APP: Shoona Browning

Greetings, Falling for Knowledge readers, and welcome to the first informational interview for the Awesome People Portfolio! project.

The first series of interviews for FfK: APP will consist of introductory interviews with 10 webcomic creators. From July 5 to September 6, there will be a new interview each Wednesday at 9AM PST; be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss out!

And now introducing Series 1, Interview 1… Shoona Browning!

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B.E. patrons: get your printable PDF of the interview here.

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Tell us a bit about your comic 🙂

Ellie of the Stars is an all ages adventure comic about friendship and doing your best. It stars Ellie, Marble, and Nitta in their quest to find out what happened to the Prince and Princess of The Star Kingdom!

What inspired you to start your comic?

I’ve loved making comics for as long as I can remember, but attending SPX for the first time in 2013 made me realize “oh I can totally make the things I want to make without waiting on somebody to give me permission, can’t I?” so I started working on my first couple of narrative heavy comics, one of them being Ellie of the Stars.

What’s the biggest challenge you’ve overcome (or are overcoming) in creating your comic? What strategies have worked well in your experience?

Perfectionism and getting into a rhythm. When I started Ellie of the Stars I was working full time hours as a server, and getting pages done even weekly when I’d be getting home at midnight was such a struggle for a while. Plus Ellie of the Stars has always been a fun experiment in my journey in learning how to make comics. My way of tackling things is always changing, but making a soft timeline for how much I want to get done and keeping myself to that via Patreon updates has been helpful.

What advice would you give to someone who is thinking of creating a story and putting it out there (online or elsewhere in the world)?

JUST DO IT!!! DON’T LET YOUR DREAMS BE DREAMS!! But seriously, even if the thing you’re doing feels weird and wonky just keep at it, and keep trying new things if you feel like something isn’t working! I hear a lot of people say they want to make something but are waiting to become good enough but honestly, you just have to get that first thing out of the way to pave the way for bigger and better things.

Which of your characters do you most identify with and why?

When I first started everybody (including me) joked that Ellie was my self insert (except replace Astronomy with Marine Biology :p ) which is true to a degree. I placed aspects of myself into Ellie, Marble and Nitta so I connect to all of them on a pretty emotional level. Ellie is excitable and dives into things that sound cool without putting much (or any) thought into how it might pan out, Marble is a bit of an anxious baby who also really wants to be taken seriously. Nitta is possibly less like me in personality, but we have the same tastes in a lot of things. I think I used them a bit to test the waters of being more open about my gender identity.

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Follow Shoona B:
https://twitter.com/shoonabee

Read Shoona B’s comic:
http://www.ellieofthestars.com/

Support Shoona B’s work:
https://www.patreon.com/shoona

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Ellie of the Stars updates Wednesdays each week.

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Up Next on Awesome People Portfolio!:

Series 1, Interview 2: Quinn Parsons

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