{"id":178,"date":"2020-04-10T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-10T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/galesaur.com\/tfww\/?p=178"},"modified":"2022-05-25T13:21:54","modified_gmt":"2022-05-25T13:21:54","slug":"a-perfectly-normal-coworker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/galesaur.com\/tfww\/a-perfectly-normal-coworker\/","title":{"rendered":"A Perfectly Normal Coworker"},"content":{"rendered":"\n



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Let’s just take this in.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

You might be surprised to discover that this piece was created by none other than Ngozi Ukazu<\/a>, <\/strong>acclaimed artist of Check, Please!<\/a><\/strong>, and I am proud to have had the opportunity to interrogate her about it below.

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Hi, Ngozi! Thanks for taking the time. So, just to make sure we\u2019re all on the same page, please explain your fanart to me. What are we looking at?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Well, Gale, we\u2019re looking at Avatar Aang from Avatar: The Last Airbender<\/em> typing on a Dunder Mifflin computer. He\u2019s looking over his shoulder because Dwight Schrute is spying on him. YEAH.

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I was really delighted to get this unexpected crossover in my inbox, and feel like I can kind of see the seeds of your later work starting to germinate here. You\u2019re trusting that your audience will understand both characters well enough to get a good laugh, and using expressive cartooning to help push that comedy. (I don\u2019t know what it is about little dot eyes, but they kill me.) Do you see any parallels between your past interests and your comics today?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ah, you got it! Unexpected crossovers might just be the throughline of my work! Even when I was a kid, I loved creating unlikely mashups in my fanart, bringing together TV shows and animated series with completely different vibes. It\u2019s not a surprise, then, that my current webcomic Check, Please!<\/a> brings together clashing vibes of baking and hockey.

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Check Please! Book One: Hockey<\/em>, available everywhere.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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A little bird told me that you made this entirely in Gimpshop, which threw me bodily into the past. I have been reunited with my old MP3 player and am desperately trying to download one Pokemon song to put on it. How old were you when you made this? What got you into Gimpshop?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Because I meticulously organized all of my digital art in high school, I know exactly how old I was when I made this! It was winter of 2007 and I had just turned 17 and was in junior year of high school. How I found GimpShop, uh, is a bit less clear. I believe it was one of the more popular free digital coloring programs in the 00\u2019s and I cavalierly downloaded it onto my family\u2019s home computer. I was probably using my friend Lara\u2019s Bamboo Wacom tablet too!

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Do you remember what was on your mind at this time in your life? Either in reality or in fandom. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Oh my goodness. In 2007, I was probably worried about our high school newspaper\u2019s monthly page layouts and surviving my AP class course load. Fandom-wise, I remember being BIG into Eureka<\/em>, which was on the sci-fi channel, as well as being utterly obsessed with Avatar: The Last Airbender<\/em>. ALSO, this was the year I discovered Jeeves And Wooster<\/em>!

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Is this representative of what you were generally drawing at the time? Did you draw a lot? Was there anything you remember fixating on – a style, a subject, a character?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In 2007, about 20% of my art was heartfelt and dramatic, while the remaining 80% was all humor and gags. I drew Aang and Zuko getting involved in numerous shenanigans all the time. I could not stop. The Aang-as-a-Lonely-Island-Boys-Member-Dick-In-A-Box fanart was the height of my depravity. 

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Ngozi Ukazu, 2007, GimpShop. his SMILE i’m CRYING<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Did you ever show your fanart to your family or friends? Did they get it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Yep! To my friend Lara every day in English class. We always got in trouble!

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Did you share this, or other work, online? What was that experience like, and how did it affect you? Any fond or horrible memories?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I posted this particular piece on DeviantArt and on LiveJournal. I was addicted to getting \u201clols\u201d and \u201cXD\u201d responses!

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Speaking of being online, you\u2019re an active advocate for the up-and-coming social media platform Pillowfort<\/a>. As a casual user, I definitely get LiveJournal vibes from some of its functionality. Like, good LiveJournal, before things got weird. Is this something that appealed to you when you started getting into Pillowfort? What do you dream of, when it comes to the Ideal Online Experience?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Pillowfort takes the best features of LiveJournal, updates them with the best features from Tumblr, and then combines everything with the mindset that your space online should be your space. The founder of Pillowfort is Julia Baritz<\/a>, and she and I were both in the Star Trek<\/em> fandom in 2009. We didn\u2019t know each other then, but both remember how much fun it was to be in an active fandom on LiveJournal. My Ideal Online Experience would be something like that–a huge fandom with lots of activity, but on a place like Pillowfort where you can control who gets access to your space.

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Would you still call yourself a fan of Avatar: The Last Airbender <\/em>and The Office<\/em>? Do you see them differently now?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I can\u2019t say that I\u2019ve ever truly been a fan of The Office<\/em>, even though I find the show hilarious. I\u2019m definitely still a fan of Avatar<\/em>. Avatar<\/em> just recently celebrated its 15 year anniversary. The show holds up well!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ngozi Ukazu, 2007, GimpShop. the range this has the power this has<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Who was your favorite character when you were first watching Avatar<\/em>, and has that changed over time? If so, why? If not, what about them still resonates with you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I still love the character Sokka, because I always enjoy a snarky comedian-type character. But at the end of the day, Aang fits the character archetype that resonates with me most. I love upbeat and outgoing characters who have massive– sometimes overwhelming– responsibility to others or the world.

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What are you into today? Is there anything you\u2019re trying to bully all your friends into reading\/watching, and what do you NEED people to know about it? (I have\u2026.. a few guesses. \u26f5\ud83e\udd35)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I love the Aubrey\/Maturin series by Patrick O\u2019Brien! Also, I\u2019m recently revisiting my love for Jeeves and Wooster<\/em>, a series from P.G. Wodehouse. I love the comedy and adventure of these series so much. Also, I love stories where two very different guys get to be best friends and enjoy each other\u2019s company.

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Any advice for young people who\u2019d like to do what you do?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Draw with abandon! The fan works that you\u2019re making right now are exactly what you should be making. Don\u2019t ever feel that your work is unimportant or foolish. If it makes you laugh, smile, or feel something, then you are exploring who you are as a person and artist.

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Thanks again for dropping by! Let\u2019s do this again sometime.<\/strong>
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THANKS, GALE!

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Ngozi’s most recent book, Check, Please! 2: Sticks & Scones, <\/strong>is hot off the presses and can be found at your favorite indie bookstores and comic shops! It’s an absolute delight – go buy it now!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You might be surprised to discover that this piece was created by none other than Ngozi Ukazu, acclaimed artist of Check, Please!, and I am proud to have had the opportunity to interrogate her about it below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[10,7,11],"class_list":["post-178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews","tag-avatar","tag-interviews","tag-the-office"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/galesaur.com\/tfww\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ngozi_feat_revised.jpg?fit=401%2C483&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/galesaur.com\/tfww\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/galesaur.com\/tfww\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/galesaur.com\/tfww\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galesaur.com\/tfww\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galesaur.com\/tfww\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/galesaur.com\/tfww\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":856,"href":"https:\/\/galesaur.com\/tfww\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178\/revisions\/856"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galesaur.com\/tfww\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/galesaur.com\/tfww\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galesaur.com\/tfww\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galesaur.com\/tfww\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}