Creator Spotlight: Daniel Sharp, by Stephen Leotti

This interview by Stephen (with me!) originally appeared here.

Today’s guest is Daniel Sharp, writer and curator of The Demon Archives.

Stephen Leotti
So let’s start with just a short bio (current city, job, education, whatever else you want to include that might be relevant).

Daniel Sharp
I’m living in New Brunswick, NJ, attending Rutgers Medical School as part of a MD/PhD dual degree program. Currently I’m working in a cancer immunology research lab, working with lab mice and cancer cells and etc.
My wife and I recently had a baby boy, who’s growing and doing awesome.

Stephen Leotti
Oh, congratulations!

Daniel Sharp
I guess ~7 months still counts as recent, right?

Stephen Leotti
Uh, sure, why not?
So I guess my first question will be, how do find time to juggle school, your family, and your comic at once. Any advice for anyone in a similar position?

Daniel Sharp
Time juggling can be difficult. Luckily for me, I am part of a team when it comes to making the comic. Seba does all the art, which is the most time consuming part of the process. I maybe have to put in an hour or so a day working with him on pages, guiding the story, finalizing the dialogue, etc.
But it is still a lot to do. My main mechanism is that comicking, production, socializing, promotion/marketing, etc, is my only real hobby and time waste. I don’t really do anything else besides school, work and family beyond that
So my main advice is just to prioritize and cut where you can. You might not get to watch the latest movies or play the newest games, and that’s ok.

Stephen Leotti
Yeah, sometimes it’s time to put the playstation down and pick up your pencil (or computer).

So let’s talk about the story (or stories, as the case may be). Run down the basic concept behind The Demon Archives.

Daniel Sharp
The basic concept originated from discussions with my brother, Nick, who’s also the one making the $ to pay Seba and run the website. He wanted to develop a world around an idea of advanced AIs, cybernetics, and what that would mean for individuality and sense of self, as well as the definition of humanity.
Cool ideas, but Nick readily admitted he sucked at fleshing it out into a world and story, so we started talking, and developed the post-apocalyptic world of The Demon Archives. A lot of what I’ve brought to the table personally was building up the backstory and worldbuilding that goes on behind the scenes. What brought about the apocalypse, how Minerva was founded, etc.
But I digress. Basic concept: the world asploded. One group was prepared and kept a high level of technology. 100 years later other groups have high tech and can compete. Conflict between them, and potentially the next big step in human evolution.

Stephen Leotti
It seems that post-apocalyptic themed stories are quite popular now (Mad Max is coming back soon). Just as invasion stories were big in the 50s and 60s, cold war era because our paranoia, do you think the post-apocalyptic genre’s resurgence has anything to do with where we are in America today (post 9-11, post-Iraq, etc)?

Daniel Sharp
I think so. What with recent wars, rebellions, terrorism, etc, global war isn’t too far from the public’s mind. And with nuclear weapons and MAD still on the table, a world ending apocalypse is a probably enough scenario to worry about. Add to that the recent obsession with world ending pandemics, climate change, zombies, etc, and the collective consciousness is primed for stories about the end.
Sometimes I feel like our story should be more classified as a post-post-apocalyptic comic, because we don’t really cover the apocalypse or the immediate effects of it that much. Those events shaped the backstory for the comic, but aren’t part of the current events. I was more intrigued at exploring how the world might rebuild than in talking about how it might fall apart.

Stephen Leotti
Fair enough.
You mentioned earlier that you wrote with your brother and another artist draws it. A lot of comickers are soloists, but you’ve got a whole team practically. So what’s the process like? Take a through a mini-making of.

Daniel Sharp
I really enjoy working with a team, because my favorite part of storytelling and world building is talking about it and collaborating, getting feedback from each other and coming to an agreement about how we want things to be.

I’ll break the process down into numbered steps, for fun. We use a project management software, Basecamp, to coordinate everything.

1. I post the chunk of original story I wrote (if applicable) I think applies to the page we’re working on, along with other guidance and explanations from me what I think should be on the page.
2. Seba is the one who normally breaks it down into panels, draws some thumbnail sketches of his layout and plan for the page.
3. We discuss paneling and layout, what content should be shown where.
4. I write out the first draft of the dialogue for the page.
5. Seba draws the inks for the page.
6. A little more discussion. I finalize the dialogue.
7. Seba letters and colors the page.
8. Triple check for typos and errors.
9. Seba probably does some more art magic 1 or 2 more times before we have a “finished” pages. It isn’t unheard of for him to send me another edited version weeks later too
Nick occasionally throws some thoughts in, but he’s normally busy making money to pay Seba

Stephen Leotti
So you’re basically writer, director, and producer, and Seba is actor and cinematographer. Awesome.

