#1)For starters who are you and what is your webcomic M.F.K. about?
Welp, I'm Nilah, I'm an artist in Los Angeles. I work for a small film company and pretty much draw whatever they need (which ends up being an interesting amount of zombies and dragons). M.F.K. is about a teenage girl with mysterious super powers traveling across the desert to return her mother's ashes to her homeland. It's a coming-of-age story, part action-adventure, part fantasy.
I'm not going to answer #2(WHAT DOES M.F.K. STAND FOR?), if you don't mind. But don't worry, you're not missing anything!
#3 )The story is fantastic, how did you come up with this world and the characters that inhabit it? Are they based off real people and/or experiences?
#3 )The story is fantastic, how did you come up with this world and the characters that inhabit it? Are they based off real people and/or experiences?
Y'know, it's been so long I can't entirely remember. I came up with the story about 13-14 years ago when I was in college. I was really into shounen manga at the time - One Piece, Shaman King, Naruto - and I got to thinking, I'd love to read a story like this that's about a girl. I came up with the premise fairly quickly, but developing the cast and the situations took a lot of time - about ten years! I haven't intentionally based any characters off of people I know. Mainly I try to develop personalities that are diverse and play well off of one another. I do draw from real life for various storylines, though.
#4 So far the story has taken place in a small desert town called Little Marigold, but after book 3 it seems you are about to take the reader on a journey throughout the world of M.F.K.
I wanted to know:
1)Do you write the story as a whole or by book?
I think of it as a whole. I've got Abbie's journey mapped out and fill in which the destinations and scenarios that will get her to the end. We start off in a tiny village in the middle of the desert, but the scenery will start changing drastically from here on out.
2)How many books do you plan to release in the M.F.K. saga?
I have no clue! I haven't broken it down completely yet.
#5) What is your process for drawing M.F.K.?
I follow a script, and first thing I do when I've got the pages broken down is sketch the characters acting out each panel. Once I get a feel for how best to communicate the moment, then I do thumbnails laying out the page. I scan the thumbnails and blow them up to create the final document. I pencil digitally, right over the thumbnail, then I ink and letter, and finally color. Sometimes I'll get into the pencil stage and realize a panel's not working, so I'll make changes, but I try to have it all figured out before then.
#6 ) Has anyone ever told you M.F.K. is like a mix of Avatar (element bending, not the blue aliens) and the book "The Alchemist"? Were you inspired by either of these two?
I haven't read The Alchemist, but I get the Avatar comparison a lot! In fact I use it in my pitch - "if you like Avatar, you should give MFK a try!" Funny enough, I came up with MFK before Avatar: The Last Airbender debuted. I didn't watch it for years because I was busy with work and school - not until 2010 I think. At that point I was seriously considering putting MFK online, but when I watched A:tLA - and then Legend of Korra was announced - I thought, "I can't publish MFK, it's way too close, I'll never hear the end of it!" But the more I watched the series, the more I realized they weren't the same at all. And I thought, just because there are similarities doesn't mean MFK doesn't have value. I've drawn inspiration for MFK from a lot of different things over the years, but really the initial concept was thanks to the manga I mentioned above.
#7) Can you tell readers (me included) what to expect from Book 4?
#7) Can you tell readers (me included) what to expect from Book 4?
You can expect a break from all the sadness of the first three chapters! Things get a little more lighthearted. There are some shenanigans, a new destination on the MFK map, and an important new character is introduced! (Hint: he has fur. Watch out for him!)
#8) Any advice to aspiring comic / webcomic creators? Or people who want to create something in general?
If you've got a story you're dying to tell, just tell it! There's never a good time to start, so you might as well start now. And don't worry about screwing it up: you learn in the doing, but you won't learn unless you do!
#9) Where can new fans check out MFK and buy the books / other work of yours?
Twitter and Tumblr are probably the best places to keep up with what I'm working on.
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/mfkcomicTWITTER: https://twitter.com/nilaffleWEBSITE: http://nilahmagruder.com/
THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME NILAH AND I CAN NOT WAIT FOR THE NEXT INSTALLMENT OF M.F.K!!!!!
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WOULD BE GREAT TO HEAR YOUR THOUGHTS