Well, it's been nearly a year since the last one, so here's another online letters column where Fred answers some of the questions asked to him via email.

- Stripe

Vmannemisis wrote:

I'd like to start this e-mail off with

YOU ARE GOD!!!!!!!

Sorry, got carried away, Well I first bought some of your work in milk, Let me think finally frantic x I think. and first saw you at neko con of 2001. I later found out you did a comic called gold digger. I was kind of hesitant to get it for the simple fact that I gave comics three years ago. But not but two weeks ago I purchased my first gold digger, um #29 volume 3 I think well it kick my ass and my heads ass and my neighbors ass while he was home in bed I mean milk kicked ass, the one you did but this- oh sweet Jesus. I kick my self for not checkin it out earlier know I'm steps behind but I'll catch up. I just wanted to e-mail to let you know that you know you kick ass, well like you don't hear from you hard core fans. And I will most defiantly check out that legacy joint you just released.

P.S. But to be frank you are a real inspiration as a manga artist, that was a dream of mine that I later gave up. but seein guys like you Thor,Rod,Ted nomuro,Robby Bevard,Ben Dunn, and cannot for get richard more, do it all for your self has awakin that spark I lost, so I can't say I love you then you'd probably

<---reply--->

Thanks Man...
And I *owe* it all to God and Jesus, Brudda.

Actually, I kinda thought issue 29 was one of my weaker issues. I just didn't feel I went into the characters deep enough. But I learned from that...
Issue 30 is what I'm most proud of right now. It should be in stores now. I hope you like Legacy as well. I'm coming up with the next GN in Dec or Jan next year... Which will showcase the NEXT part of the 6 part story.

F.

Nagi-Oki Neko-Chan wrote:

Hiyas Fred,

Is Nagi, sorry I missed you at Neko-Con 4. Being unemployed and poor sucks. Enough about me, I just wanted to bring something up that's been nagging me since issue #27. I'm not dissin' or anything but you deserve an honest opinion from a long time fan.
I've been having a seriously hard time absorbing all the information you're cramming into each issue. Issue #27 had to be the one that started it, I mean you already have so many little thing going on it's hard to actually keep up. And you through out a curve like future Gina meeting present Gina and you throw EVERYONE off. It also feels like you're 'cramming 15 pounds of potatoes into a 3 pound bag' so to speak. The issues have become VERY wordy, too over explanitory. And as for the pace you're moving at, one can't help but feel that you're rushing to close down the series. I'll admit, GD has lost a little bit of it's edge with time but it happens to ALL good long running series. Rumor on the FPFC chat board is that you're giving up GD after issue 100. If that is your choice, it's yours but I can't help but feel a bit slighted as GD comes to a close at a pace that's too fast to even keep up with.
Well, I said what I wanted to say. If possible can you please explain the method to your madness. I thank you for your attention.

The Seance and Nightcrawler no miko has spoken.
Thank you,
Nagi-Oki

<---reply--->

Well, I'm sorry if you feel the story is moving too fast with it's pace. True, I also felt that the story was confined within the number of pages that I had.
Well, thats what I had to work with. Fortunately my space constictions have been releaved lately.
I'm a lot more comfortable with the current page format.
Incidentally, I *do* intend to bring the story to an end one day. All good stories have a beginning a middle and invariably, an end. Issue 100 seemed like a nice estimate, but I'll have to see. Suffice to say, I won't end the story until I can end the WHOLE story. Until every last wrinkle, sublot and character has been fully realized and a satisfactory ending is present. But, yes. GD will end some day. And when that day comes, I'll have another story ready...(possibly within the same setting... possibly an all new setting... we'll see.)

Cheers.

Fred

Andre Harris wrote:

Hey Fred whats up man. Now I know you usually get a lot of "im your biggest fan" and your the best artist so im gonna skip all that and get to the good stuff. First off I gotta get this off my chest man that you need to stop STOP player hatin on all the players in the gold digger universe. In particular my dog in the series Ryan Tabbot who is constantly being pelvis blocked by some scrawny buster who is constantly hurt and injured after every battle he's in. Now don't get me wrong Seance got some tricks but Ryan got the fighting skill, the muscles gina likes, the intelligence, the money, the looks, the same job. Now seance has no job, is Gina's dads lackey, no game, no confidence. Seance is hurt on missions or encounters far less from as dangerous as the ones Gina go on or are in. Man Fred another thing is i see you're gonna dog out my top dog as how I met you a two years ago at the San Diego comic-con and i asked you "yo is Ryan gonna end up with gina" and you said somethin about "that ryan is gonna end up doing something that is gonna break him and gina up. Fred what ever you do don't do seance and Gina i mean Genn and Seance fit better and Gina and Seance is a little typical and predictable, as you know her dad is a mage and Julia and Theo ended up falling in love as they did adventures. Also I gotta say you dogged royally Ryan out on the latest issue of GD I got #28 where you have the seasoned vet get the smack layed down on him by Luan, and also since Ryan can copy moves that he sees he should be the most powerful man. Think about it! All he has to do is watch Julia fight gnolga a couple times, some Street Fighter and some DBZ and he'll be unstopable. Well thanks for wasting your time reading this letter i hope it made you realize though just how valuable of a charter Ryan is.

P.S. Yo Fred i know you had a dozen people ask you for this but heed my words... They are not the Chozen 1. Please could you send me a tutorial and not the how to draw manga book tutorial on how to draw backgrounds and mecha your way man. Im tryin to be an artist but it's a whole lot harder than I thought once you try to make a comic from scratch cause you gotta know how to draw everything. also one more question and that is what type of pen or ink do i use for inking my drawings. Well Holla Back Fred piece.

