Reader Spotlight: Amaaré

This week’s Wednesday Spotlight interview isn’t with a comic creator, but rather with another reader and enjoyer of comics, Amaaré.

D: Alright, Amaaré, thanks for letting me interview you.  Do you mind telling us a bit about yourself to start?

A: I’m British, a mature student who does a boring job at weekends to make ends meet, so I’m generally pretty busy. I’m now in my final year of a degree in Computer Science with  a view to moving on to a Master’s in Computational Neuroscience.

I like comedy, story in all it’s forms, making other people laugh and be happy, plus all of the usual nerdy things like games, fantasy, reading, d&d (not that I’ve got to play much) and no doubt others that slip my mind.

My past is probably not a good subject to cover in too much detail, there’s a fair bit of darkness there but that’s not who I am any more. I’m an advocate of self reform and the ability to be who and what you want to be.

D:  Where does the name “Amaaré” come from?  Is it your given name or an internet pseudonym?

A: Yes, I do prefer to go by Amaaré, though not out of any desire to hide who I am as such, I simply believe that everyone has a right to both a given name and a chosen name (if I can put it like that) and Amaaré is the one that I chose. It’s actually the name of the central character from the book/stories that I’ve been working on for a while now.

D: Computational Neuroscience sounds awesome! And very topical to The Demon Archives (AIs and biocomputers and whatnot) 🙂 What do you hope/plan to do with it?”

A: Thanks, I certainly find it interesting. It can mean a wide variety of subjects from how to interface computers and technology with the brain and using them to study how the brain works, to creating computer systems that function more like a neural network.

My hope is to move on to potentially a PhD that will allow me to get into the research sector as well as lecturing in Computer Science, as I like both discovering new knowledge and helping others to do so.

My current focus is on finding ways of studying the difference in states between the conscious and sub-conscious mind, what the fundamental functional differences are as well as potential ways to use technology to allow us greater access to them through techniques such as the inducement of lucid dream states.

D: Ok, I need to ask you your expert opinion.  In the story right now, Tenzin is locked into basically a lucid-dreaming-esque coma, which in the coming chapters they’re obviously going to try to wake him out of.  Any counsel or ideas on that?

A: Comas are tricky things, generally coming out of them is a matter of the damage to the brain healing it’s self, but there is some evidence to suggest that if the person is lucid at the time, then the other factor in bringing them out of it is that they have to want to wake up. Though there have been reports of people being “stuck” in comas, knowing what was going on but unable to wake up even though they wanted to, so both factors have to be considered.

As he seems to be able to hear at least some of what’s going on around him, a common effect here is for those events/people/voices will work themselves into his dreams and change how they play out, maybe you could use that to help persuade him to come out of it?

If you’re looking for technological solutions, then the best I can do is tell you that it’s reasonably likely that in the near future, it should be possible to “see” what someone is dreaming by mapping their neural activity with a network of sensors around their head and interpreting that information using a computer that has previous neurological record of that person.

Hope that helps.

D: It does, thank you 😀

Care to tell us a bit about that book/stories you’ve been working on?

A: I’ll not go into too much detail, as that would end up with me rambling on for many pages! It’s a wide scope project set not just in a specific world but a universe with a slightly different set of rules, but that could still be our own. It’s not a SciFi story per-sé, but it does have elements of one due to the interaction between more and less technologically advanced cultures within that universe. Nor is it a traditional fantasy story, though once again it takes elements from one.

The core characters, as well as having their own stories and desires, are the mechanism by which the story gets to move from one world to another, or to span multiple worlds at once.

D: Do you ever plan on publishing it somehow, or is it more for personal enjoyment?

A: I certainly do get a fair amount of enjoyment from working on it at times, for me the process is less like making up a story and trying to figure out what happens, but almost more like remembering things that I’ve forgotten, piecing them together and creating the story from that.

Publishing is a complex issue, as the work it’s self is in a variety of forms.

