Mr. Furious, aka David Breen, has been putting out Movie Comics for nearly a year. The strip reviews and parodies movies in a one-shot strip format, as the characters discuss and fantasise about scenes in the movies they just saw. Mr. Furious, an unemployed former IT worker, plans to open a LAN party business.
Comixpedia: How did you first get a start in comics?
Mr. Furious: I used to dabble with comics when I was younger – like 8 or something. But those were just doodles and nothing really worth mentioning. I didn't actually know anything about comics/webcomics until a little more than a year ago. Movie Comics is pretty much where it started for me.
CP: Who are your big influences?
MF: South Park, The Simpsons and Seinfeld were all a bit of an influence on the comedy end, and Penny Arcade was obviously an enormous influence in the art department. PA was actually the only web comic that I read at the time, so naturally I tried to mimic its style when I first started.
I don't consider myself a great artist, but I'm pretty amazed at how far I've come in a year.
CP: Why did you start Movie Comics?
MF: A little more than a year ago I downloaded a trial version of Macromedia Flash 5. Why, I cannot recollect, but I'm thankful that I did. I started messing around with it and was astounded at how it smoothed out the lines I drew. At that moment I knew that I had to do something with this awesome program. I believe I decided to make a comic because, naturally, I made a connection between PA's smooth lines and the way Flash would smooth out lines. I later found out that PA's artist Gabe does not use Flash after all. In fact, he claims to not use vector graphics at all, which to this day I still find hard to believe. 😛
[editor's note: for those who want to see how Penny Arcade is actually created, you can see a video of its creation process here.]
CP: What do you think draws readers to your comic?
MF: The simpleness of it, both the art and the writing. It's easy to get into and it's eye-catching.
CP: What movies do you like?
MF: I'm a huge science fiction fan. I do like a good action movie once in a while, but most of them suck, so you really have to be careful. Horror/B movies I can't stand for the most part. I also enjoy a good comedy (who doesn't?). As far as specific movies, my top 5 at the moment are, Memento, The Matrix, Pulp Fiction, Back to the Future Part 2, and Blade Runner.
CP: How would you describe the influence of movies on web comics as a whole?
MF: Just about every comic online will do a comic based on a movie here and there, but before Movie Comics came about, I don't believe there were any movie- specific comics. That's what made MC so unique from other online comics. It wasn't just another comic about video games.
Over the past year quite a few other movie-related webcomics have started sprouting up. I like to think that I started this trend. 🙂
CP: What comics (web and print) do you read?
MF: The only comic I read on a regular basis is Penny Arcade. I tried reading PVP Online, but couldn't get into it. VG Cats is also a comic that I read infrequently.
CP: If they made Movie Comics into a movie, who would play Mr. Furious? What would the script be like?
MF: I see Movie Comics being a show, not a movie. I would imagine it being something like The Critic or The Family Guy. I've actually come up with a few ideas that I think are rather good. One being that the show is actually based on me, David Breen. It would basically be about David and his friends seeing and making fun of current movies, with David having daydreams about certain situations in a movie. And in the show, David's job would be the comic strip, Movie Comics. During the show, one of David's goals would be to try and come up with a comic idea for the movie that he and his friends just saw. At the end of the show people would check out the website to see what he eventually came up with.
That's just one idea.
As far as it being a movie – who knows? I haven't put much thought into it – maybe just a huge parody of several popular movies.
CP: Who would you want to direct?
MF: Me.
CP: What plans do you have for Movie Comics?
MF: I am planning to turn the site into a full blown Movie site, with reviews and movie related news headlines. None of this will distract from the comic though. Other plans I have for the future would include a Flash-animated cartoon maybe once a month. But that's a ways from happening.
CP: Do you plan on doing any other projects?
MF: I've actually been thinking about making another comic strip other than
Movie Comics, but right now I should just concentrate on one thing at a time.
Leah Fitzgerald is the Executive Editor for Interviews. More Details.
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