Creator Spotlight: Nikolai McFist

This week’s Wednesday Spotlight interview is with a comic creator friend of mine, who, like apparently everyone I interview recently, uses a pseudonym 😉  His is Nikolai McFist.  Makes it sound like he should be some sort of Russian ninja, but sadly, that is not true.  He is still pretty fun though, so you’ll enjoy the interview 🙂

D: Alright, tell us a bit about yourself.

N: I’m Aaron, 21 year old from a small town in Michigan. I love working out and more recently getting into running. I also love playing guitar and if I had the patience for music I’d probably follow that and have some sort of metal band. I love the feel and everything surrounding video games, but not super huge on playing them anymore, as I’m not very patient. Also rediscovering my love of manga and finally reading comics that I’ve been wanting to read for years but haven’t.

D:  Abandoning the pseudonym already? 😉  But seriously, how do you want me to refer to you here?

N: I’ll say Nikolai. I don’t mind going by Aaron too but I’m building myself up as Nikolai McFist so, I figure why not.

D: Do you go to school or work outside of art, or are you arting all the time?

N: At the moment no school, but I work somewhere from 18 to 28 hours a week in Produce/Health Food at a grocery store. I’ve learned quite a bit so far and at least in Produce there’s a lot of heavy lifting so I keep in relative good shape doing it. But when I’m not at work I’m either at the gym or at home, working on art or reading comics.

D: Any favorite bands, video games, mangas?

N: Music is a really weird thing for me, if you look at it from a broad perspective it’s all the same sort of thing, Metal and Electronica based stuff. My absolute favorites are Love Through Cannibalism, Anamanaguchi, Monomate, Does It Offend You, Yeah? and Tyrant of Death to name a few.

My art is very much inspired by video games, even the stories I tell are, to an extent. But surprisingly enough I don’t really play that many anymore. It’s usually me replaying an old Mario game or whatever. Right now I’m playing Smash Bros and Borderlands 2, however. But my favorite is definitely Jet Set Radio Future. Huge influence/inspiration for me.

Favorite Manga, at the moment anyway is Katekyo Hitman Reborn. I’m reading through Dragonball right now and it’s great but Reborn is both so silly and serious, it’s just such a fun story with fun characters and great art. I love it.

D: Tell us a bit more about your creative projects.

N: At the very moment I have 2, one of which is the Wario comic that I’ve been talking about for months. I’m so close to being done with it but haven’t really had the right inspiration to finish it up properly. I’m not huge on fan-art related stuff (despite me drawing a lot of Wario or Jet Set Radio stuff), but it is super fun to take something existing and make it something even cooler.

And then of course Charles & Viktor. An absolutely crazy, silly comic about alien warriors who crash land on the planet BUH and their adventures on that planet. There’s a character called PIG, and he’s got a gorilla sort of body and an acorn for a head, his mother is a tree and he hates the night will cause rampages at night. Also there’s a baby dinosaur named Ty, whom refers to himself as King Ty as he wishes to build a giant bouncy house in place of King Apple’s castle.

King Apples is of course a weird fish man, really silly, but he created BUH. It’s not really known if he’s a deity or just a really powerful warlock but nobody dares to find out. Also there’s the whole thing with the Golden Pizza. It’s intense.

D: Um…I have no idea what just happened.  Sounds random and interesting and crazy 😉

N: 😛 Thank you! I tried to get as in depth as possible with leaving some room for WHAT DOES HE MEAN.

D: How did you get started with art?

N: I started in elementary school doodling, I quit shortly thereafter when I realized how bad I was. Picked it back up in middle school when a friend of mine was drawing comics. Have basically been doing it ever since. Looking back, I’d do the same thing then I do now. I go through these almost obsessive spurts, where all I do is work on this one thing. I may not get it done, and it may not look the best, but I have so much fun doing it.

D:What do you hope to do with your art and stories? Any goals beyond just the fun of it?

N: This is something I’ve been asking myself recently. In high school, around when I started taking all of this more seriously, I wanted nothing more than to make it a career. As time went by and everything else, I realized I’d actually just be content being able to do it at all, maybe have a job to support me on the side (much like now, just with a better job haha). At this point in time, I still think the end goal is to make something of it and be able to do it full time. That being said, I wouldn’t stop if it didn’t get there. My biggest goal at the moment is to create a world that people can escape to. Something fun, silly, and yet captivating. I want someone to be able to sit down, read through a few stories and for that moment, forget whatever problems they were having and just smile. If I can do that for someone, anyone, I’ll know I have done it right.

D: Any weird talents or funny stories?

N: I mean I can do an incredible frown, it looks like a muppet. It’s pretty much the most exciting thing about me. Also one time in 5th grade I was sitting out in the hall while the teacher went over the homework from the day I missed prior, and I farted, and if you know anything about hallways, they’re great for amplifying noises and echos. So my fart rang throughout that hall, and my teacher came out and gave me the dirtiest, most disapproving look. I dunno if she was disgusted with my flatulence or thought I was making noises. I mean, I wasn’t a bad kid, just had some gas.

D: Now you’re the muppet frown farter guy forever 😛

Any favorite comics you’d like to mention?

N: I feel like everybody knows about the comics in our creator friend group if they’re reading Demon Archives, so I’ll refrain from putting links to our group’s comics. There are a few cartoonier sort of comics I really appreciate: Cosmic Dash, Frog Racoon Strawberry, and The Eternally Injured Ninja. So if you’re looking for other cartoony-styled and or silly comics to read after going through some of Charles & Viktor and your thirst hasn’t quite been quenched THERE YOU HAVE IT.

D: Awesome, thanks, Nikolai 🙂

Everybody, you should check out Nikolai’s work, it’s pretty fun 🙂