<---reply--->

Incidentally, both Luan and Carla are war-vets. They've got a *lot* of combat experience behind them. Julia's school is more like an officer's war-college for martial artists. Which is why Brit doesn't attend those classes. Julia's anger was simular to an Instructor-General's anger if he found the Captains and Colonels in his class goofing off and screwin around with tanks in the training area... Ryan wasn't suppose to be there.
The level of training in that class was too high for him... not because of he lacked the ability... OOOhhh no! Thats what fascinated Carla, Luan and Gar! Ryan had the almost the same if not equal fighting ability as they did... Yet he *almost completely* lacked the knowledge to use it. He knew physical techniques, but he lacked concentration and mental techniques. And most of all, he lacked discipline. They were astounded that he could do so *much* with so little experience, training and discipline.
Ryan is a *wild talent*. He seldom knows exactly what to do by thought... he tends to react... but he does it WELL.
Carla is a trained vet. She knows how to take a punch from Mike Tyson in the jugular and keep from staggering. She knows how to fall on her back from a 3 story drop and take almost no damage. She knows how to deflect chi. She knows how to focus (almost)every ounce of energy into a strike at a precise target pressure point. All these techs that require more mental and internal training than physical.
And Ryan's talent alone won't let him just pick that stuff up... He'll need to actually train for it.
Yeah, I know... "Ryan can use energy chi, Carla can't" Energy Chi isn't everything. Carla,Luan, Gar and Julia are devoted and focused to a physical martial art with no energy chi attacks...The Leep style. In the Leep style, one learns to take every advantage and leave behind every weakness. Chi has too many weaknesses to cover to be effective for the Leep style so they don't practice it. Instead they practice using someone else's energy chi against them or becoming especially resistant to it.
But, don't you worry about Ryan.
I wanted to give him something to think about. And nothing gets you thinking like a good kick in the patoot! Maybe now, he'll start some halfway decent *discipline* training and become a TRUE bad-@*$!

Vmannemisis wrote:

hey man its real cool that you're replying to my mail.
I got another question should an artist imitate a style so that he or she can develop thier own style and establish a stablity in the form.

<---reply--->

When you imitate another style, it should only be to learn the subtle techniques of that style and incorporate those techs. In short. As long as your not out to draw like the artist you copy, but learn from him/her. Its cool.

F.

Rapier213 wrote:

I love your drawing style, I am a strugling young artist who wishes to become a comic artist one day, I would ask if you would teach me how to draw like you but I imagin that is imposible and a wast of your presious time. How ever I am a huge fan of Gold Diggers and became hooked on the story, I have just inquired as to if I could get a subscroption for mail delivery, but that is beside the point. I am mainly sending this to you becaus I wanted to tell you I realy wish I ould draw as good as you can, unfortunatly I am a little too obsesed with details and have to hope of being able to draw a image simmilar or the same as a privious one due to my slite obsesive compulsiveness. But I will keep trying to get better with artists like you as my insperation, so keep at the amazing art and I hope I can get cought up with the story again.

<---reply--->

Well my advice to you is that my style of art deals with contrasts. And so does most comic art. The key to handling detail within comic art also lies in contrast. (well, in my style anyway). What I do is seperate areas of detail with open space. The open space contrasts the details making them more attractive and less muddled. Just think of details as areas of black and open space as areas of white. If you're filling a page with details, you might as well be filling it with black. No one's really gonna see anything. At the same time, if your areas of open space aren't framed with nice detail, you might as well have left the page blank. As for subscriptions, your questions are easily answered by contacting the AP warehouse at apcog@hotmail.com and putting "Subscription Info?" or something simular as the email's subject.

F.

Marc Seebass wrote:

I guess I should wait till A-Kon to pass this on to you in person, but knowing me I'm likely to forget it. I was wondering if Ryan can use his photographic reflexes to mimic physical skills other than just fighting. I think it would be compelling to place him in a situation where he has to use physical skills that he doesn't have the knowledge for, like surgery for example. Imagine a situation where he has to operate on a patient, but has to be directed by someone else. Just a thought that I wanted to pass on to you, in all likelihood you may have thought of this before, but one never knows.

----Marc

<---reply--->

Some skills demand physical reflexes.
These skills range from riding a skateboard, performing a perfectly executed kick or making a perfect 10 dive from a diving board.
Other skills require mental training. Like brain surgery. Computer science or some martial arts techniques that require the proper mental concentration and lots of practice.
Ryan's photographic reflexes can't help him much in this area. Sure he could make a precise incision with a scalple if he watched an expert doctor, but he wouldn't even BEGIN to know where to make the cut. He could mimic the way a master martial artist makes a nerve strike, but because his eyes can't pick up whats happening inside, he wouldn't know how to absorb a nerve strike like a master martial artist could. Remember. Ryan has photographic reflexes, but he doesn't have anything *near* a photographic memory (or *any* other extraordinary mental talent.) To do surgery, he'd have to learn like everyone else... And to be a true master at martial arts, well, he's going to have to learn that too.

F.

kris anka wrote:

hello, i am a fan of your creations: legacy and gold digger. but i have a question about gold digger. it is about the kryyn. are all of them were tigers, or can they be other animals. please try to get the answer back to me this week thank you very much.

from,
kris Anka

<---reply--->

Hi Kris.

To answer your question about Stryypgia,
A Kryn is an alien.. They really have nothing to do with cats other than their slightly feline features. We evolved from apes according to Darwin.. But on Aebra, the Kryn evolved from an animal very simular to apes but feline. So, if you were to examine the anatomy of the Kryn, you'd find that they were actually human but with feline features and fur instead of hair.

Fred.