Kyle
Goodman, Cartoonist
"Surf Rat And Spencer" / "Surf Wars"
Interview by Loren Phillips
5/11/99
ES: How did you get started drawing Star Wars cartoons?
KG: When I was six years old,
I was ran over by a truck. I was lucky to be alive, but I had a few cracks in my pelvis,
and wouldn't be able to walk for a while. So I spent a lot of time drawing and
daydreaming. Also when I was six, there was a fantastic new movie that came out. That
movie was of course Star Wars. I remember my brother got Luke and R2 figures for his
birthday. I thought they were the coolest. I think we wore out the little lightsaber
within a week, and our mom probably went nuts from hearing R2's head clicking all day
long.
After Star Wars came out, we moved. I started a new school, and had to make new friends. I
remember sitting ad drawing little T.I.E. Fighters that looked like H's with a knot tied
in the middle, and REALLY bad pictures of Luke holding the lightsaber over his head.
At the new school, I met a kid who liked to draw and liked Star Wars just as much
as I did. We became the best of friends, and spent hours together drawing comics and
playing Star Wars. That's the thing about Star Wars and cartoons. It's a common
ground where you can set your differences aside, forget about your problems for a while,
and just have fun.
ES: How has your drawing changed since you were young?
I had originally drawn bits and pieces of Surf Wars when I was in high school, but the
characters are a little different. I wasn't even drawing Stoopid, Savannah, or Casey then.
And in that version, I was drawing my Art teacher, Mr.DeFoor, as Darth Vader. Who's
filling Vader's boots now? I guess you'll find out in the next episode, "The Quagmire
Strikes Back".
ES: What is it about Star Wars that makes you interested in using it in your
cartoons?
KS: I really enjoy doing parodies of different films, and Star Wars has
to be my favorite. There's a whole different universe to play in. That's part of why I
started the Surf Wars comics. I mean, it's not everyday you get to draw laser blasts and
lightsabers. And even if the gag isn't that great, it's still fun to look at.
ES: Are there any issues you have to deal with as far as Lucasfilm goes?
KS: How do I deal with copyright & trademark infringement? I'm afraid you'll have to ask my lawyer! Seriously though, the parody strips I do are out of appreciation for the work. I'm not taking someone's work and saying "Hey! I made Star Wars!" It's similar to what Weird Al does with his songs.
ES: How do you produce the strips?
KS: Okay, I
first draw the strip on a piece of 8 1/2" x 11" bristol, then I ink it with
disposable technical pens. I erase my pencil marks and then scan it at 150 dpi in color.
If you scan in black and white or grey scale, the pixels break up too much and it makes
everything look fuzzy. After I scan it, I drop it into Photoshop 4.0. If you don't
have Photoshop, the rest of this may not make much sense.
Once I have the strip in Photoshop, I first click on Image and then Adjust Levels
it automatically balances out the contrast between the black and white. I then click on
Image again, and then on Levels . It opens up the same thing again, but this time you have
to adjust it yourself. It will show you a graph, and at the bottom of it, it has 3
little triangle/arrows. The one on the far left, I bring over to so it's centered under
the first peak on the left. After this, I usually drop in my lines to divide the panels,
and clean
up any obvious mistakes, or eraser boogers that accidentally got scanned. After
that, I start dropping in color. I work at first with the RGB pallette. I played around
with the color a bunch before I got it to where I wanted it. Which is a realy good idea if
you want to print your work out later in color. CMYK is really huge to work with, and the
colors don't convert well to the web. RGB has fewer colors, but when you convert to index
colors for the web, they don't get really weird like they do when you convert CMYK colors.
I keep a reference strip handy for the colors, so that my characters don't change
colors everyday. I use the paintbucket tool and drop colors in the characters first. I
then use the paintbrush tool, and set it to Darken. I trace around the area I filled with
the paintbucket. It fills the little white spaces that the paitbucket didn't reach.
After I'm through with the base colors on the characters, I start filling in
the props and backgrounds. The way I do this really varies. Sometimes I just put shadows
or colors, or sometimes I drop photos in. It all depends. I've even used 3D models and
pasted them in as backgrounds. After the areas are filled in, I do my shading and
effects. I use the magic wand tool and select a color. I then use the Select, then Similar
option and then airbrush in a color a couple of shades darker than the one selected.
