Danny Valentini (Razorfox)- Interview

"It is the beginning of dark times..."

Greetings one and all! Welcome to another installment of Geek Speak! Where I sit down with fellow nerd alumni to discuss some of the finer points of geek culture.

My guest to the site is the ever energetic and positive Danny Valentini a.k.a. Razorfox; creator of the webcomic and illustrated calender series The Draconia Chronicles. For the over the past decade The Draconia Chronicles, in both calender and comic, has told the high-fantasy tale of a centuries-long war between the Tiger and Dragon races.

Led by Princess Kiriad of the Tiger Territories and Queen Oscura of the Dragonlands, neither side has gained ground in the seemingly endless battles. Only the females of both races have participated in the war, where it seems both sides may very well fight to the point of mutual destruction. With numerous factions vying for power and dominance (both in the war as well as outside of it) only a few stand to change the disastrous course their world has taken.

Mr. Valentini has certainly earned his fandom over the years. The dedication to his comic and his craft have garnered him recognition both nationally and internationally.  He has been a regular attendee to the east-coast anime convention circuit, appearing as a guest of honor at several, with a notable perfect attendance record to the anime convention Katsucon.

I've had the pleasure of knowing Danny now for the last several years professionally and personally as a friend. Recently at Katsucon 19, located at the Gaylord Hotel in the Maryland National Harbor, I was able to sit down and conduct a quick interview with him. For new fans of The Draconia Chronicles there are spoilers in this interview so read at your own discretion.

Razorfox

N8Dogg5k: Care to start us off with an introduction Razorfox?

Razorfox: Yeah. Razorfox, my nom de plume as the case may be, but otherwise my real name is Danny Valentini. I do The Draconia Chronicles created as an illustrated calender back in 1999, and running as a webcomic continuously since January of 2005. With that said, hello all you people out there on the information super highway of love!

N8Dogg5k: I'm sure the fans out there love and adore you... Now Danny I understand that you've said the creator of the comic Gold Digger -Fred Perry- was very influential in your early illustrative career. Are there any other creators out there that you would say have been just as impacting on your development as an artist?

Razorfox: Fred Perry is a bit of a special case in that I actually met him in person at Katsucon 1 eighteen years ago, back in 1995. So that personal one on one relationship was actually a very big thing for me. No one has ever been quite as influential in that regard. However in terms of other artistic influences, Rumiko Takahashi -particularly in her work on Ranma 1/2- was a very big influence. To other varying degrees I would say Ben Dunn of Ninja Highschool, Robert DeJesus, and Adam Warren of Dirty Pair have also been very influential on me as well. So all of them kind of conflate together into creating me as their bastard love-child.

N8Dogg5k: That is an interesting perspective to have of yourself... In the last eight years that you've worked on The Draconia Chronicles as a webcomic, what would you say have been some of the most challenging aspects of the process?

Razorfox: There have been different challenges along the way. Some of which have been overcome, while others are slightly ongoing. The hardest part was just getting started really. There have been various personnel changes over time, some of which needed immediate addressing... I guess you could say there really have just been many various challenges that have come at me, and there really hasn't been one in particular that's been lingering the entire time.

One of my biggest challenges I guess would just be finding the time to work on the comic. I do work a full-time real world job during the day. So any time I have outside of that is spent working on the comic. I took over the writing duties of Draconia a little over two years ago and that is not as big a challenge as I thought it would be. I'm actually having a lot of fun with it. The challenge there I guess is remembering to push yourself. It's easy to fall back on cliches', it's always fun to challenge yourself and find some way to push beyond that to try something that you're not comfortable with... expand into areas that you haven't been in before... So just trying to keep it fresh for yourself prevents it from becoming too stale for the audience.

This can only end in tears.

N8Dogg5k: It's certainly refreshing to hear someone willingly challenging themselves like that. What would say is the one thing about Draconia that you're the most proud of?

