Dave Roman is the co-creator of the Harvey Award nominated series Jax Epoch and the Quicken Forbidden (AiT/PlanetLar), and the Ignatz award winning, Teen Boat (Cryptic Press) both with artist John Green. He works for Nickelodeon Magazine, where he is the Associate Comics Editor and has contributed to the critically acclaimed Bizarro World anthology for DC Comics. Dave’s own illustrated work has appeared in Flight 3, Flight 4, Not My Small Diary, Alternative Comics 9-11: Emergency Relief, and on GirlAMatic.com His website is yaytime.com and comicsbakery.com.

Be sure to read Astronaut Elementary!

1 ) Hello! Tell us who you are, and what you do.
I’m Dave Roman, a guy who helps edit comics at Nickelodeon Magazine and writes and draw a bunch of other comics in his “free time.” Those comics would include Astronaut Elementary, Agnes Quill, Teen Boat, Jax Epoch and the Quicken Forbidden, and contributions to the Flight series. I’m currently co-writing a series of shojo manga-inspired X-Men graphic novels for Del Rey.

2 ) How long have you been working with Nickelodeon Magazine? What’s it like?
I’ve been at Nick Mag for almost 10 years, which completely blows my mind to reflect on. I get to eat and breathe comics while collaborating with an insane amount of talented artists. My typical days are spent responding to emails, routing things, and going to meetings, but the end result is comics I’m really proud of that get read by a million or so average kids.

3 ) What are the origins of Astronaut Elementary?
I was asked to contribute to a shojo manga anthology that Tintin Patoja was editing for the School of Visual Arts. So, I came up with a Japanese schoolgirl named Miyumi who lives in the future and gets hit on by a conceited boy with a big pompadour. I wrote it as if it was badly translated into English with lots of run on sentences. I had so much fun making the strip that I kept drawing new pages and expanding the world they lived in.

4 ) Why did you choose to do a webcomic? Any differences between working for the web and working for print?
GirlAMatic had a call out for submissions and I thought that Astronaut Elementary might be a good fit. Lucky for me, the site’s editor, Lea Hernandez agreed and invited me on. Being a part of the GAM site was great motivation to draw pages on a constant basis rather than shooting for a deadline based around an upcoming convention. With the web you can obviously get instant feedback on whatever you do. With print it usually takes longer to show your art to people and if you wait till your story is printed in a book, it might be too late to improve it. When I started Astronaut Elementary, I used to cram a lot more onto a page. But when I see them online I don’t appreciate all the details and side business. So after doing it as a webcomic, I slowed down and opened the panels up a lot more. The pacing got a bit breezier too.

5 ) What are some of your favorite webcomics?
Everything on Lunchbox Funnies of course!
The ones I read the most often (assuming they update) are Wigu, Overcompensating, Dinosaur Comics, American Elf. Nemu Nemu, Diesel Sweeties, Octopus Pie, The Tenth Life of Pishio the Cat, Space Office, No In-Between, Copper, Dr. McNinja, Power Glove, Smile, and anything by Jessica McLeod. I also read a lot of random fan comics on DeviantArt.

6 ) What feature attracts your attention most in a webcomic?
Art first, then humor, and often consistency. Pretty much the same as for any other form of comics, really. But like many people, I probably have less patience for longform stuff on the internet.

7 ) Do you have any advice for creators?
Make sure you REALLY love to draw comics before you can expect it to be a career. Prepare to be in it for the long haul and not make a living from it. The more pages of comics you draw, the better you’ll get and the more chance of success. What works for one artist won’t work for another though. There’s no formula that anyone can copy and turn themselves into a famous cartoonist. You just have to keep drawing and do the best work you can. to And if you aren’t that great of an artist you better hope you have really original ideas! I also encourage creators to support other artists and the comic industry in general. We’re all in it together!

8 ) As someone heavily involved with the print-world as well as the web, do you see a competition of sorts between them, or do you see webcomics and print comics complimenting one another?
More often than not, I think they compliment each other. Obviously some people who work in one medium fear or dismiss the other, which is too bad. Print is all about money. And the web is all about instant satisfaction.

9 ) If you were a videogame, what videogame would you be?
Dynamite Headdy.

10 ) What do you like more, Star Trek, Star Wars, Futurama, or Firefly?
I grew up loving all things Star Wars (even the Ewok TV movies) but the prequels kind of burnt me out on it a bit. I’m sure we can fall in love again someday. Star Trek: The Next Generation and I had a fling in high school and I really admired its ability to tell nerdy self-contained stories. Firefly was great. It didn’t last long enough for it to get messed up! I probably SHOULD give Futurama more of a chance to win my heart…

Special thanks to Dave Roman for being the first test-subject of our little-experiment.

Tags: Astronaut Elementary, Dave Roman, GirlAMatic, Lunchbox Funnies, Ten Questions, Yaytime

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