TURTLEBOY : Nice chat with webcomic creator Taz Hassiotis !
Enthusisatic and determined, Taz Hassiotis is the great entertainer who gave us Turtleboy !
Turtleboy is pure fun, epic adventures, but also a motivational story about surrounding yourself to acheive your goals, and a tribute to beloved classics.
Today, Taz Hassiotis get the word on Art Of Webcomics !
Hi Taz, what a pleasure !– Where do you come from ?
From Czech Republic
– How old are you ? ( tell it or not !)
I’m 23, although I feel bit older.
– Influences ?
The works of Jack “THE KING” Kirby, Jeff Lemire’s works (especialy Black Hammer and Essex County), Alan Moore’s works (Watchmen inspired me to make Comics in the first place), SAGA, My Hero Academia (it is the main manga that impacted and inspired the creation of my comic), Metal Gear series,
Eric Powell’s The GOON, The Crow, Works of Bryan Talbot.
Superhero and old school stories. Stanley Kubrick Movies.
Stephen King had huge impact for my writing.
And many many more!
(I Could Go on, but we would be here all day.)
– Art school or not ?
Nope, Self thought. But I did atend some drawing clubs when I was young and drew from art books. And I had many people who helped to practice and show me the basics. But I’m still trying to improve. I don’t belive I’m at a level to call myself a PRO. Atleast not yet…
– Favorite digital art software ?
PAINT TOOL SAI is one of the first Art Programs I ever tried when I started Digitaly, and still is reliable to this day (I use it for line art and coloring).
I also use Clip Studio for the text and some special effects.
– Your working method ?
First I script out the story, while writing my dear friend Hannah checks the grammar and fixes some of the lines of dialogs and improves on them. Then comes the thumbnail part, sketch it all out on paper with full details, send everything to my computer, then i do lineart and colors digitaly and then I letter it.
– What your webcomic is about, in a symbolic way, the hidden sense ?
It’s about a young meerkat doing big things.I think in the symbolic way it tells a story where: no matter how young you are, or how bad you are at something, you can achive anything when you do your best, never give up and fone day you could reach your dream .
But that is maybe too vague or too on the nose, maybe even CLICHE.
Other Believe is that: I just wanted to tell a traditional superhero story, with unusual young protagonist (very young) which normaly would be played for fun or parody, and doing a TRIBUTE to the superhero stories of the past, with bits of deconstruction, lovable characters, silly-dark- creepy vilains. death traps and throwing a mystery into all of it.
Not To mention superhero stories nowadays are WAAAY to SERIOUSE and DARK, with heros fighting each other sometimes for stupid reasons. They aren’t fighting almoast any bad guys.
– Tell us more about your main character, the hero ! Jesse Oliver aka Turtleboy. Jesse is your normal small kid as any other. He is brave , honest and curiouse little meerkat boy. But right after one incident everything changes (for better and for worse).
At first the silly idea he thought of for himself seemed something cool, something that wouldn’t be that hard. He was wrong.
Jesse basicly got simple idea which with help of his mom got partialy realised. But slowly he is discovering that being a hero takes more responsibility then just helping with small things.
Later on Jesse with support of his friends and his mom is very determinated to reach this goal and become the youngest hero that ever was!
– How do you see your future ?
Well I am not too sure. But I am hoping that Turtleboy would reach some big status and becoming somewhat popular.
And making comics for living which would be a dream come true for me.
– Your next goal ?
First is finishing the first story arc in Turtleboy. Making some side stories based on characters from the Turtleboy comics. And just build this big TURTLE VERSE.
But I do have some plans for other stories that I can’t wait to see realised.
And most importantly: Seeing my comic in printed format.
– Advices for beginners ?
Never Give up!
Try Again! TRY HARDER!
Be patient, apreciate the things you have so far, and one day with all your effort you gave into your work and your heart. Everything WILL pay out at the end!
And also: practice, draw, draw, draw and draw !
– Your technical secret trick ?
To be honest… I think my trick is… being capable to tell the story with pictures only.
I’m atempting to draw my pages to a point that, if I removed the text from the panels, it would tell the story, characters interactions, emotions without any text to it.
Favorite quote ?
Jack Kirby once said something that resonated with me, inspired me and any time I look it up and read it, it makes me go and make a great work.
It is that inspiring!
“Drawing a good figure doesn’t make you a good artist. I can name you ten men, right off the bat, who draw better than I do. But I don’t think their work gets as much response as mine. I can’t think of a better man to draw Dick Tracy than Chester Gould, who certainly is no match for Leonardo Da Vinci. But Chester Gould told the story of Dick Tracy. He told the story of Dick Tracy the way it should have been told. No other guy could have done it. It’s not in the draftsmanship, it’s in the man.
draw better than I do. But I don’t think their work gets as much response as mine. I can’t think of a better man to draw Dick Tracy than Chester Gould, who certainly is no match for Leonardo Da Vinci. But Chester Gould told the story of Dick Tracy. He told the story of Dick Tracy the way it should have been told. No other guy could have done it. It’s not in the draftsmanship, it’s in the man.Like I say, a tool is dead. A brush is a dead object. It’s in the man.
If you want to do, you do it. If you think a man draws the type of hands that you want to draw, steal ‘em. Take those hands.
The only thing I can say is: Caniff was my teacher, Alex Raymond was my teacher, even the guy who drew Toonerville Trolley was my teacher. Whatever he had stimulated me in some way. And I think that’s all you need. You need that stimulation. Stimulation to make you an individual. And the draftsmanship, hang it. If you can decently: learn to control what you can, learn to control what you have, learn to refine what you have. Damn perfection. You don’t have to be perfect. You are never going to do a Sistine Chapel, unless someone ties you to a ceiling. Damn perfection.
All a man has in this field is pressure. And I think the pressure supplies a stimulation. You have your own stresses, that will supply your own stimulation. If you want to do it, you’ll do it. And you’ll do it anyway you can.
–Jack Kirby”
– Your social links and website ?
…
Big thanks to Taz Hassiotis ! Note that Taz has also a great fan base,
you can join them and share amazing fan arts !
Turtleboy
(COMING BACK IN SEPTEMBER!) Jesse oliver is your ordinary kid like no one else. Enjoying cartoons, comics and action figures like other kids would, until… he gets into incident . From that point he becomes: TURTLEBOY! The youngest and coolest kid hero EVER!
