Gettin' Chuggy with Dave Cheung
by Shannon Fay
The kids at Chugworth Academy are just like you. Well, if you were a beautiful straight-A student and your boyfriend was the spokesman for a ham-flavored sports drink, then they'd be just like you. Chugworth Academy is a webcomic that follows four friends as they navigate high school, the movie business, or just sit on the couch and watch TV. Seven Seas plans to publish the first volume of this long-running, full color webcomic in July, but first, Gomanga catches up with busy Chugworth Academy creator Dave Cheung to ask him a few questions about his hilarious and off-the-wall series.
To start, please tell us about yourself and Chugworth Academy.
DC: I'm a 23 year old Art School failure from Glasgow, who draws a webcomic as well as a load of freelance work to make ends meet. Which they don't.
Chugworth Academy is (hopefully) a funny, sexy, often bizarre webcomic in full colour that updates three times a week. This is actually the second incarnation of Chugworth. It first started in 2001, and only ran for 8 strips before I came to the conclusion it was crap, and canned it. 2 years later, I decided to give it a fresh start, update more frequently and bring my friend Jamal on board to help write now and again, and that is where you will find it currently.
Plot-wise, there isn't much plot. It's more about the characters themselves than the circumstances surrounding them. The things that happen in the comic are merely devices to prompt responses from the characters. Because of this, it's the kind of comic that I hope a lot of readers can just jump straight into, without having to learn about
"too" much back story.
What exactly goes into the creation of each strip?
DC: Well, entire story arcs are written in advance. I generally have a month or two worth of strips already written at any one time. Drawing them, however, is done pretty much last minute and is very much a time intensive task. I start off by envisioning what I want the final strip to look like in my head, then laying the panels out in Photoshop on the desktop PC using the rectangle tool. The next step is to import these frames in Alias Sketchbook Pro on the Tablet PC, where I sketch out the contents of the panels, cleaning it up as I go along. There is no "rough sketch to clean sketch" stage, because I do very complete sketching there and then, instead of later. Once the sketch is done, it's thrown over to Photoshop again on the Desktop via Wi-Fi, where I begin the coloring process. This is where cleaning up the line art as I go pays off, because it's essentially ready for colour (apart from the odd stray mark that can be easily fixed with the eraser tool). Coloring is a very long winded process that I won't go in to, followed by the much more relaxing affair of lettering and setting out bubbles. All in, each strip can take between 6 and 12 hours.
Even though you poke fun at otaku culture at one point in Chugworth Academy, there's still a manga influence in not only the art but the writing as well. How did that come about?
DC: "One point"? I could have sworn there were at least two. Anyway, art wise, it's as simple as the fact that it's what I was watching when I was around 11 years old, and it stuck. As for the writing having a manga influence, I would completely dispute that. The writing is about as western as you could get.
So do you think the series' mix of manga art and western humor is what makes it so popular among fans?
DC: I don't know, you'd have to ask them. I just create what I personally find amusing and hope that others do as well.
Are any of the situations or characters inspired by real life?
DC: I wish I could give you an interesting answer and say "yes," but then I'd be lying. A few people or situations are blatant references to pop-culture, but nothing "personal", no.
When you're not working on Chugworth Academy, what do you like to do?
DC: Right now, I'm ALWAYS working on Chugworth Academy.
Could you tell us about some upcoming storylines?
DC: Not without spoiling anything, no.
What anime did you watch when you were 11?
DC: The same rubbish everyone else did back then. We weren't as badly off as those old folks in the 70's and 8-'s who had nothing but Robotech and Speed Racer, but when I was a kiddo, anime still hadn't broken into anything like the mainstream, so choice was incredibly limited.
Anyway, to answer your question, I grew up on the likes of Akira, Dominion Tank Police, 3x3 Eyes, etc. then later Evangelion, Ghost in the Shell and Kenshin.
Do you have any favorite manga?
DC: Actually no, because I don't read any. Whether or not you consider that irony is up to you.
How did you come to be published by Seven Seas?
DC: That funny little man Jason DeAngelis contacted me and made me an offer. I emphasize the fact that he's little. Like a midget.
What kind of extras are going to be included with the graphic novel? Say, a can of Splammo with the purchase of every book?
DC: Such a thing would cost far effort and money to produce than it would be worth I'm afraid. Nevertheless, the book will have extras, it's just they'll all be IN the book. It'll mainly just be bonus stuff like artwork, character profiles and "The Rabbit Diaries" book that I did a very limited run of last year.
From what you've said, creating a web comic seems like a pretty time consuming project. What makes it worth it? Do you have any advice for aspiring web comic creators?
DC: Nothing makes it worth it. I'm a masochistic fool.
Being the glutton for punishment that you are, have you ever considered doing a spin-off comic of Chugworth? Maybe following one of the minor characters, or expanding the "Pancake Motherfuckers" arcs to its own series?
DC: Well as I mentioned earlier, I did a spin-off book called the Rabbit Diaries, which was about Bunnie Mittens. As for Pancake Motherfuckers, it's not really the kind of thing that can go for too long at a time without losing its charm.
We'd love to hear from you!