READERSVOICE.COM: Do you live in Salem and what’s your weekly routine? When do you draw your comics and other activities?

ADAM SZYMCZAK: No, I live in Marblehead, which is one town over. I try to draw (comics or otherwise) every day, though that doesn’t always happen. I often draw at coffee shops just to get out of the house and away from my computer, so most days I end up at one or the other to get some drawing done.

RV: I was wondering how many hours you’d spend on each page of your webcomic?

AS: It depends, really. With GOOD SHOW, SIR! it really is a matter of the story I’m working on at the time. With OF WHAT KIND, my fantasy comic, it’s significantly longer, since I try and render things out a bit more and it’s full color. I would say I spend roughly 8 hours on each page, give or take some time.

RV: What’s the process in drawing it. Do you draw the pages in pencil, then ink those? Do you then scan this and color it in Photoshop? What program do you use to upload it onto the internet?

AS: I pencil my comics on Bristol board with a Col-Erase pencil, and then ink with Microns and Zebra pens. When I’m done with that I scan the pages in and color them in Photoshop (if they need to be colored), and clean them up wherever needed. I use a Wacom Intuos tablet for the coloring, which is a huge help in certain areas. Then I upload the page to my site using FileZilla and boom, done.

RV: Do you plan stories like Of What Kind? and What’s Eating Prometheus before you start drawing them? Or do you have the ending in mind from the start?

AS: It depends on the story. With OF WHAT KIND I have a pretty solid concept of where the story is headed and how it’s going to end. But because it’s fantasy and because my mind wanders, I allow myself some space for story tangents and various scenes that weren’t in the blueprints. I thumbnail most pages of OF WHAT KIND, and write very basic dialogue scripts when needed. For a story like WHAT’S EATING PROMETHEUS, I wrote the entire thing before working on it, because it was a more timing based gag comic. But, again, the amount to which I plan or write depends on the comic.

RV: Does the landscape of Salem and New England and aspects of this area’s history appear in your comics a bit?

AS: Not as of yet, though it’s always influencing me. I have a few ideas for longer, graphic novel sized works that I’m planning which would be based in New England or a close analogue of it. The history is really what excites me about New England, and that’s what would really be informing at least one of these books.

RV: Where exactly was the New England Web Comics Weekend that you attended?

AS: The New England Webcomics Weekend (NEWW) is a convention in Easthampton, MA. that’s exclusively for webcomic artists. While a lot of indie cons around the country have lots of webcomic artists tabling, none cater exclusively to them, so it’s a novel idea. It took place in a great space, too, an old repurposed factory that now has apartments and workspaces in it.

RV: How did you get there and where did you stay?

AS: I drove there with my friends, and ended up actually driving back that night for various reasons.

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-copyright Simon Sandall.