The backstory to a lot of the charcters, races, etc is told in a series of poems that I’m working with a friend who is a webcomic creator to illustrate. These, along with any other bits of my work that I feel worth putting out there will eventually go up on my website, when I finally get my act together and get it made.

The main sections of the story it’s self are a little too fragmented as yet to publish in any form that I’d be happy with, but I do hope to eventually get a specific part of it together enough to get published in conventional book form.

D: How did you get into webcomics?

A: I got into them some years ago, after a while I befriended a few people on the forums and began to socialise with them. For a while I was reading about 100 comics, though recently I’ve only really been keeping up with less than 20 of them. The rest are still open in a tab group and I will probably get back to them after a while.

D: What are some of your favorite webcomics?

A: Now this could easily turn into a big list, so I’ll try to keep it fairly short. If I miss out any that’s not because they’re not also excellent, I’m just picking a few examples here.

I have an enduring fondness for (the sadly now defunct) Mushroom Go, as it’s the first webcomic that really got me involved in the community and the first through which I made a good friend. Another that is not yet finished but apparently on it’s final arc is the excellent Mystic Revolution. For others, it rather depends what you’re after, but I’d say a good list of starters would be:

Supernormal Step, Girl Genius, Circuit, Slightly Damned, XKCD, Dresden Codak, and Sandra and Woo.

Along with some of the amazing work done by my (and in some cases our) excellent friends:

Highly Experimental, The Black Mudpuppy, Tethered, and CottonTale, to name but a few. Not to mention your own Demon Archives of course!

D:  Why thanks you 😀  I actually read a bunch of those comics too!  I should get you to write a “Why I Read” review for some of the ones you read but I haven’t 😉

What do you look for in webcomics/what makes one “good” to you?

A: Honestly, it varies. A webcomic is not such a defined thing that it has only one form it which it can be good. I have a fondness for story, so anything that has depth and likeable and/or well created characters as well as a good and well told plot earns some big marks. Art is also important, as, whilst it’s entirely possible to tell a good story and/or tell jokes with some very scruffy artwork, good art is much easier to appreciate and really makes the comic come to life. Not that there’s any particular way to tell what is or isn’t “good” art a lot of the time, it’s down to personal style and preference.

Humour is the other big factor I look for in a webcomic. This can come in many forms, humour between the characters, sly asides from the author, non-serious interludes in an otherwise serious story where the characters get to step out of their usual roles. Let’s not also forget straight out funny stories and gag strips, these can definitely be worth coming back to if done well.

The final factor is not one that makes me stay or go from a webcomic, but is nice to have and that’s community. The fans and the author both matter here as either can make or break how people interact with a comic. I certainly like it when the authors/creators get involved with their fans, as I’ve met some great people that way, both creators and fans alike, but I recognise that that can become difficult for the more popular webcomics, due to the sheer volume of people involved. That’s when it comes down to how the readers interact.

D:  Hehe, I have to resist editing your British spellings of words 😀

Any final thoughts?

A: My philosophy is one of self determination. This isn’t a religious message, it has nothing to do with faith or belief, I’m not a member of any religion you’ve ever heard of, it’s just about yourself.

I used to be a terrible person, truly, genuinely horrible, but I realised that that was an awful way to be, so I changed myself into someone nice. It wasn’t easy and I had help but the point is, if you are capable of seeing what you want to be, then you are capable of being it. The world can be better, if you are better.

I battle with myself every day, with the part of me that wants to go back and take the easy path, but every day for the last 11 years I have won. The best thing in the world is other people, it is they that can help most of all. Find the best people you can and stick with them. They can inspire you, guide you, make you laugh, make you cry.

This is what leads me around the internet and the world, it’s what lead me into the webcomic community and to all of my friends there and elsewhere. You are all the best people I could find and you make me better for being in my life.

Thank you.

D: Thank YOU, Amaaré for sharing your thoughts, knowledge, insights and inspiration with us 😀

If any of you readers want to contact Amaaré, he’s on the twitters 🙂

Remember everyone, I’m taking suggestions for people to interview.  Just leave them in the comments below 🙂