Creator Spotlight: Jim Haas

This week’s spotlight interview is with Jim Haas, creator of the webcomic Nate the Robot.  Remember that you can view and read past interviews by navigating up to the menu bar under “Blog”, or just by clicking here 🙂

D: Alright, to start, give me a brief intro to Jim 🙂

J: I believe I come from a family afraid to move. I’m living in a house about 0.1 miles from where I grew up, and I grew up on the corner lot of a farm in the midwest that has been in our family for over 200 years (my ancestor was in the original land split with George Rogers Clark, and fought with some famous people of that time). I am a math geek, and was valedictorian of my school in 1989. From the time I first watched Star Wars, I wanted to do special effects for movies … and specifically animatronics. As I grew older, that grew into a desire to work on robots, so I went to Purdue to study Electrical Engineering. But, the family gene had me move back home, and there were no robot jobs I could find, so I ended up being a computer programmer. I do have my masters degree from University of Louisville, though, in Electrical Engineering as well.

D: Robots, eh? Did you ever watch that Robot Wars show on BBC?

J: I used to love that show. At my first job, a coworker and I thought about creating a combat robot (there was an american version of the show too), but I found out that my ideas were all too devious and not allowed in the rules. Turns out that you aren’t allowed to use static electricity, adhesive, or projectiles…

D: What do you work as now?

J: I’m a software developer writing practice management software for eye doctors, which is big business now because of the “high tech computing act”. I primary develop for Windows on the desktop.

D: How did you get into comics/webcomics?

J: Like everyone, I loved comics as a kid, but I was crazy introverted and shy, and basically just read what my mom found at yard sales. In high school, though, I became good friends with Rob Hammons, an artist who opened me up to the world of comics and got me hooked on X-Men and TMNT (no, not the kids cartoon, the gritty original black and white comic!). The two of us created a very crappy Transformers comic (hey robots, I love them!) together, and we conspired to create something that’s “never been done before”, so we started working in the Vigilante Vegetables. Original as making “vegetables” was, our story was really just like all the other TMNT clones. Like what always happens in school, Rob moved away and the project kind of died. I met my good friend Paul, who lured me (easily) into Dungeons and Dragons. Paul is a great story-teller, and we’ve been friends ever since. In college, I kept drawing and got Paul hooked a bit on the Vigilante Vegetables where he started forming a real story out of it.

But, like what always happens post college, we got jobs, and the projects just kind of died. About 6 years ago, because of still playing Dungeons and Dragons with Paul (and other high school friends), I found my first webcomic, Order of the Stick and got hooked. Then I found a few other other webcomics that I also got hooked on, like Nodwick and Goblins. The itch to do my own comic didn’t hit me until just over 5 years ago, I was sitting at work reading an article from an engineering magazine about how we’re losing american engineering jobs to India, and it made me chuckle because I had remembered reading as a kid about how some day robots would steal all our jobs, and that’s when Roy the Robot was born! In the next 30 minutes at work, I transcribed about 50 comics in a burst of inspiration. I shared with Paul who chuckled and suggested I change the name from Roy, since that was the main character of OOTS (oops, I do that a lot), and so he became Nate.

The first few years of Nate were very bumpy because of me being an old dog and trying to learn new tricks. I really had no idea on how to do a comic digitally, and I just didn’t consider asking for help from any one. It wasn’t really until I discovered the Webcomic Underdogs that I really feel like I started to get my groove and understand, and I’ve been trying to progress since then.

D: So tell us a bit more about Nate the Robot, why you make, what you’re trying to achieve, etc.

J: I think when I started, I thought that I had stumbled on “the next big thing” and was craving internet fame. But now I mainly am doing it for myself, and that’s much more satisfying. I still struggle every once in awhile with wanting more views, but it’s not what drives me now. I think what I want mainly is just to improve as a creator, both in art and writing. The more I do, the more I realize I have to learn … which can be both depressing and exciting at the same time.

D: Didn’t I see something about you trying to start up Vigilante Vegetables again?

J: Yes indeed! The plan is still for late this fall. It will be a kid-friendly comic, and the goal is eventually to offer it in printed form. Unlike Nate, this one is a collaboration between Rob, Paul and I (yay internet!). All three of us are “creative development”, but Paul is writing, I will be doing the roughs, and Rob will be finishing. It’s pretty neat to think about a pipelined process like that, which is very different than Nate!

D: Some of my favorite NtR things have been drawings by your kids. What do they think of this hobby of yours?

J: They absolutely love it! My son and his friend from church draw comics all the time. I’ve hooked him on a couple family-friendly Kickstarter comics, and it’s neat to see him take interest. My daughter also loves to draw, and is my “convention buddy”. I’m crazy shy, but she’s incredibly outgoing, and she does a great job promoting for me. She’s not scared to talk to anyone at anytime about me and Nate, and it makes me proud. At my next convention, I thought about having her cosplay as Chana to get people to come to the booth!

D: I also read and enjoy OOTS. Any other comics or webcomics you enjoy or that serve as inspiration and role models?

J: In general, all the webcomics I read inspire me to keep going, but I think specifically with Nate that it was most heavily inspired by Dilbert. Scott Adams, Dilbert’s creator, was also an electrical engineer, and that kind of humor runs deep in our personality. I’m heavily attracted to comics that have sci-fi elements that include robots, mech suits, and artificial intelligence. That’s what first led me to Demon Archives. Recently I discovered Rock and Tin by Tom Dell’Aringa, and it’s just the kind of comic that will hook me in an instance. But despite the heavy robot influence, I equally enjoy the fantasy setting. It’s hard to be attached to playing Dungeons and Dragons and NOT love a good story of sword and sorcery.

D: What have been the 3 biggest lessons you’ve learned as you’ve worked on creating a webcomic?

J: 1. Plan plan plan plan plan plan plan. Did I mention that you should plan? Nate is nearly to comic 100 (when you filter out comics not done by me), and I’ve been working on it for 5 years now. I’d say the first four years were pretty crappy solely because of lack of planning. I thought a couple of punchlines was all I needed, and it really shows.
2. Buffer! I read about this early on but it wasn’t until recently that made myself do it. It really becomes rough to have consistent updates if you’re scrambling to do them at the last minute.
3. Love it for what it is. If you ever get a chance to visit a smaller, more local comic convention, take time to go visit with the creators that have booths there. Comic creators have a passion, and it’s amazing to be a part of that crew … even if I never become famous.

D: What qualities do you think defines the optimal reader/fan?

J: I think someone who enjoys clean comedy is the perfect reader of Nate. I’ve thrown in some VERY technical jokes in the past, but I’m trying to get past that. I think people that struggle with social awkwardness might get the most out of Nate.

Thanks for the interview, Jim!  Everyone, you should go by and check out Nate the Robot!  And let me know if you have any suggestions for people I should interview 🙂