Interview: Amber Hale, Supermodel (Zuda Competitor)

Every month DC Comics’ Zuda webcomic site presents ten new 8-screen webcomic stories which compete for readers’ love and votes. Each month’s winner gets a paid contract to continue with Zuda. To participate by voting, rating the comics on the 5-point scale, and marking your favorites, just register at zuda.com and get involved.

Last month we spoke with Lisa Fary and John Dallaire of Pink Raygun about their Zuda entry, Intergalactic Law: Grey Squad, which ultimately placed in the top three.

This time, we’ve been talking to the creative team behind May’s action chick entry. We’ve already shown you a preview of their upcoming Zuda entry, Reign. Now let’s hear about this month’s heroine.

Title/Link: Amber Hale, Supermodel
Writers: Daren Strange, Lewis Walker (Black Halo Entertainment)
blackhaloentertainment.com
Artist: Josh Howard (Dead @ 17)
joshhoward.typepad.com

AFC. Why did you create this particular heroine?

Daren: It’s tough to think back that far, to be honest. It’s been about 7 years now. But I can tell you why she still exists today after surviving rewrite after rewrite. She’s a key part of the larger Black Halo Series (BHS) universe and has a vital role to play in the mythos. She originally only showed up in our Divinity storyline (which happens about 4 years after Supermodel and is still in development), but when we started talking about expanding BHS a couple years ago, we decided Amber’s story was one of a couple we wanted to explore further. That’s how she ended up with a starring role in her own series.

She has staying power. She’s a fun, sassy character with a lot of emotional depth. We’re looking forward to showing that side of her as the comic progresses.

AFC. Why aren’t there more ass kicking women in comics and movies?

Daren: Good question. I wish I had a good answer. I think it really goes back to persistent stigmas. You’ve got the early ages of comics where pretty much every major superhero was a white male. Then Wonder Woman came along to try and shake things up a bit, and it worked on many levels. She definitely had an affect on how heroes were perceived. More recently, I think Buffy the Vampire Slayer pushed things along. In my mind, that show really started the trend of sexy females kicking butt.

Lewis: I think society has always put women on a pedestal like fragile and delicate works of art. Women are human beings’ only method of reproduction; they are our birth vessels of life. Society seems more comfortable with women being the damsel in distress rather than the heroine who kicks the bad guy’s ass. Personally, I think there’s nothing sexier than a hot chick in a tight outfit, saving my life Bruce Lee-style (think Uma Thurman in Kill Bill Vol. 1).

Daren: I think, despite some trends, comics and movies are still male-dominated arenas. Especially now that all the comic book films are being made and based off of the classic male superheroes. I was really looking forward to the Joss Whedon Wonder Woman, so I’m kind of bummed that didn’t work out. The DC Animated movie was pretty good though.

AFC. Who are your favorite fictional heroines?

Daren: Not sure if she’s considered a heroine, but I really loved Kate Beckinsale’s “Selene” in the first two Underworld films. The movies themselves weren’t the greatest, but her character was fantastic. I can’t help but wonder what they could’ve done with her if they had a great movie franchise to back her up with. A lost opportunity for sure. I tend to like the bad girls. And by bad girls, I don’t necessarily mean tattoos and black vinyl (although that stuff helps). I mean, I like the emotionally disturbed characters. Catwoman is another good example. That duality theme she’s got going on. A character who’s got some serious inner issues to tackle creates a fascinating story to me.

Lewis: Octavia Butler’s Wild Seed has a character named Anyanwu who I really enjoyed reading about. Kim Harrison’s Rachael Morgan character is also one of my favorites. And Detta from Stephen King’s Dark Tower masterpiece. Stephen King is my favorite author, and his Odetta “Detta” Holmes character, with her dueling personalities, is a great character study for inspiration. His Susan Delgado heroine from the same series is a great study as well. But Rogue, from the X-Men’s animated adventures from the earlier 90’s, is my all time favorite. I fell in love with her the first time I heard her sexy Southern slang form beautiful ass-kicking prose.

Josh: Any character played by Milla Jovovich.

AFC: We’re extremely pro-Milla around here.

Josh: She knows how to be tough without acting like a man. And Hermione from Harry Potter. She’s got the whole nerd/bookworm/schoolgirl thing going on.

Daren: I love stories that bring you inside the character’s mind and let you walk around in their gloomy world. It’s all that much more rewarding when they finally break free of it. If you’re there the whole time, there’s a great sense of accomplishment, not just for the character but for you as well. It’s the best way to get invested in a character.

AFC. What sources of inspiration have influenced your Amber Hale webcomic?

Lewis: Well, first off, Josh Howard played a huge role in the choice for art. Anyone who’s seen a woman illustrated by Josh has probably fallen in love. His women are intoxicating. Amber’s story itself is a hodgepodge of movies and books I’ve seen and read throughout the years. She’s a big melting pot of my mental notes for a sexy heroine struggling to define herself and prove her worth to the world. If you forced me to name one story/character as an influence, perhaps Jessica Alba as Dark Angel.

