Q. I'm confused! What's going on in the comic?? Where should I start reading?!
A. Well, um... It's kind of a long story. I reccommend to read it for yourself, and start from the beginning. You can find the first comic Here.
I realise the old comics are crappy, and there's a LOT of archive there. But relax, a lot of that archive consists of guest strips and vacation weeks! ;)
Most people say they can finish reading the archive in a couple of evenings. But you can take it at whatever pace suits you. :) You can also check out the Reader's Guide.
Q. How long have you been drawing/writing Untitled!, and how old were you when you started?
A. Untitled! began in April of 2000. I was 15 at the time when I started, and all but computer illiterate. I guess it was one of those things where I saw what somebody else was doing and thought "Hey, I bet I can do that! It looks like fun!".
Boy was I in for a surprise. 0_o
Most of the characters, however, go back MUCH farther than the beginning of the comic. Twap is a character who has been sort of my "alter-ego" since I was 7 years old. Yeah, that long. I never really wrote down any of the older stories involving my characters... but you can get a little taste of some of the history Here...
Q. What's all this nonsense you keep spouting about how Untitled! is meant to be an allegory of your life??
A. Weeeeelll... Yeah. Untitled! IS a webcomic, after all. But it's not really your TYPICAL webcomic, in that it's not meant purely as entertainment, nor to make a point.
Really, You can read most of the comic as a sort of visual journal of my internalised struggles over the past 5 years. It goes from silly, to depressive, to in-love, to angsty, to vindictive... it really follows the ups-and downs of my personality rather closely. That's why I say that it's sort of a personal metaphor. It's been a sort of cathartic excercise.
Externally, of course, there's not a whole lot of similarity between my life and that of the characters in the comic... Frankly my life would be pretty boring to write a comic about!
Q. Where do you get such weird names for your characters??
A. I really suck at naming stuff. Okay, let's do this methodically:
Twap/Twapa- I came up with her name when I was about 6 or 7 years old. So
I can't be held responsible for that. I DO recall that it may have
originally been meant to be the sound her feet made when she hopped.
There's more elaborate stuff I made up later, but I'm not gonna go into
that. As for the pronunciation of her name, SEE HERE.
Xheotris- I invented this name when I was probably about 11
or 12. It doesn't really have a meaning, at this point, though it may
have at one time. (All of that information is thankfully lost to the ages.)
Snitter- Go read "The Plague Dogs" by Richard Adams. Because
that's where I stole the name from, because it was my favorite book.
Ciaran- This is a perfectly normal name. I don't see why everybody thinks it's so weird.
Fiar- Um, I just thought it sounded cool.
Misha- It's a shortening of "Mikhail", which is a perfectly normal Russian name.
Ailourophasia- Greek origin. I've been told it's a very clever name for a talking cat. ;)
Idria- Another one I made up years ago.
Ampersand - It's the name of this punctuation mark: "&"
Zirrus - Another old one (Older than Xheotris, in fact) with no meaning that I can recall.
That's all I'm saying for now. :)
Q. What does Bob look like??? I MUST know!!!
A. I can't tell you. Devon made me promise not to. :p
Q. You said it's a "reflection of reality" does that mean that Untitled! is based on events in your own life?
A. Well, in some ways it is, and in some ways it isn't. And on the same
note, some of the chracters DO have certain qualities of real people,
but that doesn't mean that they are ALWAYS intended to represent a specific
person. If it's taken symbolically, most of the characters can
represent more than one person, idea, or situation. It's mostly a
matter of context and interperetation. In that aspect, Untitled might
be about YOUR life even more than it is about mine. Hope that helps.
(But just because you relate to U! doesn't mean that MY interperetation of it matches YOURS. Got it? Good.)
Q. Are you a "furry"?
A. NO!. Most emphatically NO. I just happen to draw cartoon animals. I may have been loosely associated with a couple of groups from the "fandom" at one point, but those ties have long since been severed.
The furry fandom is evil and rotten to the core. And what's more, they're giving people like me a bad name.
Q. How can you claim this comic isn't furry when you use names like "Fursdale" and "Furizona" in the story?!
A. Think of it as a joke. It's largely a commentary on the fact that I SUCK at coming up with place names.
Q. Okay, how can you claim it's not furry when there are OBVIOUS "adult themes" and sexual innuendo?! That sounds pretty darned "furry" to me!
A. *SIGH* I already said that Untitled! has some elements which draw on real-life issues I have had to deal with. That whole stupid love-triangle thing comes from a time when I was dealing with some things similar (but not identical) to that in my own life.
I was a stupid teenager. You can't really blame me for that. I regret a lot of stuff that's gone on in Untitled!. It's got out of hand at times, and the last few years I've been trying to do damage control and bring the thing to a reasonable conclusion.
So please forgive the mushy crap. If I had it to do over, I'd leave all that stuff out.
Q. What is the name of Fiar's country?
A. A while back one of my loyal minions- err... message board members came up with the name "Vulkaniceskij Zakarpa't" or something to that effect. He also came up with a plausible location, but I've since lost the info on that. :(
Don't even ask me how you pronounce it, because I have NO idea.
Other questions:
Q. What on earth were "The Critter Kids", and whatever happened to them??
A. The Critter Kids were two different things: first, they were the
collective title of Twap's little woodland friends in my old stories,
which I will probably never write, unless I can work it into the comic
somehow. The webpage of that name was my old Redwall-style club that I
created.. um, I dunno, probably 5 years ago. It's no longer in
existance, as you can see from the fact that my old site hasn't been
updated in a VERY long time indeed. It was fun while it lasted, though.
:)
A. Okay, I always try my best to respond to all the emails I get, but
occassionally I may miss a few, especially if I'm busy. So I apologize
if anybody has emailed me and not gotten a response, it's not because I
don't care about you!! Rest assured that I do READ every email and
smile and mentally make a note to thank that person for writing to
me... just sometimes I forget to actually follow-through with that. :)
Q. Can I commission you to draw something for me?
A. Yes, but no "furry" stuff. Human portraits, animals, and birds are fine. Cutesy "Beatrix Potter" type subject matter is okay, too. if you want, like, squirrels having a tea party or something... And yes, for the right price you can always get me to draw pictures of Untitled! characters. ;)
Anyway, if you want to ask me about commissions, please send an email to: gloriapike@gmail.com
