Human Slaves Of An Insect Nation, Part 8-bullshit Science And You!

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Mad, mad, mad, mad science-man by qione

Human Slaves of An Insect Nation, Part 8-Bullshit Science and you!

Quick, what do the following types of sorcery have in common?

Alloymancy

Thaumaturgy

Clap-hands-twice-and-shit-appears (AKA Fullmetal) Alchemy?

Necromancy

Technomancy

Math 

  

SPOILER: They’re all full of shit.

Trust me on this, I suck at math, see.

The science of upholding the suspension of disbelief is a delicate one, which requires careful consideration of the presentation of a game. The suspension of disbelief is what enables the presence of magic, super-technology, superpowers or even just random horrible shit that might take place in a game that may or may not violate every law of physics fitting the purview of your (or your physics-nerd friend’s) knowledge.

It’s a city. It floats in the middle of nothing and is supported bynothing. Also, nothing about its architecture makes a lick of sense. No Dave,you can’t question its logic. BECAUSE IT’S MAGIC, DUDE!

We’re not talking about realism here, of course. We’re not referring to cross-referencing magic with theoretical physics and the laws of the Universe weep halfway through every session (and let’s not go into gun-nut territory, where I have actually seen a guy slap another dude across the table for not getting how sniper rifles work).

“No, they DO NOT have infinite range!”

Bullshit science is, instead, the art of making impossible things appear sensical within context, thus giving them that extra oomph to help your players immerse themselves further in the setting.

Unless they don’t because they came here to roll dice and chew bubblegum and they’ve been chewing dice instead of bubblegum.

Keep in mind that Bullshit Science is more a matter of flavor than mechanics. What you are trying to do is looking for a way to embellish your existing magical system and to provide your setting with a teensy bit of philosophical and historical (or cultural) depth, instead of making up new shit as you go. At no point should this type of fluff contrast with your crunch and there is no reason why your players should interpret your narration for an actual ruleset (which we all know probably sucks since you pulled it out of your ass last night).

Unless you’re running a Mage the Ascension campaign, wherein pulling stuff out of your rectum is not only a given, it’s also pretty much the only way you can get shit done.

With that in mind, let’s move on to…

THE SHAPESCAPES GUIDE TOWARD MAKING SHIT UP AND MAKING IT LOOK GOOD

It’s a member of the genus chronometazoid polytronus. They taste like chicken and enable time travel.

Step One: History’s filled with plenty of ready-made bullshit.

From the theory of Phlogiston (the made-up element that enables ignition of materials but does not work on liquids or maybe it does and disappears as impossibly as it appears), Orgone Radiation (the secret power that fuels the universe and is generated via masturbating in special metal boxes), 15^th century Alchemical beliefs and the Druidic faith are but a tiny example of the many crackpot theories mankind busied itself with, in the time before Science. 

We used to believe in a lot of shit that many exceedingly bright individuals spent their entire lifetimes trying to prove, giving us a metric fuckton of material ready for use. A proper and very useful example should be something in the lines of, say, Aleister Crowley’s Demonology.

The book written by the man who proved that Sex with prostitutes + Idiots =Magic (and possibly syphilis).

It is a book that sought to quantify and map the social hierarchy of Hell, as well as the exact number of its denizens and the pyramid structure of its workings. From Satan to the lowliest duke-sergeant, the whole gang of unspeakable assholes is listed (power and rank included).

Not feeling like you need to read into the horseshit written by a syphilitic fat guy? Then why not go Oriental and look into Hindu Cosmology and Sorcery. Feeling the burning need to make magic look like a horrible ordeal? The Aztecs are your go-to guys.

Mythologies and ancient belief systems are rife with ideas that you can borrow to generate a magical background that has much more than plain old flair: it will have pizzazz, razamatazz and, above all, character.

Quoting obscure mythological sources during the game will also help you get laid (WARNING: may not help you get laid if you have the personality of a cardboard cat)

Shamanistic magic is a bloody, visceral ordeal. Egyptians are into goth shit. I can go on and on before I start listing specifics on flavoring your magic fluff with the magical properties of precious stones, that is.

The Internet is chock-full of ready-made shit, which brings me to…

Step Two: Not all of it is necessary all the time.

By using historical superstistion, you save yourself a whole lot of trouble, but you should be aware that not all of it is entirely necessary. Like I said in Part 7, your players don’t need the infodump (and come to think of it, you don’t either). 

The idea of re-working a Tibetan Sky Burial into a Wind-Devil binding ritual is that you are going to turn a series of rolls into something much greater: you are going to make it into a pretty cool scene that the players will talk over drinks after the game is over or brag about to their friends later.

i.e: turn this “Did I beat its Willpower test yet?”

Into: “YIELD, THOK-TAR! THE WIELDER OF THE WAND OF ROMOON-KA COMPLES THEE!”

Retailing existing lore can make everything fucking METAL, but if everything is metal the entire time, then nothing is. Building narrative spectacle takes into consideration that most times, things will be boring and linear and that’s a good thing.

Because it will make your next epic scene look all the cooler.

But there’s than just ritual and special effects to magic. I mean, where the hell would fantasy as a genre be without its impossible beasties and crawlies? Thus, we get to…

Step Three: Monsters Need Love, Too.

 Love and bitchin’ make-overs,that is.

A dragon is more than just a dragon. It’s an elemental artillery tank with goddamn wings that give it virtual anti-gravitic flight capabilities. Undead beings are more than just shambling mounds of flesh and bone. They are dead flesh, animated by power that is the direct opposite of life itself. Golems aren’t just robots, only magic. They can be the results of failed magical experiments or impossibly patient hitmen, set to perform a task a thousand years after their creation date.

Monsters, for all their complexity, power and splendor can get boring.  Even worse, they might get predictable (not so much to your players, but to you, above all). Dungeons and Dragons is a game that offers a truckload of monsters, but they didn’t start adding any variety until they went the extra mile and started explaining their habitats and cultures.

Of course, you don’t need essays that go on and on forever about Illithid cultures or explain the exact digestive cycles of Otyughs, but you can do the next best (and not boring) thing:

Make something look entirely different than it actually is.

Take for example, the humble, yet vomit-inducing Urgulstasta:

Motherfucker belongs on a Cannibal Corpse album cover.

The Urgulstrasta is in itself a pretty horrifying beastie, but it’s not exactly player-memorable. I mean, after they’re gone through fighting amorphous gibbering masses of ever-shifting flesh and living spells, they can’t exactly go back to giving a shit about worms, can they?

Unless you try something like this:

They’re screaming your name while you sleep.

The Urgulstrasta is supposed to be a necromantic automaton, created by the knitted flesh of the dead, held together by sheer death-magic. But how about we take this further?

How about we say that the beast was created in the times before history, in the years of pagan ritual and darkness, when man would shun the weak and the sick and the elderly to die in the millennium-long cold that blanketed the planet?

And those disenfranchised and suffering masses, they huddled together for warmth, impotent against the cold and the dark and the wildebeasts. They slept atop each other, the weakest pushed to the edges, the strongest dwelling in the center. So effective and useful was this method of survival that soon the massed men, women and children began to get tangled; their limbs twining, their spines and hair coming together until they became a great mass that moved in unison, each of its actions dictated by its one mind.

Their hiveminds a thing wholly alien (but above all, intelligent), the Ulgurstatas soon became the predators of the Ice Age, pushed into the Dark Below, lingering there and waiting and plotting, seeking to lure more hapless victims into their mass, into their eternal warmth…

Now wasn’t that interesting?

Giving monsters a brand new look and lore, you can turn them into points of interest or even adventures themselves. Changing up their immunities, capabilities and even some tiny changes in the way their special attacks work, also goes a long way.

Enter, for example, the Wyrd:

Natives of the Nightmare Realm

The Wyrd were a low-level antagonist I had introduced in a D&D campaign ages ago. They weren’t exceedingly tough, or powerful or even all that smart. But you know what made them such insufferable, hated (and above all feared) cunts?

They were invincible when exposed to moonlight.

These scrawny, spindly bastards who harvested the dreams of children and ate the hearts of adults that you could just smash into bits with a good swing of a baseball bat were tougher than goddamn Superman under a full moon. Now, I want you to imagine your players’ faces when they go the distance in researching the fuckers and then bust their asses looking for a way to lure them out on a starless night so they can kill every fucking last one of them.

Let me tell you, it’s the gift that keeps on giving…

But roleplaying games aren’t all about magic and monsters stomping shit into fine powder. Sometimes, they’re about science. Which brings us to…

Step Four: The Science of Sounding Scientific

 It’s elementary, really: all you need to do is re-calibrate the flux of quasiputronic energy by manipulating the shape of the Tri-Capacitron via forceful application of goat’s blood into the mainframe and presto! You’ve just created life!

I suck at science. Perhaps you don’t, which is why this part of the article isn’t for you. But sometimes, just sometimes, games require some grasp of scientific knowledge that may go beyond a simple Wikipedia search. So how do you resolve this?

Well, I do it by not getting into detail, thus avoiding embarrassing myself any further. But when I just can’t fucking avoid it, then…

I bust a move like a snake-oil salesman in need of a new kidney.

Unless you are going for a downright serious hard science fiction setting, then your…’sciences’ can be a bit rubbery. Maybe you don’t have a full grasp of how gravity works. Wing it. Perhaps you fucked up in front of the party biologist and made a virus act like a bacteria. Wing it. Maybe you confused Venus for Mars. Granted, that’s pretty goddamn stupid on your part, but you know what?

Fucking wing it.

Rpgs aren’t there for you to flaunt your extensive knowledge on academia. They’re there for you to have fun and to mess up. Make up your own rules on instances of physics going awry and always be prepared for a flimsy explanation that will hold unless it finds itself under scrutiny. 

This is, after all, the very way of thinking that made Dr. Who possible in the first place. And who the fuck are you to argue with Doctor Who?

“You looking to get yer teeth kicked in, ya little shite?”

And speaking of Doctor Who…

Step Five: Time Travel is never an option.

To be honest, I’m surprised this didn’t happen sooner.

Do not attempt time travel in your campaign. Do not hint at it or allow your players to attempt it. Do not present it, speak of it or even imply it could be possible. Do not encourage or actively try to hinder a player for achieving it. If you are thinking how to implement it in your campaign even as you are reading this article, then smash the keyboard against your face until you have reconsidered.

TIME TRAVEL DOES NOT WORK IN TABLETOP ROLEPLAYING.

Wanna know why? Because by doing it, YOU ALLOW EVERY CHARACTER WITH ACCESS TO IT TO CHANGE EVERYTHING THAT’S TAKING PLACE AT ANY TIME EVERYWHERE.

In short, by allowing Time Travel, you are willingly shoving an unlubricated horse-dildo up your rectum while trying to keep a straight face.

With that out of the way…

Step Six: Dimensional and Outer Space Travel, however, is.

 Mad multitudes, spinning arounda solitary star…

Gas giants, alternate histories, acidic deserts, war-worlds, cities made out of solid fire and wells filled with the very essence of unlife; oceans in eternal freefall, infinite vistas of suffering, cities of chrome and dust, toiling silently in the spaces between dimensions.

Players want to see weird shit, especially the weird shit that you made, so they can explore, map them and kill their inhabitants so they can take their stuff. Give them as much of those as you like and can take and they’re gonna love you for it.

Make them as mad (but at the same time as sane) as you can handle and they will worship you.

Build yourself a carnival of mad delights and let them run around in it. Give them a cosmology and a system of beliefs that simple for them to memorize, handle and consider special and the players will do your work for you.

Of Gods, Men & Overmen, Part4-the Cult Of The Overman

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Little thing, little thing, you’ve such a long way to go…

Of Gods, Men & OverMen, part4- The Cult of the Superhuman

I didn’t believe in superheroes when I was a kid. 

Oh sure, I enjoyed their colorful suits and their flashy superpowers and I always dragged my ass out of my comfy bed every weekend so I could watch the Batman cartoon.

Pictured: childhood prescription cocaine.

But I always listened to my friends argue about superheroes about who would beat who in a fight and we’d pretend to play in the schoolyard and I could never really invest myself into it, you know? I always considered superheroes to be things of fantasy, man-shaped black holes that sucked in time and enthusiasm and left you feeling empty.

The shitty 10-year old cynic in me was making sure I was rooted to this mundane, simple Earth we live in.

Little did that cynical tyrant know that his reign was coming to an end.

The day of revolution came on the eve of my 12^th birthday, when I stumbled upon the SINGLE MOST AWESOME AND IMPOSSIBLE THING EVER:

Like finding your lost car keys by that winning lottery ticket on the coffee table right next to every hot girl you ever met and wanted to bone, as they’re all about to tell you how much they want to have sex and that they don’t mind sharing, really.

The tyrant did not feel the immediate repercussions of this revelation. In fact, he held on with admirable tenacity upon his throne and resisted the surges and the quaking of the sleeping nerd that was stirring in the depths of my brain.

The final blow came after I read War of the Worlds, which pretty much served to set a wonderful transmogrification in motion: the gentle and gradual transformation of an ordinary boy into an aspiring pop culture enthusiast.

Because there’s only so many ways you can call yourself a nerd before you start taking offense.

I was not a zealot (and never will be) but I studied the Scriptures of the OverMen thoroughly, I looked into the literature that spawned them, followed the cultural currents that foretold of their coming as best as I could and now I stand here, calling myself an adherent to the Cult of the OverMan.

But to know the cult of the OverMan, you must first examine its origins and its function. The idea of the thing that is above human, of the anthropomorphized force of nature has existed throughout our mythologies and our stories, even our religions. It has been retold, recast, remade into a million iterations.

In the dawn of the 19^th century, it was the pagan gods of old. By the middle of it, the Vril-ya. Then came the Secret Masters, who dwelt in Tibet and possessed the sum of human knowledge. Then along came old Nietzche who remade the OverMan into a creature that does not only possess considerable fortitude, but is also unchained by morality and human limitation.

Then came the psychics, beings that were human but could manipulate matter with their minds. Afterwards, they communicated with unworldly beings. Then they were unworldly beings themselves, some of them either direct descendants of deities or deities themselves. 

By the middle of the 20^th century, the OverMan was a human who had reached the stars and was well on his way to claiming absolute mastery on the universe. But then space was deprived of faith and it became just a cold, everlasting void as the OverMan became a creature that sat upon a golden throne in the Earth and chose instead to look into the fundamental trappings of the universe, to analyze and probe the workings of Everything Everywhere and learn how to manipulate them without ever once having to leave the house.

With each iteration, OverMan became less and less wondrous. With every single retelling of the archetype, the OverMan became more ordinary, more flawed, more…regular. He turned from the creature of marvels, the absolute pinnacle of our species into Joe Quantum and Jane M-Brane. 

By the beginning of the 21^st century, the OverMan was a pastime, a spectacle, a thing that we trapped in 2-dimensional, silver screen cages and made him dance and hurt and scream and fight for our amusement.

After centuries of collective effort, we had finally subdued him. We were now ready and able to begin worshipping the OverMan on our own terms.

So: no more fire and brimstone, we’re not gonna have any of that, thank you. And could you do something about this whole End of Days business? It’s awfully depressing.

But this is not a religious article, nor is it a biographical one. I don’t write all this so I can project my beliefs and ideas into an audience that doesn’t want to hear them. What this is, instead, is a bare-bones approach to the modern iteration of the OverMan… 

If you guessed anything other than Superhuman, then thank you for playing and I’ll see you next week.

Superhumans have been around since the beginning of the 20^th century, though the term became widely popular after the well-known abuse it received at the hands of some black-haired asshole who wanted to kill everyone because they weren’t blonde and blue-eyed.

Who could I possibly be talking about? Also, watch Downfall, you bastards!

The first Superhumans, examples of men who possessed uncanny abilities beyond those of mortal men first appeared in the 1920s, in pulp magazines. They were crimefighters, adventurers, explorers and all-around badasses that possessed an innate cynicism and brutality you’d be hard pressed to find even in today’s gore-happiest Superhumans.

From top to bottom: super-powered junkie genius, machine-gun totting psychic serial killer

They were heroes of a harsh age and they catered to their tiny and shunned audience, an audience consisting of proto-geeks who lived their lives in a world that seemed to be tumbling into madness. In many ways, Doc Savage, the Shadow and Captain Occult were like the great prehistoric gods of pop culture. They were sluggish, rough things that were made for the purpose of appeasing their worshippers and providing them with monthly escapades that allowed them glimpses of an impossible world full of wonder and danger.

Also, gratuitous spaceship battles, laser pistols and tits.

Then the world went through a case of ‘turning into shit for a while’ (as it’s often wont to do) in the 40’s and the new generation of audiences (and the faithful among them) found that the stone-faced gods in the pulps could not appease them. We did not need bloodthirsty barbarian lords to worship and lead us among the rubble from where our new pop culture would spring, no sir! What we needed were gods with ideals. We needed OverMen that would lead us on into pastures new and show us new worlds so we could build more hopeful wonders around them.

The necessity for the invention of such tools arose in the age of M.A.D., of constant threat of another global war, of all-around International Confusion. The real world had suddenly become madder than the one detailed in our fiction. We needed solace. We needed guidance.

More than ever, we needed heroes.

Heroes that could stand against the growing tide of shapeshifting rat-lobsters that aimed to destroy our heavy machinery.

The advent of the Superhumans in fiction was inevitable. They were the product of the time that spawned them. They burrowed themselves in our collective conscience and have lingered to this day because first and foremost, they are symbols.

Oh sure, they’re oversimplified and downright ridiculous upon closer examination and they perform insane, endlessly looping rituals that seem to serve no clearly defined purpose whatsoever at first glance, but that’s the fault of the audience, not theirs.

To not take a life, to protect the innocent, to transcend the barriers of the known universe and to save the world every month is the sole duty of the Superhuman. Nothing less, nothing more. Their only function is to offer hope and a chance to escape our routine and pessimistic fixations. Such wondrous creatures could not exist beyond the pages that they inhabit, after all.

But what are the roles of these fictional OverMen? What do they represent and what do they stand for? Here’s a quick rundown:

Superman-Everything’s going to be okay.

Of all the representations of the OverMan idea, Superman is by far the most straightforward and simplistic of them all. He’s strong, he’s fast, he shoots lasers, he’s very nearly omniscient and his sole purpose is to protect us from the horrors that seek to destroy us from beyond our world, but remains neutral toward humanity’s internal struggles. In many ways, Superman is like God.

In many respects, Superman should not have lingered after all these decades. He should have slipped into obscurity along with his pulp predecessors, being the safe and non-challenging character that he is. And yet, here he is. Why?

Because Superman is Hope. He is the force that makes everything okay. He is a being that saves our ass every month only so we can keep being who we are, even as we pull ourselves inexorably toward Armageddon.

Batman-Adapt and Overcome

A mortal man that has reached the absolute peak of human achievement. A frail creature that is the companion and antithesis of the God figure of Superman. In many ways, Batman should have taken Superman’s place in pop culture and even replaced him, yet he hasn’t.

Frank Miller put it best, in Dark Knight Returns. That iteration of Batman presented his old, tired and quite frankly pathetic Bruce Wayne as an empty vessel that was there to channel tenacity, anger and an insane adherence to survival. He is a creature that has been stamped on, beaten and broken in every possible way, yet he keeps on his crusade.

Batman is a symbol of perseverance. Of holding on to your morality and struggling not to lose yourself, even in the face of ultimate evil.

Wonder Woman-The might of the gods in the service of man

Wonder Woman is in many ways, Superman’s counterpart. There’s the widespread belief that she’s also a symbol for justice. In my opinion, this is not so.

Wonder Woman exists as a construct that has gone through a dramatic change: from oversexualized soft porn symbol, she has become a creature of wrath. Despite the writers’ best efforts, she has not managed to establish herself as a symbol for justice or as a champion of order.

 Her best stories always present her as a powerful ally and a terrifying foe, but also as an instrument of fury that puts both her friends and her enemies in mortal peril. Out of all the Superhumans, Wonder Woman is the one creature that is more like her pagan ancestors than her contemporaries.

Spiderman-What Would Peter Parker Do?

I have openly stated that I dislike Spiderman and will stick to my opinion. But he serves a very useful purpose, either way. When he was conceived, the slogan Stan Lee used was “the hero that could be YOU!”

It took me nearly a decade before I finally realized the hidden meaning behind that quote. 

Spiderman’s charm doesn’t lie just in the fact that he’s a creature that the audience can sympathize with. He’s a creature that is constantly questioning the reader, trudging on through his everyday dramas, bearing the entire world on his spindly shoulders, as if he’s asking the reader:

“What the hell else would you have done, if you were me?”

Captain America-Justice For All

An old fashioned slogan for a man who’s found that the world has passed him by. For a Greek, Captain America is a very hard sell. Pop culture has presented him as an ultimate American symbol and to be fair, that was his original purpose.

But the Captain isn’t just about America. He’s a romantic creature, a thing that has sprung up from a mad time, preaching mad ideas, trying to cope in a world which, to be perfectly honest, can’t quite find a place for him.

The Captain is a creature that represents an endless struggle for the greater good, in a world that refuses to understand or acknowledge morality.

Hulk-The Pariah Eternal

Hulk is one of those symbols that at first seem to serve no other purpose except to look cool and fill a spot in the pantheon. His true purpose eludes everyone but the most frustrated nerds who have chosen to believe in him.

Because the Hulk is the Perpetual Geek, stuck with the Cool Kids in the same school yard, pushed and picked around for his dorky glasses. He was made by Jack Kirby, a man who went through similar phases in his life and he is essentially the very personification of nerd rage.

He is a creature that seeks to tear at the Universe, wanting to vent the frustration of his audience. No wonder he didn’t work in his movies: the Hulk is a fantastic creature, like the perfect lover we conjure up in our dreams. He is impossible to exist and he speaks out only to a very select few. He’s not movie material. He’s actualized fantasy.

But what will the OverMan truly be? He can’t possibly be a thing as symbolic and simplified as our fictional Superhumans. After all, they only exist within the confines of their fictional universe and even then, they are relieved of repercussions and responsibility, existing in a world of their own.

If history has taught us anything, it’s that the collective masses of humanity exist in a duality of both conquest and responsibility. As our knowledge and capability of manipulating our environment grows, so does our understanding and responsibility toward it.

The OverMan, no matter how fantastic he may be, no matter how ideal his existence, will be burdened with duties of titanic proportions and perform follies and experience ills of unimaginable magnitude.

The OverMan will be just like us. He may be able to fly unaided, but we’ll be no less human for it. 

It’s funny how this train of thought reminds me of the ideas of 17^th century philosophers, who speculated on the chance of stumbling into a Heaven upon Earth. They too considered that when we inhabit Heaven, we will be free of our ills, of our terrors and our responsibilities. They called this earthly paradise Arcadia and they claimed it would be the future abode of men, who would become as gods.

 Giovanni Barbieri gave them the best possible answer: 

Even in the green pastures of Arcadia, you will find death, o man.

What I Think About Stuff-pavlos Pavlidis And Valia Kapadai Interview...on Video!

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Who said that Greece is where nerds go to die?

An Interview with artists Valium (Valia Kapadai) and Paulnaut (Pavlos Pavlidis

Back in the 90's Greece was not a very nerd-friendly place. As I mentioned back in my Metabarons Retrospective, there were hardly any comic books worth reading and there weren't any comic book artists worth following (with the exception of a very small number of hardened artists who were thought as mad art hermits.

When the 00's roled in however, this changed. You see, a small group of aspiring artists and creators had been born in the 80's, lurking in the darkest corners of the country, hidden in cultural and social shadows, until they collectively burst from their coccoons and gave us hope.

Below is a two-part video of an interview I got from both Valia and Pavlos at the Tilt Comics bookstore (who invited me for this event). But since most of you reading this are not native Greek speakers, I've arranged for the interview questions to be transcribed in English by the creators themselves

Because the rest of the world deserves love, too.

And off we go!

Part One:

Part Two:

And now, for the English bits:

Kostas: So, Valia, how come you decided to become a comic book artist?

Valia: I'm not sure becoming a comic artist has been a conscious decision. I recently found a really really old sketchbook, I used to have as a kid (8-10 years old) on my vacations. There was a comic strip in it !! I also distinctly remember me and my best friend, age 10, drawing a comic book together. (Unfortunately I have no idea where that comic is now). There used to be a lot of comic books around our house, growing up. My older sister had tons of Disney comics (the Mice, and the Ducks), while my mum especially loved Quino's comics and a few more (mature) ones. I'd "devour" any comic I could get my hands on, I spent most of my allowance on buying them. Even when I got my very first (paid) job as a comic artist, the decision was kind of made for me, since I was still in college (Graphic/Interior Design), when one of my professors proposed me to illustrate a comic. Of course, lots of years later, I have decided that I would like having a "career" in comics, but even if I've been working in the field for a while, I still have to keep my dayjob and make comics on the side. 

Kostas: Pavlos, when did you realize that being a comic book artist was your destiny?

Pavlos: Becoming a comic artist was a very old wish , that starts from my youth , becoming a director actually was my real desire , comics give you a bigger playground to play i think.. ( i ended up to study economics but this is another story ) .. i had n't found the right way to expose my art so far until i discovered the self publishing.

Nope. No nightmares here. (Pavlos Pavlidis)

Kostas: Tell us a few things about your work in comic books so far.

Pavlos: I have selfbublished five issues from 2009 ( Unstrung! , Fixed! , Such a waste ..! , Full Bloom and  Lamda with Valia and Lee Grice ) I have a lot stuff unpublished yet that i want to show to the audience as is very different from the " style" i present in my recent works.

Valia: So far I've illustrated two graphic novels for Greek publishers (2001-2003), and since I've returned from a 5 year hiatus in 2008, I have participated in a lot of comic anthologies for AccentUK, AyeSaw comics, BLC, DapShow Press, IDW, Insomnia, Markosia and the Sleepless Phoenix. This year three of my graphic novels have been published: Indigo by ComicDom Press, White Knuckle (story by Cy Dethan, letters by Nic Wilkinson) and Kindred Spirits (with Maggie Lewinowicz) by Markosia. I'm currently working on two more graphic novels that will be published by Markosia: Snow (story by Richard McAuliffe) and the Heart Of War ((story by Jimmy Pearson, art by Row Bird) and I'll be participating in a few more anthologies. I also enjoy self publishing my own (short) stories. At the moment, I'm also working on a short illustrated story by Mo Ali, that will probably be also self published and on a few pitches I'll be showing to publishers.

Aw, he killed her mama, that's adorable! (Valia Kapadai)

Kostas: Pavlos, in the video interview, you mentioned that you work entirely on your own. What did Lamda feel like for you, having to work with a clearly defined script?

Pavlos: Yes i like to work alone as i feel sometimes like i am going to explode and i need to release this energy.. I took Lamda as a challenge and the stories was very interesting ..The slowly transformation of a TV on something bizarre in " Don't touch that dial " caught my attention , ( TV is a bad thing anyway ha ha ..) and " The usual suspect" was a very cool  mysterious story , the difficulty for me was that the script dictates you sometimes to change your perspective on some things.. I love to keep myself working on projects with others while i work on my own , that helps my skills to be evolved somehow..