After that's finished, I drop in any text that I didn't hand letter. I
usually hand letter the dialog, but use different type faces for sound effects. I check
the positoning of the hand lettered text, and proofread everything. Sometimes I may change
a line, and I have to scan in new dialog. After that's complete, I reduce the image size
to 7" x 2 3/4". I then save it as a JPG. After that I reduce the image to 524 x
205 pixels. I then convert it to index colors. I usually use the adaptive setting, because
it tends to keep the image from breaking up. I then save it as a GIF. After that I
post the GIF to my Web site. The GIF loads a lot quicker than the JPG, and is good enough
quality to view, but not good enough for print. Which is good, that will give me a chance
to do a book.
ES: How are you anticipating the new film
will match up against the original trilogy?
KG: C'mon, it's Star Wars! Of course it's gonna be great. Really, that's
a tough question actually. My perspective will definately be different on this film, than
when I saw Star Wars for the first time. I'm 20 years older, and know I'm familiar with
the Star Wars universe. It'll be fun though, seeing what happened before. It will be like
looking in your middle school yearbook. You get to laugh at everyone's clothes and funny
haircuts. I think the hardest part will be waiting for 2 & 3.
ES: Do you plan to do a Surf Wars series about the ESB, ROTJ, or TPM?
KG: ESB is my favorite, so I'm definately going to a Surf Wars series on
it. I want to finish the trilogy first, and then go back and add to the parts I had to
skip over because of lack of time. Kind of a Surf Wars Special Edition. If I do TPM,
it will be a while. I don't want to spoil it for the folks overseas that don't get to see
it right away.
ES: Have you been following any "spoilers" of the film, or avoiding
them?
KG: I've actively been avoiding them. When the Special Editions came out,
I had already seen everything that had been added. When I see TPM I want it to be
completely new material to me, like it was when I saw Star Wars.
ES: Do any of your characters represent yourself?
KG: Actually, most of my characters are based (or were originally based)
on people I know and went to school with. Surf Rat is kind of my alter-ego. He's basically
a big kid, and that's part of his likeability. Spencer was originally based on me, but now
he's more of a composite of my two best friends.>
ES: How has being able to publish via the
internet affected your work?
KG: The Internet is the best! You'd never be able to do the things in
print that you can do online. First of all, color. The one reason people read the
Sunday comics is because they're in color. Secondly, they're bigger than the daily strips.
Not just that there are more panels, the panel size is actually bigger. Best of all, is
the ability to change things instantly. There's no reprinting costs, the deadlines are
different so you can stay right on top of current topics, and you can go back and replace
things anytime you want. Not only that, you can have animation and sound, and
immediate interaction with the people that read your work. Hearing from the people that
enjoy what you do is one of the best things in the world. It helps you find out what kind
of audience you're attracting, and let's you concentrate on your strengths. It not like
newspaper, where you submit your work, and the only people you hear from are the editiors.
The fans are the ones who tell you what they want, and what they like. They're the ones
who count.
ES: What kind of advice do you have for budding cartoonists?
KG: Draw what you know and like. If you
draw from the things you know and care about, your work will seem more lifelike, and your
characters will have depth. If you don't think your characters are believeable, no one
else will either. Start your reference library now! You'll never know when you'll need the
schematic for a'69 Dodge Dart. Carry a sketch pad or a tape recorder with you always. You
will never remember the ideas you had, or if you do, you don't remember the exact line.
ES: How many hours a day do you spend on the strips?
KG: It depends, obviously the Sunday strips take longer than the dailies.
I usually spend from 2-4 hours on the daily strips, and anywhere from 5-12 on the Sundays.
That's start to finish, from sketching, to scanning, to serving it off my Web site. It
depends upon how many panels and the amount of detail or special effects I put into the
strip.
ES: Who is your favorite Star Wars character, and why?
KG: I think it would have to be Han Solo. He's got this rough
exterior, but he's actually a funny and caring guy. I mean, he had no reason to comeback
and help Luke take out the Death Star. But he did, and then he stayed and helped the
Rebels set up a new base. You can say that it was because he was in love with Leia,
but I don't think that's all of it. I think that there's more to it than that. He
obviously cared more about his friends welfare than his own. He repeatedly risked life,
limb and ship for his friends. He even got tortured and frozen, for crying out loud! How
many of your friends would do that for you?
ES: Do you read the Dark Horse Star Wars comics? How do you like them, if you
do?
KG: I have some of the earlier stuff, like Dark Empire, and Tales of the
Jedi. I really enjoyed the Splinter of the Mind's Eye miniseries. I haven't been following
them lately.
ES: Do you drive your friends and relatives crazy with your Star Wars fandom?
KG: Every chance I get. HMMM. Maybe that's why I don't get invited to the
family reunions anymore. Actually, most of my family and friends are crazy already,
so I don't think they even notice my Star Wars obsession. Or maybe I don't notice
them...it's kinda hard to see through this stormtrooper helmet. :-)