Creator Spotlight: Tasha of Tethered
It’s still Wednesday, right? 😉 I’ve got a couple of different interviews in various states of completion, but managed to both start AND finish this one today due to some rapid turn-around from the interviewee. I give you, Tasha, artist and creator of the webcomic Tethered.
D: Ok, let’s start with my boring generic question to inspire some more interesting ones 🙂
Tell us a bit about yourself.
T: My name is Tasha, or Natasha if I’m getting told off. My nicknames are Hoi, Hoi-butt or Poop Train (short for ‘Conductor of the Poop Train’) and I currently live in England, Earth. I studied a BA honours in Animation production at the Arts University of Bournemouth and ever since then I’ve been trying to improve on my drawings and story-telling skills! I have three younger sisters, a crazy little nephew and an awesome mum, get us together and people tend to notice us…We can be quite loud and easily excited…
D: Those…are some interesting nicknames! Willing to share any of the stories about how they originated?
T: Hahaha of course! My middle name is ‘Hoi Sian’ (which means spirit of the sea – or something like that!), and my sister Tk started calling me ‘Hoi-chan’ when we got into our animés yonks back, it then got shortened to Hoi and then evolved a Butt soon after. Tk is also to blame for ‘Poop Train’, I believe it’s from the new Borderlands trailer or something? I was teasing her one day and she threw that name at me, as we had friends over at the time, they have also started calling me it, and now the Poop Train has stuck.
D: Hoi Sian. what language is that?
T: It’s Chinese 🙂 I am part Malaysian-Chinese, it’s traditional for children’s middle names to mean something that’s related to their birth. Mine was chosen because I was born by the sea! Before you ask, noooo, I can’t speak any Chinese 😛
D: Well darn. You can’t verify my use of Chinese swears by Tenzin 😉
Ah you’re from Earth, excellent. 😉 So what’s cool about England besides spelling things with extra ‘u’s?
T: Oh, you had to bring that up didn’t you. I’m seeing your true COLOURS now Dan 😛 Your FAVOURITE thing to point out right?
Anyhow 😉 I really love the history here, though there has been a huge amount of gruesome events throughout British history, some of the stories are fascinating. I was born in Hastings, so the site of the Battle of Hastings in 1066 was literally just down the road, I think that’s what got me so interested in the history of England. I also love the castles and old manor houses with halls filled to the brim with amazing oil paintings. Other than that, David Attenborough and the London Science Museum is pretty bad-ass.
D: Do you have an animation examples we can see? For pure curiosity, of course, and not because someday we’d love to get someone to help us animate TDA 😉
T: Well there’s a cheeky hint if I ever saw one! I’m afraid not, though I studied an animation course, I focused more on character design rather than the animation itself, and the animation I did do I am not proud of! We focused on traditional 2D animation, and despite loving seeing my characters come to life and move, I enjoyed creating the characters, environment and story more.
D: Tell us a bit about your creative projects.
T: I’ve worked on so many I’ve lost count…Most of those I can’t unfortunately talk about as they are either someone else’s ideas or still in production. Currently I am working on a couple of commissions along side my webcomic Tethered! I started Tethered just over a year ago, I decided to commit to such a large project for a couple of different reasons. In regards to drawing it, I wanted to have my own project that was solely mine and would push me to improve my skills, and as for the story itself, I plan to use it to help raise disability awareness and give me a medium to express myself and my outlook on life.
D: Just so everyone knows, I help Tasha with some of the writing for Tethered. But, Tasha, mind sharing why you asked/wanted help?
T: When I first got to know you, I recall you mentioning that you were a Med Student, which instantly caught my attention. Originally I had been researching a lot into medicine and health care for Ed, being a medical robot I felt it was pretty important to keep as accurate as I could, but researching, writing, thumbnailing and drawing the final comic became a lot of work for me. I started by asking you questions to help with my writing, then one day I had an epiphany…You were a med student AND a writer, pretty much exactly what Tethered desperately needed! So we spoke, did some negotiating, slid secret mysterious packages to one another, and now Tethered is benefiting from both your knowledge and skills!
D: I’ve joked with Tasha before about whether her comic is “post-apocalyptic” or not. Tasha, how would you described Tethered, and why would you choose those words?
T: Oooh yes, I’ve had this mentioned to me a couple of times, but after much thought and debate during the post-production of the comic, I made the decision that it was more of a “dystopian” based story. I say this because there has not been an apocalyptic event. The definition of apocalypse being “the complete final destruction of the world, as described in the biblical book of Revelation.” – though the meaning seems to have changed over the years, I didn’t want the events in the comic to seem so final. I see it that the world has been degraded and society and people have dehumanised because of what they are having to do for survival.
D: Can you tell me more about the drive to increase disability awareness and how you plan on accomplishing that? Avoiding spoilers of course, unless you’re willing to share 😉
T: One of my sisters is currently in a wheelchair after forming sever scoliosis when she was just 16 years old. That was a massive wakeup call to myself and my family, we were shocked at how people would stare at her as if she was some sort of alien and that a lot of places simply didn’t cater to someone in her situation. It was also very difficult for all of us to see other young girls going out and having fun while my little sister was unable to because she was in pain. In Tethered you may have noticed that in a family portrait, there is a young boy in a wheelchair, throughout the story I plan to entwine my experience with my comic to show in more detail of how it is to be in that position, but hopefully without it being too much ‘in-your-face’ or preachy!
D: “My outlook on life.” What do you mean by that?
T:I can probably safely say that I’ve had an unusual upbringing, my mother has always been very open and loving to us, teaching us to be the same, and in doing so my mum and sisters are extremely close. I believe that above everything, the unity of a family, whether they are blood related or not, is so important, something that many people seem to completely take advantage of. Again, not wanting to be preachy or anything, but through Tethered, I want to develop this into the story. I will leave it there and let you guys see how this may evolve!
D: Any cool comic stories you’d like to share?
T: Nothing really, other than just how I was shocked with how awesome the webcomic community is, that through it I found a pretty cool writer (Oh yea, I’m pretty sure that one just scored me brownie points right?!), made some amazing friends who have given me constant support and somehow managed to also get caught up in a Pathfinder game that’s being played in four different locations across the world! Maybe ask me again in a couple of years when I’ve finally kick Tethered out into the world to fend for itself 😉
D: Any lessons or tips for other comic creators or for readers of comics?
T: For comic creators: Don’t let anyone tell you you can’t, people may say that you’re not good at a certain aspect, or perhaps you don’t even think your skills are good enough. At the end of the day, if you’re not good at something, how are you going to improve if you don’t try? It took me 10 years to get to where I am now, and I am still not where I want to be. As long as you are determined then nothing should stand in your way 🙂
For comic readers: If you support a comic, please let the creator know, we work hard to create these comics basically for free. I myself only get some cash now and then through Patreon, and though it’s nice to receive some delicious coins, I’m not in it for the money. Nothing makes me happier than knowing that people are enjoying Tethered. It’s also the best feeling in the world to receive fan art! Anything to show your support and enjoyment to make sure that creators feel that what they are doing is worth all that hard work and use of free time!
D: Thanks, Tasha!
You can contact, connect with, read and follow Tasha and her comic at the following links: