Heroic Shenanigans : Super interview with Haley Martin !
Ready to join a superhero summer camp ? Welcome to Camp Kapow ! Heroic Shenanigans is a superheroic webcomic by the bright Haley Martin.
Her superpower ? Enthusiastic and positive !
Hello Haley !
– Where do you come from ?
I grew up in California, and just recently moved to Florida!
– How old are you ?
25
– Influences ?
I love stories that involve a group of friends with special powers who fight evil and save the world. I was watching Avatar the Last Airbender and reading Harry Potter around the time I started solidifying my idea for this story, so those are the kinds of things that have had the biggest impact. I’ve never really read superhero comics, and I’d say my concept of superheroes was heavily influenced by The Incredibles.
– Art school or not ? 
I went to college for graphic design. The drawing classes I was required to take definitely helped strengthen my anatomy and just general ability to observe and draw shapes. I also think that knowledge and experience in graphic design principles help a lot with page layout and panel composition!
– Favorite digital art software ?
Photoshop
– Your working method ?
I’ll write a sort of script and then thumbnail a whole chapter before I start working on the actual pages.
I used to sketch and ink pages on paper first, but I’ve now switched to working completely digitally. It’s a lot easier to make adjustments that way! (and to make sure there’s room for the speech bubbles)
I usually end up completing one page start to finish before starting the next one, but I’d like to get to the point where I can sketch a few pages, then ink them, etc, and finish pages in chunks.
– What your webcomic is about, in a symbolic way, the hidden sense ?
Heroic Shenanigans is about figuring out who you are and how, while you can’t control certain things in life, it’s up to you to use what you’ve been given in positive ways. It’s about friendship, about what makes a hero, and how people can be flawed and still be good people.
– Tell us more about your main character, the hero !
There’s technically three! Henry definitely sees himself as the hero type, and is really enthusiastic about everything. He’s a bit naive and needs to learn that actions have consequences and being a hero is much more serious than he thinks. Karen hates having superpowers, and is angry and bitter about them. She sees them more as a liability rather than a gift she can use to help people. Emily is very quiet and has trouble relating to people. She doesn’t see her powers as anything useful, and doesn’t think she fits in with anyone else.
– How do you see your future ?
It will take several more years to complete Heroic Shenanigans, and I even have ideas for sequels… I also have other comics I’d like to make! I’ll be making comics for a long time, and I’d love to have a nice-looking collection of books to sell at conventions.
– Your next goal ?
Run a kickstarter to print Volume 1 books! And go to more conventions.
– Advices for beginners ?
Know ahead of time if you plan to print your comic and format it accordingly. If you think there’s even the slightest chance you’ll want to print books, figure out the right page dimensions and stick with them. It will save you a lot of headaches later on! Over the course of making a webcomic, you’ll learn a lot and your style and the way you work will grow and change, which is perfectly normal. So the less reformatting you have to do later on, the better. I kept changing my page size, then threw out pages all together and started working completely in vertical format, then went back to page format, and it’s been a nightmare reformatting all those pages for print.
– Your technical secret trick ?
Drink lots of water and get plenty of sleep! Also, if you’re sitting at your desk for long periods of time, get up and stretch.
– Your social links and website ?
Website: heroicshenanigans.com
Webtoon: webtoons.com/en/challenge/heroic-shenanigans
Twitter: twitter.com/NelmaThyria
Patreon : patreon.com/nelmathyria
…
Thanks to Haley Martin for her good vibes !
Books of chapters 1 & 2 are available here!
