Arterview: ZapDraws

I go by Zappit. I'm an Internet cartoonist who creates comics and comic art as a hobby. I used to work primarily in black and white—pen and ink—but in the last couple years, I switched over to digital. I actually am creating all my digital work on an iPad as opposed to something like a Wacom. Outside the net, I work as an educator.

I grew up on comics, and they're something I'm passionate about. You have the ability to really take control of your story in a graphic novel or comic strip format. With prose, the reader is compelled to generate their own vision of the world and characters the writer crafts. That's fine, and it's something I love about literature in general, but there's something to be said for sharing the vision from your own mind pretty much exactly as you imagined it. Comics are fun. They are without limits, and they have a wide and growing appeal. How can you not love that?

The comic I'm currently producing—Supervillainous—is my longest running project. I'm coming up on two years and two hundred strips. It's a comedy strip about a veteran supervillain, The Crimson Claw, and his family. It's got a good following - over 3,000 visitors each week, and that's been growing. I'm doing a big anniversary event for the occasion, and actually had my fans submit scripts that I'll draw and post on the site. That's another reason I love webcomics. You can really get inventive and interactive with your audience.

I actually have a stable of competitive OU Pokémon. I generally just do the random battles online and dabbled in Showdown a few times. I just never really stuck with it. You guys have a habit of banning things riiiiight around the time I comfortably incorporate it into my team.

I have trouble with certain color combinations: green and red, green and blue, yellow and white, etc... The vivid color palettes I work with tend to include a lot of contrast. It helps me differentiate when I'm working. It also helps make images "pop" more, giving things a bit of a posterized effect.

IGA Nephropathy, specifically. Basically, my immune system decided my kidneys were a source of evil that must be destroyed at all costs. We caught it late, and a lot of damage had been done. I had to go on some very powerful medications to knock my immune system down and get the disease into remission. It took well over a year, and there were a few very scary moments along the way, but it's in remission, with only one relapse thus far. I'm doing alright now, so no big complaints there. It never came to dialysis, thank God, and I've actually recovered to the point that I might never face a transplant, and early on that seemed inevitable.

Part of that was just me not trying to think too much of it. Stress weakens the body, so why spend all my time worrying? Just do what you have to do, take the meds, go to the doctor's office, eat that low-sodium diet, and do what keeps your mind off your condition. My family was there for me a thousand percent, and it helped so much having such a strong support network. I got my iPad then and threw a lot of focus on both my professional work and exploring a brand new medium in digital art.

Oh, and something for the Smogonites to consider: high blood pressure harms the kidneys and reduces kidney function. Kidney disease is unfortunately a common condition, and elevated blood pressure is a symptom. If you're experiencing high blood pressure for no reason, that's a red flag right there.

Currently, it is. I spent the majority of my life working on paper, but I can work faster and in color working digitally, so I'm mainly doing that. I did post some traditional pieces in my art thread, so you can check them out there.

I started drawing when I was six, and I pretty much figure I'll stop about a year after I die. The digital medium is what's relatively new. I'm still discovering quite a bit with that.

Sure. Don't get intimidated by other artists. Don't look at another artist, say, "I could never do that," and quit before you even try. There's no such thing as a natural when it comes to art, so just draw. Those people put a lot of time in developing their craft. Read about it. Research it. Draw. I'm mostly self-taught, though I did get an art degree. It can be done. Learn the basics and find your own, unique style.

I'm dating myself by doing this, but when Red and Blue first came out, I was in high school. My circle of friends got into it, since it had kind of a dark, cock-fighting vibe. And then the anime came out, and the edgy aspect just disappeared. We didn't really care. We got into the card game, too, and just weren't bothered by the few people who tried to give us a hard time when we played at lunch. I'm kicking myself over those cards, too. I threw my collection away about...four, five years ago. Six months later, I see that a first edition Charizard goes for three grand. I had two of those in mint condition, Bummer. I had two.

Aside from that, I just always enjoyed the games. I skipped Gen 3, and going by my experiences with ORAS, I really don't think I missed much, but I came back when Gold and Silver were remade. I played the originals like crazy way back when and was feeling extremely nostalgic when I bought SoulSilver.

Hard to say, but it's a toss-up between Scizor and Tyranitar. They were always my go-tos, and I even have them on my current online team.