Hawty McBloggy Invites You to Play

If you find yourself soaking up all the Halo goodness at HBO on a regular basis, you are probably more than a little familiar with Another Halo Comic Strip. The brains behind AHCS, ZZoMBiE13, has created 100 amazing comics that sometimes make you groan, frequently make you laugh, but always keep you entertained. He recently decided to take a brief hiatus in an effort to get “reinspired” (I’m pretty sure that’s code word for play more Halo) so I decided to knock on his door and beg him for an interview. I was tickled pink he agreed so please sit back and enjoy getting to know one of your favorite Halo artists who just happens to be as funny as he is talented.

Just for the record, that is the best interview graphic anybody has ever made. So let’s start at the very beginning. What was your first experience with video games?

I was around 6 years old and my dad and I went into some corner store to grab a soda or something. I noticed this big cabinet with pretty blinking lights and on the side it read: PAC-MAN. After begging for a quarter I played my first video game and from that moment I was hooked. You can trace my 30 year gaming hobby back to that single event. Just about every kid my age was into playing games back then. Ugh, listen to me I sound like some old fart talking about “the old days”.

As long as you still aren’t wearing your old high school jersey, you can talk about the good ol’ days as much as you want. Speaking of which, what is your favorite video game of all time? A classic title or something a bit more recent?

Zombies Ate My Neighbors for the SNES. I know that it’s not the best game ever made, but the co-op gameplay was ahead of its time, and a blast to play I might add. I have great memories of playing that game with friends. I’d round out the rest of my top 5 with Halo, Dead Rising, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2, and the old cabinet versions of Street Fighter 2.

ZZoMBiE13 likes Zombies. Who would have guessed? Before you go off on a tangent about delicious brains, what game is holding your attention these days?

GTA4 is taking up most of my gaming time it seems. And the occasional round of Halo of course. But that’s always on my “Now Playing” list really. I never stop playing it. Even if I haven’t touched the game in a month, its still there as the ever present “go to game” when I’m in the mood for that kind of experience.

Best go to game ever. How many hours a week do you typically game?

168.

Oh really? And how many hours a week do you typically draw?

168.

I see what you did there. Since gaming and drawing don’t take up much of your time, what other hobbies do you enjoy?

Besides chainsaw juggling? I love movies. So I have a pretty expansive DVD collection. Over 500 and counting. I hope someone puts the 2004 Dawn of the Dead on Blu-Ray or HHDDVVDDBVD soon.

I’m going to read in between the lines and guess that you watch movies in your underwear. Too bad there isn’t a graphic to accompany that one. So when did you start drawing?

Not long after I learned how to hold a pencil. I can not remember a time when drawing wasn’t important to me. Plus I loved Spiderman comics when I was a kid. I still do. It was always inspiring. I’d want to draw like the comic book artists and because I loved to draw I wanted more comics. A cyclical symbiosis of reading and drawing comics began pretty early.

That’s awesome. Every kid needs a box of comics under their bed (my box was filled with Archie). When did your passion for drawing comics coincide with your passion for gaming?

Most great artists or filmmakers will tell you that whatever your world consists of, that is what you’re going to put in your creative works. So I figured I’d start copying those guys since they seem to know what they’re doing. I can remember drawing pictures of PAC-MAN and the Ghosts in the margins of my homework back in elementary school. In college I did studies of video game characters for projects in my art classes. The things that inspired me were gaming and comic book superheroes and sci-fi, horror and action movies. So that’s the type of thing I’d be inspired to draw. And of course Halo struck a real chord with me both as a game and a source of inspiration. It was the first game I bought with my Xbox and I still play it to this day (once in a while). It was only natural that I’d start trying to draw the Lone Spartan-II.

I would have loved to see those early PAC-MAN drawings. When was AHCS born and how did you get the idea for the strip?

