Welcome back to the Awesome People Portfolio! project!
The first series of interviews for FfK: APP consists 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, Series 1, Interview 6: Hushicho!
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Tell us a bit about your comic 🙂
My current main project is called Demoniac Verse. It focuses on the life and adventures of an incubus named Razkaln, in a city called Port-Au-Feu. He meets all kinds of people and has an interesting group of friends, and the city itself has a lot of detail and life to it. The series is modern/urban fantasy and I like to think it doesn’t take itself too seriously, but it is serious enough when it needs to be!
What inspired you to start your comic?
My longest-running and most successful series up to now was Incubus Tales, which was also about an incubus. That series was very, very different to Demoniac Verse, and the lead of it (named Dhiar) was also very, very different. But for a couple of years after I ended Incubus Tales, I was worried about just doing the same stories again. I avoided any sort of demon characters and stretched a bit for variety, but eventually I did a picture and knew…this was Raz, and the comic needed to be about him.
I also especially like to deal with demons more authentically and truer to their original mythology, from ancient Greece, the daimones — a lot more like what we consider Fae or the Faerie types: not gods, but not human, and on an entirely different moral and ethical scale. Just very different. Not evil, and certainly not acolytes of sinister forces. Just not human and with their own ideas and personalities.
If characters aren’t human and aren’t really a part of human society but are hanging out, I feel like it’s disingenuous to paint them as if they were just weird humans making decisions that don’t make sense for such a being.
What’s the biggest challenge you’ve overcome (or are overcoming) in creating your comic? What strategies have worked well in your experience?
Probably the biggest challenge I’ve overcome and continue to fight is the prevalence and predominance of censorship. It’s something I have to deal with every day. But if I had to point at one of the major things wrong, which keeps me having to fight it…it’s laziness. Selfishness. Attitudes that creators have, a little more widespread than I’d like to admit, where people think it isn’t their problem because it doesn’t pertain specifically to them right now.
Oppressive attitudes can’t be tolerated, and censorship is (perhaps ironically) out of control. But every “me too” that parrots oppressive rules, especially as terms of service for sites that come and go every year…every one of those does real harm to free expression and free speech through art.
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)?
Do your own thing. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you have to do something you don’t want to do, or that you shouldn’t do something you want to do. Especially don’t listen to people if they tell you that you have to let people dress you down or criticize you in a way you’re not comfortable with. No one is entitled to rake you over the coals — find your own artistic style, your own voice, and take or leave whatever anyone else tells you. If something doesn’t seem right to you, if you can’t get anything useful out of someone’s opinion…that’s okay! You don’t have to. And nobody can force you to accept something that isn’t actually helping you.
When you make decisions, make them so you won’t have to live with regrets later.
Which of your characters do you most identify with and why?
I think I identify most with my incubi, but most of my characters are developed from some aspect of myself. Dhiar is probably the most like me in a number of ways, but Raz and everyone else has some aspect of me. Even things I don’t like about myself eventually find their way into my characters, and sometimes they do far better things with those aspects than I do.
Many of my characters are people I’d like to be or wish I were, but can never be, for one reason or another. At least, not in this world. So I enjoy being them through the stories I write.
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Follow Hushicho:
Read Hushicho’s comic:
Support Hushicho’s work:
https://www.patreon.com/hushicho
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Demoniac Verse updates on Tuesdays and Thursdays each week.
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Up Next on Awesome People Portfolio:
Series 1, Interview 7: Dan Sacharow
Falling for Knowledge 