Razorfox: I think the single most thing that I'm most proudest of is the events that lead to the comic's current state of development. Back in the beginning of 2011, three big changes happened. One of which was of course where the former writer departed, and I ended up inheriting the comic's writing duties. It kind of gave the comic a fresh new flavor. At the same time the comic also went to color instead of black and white. We reached the limits of what we could in black and white to convincingly convey a story, so the move to color just blew up the world that the comic inhabited. 

The last really big thing was when we moved to our current home of Katbox.net, home of various other popular webcomics like Caribbean Blue and Las Lindas! We gained this enormous new audience there, and the comic has been very well received there so far. It's fit right in with the other comics. The audience has been very responsive, especially to the artwork and the writing. 

All of these things sort of come together and form this big feed-back loop of so much positive energy from the audience. Which in turn motivates me to try even harder, which in turn motivates even bigger responses from the audience, and it just keeps going back and forth like that. It is immensely gratifying to work on the comic nowadays. I've never been more satisfied with it, and I hope that comes through in the comic... If anything else the audience seems to really appreciate that. All these factors come together to form a point where I have never been happier with the comic than I am now, and I hope that keeps going.

Gaia: Cut down in her prime.

N8Dogg5k: If there was one aspect of The Draconia Chronicles that you ever thought about changing, what would it be, and would you even do it?

Razorfox: First of all I don't think I would change anything we've done at this point. Not that I don't think we've made mistakes. There have been plenty of missteps along the way, but I've always been a fan of letting the historical record stand. That this was what was done. History in real life is something where you can't just go back and change what you don't like. For better or for worse you have to play to that hand that you are continuously being dealt. 

Therefore have there been mistakes in either the artwork, or the storytelling, or any other aspect of the comic? Absolutely. Would I go back and change them? No.

If I were however somebody that would go back and change it -and this will probably come as a very satisfying shock to a lot of people- looking back I think we could have gotten a lot more out of Gaia before we took her head off. I think there was an opportunity there for redemption of some kind beyond what was presented in the comic. I think she maybe went a little too soon. The plan was always set to have her die, and quite frankly it was to be in a rather grisly manner at the hands of Scyde; the character who decapitated her. I think it came a little too soon, I think we could have just done a tiny bit more with her before taking her out of the picture.

N8Dogg5k: Any words of wisdom you feel you can impart to any up and coming artists in terms of webcomics or illustration?

Razorfox: My favorite proverb is "The journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step." Taking that first step is often the hardest thing that you'll have to do. So if you can just get off your ass and get started, that is the single biggest hurdle that you'll ever have to overcome! Because once you've actually crossed that threshold, the rest of it just starts to fall into place like dominoes. You've got to take that first step. So if you're thinking of doing a webcomic, or you want to expand your illustrative/writing capabilities, do it! Don't let your own hesitance hold you back, or your lack of self confidence. Because you're not gonna grow unless you actually take that step into the great unknown. In many cases you'll probably pleasantly surprise yourself with what you can do. You'll probably exceed your own expectations, and that will in turn keep on motivating you to keep on going.

The venerable Razorfox looking like a boss!

N8Dogg5k: Those are some very inspirational words. I want to thank you for coming out and doing this interview with me. I know you're a busy guy these days. I look forward to many more very colorful, fun, and in-depth pages to Draconia in the future! Care to leave us with where new fans can find The Draconia Chronicles?

Razorfox: Yes! You can find and read -entirely for free by the way- The Draconia Chronicles online at www.draconia.katbox.net. While you're there check out the other cool comics that Katbox has to offer also! Everyone there works really hard to keep providing the fans with great content! 

Thank you very much for the interview! I'm glad to have come out and be one of your very first interviews! Congratulations on the new blog! I hope that also takes you to new places! I'm glad to be one of your first to pop your blog's cherry as it were! So thanks again very much, and ask me anytime! I'll be more than happy to come on again and divulge even more words of sagely wisdom!