTP: What are your thoughts on the upcoming DreamCastleVania?
MIKE: If KONAMI is unwilling to make it the greatest CastleVania game of all time, then I say they should skip it. The series deserves better than some of the recent efforts. Personally, I think the series should remain 2-D at its core.
DCTP: No doubt. CastleVania is synonymous with great and entertaining 2 dimensional visuals. Is there anything you want to ask me?
MIKE: Who IS Slogra?
DCTP: THE MAAAAAAAAAAN! Beyond that, could Berrigan be based off of mythological creatures such as Morrigan and Kerrigan? Perhaps we'll never know. Perhaps we shouldn't know. That, my friends, will make him the series' most mysterious character...ARISE, YOU GODS!
DCTP: Friends, Romans, and Kalatas, it should also be noted that you're working on the other half of the Bloodlust, so on behalf of the WorldWide CastleVaniacs, good luck. Keep up the fly work. GANBATTE!!!
MIKE: Gracias! Be sure to be on the look out for everyone's favorite bird-dinosaur skeleton to appear in a speaking role within the comic....yep, speaking role. Peace. Out.
DCTP: HOLY! A SPEAKING role?! Even though John's side never included dialogue from The Man---SUGOOOOOI! DUDE, you work fast! And hey, let's not forget about GunBird 2's Alucard! You've gotta stick his visage in somewhere! Later!