Daniel Sharp
Hehe sure. And Nick is the investors.

Stephen Leotti
He sits behind a big desk with a cigar and has a secretary named Lorraine I bet too.

Daniel Sharp
Lol. That’s the vibe he’d probably like to convey. Basically it’s worth it to him to fund the production of the comic like he’s been doing because he enjoys it so much. We certainly don’t make enough yet on Patreon or ads or anything to keep production going if he didn’t.

Stephen Leotti
It’s just about the hardest thing to do in web comics, isn’t it?

Daniel Sharp
Make money? Yeah. There is so much content out there, the market is quite saturated. But quality comics can still make their way up and get noticed.
We have high hopes.

Stephen Leotti
Do you think the ones that succeed, do so because of their quality? Or are they just better promoted? Certainly not every Hollywood movie that makes money is masterpiece.

Daniel Sharp
It’s a mix of multiple factors. Quality is subjective, but I do think that a more enjoyable comic is going to be more successful. It also requires people to see it, so it has to be well promoted to be seen among the noise of the busy market and the many thousands of other comics.
Another huge part of it is just luck and timing. There are many comics I read that I think are excellent, but people just haven’t noticed yet for whatever reason. And other comics have already been noticed and saturated the public eye, making it a little more difficult for smaller people.
There’s like a certain threshold of popularity beyond which you get more and more attention. If you’re below that, it can be hard to be noticed.

Stephen Leotti
It’s like the adage “nobody really knows” that William Goldman would say. All you can do is take a gamble.
You pretty much answered this one, but, out of storytelling, world building, or character building, which do you enjoy most? And how do you approach each job when making a comic come to life?

Daniel Sharp
Well, I’m not sure which I enjoy the most, as they’re all good, but I can tell you the order and amount of time I spend on them. First, I worldbuild. I think about the setting, the backstory, the groups, the “history”, for my story, the alternate history, etc. I enjoy thinking and talking about this stuff (just ask my wife, she’s tired of hearing it, I’m sure) a lot, so it may be the one I enjoy the most.
After building the world a good deal, I started planning out the plot of the story. The big plot points. Because the final step, character building, for me, is the most organic. It takes the longest amount of time because I want to let the characters organically develop as the story moves forward. So while I planned out the big plot points, I’m trying to let the characters grow and decide how to get there.
So each is important, and I approach each differently.

Stephen Leotti
Where do you see your comic ending? Do you have an exact idea of where you want it to go? Or are you just happy exploring the world and characters for as long you’re able? It’s not like TV where you can get cancelled by bad ratings or anything.

Daniel Sharp
I do have an ending in mind. For this particular story, at least. When we reach that point (many chapters/years from now), I’ll decide if I want to tell another story in the world (I have some in mind already) or not

I have hopes, actually, of almost opening up the story universe to other writers and artists eventually. So I’d take a step back to producer/overall idea guy role and have other people write each story or something. And with a doctor’s salary someday, I might actually be able to make that happen

Stephen Leotti
Yeah, you can start the next Marvel. Give em a run for their money.
Or maybe that’s more like what Lucas did with Star Wars.

Daniel Sharp
Hehe. I won’t make THAT much But The Demon Archives could have several more stories in it. Yeah, kind of like Lucas did with Star Wars, or like the Dragonlance series.

Stephen Leotti
Just don’t make any bad prequels, m’kay?

Daniel Sharp
Lol definitely not.

Stephen Leotti
Okay, well I’ve got a lot of great stuff, so let me end with two questions:
A. Either professionally, artistically, or personally, what is the hardest thing you’ve ever gone through, and how did you overcome it?
B. Either professionally, artistically, or personally, what is the thing you are most proud of?

Daniel Sharp
Ooh that’s a toughie. Hmm..hardest thing.
Professionally – School has been hard. Balancing home life with studying and memorizing useless (in my view) facts for tests didn’t always go so well. I didn’t do that well on a big test last year, despite preparing for weeks.
Artistically – When originally writing the story, I realized that my “show not tell” skills were poor. But that’s why we decided to hire an artist and got Seba to compensate for that

Most proud… Well, I’m pretty proud of how cute my boy is? I’m excited and proud about how well The Demon Archives is doing, what with increasing numbers of readers on an international scale.
Mostly I feel lucky and blessed, not proud.

Stephen Leotti
Works for me. Thanks so much for talking to me today.