Daren: I think the best way to answer is to say what influenced BHS as a whole. The first thing that comes to mind is The Matrix. But not for the reasons you might think. The Matrix trilogy has always been an example for us of what not to do. Here we’ve got this badass first film–I mean, it’s pretty much flawless. And then they tack on 2 more movies that you can tell were not planned from the beginning. It feels disconnected.

In contrast, there’s the Lord of the Rings, which, granted is based off of classic books, but the whole thing is outlined from the get-go. That’s why it feels so cohesive. That’s our marker for BHS. Where we’ve set the bar. We’ve been constructing our characters and universe since 2002, with the goal of a cohesive story from start to finish. We’re just about there now. We know how it starts and how it all ends, and Supermodel falls just before the middle of our timeline.

I’d also say Batman Beyond. That’s an odd jump from LOTR, but I remember watching the DVD features awhile back, and I think it was Bruce Timm who mentioned how, since it was the future, they had to really concentrate on what the clothing styles would be. I remember him saying something like there are no buttons in the future. That got me thinking. Over the years we’ve come up with what we affectionately call “Business Goth”. The idea being that, as we’re seeing today, tattoos and piercings are becoming more accepted in the mainstream. So, for example, in our future it wouldn’t be abnormal to see a meeting made up of business professionals sporting tattoos, multiple piercings, or even black nail polish on occasion. Then we extended that idea to having no traditional collars, no buttons, and no zippers. (How people’s clothes stay on remains a mystery.) There are also no stripes. Everyone wears solid colors, and they tend to be based on black motifs.

AFC. So movies influenced your storytelling.

Daren: I’m a movie fanatic so I tend to think of every story we do as a movie. I’m such a big nerd. I visualize the opening credits and everything. And if I hear a song that makes me think “that would be perfect for such and such a scene”, I’ll play the song over and over imagining how it would play out on the big screen. I’ll listen to that song when I actually write it out too. I frequently find myself having to stop the film playing in my head so I can describe it as a series of comic panels.

Lewis: The first Matrix movie always plays a role in my creative process. The Wizard of Oz, with all the characters in search of something they believe they lack, also played a role.

AFC. How did Josh wind up being the one to draw Amber?

Daren: We’d been trying to find a different artist for each series in the Black Halo world, and with Supermodel I really thought a more cartoonish look was the way to go. Once I saw Josh’s work on Dead @ 17, I got it set in my mind he was the right fit. This was a few months before I actually mustered up the courage to contact him. I was pretty intimidated. I don’t know if I’ve ever told him this, so he might get a kick out of reading it, but I pretty much thought, “We’re a couple of nobodies. He won’t work with us.” Then Lewis’ World of Chi won 4th place on Zuda and I began to think, “Ok, maybe we have a tiny bit of weight behind us now–just enough to ask… even though he’s still going to say no.” And to my surprise he said yes. He was interested in the story and the timing was right. And I’ve gotta take a second to publicize how incredibly great he’s been. His work is amazing, obviously, and he’s very professional. Plus he puts up with me talking endlessly on the phone and in emails, so that alone should win him some kind of award

AFC. You’ve dealt with Zuda before. We’ve heard a wide range of opinions about how Zuda does things. What is it about Zuda that made you comfortable enough to try again?

Daren: Honestly, Zuda’s system isn’t the best. I think most people know that. It’s more of a popularity contest than anything else. But it also has a lot of positives going for it. We’ve been in contact with a lot of great people we would’ve otherwise never known, and we’ve gotten exposure to a wider audience. I think there’s a great bunch of people on Zuda. Of course, there are also those who just like to complain about everything, but that’s any online community. For the most part, I’ve been really impressed with Zuda’s members. That said, I do feel there are a fair share of readers who won’t take a leap of faith. When I’ve voted in past competitions, most, if not all, of my votes were given to comics I had faith would expand on what I saw in their 8 pages. They may not have had the best story when confined to just those 8 pages, but I saw enough of “something special” in them to give my vote. I don’t think that happens as often as it should, but I could be wrong. Oh, and we couldn’t talk about Zuda without mentioning their team–especially Nika. She’s been great to work with. We’ve got another comic, entitled Reign, which we’ll be submitting soon. It kicks off the Black Halo Series timeline, and concentrates on one of our villains, Victoria. Much darker story thematically, but it eventually ties into Supermodel. We’re looking forward to working with Zuda again.

Lewis: I believe in the fundamental idea of what Zuda is trying to do. Nowhere else is there an opportunity for so many aspiring storytellers to get published by a company backed by someone like DC Comics, and ultimately, Warner Bros. We believe in it so much, we have two other comics, Reign (part of the Black Halo universe) and The Cards, in the works for submission. And that’s saying something because we are self funded, neither Daren nor myself can draw, so all our artwork costs money.

AFC. Are there things you’d like to see Zuda do differently?

