Interview talk:Staz Johnson

Before I start promoting this one, there's two things I need to clarify. First, Staz Johnson and I are still just working out a date and time, though he's basically agreed to an interview. (He's a bit of a technophobe, so it might be an unrecorded phone conversation, and I'll just have to paraphrase what is said, I guess.) Second, there's this: "An interview sounds ok... so long as it's not just about Heroes, because I really know nothing about the show or the stories at all... Most of the scripts were incomprehensible to me, since they were written by & (I presume) for people who were familiar with the show... sometimes I felt nothing short of the Rosetta Stone would be needed to decipher them. And although the pay was good, & I have been asked to do more, I'm hoping to be kept busy with 'real' comics work (for DC Comics, among others) so I don't need to do more of what was not an enjoyable experience for me." Mm-kay. So if people submit questions, they'll really have to be about him and about his process, and not so much about the details of the show or the intricacies of the script. Sound okay to everyone? -- RyanGibsonStewart (talk) 14:30, 15 August 2007 (EDT)

• 9/4 is the tentative date for this one. Questions go below. Don't worry about his concerns--they're not as grave as I imagined. Any questions that aren't well-suited to him I'll just gloss over. Go ahead an ask whatever questions you want below. -- RyanGibsonStewart (talk) 23:21, 22 August 2007 (EDT)
  • Moved tentatively to 9/7. I'm not sure this one is going to hold up. Staz can be a bit..."fluid" with his appointments. :) -- RyanGibsonStewart (talk) 15:43, 4 September 2007 (EDT)
    • I just got an email back from Staz. I suggested Thursday afternoon, 9/13. I hope to hear back from him before then. Again, if it works out, great. But I'm not quite counting my chickens yet. -- RyanGibsonStewart (talk) 14:45, 10 September 2007 (EDT)
      • He said that'll be fine. Keep your fingers crossed for Thursday afternoon! :) -- RyanGibsonStewart (talk) 15:27, 11 September 2007 (EDT)
        • Didn't pan out. I waited on the phone for about 20 minutes with no luck. Incidentally, then I popped a pain pill, fell asleep, and had a dream that he was a doctor working at a local hospital and would visit his patients via rollerskates....Vicodin is a funny thing. :) Anyway, I emailed him and I'll see if we can reschedule. -- RyanGibsonStewart (talk) 17:17, 13 September 2007 (EDT)
          • House, I didn't know you were into Heroes. --DocM 17:48, 13 September 2007 (EDT)
            • Cute. I was actually telling my wife that I know understand his addiction a bit more, because those lil' pills make ya feel sooo goooood..... -- RyanGibsonStewart (talk) 17:54, 13 September 2007 (EDT)
              • One small pill for man, one giant gulp for mankind. --DocM 17:55, 13 September 2007 (EDT)
          • Staz emailed me and apologized for forgetting. We're going to do an email interview instead. I'll probably send it off in the next 24 hours, so if there are any questions you'd like me to ask, go ahead and ask them below. It's tough to read Staz (he's a bit picky on some of the questions he'll answer), but I'll see if I can fit any questions y'all might have into the list. -- RyanGibsonStewart (talk) 22:12, 13 September 2007 (EDT)

Interview Questions

• In 'It Takes A Village', besides Guillame and the Haitian, were any of the other villagers supposed to be identifiable?--MiamiVolts (talk) 23:43, 22 August 2007 (EDT)
• In 'War Buddies, Part 6', what technique did you use to draw Hana's 'Call to Arms' where all the user names were made to swirl around her...Was that done with software?--MiamiVolts (talk) 23:48, 22 August 2007 (EDT)
• Heh, you might start off with asking him how was his birthday... it's August 27th according to our article on him.--MiamiVolts (talk) 00:02, 23 August 2007 (EDT)
  • Actually, we were originally going to schedule it that day. He told me that he's going away with his family that week for his birthday--that's actually why I edited the article. :) -- RyanGibsonStewart (talk) 00:17, 23 August 2007 (EDT)
• How long have you been drawing comics, and what got you started? Who gave you your big break? SacValleyDweller 17:25, 25 August 2007 (EDT)

Update?

Any news on the status of this thing?--SacValleyDweller (talk) 00:16, 24 February 2008 (EST)

• He was reluctant to take questions in the first place, I sent questions twice, he never returned them. I think he'd rather not have an interview. -- RyanGibsonStewart (talk) 02:32, 24 February 2008 (EST)

New Interview

He was agreed to a interview with me, I am doing it over the phone next weekend. He said kinda the same that he knows nothing about Heroes but I will try sneak a few questions in.--Skywalkerrbf 06:11, 14 September 2008 (EDT)

• Just got off the phone for Staz, I will write out the interview when i get time, unless anyone would like me to send then the sound so they can do it :) hint hint --Skywalkerrbf 10:16, 2 October 2008 (EDT)
  • That went well, the sound didn't record properly! I duno what to do!--Skywalkerrbf 10:25, 2 October 2008 (EDT)
    • What service did you use? ... If the sound didn't record properly, there might not be much you can do. I would suggest jotting down as many notes as you can about what he said as soon as you can (while the conversation is still fresh in your mind) and we'll go from there and see what we can salvage. -- RyanGibsonStewart (talk) 10:40, 2 October 2008 (EDT)
      • I just used my mobile, this worked for Jimmy but not for Staz it would seem, here are the notes I got:
• Did Art A-Level
• Wanted to do Record Covers
• Met a guy called ????? who drew comics himself
• Told him he should give it ago
• He went down to 2000AD and they said hey that’s not bad
• Did Role Playing Mags
• Tried to get 200AD to take him on, they kept saying no
• Send something to Mavel, they said yes
• Did work for Mavel and 2000AD
• Gave it up for a bit to do advertisements
• Marvel took him back
• Did Work for DC
• Marvel took him on
• Mavel took him on contract
• The contract gave him Heroes
• They wouldn’t give him a refernce as he was in the UK
• Kept of asking and asking
• They said they would send him the dvd, then changed their mind
• He has to look up the actors who played the parts
• He tried looking on NBC but he had no idea who the people were
• Now that he has seen Heroes he knows that:
  • Hiro was men tot have a gotie and a poney tail but he could not see these on the piture
  • Drew Ando in a police uniform as for some reason he thought he was a polce offior, he can’t *rember why though
  • Could not kind any pitures of Sandra Bennit so he just drew her the best he could
  • Didn’t know HRG was men tot die on a road
  • A fan said he drawing of peter under the umbrella was really like it was on the show, but he had never seen a image of it in the show
  • Was offered more comics but he turned them down, said he might do them again now though if asked
• He has seen a few episodes of Heroes and thinks its good
• For some of the backgrounds and buildings e.g. the pentagon he used photos and edited them on photoshop
  • That's some good information. Anything else you can quote or paraphrase? ... We could try writing a narrative of the interview, kind of like the way they do in magazines...but I'm not so sure it would fit with the style of the wiki, or that it would be appropriate because it would probably have some odd perspective things in it. I don't know--perhaps you'll want to try writing it as a narrative on the talk page, and we'll see where we go from there. -- RyanGibsonStewart (talk) 11:05, 2 October 2008 (EDT)