Creator Spotlight: Stephen Leotti

This week’s Interview is with artist and webcomic creator Stephen Leotti.  I actually finished his interview back in May, and then somehow lost and forgot about it until recently.  Sorry about that!  I was able to contact him and update the answers as necessary though 😀  Enjoy!

D:  Alright, tell us a bit about yourself.  How did you get into art and comics?

S: Alright let’s see…

Well I’m 22 years old. I was born in Virginia, which I still reside in. I’ve been drawing since I was very young, but I didn’t know if that was a thing I actually wanted to do or not. I just did it because it was fun and didn’t cost much.

I finally decided when I was 8 or 9 that I wanted to be a professional artist. I didn’t think I could be a comic book artist because drawing that realistically seemed so difficult. I thought being a comic strip artist would be much more attainable. So I copied every character out of the newspapers until I could draw them all. I wasn’t very good at coming up with my own ideas at that point.

Then when I was about 13 I started getting interested in computer graphics. Part of that was a thing that was pretty new at that point called Bonus Material. I’d watch the behind the scenes on stuff like Lord of the Rings and think “maybe that’s what I should do, cartoons are too easy”. So I downloaded some really basic programs and started messing around with that. It was interesting, but also kind of annoying since it wasn’t top of the line stuff. But it did give me a taste of one thing I found interesting: Animation.

Up to that point I knew nothing about animation. I didn’t even know how they did it traditionally. I knew they were drawings, but how they moved escaped me. Once I understood working with frames, it made more sense. Every kid makes flipbooks with notepads, but I figured out if I scanned the drawings into the computer, I could compile them as videos and make movies!

So that’s what I did. It started with a clipboard and computer paper. But it got more and more advanced as it went along. I also realized that my drawing skills weren’t good enough for me to do the kind of stuff I wanted to. But I knew if I wanted to get better, I’d have to draw what scared me the most: Realism. But I couldn’t not become an animator, so I put animating aside and drew from life for an entire year. When I finally did come back to it, it was better, for the time anyway.

By the time I got through highschool I was pretty accomplished I thought. The issue of college came up obviously. But I didn’t have any money and I was not going into debt if I could help it. I got a job (the only “real” job I’ve ever had) at a bakery that was owned by some people I knew. They hated me because I was clumsy and did everything wrong. Also, they were extremely cheap. I only got about 10 hours a week there if I was lucky. I tried getting other jobs, but in this town, if you’re not a college student (or just a yuppie) they don’t give a crap about you.

I tried getting some art jobs, but I realized that I still wasn’t very good at it. I could animate fine, but I couldn’t draw. If I was going to get good enough to be employable, I needed a medium that didn’t take so much effort and time that encompassed all the things I needed to know.

I’m sure you can figure out this is leading up to comics. Suddenly I was stepping into a medium I knew nothing about again. That hadn’t happened since I was 13. I made a few short stories just to see if I could figure out how this thing works. I got confident enough to think that I could do a series.

And lo, Stardust the Cat was born.

It was originally just supposed to be something stupid to figure out how to make comics that I didn’t really care about. But then I started researching things like Print-on-demand and realized you could actually make money. I thought “screw gettiin’ a job, I’ll just make my own comics and sell them and get rich”.

Of course that didn’t happen. But for so long I felt like if I gave up I would have failed and it would have been for nothing. So I just kept doing it. The print-on-demand didn’t sell, so I gave it away for free hoping it would get popular.

It still hasn’t really. But I did finally get good enough to actually get paying jobs now. I’m even doing animation professionally. So I guess it all worked out after all.

I guess I’m still doing the comic because I just, as an audience member, have such a connection to the character that I have to see where his story ends. And I feel as the creator that I have an obligation to the 12 people who actually gave enough of a crap about it to keep coming back.

I hope that’s what you were looking for. I had no idea what to say, so I just gave you the story of my life up till now.

D:  That was perfect.  I shared the whole story unedited because it was just so great 😀

Outside of your animation job and making your webcomic, do you have any fun hobbies or activities?

S: Myself and a few friends get together and do comedy skits and put them on youtube. We also do movie and game reviews occasionally. We have lots of ideas, but not a lot of time or resources at this point. I don’t really do a lot that doesn’t in some way inform my own creative endeavors. I like studying philosophy and culture, that usually finds it’s way to into something I make.

D: What’s the coolest thing about being an animator?

S: I don’t have to wear pants if I don’t want to and nobody can make me (since I work at home right now, if I were in a studio that would be different).

D: Any reason or thought process on why you chose to tell a story with animal characters instead of human ones?

S: Well the short answer is I use animals for the same reason Aesop and Walt Disney did, because it’s easier to humanize than actual humans.

But the long answer is Stardust was invented to be a throwaway idea, so I didn’t really put too much thought into it at the time. I’ve always kind of identified with cats since they can be such pompous jerks (and so can I). Of course, everyone would compare it to Garfield if I didn’t make it different enough. I had a friend in high school that I used to have pretty deep intellectual conversations about life and human nature and philosophy, so I thought I’d try to get some of that into it by inventing Freddie the mouse. The idea of them talking about their problems instead of blowing each other up seemed fascinating.

D: What do you get out of/enjoy about producing and sharing a webcomic?

S: I enjoy interacting with the people who are reading it. The one thing I like a little more about making movies is the ability to sit with the audience as they’re watching it. To hear someone laugh when you wanted them to means you did your job well. With the internet you don’t get that per se. But the comments are the closest thing.

D:  Any thoughts on having finished a story, now that Stardust the Cat is over?

S: I feel both relieved and sad at the same time. On the one hand, I’m happy that I actually concluded it rather than just having it stop in the middle, like a lot of web-comics do. I’m also kind of glad I don’t have to do it anymore. To be honest, I got kind of tired of it around #13. I just felt I had gone as far as I could go with it. As the story got bigger, it just got harder and harder and stopped being fun. I realized I didn’t like telling big dramatic stories. I like exploring the minutiae of life.

But I will miss these characters though. They formed into very real people for me and I do want to revisit them someday. I’m thinking maybe what I’ll do is, since I have a lot of story ideas that never came to fruition (the most famous being It Came From The James) that maybe I’ll do one new story every year, the way Asterix does. I would also be open to remaking it into an animated film or series if there are any millionaires out there reading this who want to fund it. I already have the cast figured out. Stardust – Kevin Spacey, Freddie – Michael Cera, Naomi – Mary Winstead.

As far as what’s next, I’ve already started my new project. Can’t give too many details yet, but I’m going to shop it around to the indie publishers (Image, Top Shelf etc.) and see what they say. If I’m turned down it’ll be a web comic.So if that happens it’ll be out probably early 2015.

D: What do you wish readers of your webcomic, and webcomics in general, knew about being a creator?

S: I have no idea what I’m doing. And nobody does.

D: What advice would you give fellow creators?

S: There’s a great quote from legendary animator Bill Tytla:

“At times you will have to animate stuff where you can’t just be cute and coy. Those are the times where you’ll have to know something about drawing. Whether it’s called form or force or vitality, you must get it into your work. For that will be what you feel, and drawing is your means of expressing it.”

Obviously, that applies to comics as well. In fact, it applies to every form of art. Whatever it is you’re trying to do (music, photography, painting etc.) try to really know how to do it well instead of copying cliches. If you’re drawing a cat, look at a real cat. You just can’t know too much. Never stop studying and never stop learning and never stop trying to make yourself better.

D:  Awesome.  Thanks so much, Stephen! Everyone, check out his comic below 🙂

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