Chezhnian: I’m Chezhnian Angelus, the main writer and creator of the world and story of the fantasy webcomic Tamuran.

eren: I’m Erin Fitzgerald.  I’m the artist and co-writer/editor of Tamuran.

Intervention: What do you like people to actually call you when they meet you?

Chezhnian: Chezhnian is my creative name, which is what I use when involved in such activities.  I also go by Kennedy for most every time else.  So either is awesome.

eren: ‘Erin’ is fine.  I use ‘eren’ online to differentiate from the 10.27 million other Erins and Aarons (and Erin Fitzgeralds, even – Google that name and you will go 50 pages without running into a single result that actually refers to me) out there.  But you can call me ‘eren’ if you like. :)

Intervention: Besides slaving away and drawing/writing for our enjoyment, what do you like to do for fun? (you know when you’re not working at all on the comic?)

eren: Reading, writing, video games, listening to and playing music, hiking, kayaking… doing kendo and iaido when I live close enough to a dojo (I don’t at the moment, sadly)… oh, and random hobbies that take a lot of practice and have absolutely no application in real life, like contact juggling.

Chezhnian: Ditto to reading, ditto to writing, working on Tamuran original soundtrack… when you sit in an office all day outdoors anything is great!  Riding horses, painting sparkly wonders, and that’s still just a few. We also enjoy a good paranormal investigation every one in a while!

Intervention: Do you read any other author’s comics online? In print? Which ones are regular reads for you? If not any, then what DO you waste time on online?

eren: I read way too many webcomics – just check out our links page.  I tend to prefer serious graphic novels over comedies or gag-a-day strips.  I also like finding relatively unknown comics and seeing what kinds of stories and characters people come up with.  In print I don’t really read comics, except for manga – I was never really into American comics.  As for other online activities, I enjoy playing MMORPGs (Lord of the Rings Online and sometimes Guild Wars) and coercing my friends into playing with me.

Chezhnian: *has been coerced* Yay! LotRO! ^_^  Eren has been seeing to my education in webcomics!  I am rather new to the webcomic world so I look around at all of them with sparkles in my eyes. There are soooo many!!  I have dial-up internet at home which makes reading comics frustrating. I remedy this by pilfering other people’s (namely Eren’s) internet. :D

Intervention: Who’s your daddy?

eren: J. R. R. Tolkien.  *bows down in worship*

Intervention: There are a lot of reasons why people start their own project, but what has kept you going?

Chezhnian: The characters won’t stop talking.

eren: Yeah… when you have a 1300-pound tree-monster frolicking about in your head, YOU try keeping him contained.  Seriously, for this project, Chezhnian’s story and the characters we’d created were just too much fun NOT to be made into something that we can share with the world.  For good or ill, haha.

Intervention: What’s one of your favorite parts about being a webcomic author and artist?

eren: The sense of accomplishment from finishing each page and seeing them add up into a story, for one thing.  And I love seeing people’s reactions to what we post – what story clues they pick up on, what they don’t, what theories they come up with, and what they see that we’d had no idea was even there.

Chezhnian: I would have to second that.

Intervention: When are you putting me in your webcomic? No, kidding, kidding.

eren: You already are.  You’re the arch-supervillain.  Our protagonists are orchestrating your downfall as we speak.

Intervention: I think I like that. The only villain-y things I got to do was wish I could do something to someone’s drink when I was a bartender. That’s really sort of pathetic.  Is that bad?

Intervention: Do you listen to music or watch tv while you’re working? What sort and if it’s something else, what do you prefer? Or is there something you just can’t get around (say, if you have the soothing sounds of 6 rampaging children playing behind you in the same room)?

Chezhnian: I like to listen to stuff that suits the scene. Though sometimes I will put a playlist on random and am always amazed when the perfect track comes up at the exact time to emphasize that scene.  Though if the song has lyrics it’s better if they are in a totally different language, otherwise I can’t concentrate – I will start typing the lyrics into the scene.

eren: When I’m writing I can’t really listen to anything except maybe very non-intrusive meditation music.  When I’m drawing just about anything goes, depending on my mood.  Rock, world music, new age stuff, opera, bluegrass… combinations of any or all of the above…

Intervention: Tell us about the worst job you’ve had to do to get by in the past. (does it make you grateful for doing what you do now?)

Chezhnian: I would prefer not to talk about it. >.>

eren: I haven’t had any reeeally gruelingly horrible jobs so far… each one has had its good points and bad points.  Being handed a “lesson plan” and a classroom of Japanese six-year-olds and being told, “here, teach!” with absolutely no training was definitely a challenge, but not quite insurmountable…

Intervention: I ran a taekwondo summer camp. With a ton of 3-year-olds for the morning half. I get it.

Intervention: When you’re in an interview or a panel, what makes you cringe? Is there any question that you dread hearing or is there something that you hope doesn’t come up?

Chezhnian: I really haven’t run into anything that I can’t handle yet. *knocks on wood*

eren: Completely honestly… asking about why my old comic project, Shades of Veil, is on hiatus.  It was a very difficult decision to make, and I know it disappointed some people, but I think it was for the best for both me and the comic  (And no, I didn’t just decide I felt more like working on Tamuran instead).  It was getting to the point where drawing pages was an obligation to other people rather than a fun hobby, and that was not doing the comic justice.  I’m definitely returning to the project someday, and working with the writer to determine the best way to tell the story.  But then, learning when to put something aside for awhile can be an important lesson in itself, especially working in as public a medium as webcomics.

Intervention: What do you WISH someone would bring up or ask you on panels or an interview that just never comes up?

Chezhnian: We haven’t had enough of a sampling of questions to narrow it down. Any and all questions are good.

Intervention: Actually, no really, when are you putting me in  your webcomic?

eren: You’re on chapter 3 page 7.

Intervention: For posterity, what’s your favorite beverage?

Chezhnian: Black Currant Tea and Angelic White Tea, a special blend of tea from the tea shop that I work at.   ^_^

eren: I live on coffee. >.> And sometimes hot cocoa.