When Bungie announced that Recon would only be handed out to certain people. Joking aside, they started as guest One-One-Se7en comics. When Stuntmutt’s baby was about to be born he asked a few of us who’d offered guest strips in the past to do some stand-in work while he was taking care of his family. I made up three comics so that it would cover an entire week for him. Afterwards the ideas for gags didn’t stop coming to me. Then during the build up for Halo3’s release, I started really getting inspired to make comic strips and artworks about Halo. For a while I was sending him more strips than the “Guest” area of One-One-Se7en could accomodate. He’d told me to ask Louis Wu for my own space but I was reluctant because I didn’t think I could produce enough to keep peoples interest. I kept expecting to run out of ideas. Oddly enough, I’m still surprised I haven’t run out of ideas. Luckily Halo has one of the most rich and diverse mythos of any series gaming has ever produced. I mean I don’t think you could take “Blacksite: Area 51″ and make 100 comics out of it. I know they’d never admit it, but if it weren’t for Stuntmutt pushing me and Louis Wu’s offering me a place to share my work with a built in audience, well AHCS would never have happened without those two guys. I consider myself very fortunate to know both of them. They managed to push me past my self-doubt and once I had a taste of playing to a large audience, well I ran with it.

And how lucky we are that you did. How long does it take you to draw each individual strip anyways?

About half the time it took me to answer your last question. Jeez when did I become so verbose? Anyway, each one is different. Some are a breeze because they only require minor changes from panel to panel and others, well I’ve got a few that I started, then abandoned, then came back to them. So they, technically, took months to complete. It just depends on the joke and what kind of artwork I need to use to deliver that joke.

The next question comes from everyone and their dog. Any special plans for #117?

The Chief is going to shoot two new characters, J.R. Ewing and Montgomery Burns, in a dramatic cliffhanger. Then I’m going to make the audience wait three years for the next comic strip. What do you mean that sounds familiar?

Between emails and this interview, that is probably the tenth time I have asked you that question and you still haven’t answered it! Let’s try this one, what is your favorite AHCS?

Probably number 71. It was one of the most fun to draw. And if you read it while you listen to Disturbed’s “Meaning of Life”, well they match up nicely.

I like that one too, although the Snow Chief comic will always hold a special place in my heart for obvious reasons. Who is your favorite AHCS character?

Well I love the idea of the Lone Spartan. So Chief is great and it’s fun putting a personality with the hulking green soldier. And naturally I like Bob and Doug a lot. But I think drawing the Arbiter is the most fun. Coming up with expressions for him is almost always fun and it usually gets a good reaction from the readers. Or at least the readers who comment. Of course only about 2% of the readers comment. But still.

Your Arbiter is hot, I’m just saying. Before I get completely distracted, let’s talk random things. How is your Xbox 360 decked out?

Well I had a 360 with all kinds of great signatures and original Luke McKay artwork on it but when I sent it in for service it was ruin… What? Oh right, that wasn’t me. I have a black ELITE console with the default faceplate. It sits next to my poor dusty PS3 that only gets used to play Blu-Ray discs.

LOL, … Very funny. Next random thing. Your current desktop wallpaper?

Typically I use one of my AHCS wallpapers. Right now it’s THIS ONE. But THIS ONE is my personal favorite of all the ones I’ve made.

I still use the wallpaper you made me. Randomness #3, 360 theme?

I change my theme pretty often. But I usually come back to one of my two favorites. Either the “Dead Rising Theme 2″ or my favorite Halo related theme called “Bungie Theme”. Those two manage to keep making their way back to the spotlight.

Uh oh, we’re back to zombies. I’m scared to ask, but what is your 360 gamerpic?

I use a few that I rotate. The Legendary map pack insignia with the skull and crossed Battle Rifles is one that I like. And I have all the Dead Rising gamerpics so I use them occasionally. Plus there’s a few RvB selections that I like, especially the Donut “Is it a SPIDER” one. And then my Personal Pic that only friends can see is a picture I took with my XboX vision camera. It’s me, wearing a Jason Voorhees hockey mask.

That scares me. Seriously. Working on any other projects by chance?

Nothing I can really talk about. Heh-heh, I’m all secretive just like Bungie. :P

Darn it, I can never talk you into telling me your secrets. What is the future of AHCS? Or is that classified information too?

Once I come back from break I plan to start accepting guest comics from readers. I’ve had several people ask for this over the last few months and now, thanks to Louis setting it up, we’re going to be able to do it. Hopefully it’ll be a popular new feature.

I’m sure it will be. Thanks for the interview, enjoy the rest of your break (play lots of Halo!), and I look forward to seeing #101 and beyond in the near future.

*If anybody needs an AHCS fix before ZZoMBiE13 returns, try dipping into the archives to revisit some old favorites.