Cyberpunk Fetishism brought to you by Pavlos Pavlidis.

 Kostas: And you, Valia? How did you feel about finally having the chance to work with professionals?
  
Valia: Please define "professionals". According to me, being a "professional", doesn't necessarily means someone who has been published and/or is an acclaimed author. I've worked with people who were just starting out and they have been more professional, than others who are more famous. The most important thing to me, when collaborating with someone else, is mutual understanding. Unfortunately there are some authors, with whom you can't quite communicate, but thankfully (at least for me, so far) these people are the exception to the rule. I usually have pleasant collaborations, in spite of any setbacks that may occur. 

Why hello there ladiesh...(Valia Kapadai)

Kostas: You've both started off your careers from complete opposite directions. Pavlos started off entirely on his own, while Valia associated mostly with professionals and publishers. Do you feel that the fact that you both met professionally exactly in the middle is reflected in your work?

Valia: I wouldn't say we started off our careers from complete opposite directions. We both love comics and share the same passion. Although our styles are totally different indeed, which makes our collaborations even more interesting. I don't know whether this has affected our work either, I guess I can't be objective about that. I do hope our mutual passion for comics is reflected on our comics, though.

Lamda, pencilled by Pavlos and colored by Valia

Kostas: Pavlos, your artwork seems gritty, violent and frankly disturbing. I like that. If you had to, which sources would you cite as your greatest influence?

Pavlos: I used to read underground comics by creators as Kaz and Max Andersson and i think these i mentioned are my greatest inspiration.But you can get influenced from every thing you see even if you don't realize it.

Monochromatic Ultraviolence brought to you by Pavlos Pavlidis

 Kostas: Valia, your artwork is colourful and cartoonish. Do you find it clashed with Pavlos' style in any way during your collaboration?

Valia: Our styles are indeed quite different, but that's exactly what makes it so interesting for me to work with Pavlos. I always enjoy experimenting and working on different styles, so I have never felt awkward collaborating with him. For me, it's always intriguing and exciteful to see these two different styles mixed into something new !! I totally enjoy working with Pavlos, because I admire his work and he keeps raising the bar for me, to become even better.

Horror sensitivities brought to you by Valia Kapadai

Kostas: Quick word on your upcoming projects?

Pavlos: I am working on a script of Ollie Masters and i am preparing various stuff on my own .. A story of mine will be in pages of Evol volume 2 . and i am writting a story for the Comic Festival ( a.i.c.f. ) 

Valia: As I've already mentioned, I'm currently working on two more graphic novels that will be published by Markosia: Snow (story by Richard McAuliffe) and the Heart Of War (story by Jimmy Pearson, art by Row Bird) and I'll be participating in a few more anthologies (for the Unseen Shadows, AccentUK, N.Gibson). I'm also working on a short illustrated story by Mo Ali, that will probably be self published and on a few pitches I'll be showing to publishers, in November at Thought Bubble festival. Me and Pavlos we'll also have a few more surprises for you in December, but I can't really tell you more about it yet.

Kostas: What sort of advice would you give to an aspiring comic book artist/colorist/writer?

Pavlos: A lot of work and devotion on this and of course a lot of reading ( books and comics ) !!!

Valia: Making comics might be hard and disheartening sometimes, but just keep working and keep getting better !! Don't expect the opportunities to find you, make them happen. ;)

Valia Kapadai works at the edge of your nearest rainbow, where she weaves art out of dreamstuff and fairy tales. She has a day job too, but she doesn't like to talk about it. You can find more samples of her work on her DeviantArt Profile, or you can friend her on Facebook so you can impress your friends.

Pavlos Pavlidis dwells in the 25th hour of the day, where he organizes the legions of reverse Santa Claus in the service of his nightmarish lords.
You can try to see the world as he sees it through his DeviantArt profile, or you can follow him on twitter where he dwells under the pseudonym @Unstrung7