Bored Panda has reached out to Alex to find out more about his comics. Firstly, we wanted to know how his adventure with comics started and what first drew him to this medium. He told us: “I got into making comics after creating my first ones in the early days of DailySkyfox, and truth be told it was all about engagement! After making the first comics I realized they resonated with people a lot more, so I looked at it as a challenge and tried to make more and more. As for why I made the first comic, well, I had an idea for a joke and I couldn't think of a better way to tell it!”
Asked about his creative process, Alex said: “Life, that's the creative process, lol! Basically, whenever something funny happens to me I'll think 'that's a comic!' and write it down on this massive list of ideas. It can be mundane things like the bus being late, or overhearing a funny conversation, or completely random stuff like 'what do spiders think about us?' but I take them as they come. That's why a good piece of advice for anyone out of ideas is to go out, observe people, and interact with the world! Ideas come at me the most when I'm out and about. As for techniques and whatnot, well, I'm not a very good artist, so I'm not sure what to say, I draw digital art with an iPad these days and I'm very simple-minded with it, I use the default brushes and little else!”
We also wanted to know about some struggles and challenges he had to face while creating his comics. Alex shared that the most difficult thing is: "Fitting a joke in 4 panels! Since the most popular format is the 4-panel square comic, it's the format I default on, and let me tell you, it gets hard sometimes! But I also think it's what makes it fun. Sometimes I fudge it a bit and add some extras, and sometimes I can get away with fewer panels! Besides that, it's the social media game that's the hardest part. It is BRUTAL, and if you're not going in with a chill attitude towards it, it can get depressive, stressful, and lead to the quickest burnout! Make sure you draw for fun, and not for likes!”
We were interested to learn more about balancing the visual and textual elements of comics. Alex told us: ”In general I try to have the least amount of text possible, since my comics are meant to be small jokes, the punchline needs to be visible by visual context alone. Sometimes the joke is in the text, though, so you gotta make sure you compose your panels accordingly to accommodate for bigger text bubbles. I'm not always good at remembering this, but I try!”
Next, we wanted to find out what some of his favorite comics and graphic novels are and how they eventually influenced his work. Alex mentioned: “My biggest inspiration on the webcomic side of things is definitely the works of Allie Brosh, Hyperbole and a Half was the first book from a webcomic artist I ever bought! I always loved how simple yet impactful (and funny!) the artwork was. In that same vein, Sarah Andersen is definitely up there with the relatability angle. Most recently I've been very inspired by the relentless dedication of my contemporary peers, people like RedDot, PizzaCake, ExtraFabulous, KelsieBrumet, etc. who are constantly producing some of the funniest content on the internet!”
Lastly, we wanted to know about a specific project or storyline that Alex is particularly proud of and he answered: “Well, I'm very proud of the work I've done in DailySkyfox in general, specifically the beginning and its ending. In the beginning, I started it as a challenge to see if I could draw every day for a whole year and I did! That was in 2016/17 and I'm still riding that high, lol! And a couple of years ago I wanted to step away from its style at the time and I did this series of story comics 'finishing' it and I'm quite proud of how they came out. It marked a clear end to that particular era of Skyfox. Nowadays I'm quite proud of the new stuff I'm making, I mostly make them to amuse myself first so every comic has something I can smile about!”
