JOHN BARRETT
GOLD DIGGER-EDGE GUARD ARTIST

John is an artist with an affection for stories involving anthropomorphoids. He has had his work featured in GENUS comics and various fanzines. He's also created his own character, Roxicat, who is a catgirl that lives inside the internet. But he's mostly famous for his contributions to Fred Perry's GOLD DIGGER storyline. John has done stories for the GOLD DIGGER ANNUALS, and now he is doing the artwork for the GOLD DIGGER-EDGE GUARD mini-series for Radio Comix.

JOHN'S CREDITS

Furry Tails, Furthest North Crew, Genus, Gold Digger Annual, Gold Digger-Edge Guard, Pawprints, Roxikat, Street Furry

Interview taken over the internet. (May, 2001)

• HOW DID YOU FIRST GET STARTED IN COMICS?
  My first published work was a one-page comic in GOLD DIGGER ANNUAL #1 in 1995 called 'Cream Spongecake', written by Bill Rogers. My second was a short in GENUS #22 called 'Squeeky Clean' starring Roxikat.
  
  
• WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR INSPIRATIONS?
  Japanese anime and manga for sure. I'd discover the first couple of issues of NINJA HIGH SCHOOL from Antarctic Press around that time I collected my first manga series, GREY: THE DIGITAL TARGET, from Viz. From there, APPLESEED from Masamune Shirow and my mind got hooked on anime after seeing BUBBLEGUM CRISIS, VAMPIRE HUNTER D, and the MACROSS movie. From there, I saw DANGAIOH and by then I was drawing fannish comics in the SONIC THE HEDGEHOG style. Video games were a huge inspiration too. I discovered GOLD DIGGER first in the original MANGAZINE issues, but I didn't pick it up again until issue #5, when I got hooked for life.
  
  
• WHERE DID YOUR CHARACTER OF ROXIKAT ORIGINATE? ARE THERE ANY FUTURE PLANS FOR HER?
  Roxikat was fully realized in 1995 when I wanted to play a furry character in an online role-play enviroment called FurryMUCK, but she was the latest evolution of a character named Kelliekat I made in 1987 as the hero of a group of surfer musicians called the Surf Kats, heavily influenced by the 'Catillac Cats' from the Heathcliff cartoon from DiC. I even made a short animation of them in high school on tracing paper that was filmed completely blurry. In 1989, I actualluy wrote and drew a few fan-issues of their next incarnation called 'Kei and the Pack', where the heroes were experiments that could morphs from humans to catlike super-soldiers, forced to be black-ops assassins for secret government cabal. Around 1993, I went back to the Surf Kats idea, but drew everyone in the SONIC THE HEDGEHOG style. The story was the heroes honoring Sonic the Hedgehog by making a documentry on him by interacting with him in various stages of his life, via the DeLorean from Back To The Future. They muck up history and themselves pretty good, but manage to fix things up by the end.
  
  
• HOW DID THE GOLD DIGGER-EDGE GUARD COMIC COME ABOUT? WILL IT CONTINUE PAST THE MINI-SERIES?
  I pitched the idea in person to Fred at Katsucon V after he'd seen my work in every issue of the GOLD DIGGER ANNUAL up until then. I'd mentioned that I was unsatisfied with my work on an adult comic at a prevoius convention and he suggested that I do what I want to do. Originally, I was just going to do 4 issues of EDGE GUARD and continue with additional 4-issue installments of following chapters after a short break. After issue #3, I asked Fred if I could leave issue #4 open-ended or if I'd have to end it there. He told me I could have a few more issues to finish the plot so that another artist could publish a GD spinoff. Fred didn't want two spinoffs coming out at the same time. So issues #5,6, and eventually 7 became a condensed version of two plotlines I'd wanted to have as two additional 4-issue installments. Everything seemed to come together, albeit rather complicatedly. From what I've read of kitsune legends, those creatures are really complex.
  
  
• HOW ARE YOU MAKING YOUR VERSION OF EDGE GUARD DIFFERENT FROM THEIR VERSION IN GOLD DIGGER COMICS? ARE YOU TRYING TO DRAW ANY THUNDERCATS-TYPE SIMILARITIES?
  I roleplayed online for about a year as Tirga from Edge Guard on Gold Digger MUSH before pitching the idea to Fred. I'd roleplay the character with only 2 panels of dialogue to go on, from when the characters made their first appearance in issue #24 as an obvious Thundercats parody. When the Edge Guard made a triumphant return in issue #42, the characters were incredibly cool and Tirga wound up behaving exactly the way I roleplayed him. Also in that issue, Gar used his 'Lunar Rave' technique in a panel that payed homage to a manga called STREET FIGHTER ZERO(part 2), by Masahiko Nakahira, that I'd given Fred at Nekocon 2 because I realized that Fred's inking got so incredibly cool by picking up tips from that artist's style in Cammy's Gaiden. I felt that there was some kind of psychic, magical link of fate happening there, so I worked up the guts to pitch the idea, and he said yes! I basically wrote the character with the interactions I saw in issue #42 and put in the Thundercats spoof stuff wherever it seemed the most goofy and akward. But I knew that Fred had already made the characters incredibly cool on his own and they became far more than a meer parody.
  
  
• WHAT OTHER COMICS HAVE YOU WORKED ON?
  Work in the GOLD DIGGER ANNUALS #1-5, Genus #22, and THE MAGNIFICENT MILKMAID #1 from White Lightning Production. Also, two chapters of a comic story called Roxicat's Myah in a furry APA fanzine called FURTHEST NORTH CREW.
  
  
• ARE YOU DOING ANY OTHER STORIES FOR THE GOLD DIGGER ANNUALS?
  Well, having done GOLD DIGGER work for 7 years and finally gotten a name for myself, Fred advises me that it's time to try and work on my own projects. Seriously, the GOLD DIGGER ANNUAL has been a valueable place for new artists to get their start, so I'd like to leave it open for up-and-coming comic artists and writers to be seen and heard.
  
  
• DO YOU HAVE ANY ADVISE FOR FUTURE COMICS CREATORS?
  Always do work that you have alot of passsion for, because that kind of raw emotion translates to the page. It's a need to communicate and entertain that is an important motivation. Pay attention to the cinematography in your favorite movies to set up scenes, sketch from your enviroment stuff that means something to you everyday, like a shoe, a tree, a friend, your hand, or whatever. Listen to feedback and advise from your friends, your teachers, your peers,and don't feel discouraged. Practice to strengthen your week spots.Copy from your favorite artists only in the raw stages early on, just to see how things are done. Read books on art understanding from Will Eisner, Burne Hogarth, Scott McCloud(Understanding Comics), Bart Sears, Hikaru Hiyashi(Manga How-Tos), Stan Lee & John Buscema and whatever you find. You don't have to agree with everything, but the more opinions you get, the broader an understanding you'll get.

JOHN'S WEBPAGE
JOHN'S E-MAIL