Lewis: I think Zuda opens themselves to a lot of controversy with the current system. Votes are supposed to be the major contributing factor in determining the winner, yet the number of votes are never revealed. Zuda uses other attributes as well (ratings, adding to favorites, and leaving comments), but how these other attributes are weighted to help determine the contestants’ rank is a mystery to all but the Zuda staff.

Daren: I’d like to see the voting system revamped. But I don’t really have any suggestions, so I’m really not the right person to ask. I’ve seen a few pretty well thought out suggestions on their forums though.

Lewis: I think instituting something like a “veteran status”, wherein a voter has to be a member of Zuda and actively rating, selecting favorites, and leaving comments for three months before they can vote, would be ideal. This would significantly reduce the possibility of fraudulently creating accounts for votes and reduce the popularity contest where the majority of contestant’s votes come from people who’ve never heard of Zuda and will never visit again. I think this would make the contest pure for those who really care about comics and seeing new, good comics published.

AFC. You’re experienced comics creators. Did this particular story present you with any new challenges?
Daren: Wow, did it ever.

Lewis: Where to start…

Daren: We knew exactly what we needed to happen in Issue 1, so the whole thing was planned out before Josh started drawing. But, knowing we were going to submit it to Zuda, we also knew where page 8 needed to end. When we started working with Josh to actually draw the first 8 pages out, we found some problems, specifically with the photo shoot segment. In the end, we decided to cut it out completely, which, as some Zuda readers have pointed out, makes the pacing seem a bit rushed. I don’t disagree, but the best response I can give to any pacing issues is that it will work out when the entire 22 pages are available to read. Knowing the rest of the story, it’s the best way to edit it.

Our other challenge was the dialogue. We were so focused on “simplicity is best” that I think we may have overdone it just a bit. One comment we got was the dialogue seemed a bit forced in some segments. Looking at it now, I agree. Over all, though, I’m really happy with how it turned out, and I’m really looking forward to seeing what Josh does with the rest of Issue 1.

Lewis: There are so many cool, we believe, unexplored ideas that make up Amber Hale, Supermodel, but we didn’t want to just plop them on the reader’s lap. We wanted to develop them over time so the reader could appreciate them more. Kind of like a fine wine. The eight page limitation really presented a challenge. With our last submission, World of Chi: Chronicles, we assumed the reader would simply want to know more, but the voting and comments proved that theory very wrong, LOL. With Amber, we tried to give more with subtle hints, some in art, some in prose, but not too much.

Josh: This is the first time I’ve done a futuristic setting. Also, the format is a lot different than I’m used to, so trying to fit all the information/action into the smaller pages was a big challenge.

AFC. Your comic leaves us with a cliffhanger. You’ve mentioned on the forum that you have big plans. What can we hope to see Amber get into next?

Daren: The “big plans” I was referring to essentially meant that Supermodel wasn’t the entirety of this world, but it will definitely set up key elements that cross over the entire Black Halo Series. I’ve been known to make bold statements like “we’re doing something that’s never been done before.” It may seem obnoxious, but I only say it because I think it’s really important to give people something new to open their imaginations. I intend to make good on that promise.
And, yeah, on the surface we’ve got a supermodel who’s apparently been synthetically created and is now causing havoc. I admit that seems cliché, but once we start exploring her past in more detail, we’ll be delving into some really cool, unique stuff–and I hope readers agree. I wish I could reveal more without ruining the whole comic, but I can’t. But I can say we’ll find out who the assassins are and why they’re after her.

Lewis: Amber is one of Black Halo’s essential characters. She represents all of us who don’t understand ourselves and who are searching for that missing element to explain our existence. We’ll see Amber’s “abilities” come out more. Although she’s not artificial in the sense of cyborgs with mechanical parts that enhance their physical prowess, she does have some pretty cool biological attributes that are revealed throughout the storyline.

Daren: We’ll get clues as to what’s really happening at Kael Thane’s clinics and how it relates to Amber. We’ll touch upon some romantic elements with Trent and Amber, and watch how that gets shaken up when we introduce Caz (a prominent character in multiple Black Halo stories and the love of Amber’s life). And primarily, we’ll explore Amber’s psychological plot.

There’s a reason we’ve categorized the comic as Drama instead of Action/Adventure (not to say it won’t have its fair share of action too). Amber’s soul search is a fundamental part of Supermodel. The key thing to remember here is, unlike in the real world, souls are a fact in the Black Halo universe. The reader will know souls exist, so the premise of Amber potentially not having one is a bit jarring. What if she doesn’t? And if not, what happens if she dies? How would that affect the balance of Earth, Heaven, and Hell? That’s a journey for her and the reader to take together.

Lewis: I think the biggest thing Amber will get into is discovering how she was created and finding out what makes her “tick”. I’d love to say more because I feel very strongly what makes Amber tick has never been explored before, but Daren would kill me and take all the stories we’ve engineered for himself.