Live Chat with Tim Buckley, Xfire

Xfire Chatrooms, November 21, 2005.
Reporter(s): Drake


Recently, I was browsing CAD, my favourite webcomic of all time. Seeing an announcement for an upcoming live chat/interview with Tim Buckley, the creator of the webcomic, my first insticint was to enter. On the morning of Nov 21st, 2005, I received an email naming me as a participant for the Live Chat with Tim. Little did I know I was among 100 eager participants. To help keep order, the Xfirestaff created three separate chat rooms: one for general questions, one for questions for Tim, and one with the actual transcription of the session. Below is the official transcript (with slight edits to match our format) of the event, taken with permission from both Xfire and Tim Buckley.

Participants:
Tim/Absath – Artist of the Webcomic Ctrl+Alt+Del
Pierre – Webdesigner of Ctrl+Alt+Del
Xfyre – Xfire Staff and Moderator for general chat and questions room
Fredrick – Xfire Staff and Moderator for general chat and questions room

[Start Chatroom] The room title is now “Central Command – Answer Room. Look for answers here!”.


Frederic
: Hi All! Hallo! Bonjour! Hola! We would like to thank you all for participating in the live chat with Tim Buckley from Ctrl+Alt+Del today!

Xfyre: OK ALL

Xfyre: WE’RE ABOUT TO GET STARTED

Xfyre: So we’d really like to thank Tim and Pierre for being here today.

Xfyre: As well as all of you for showing up 🙂

Frederic: Roger that! 🙂

Xfyre: We’ll be doing about an hour of Q&A…as you know, ask your questions in the Question room and we’ll answer as many as we can down here.

Xfyre: Following the chat, we’ll have a raffle for the free games 🙂

Xfyre: So with that….let’s get started…..

Tim I have a question for you, Do you feel it’s an injustice to gamers to constantly be forced to buy the latest and greatest system? Be it replacing your PlayStation for the PlayStation 2 or just upgrading your pc to play the hottest games on the shelves?

Tim: It used to be. But with consoles now, developers have finally picked up on backwards compatibility. Only just, but better late than never. As far as buying the consoles to play new games, well, if we didn’t do that, the technology would never advance. We’d be trying to play Halo in 8 bits on our Nintendo’s. But nobody forces you to buy new consoles. It’s just the trade off if you want to play the newest games with the best graphics.

If CAD were a fajita, would it be chicken or beef?

Tim: Beef, baby.

Why did you feel the need to bring back XBot? Will there be a XBox 360 bot?

Tim The Xbot is one of my favorite characters. It was my plan to bring him back before you guys every saw him die. And as far as the Xbot 360…you’ll just have to wait and see. Nobody ever gets to know plotlines in advance. Not even my own mother.

Is it possible to have a description of the comics in the comic archive?

Tim: Each comic has keywords. Pierre is in the process of building the search function that will allow you to search them

what do you guys do in your off time???

Tim: What free time? =P Work keeps me pretty busy, but if I have free time, I spend it gaming, or spend it with my girlfriend, or both.

Pierre: About free time, I play World of Warcraft, do some coding and play ice hockey.

How much bandwidth does the site use?

Pierre: About the bandwidth, the site uses a couple of TB every month. (1 TB is 1000 Gigs)

Hey Tim, was there a main decision that made you drop college/work and start writing the comic full-time or was it a number of different factors?

Tim: I’ve never been a big fan of school 😉 I gave college a shot, twice actually. The second time, during the first semester, in a particularly boring graphic designs class, is when I started CAD. After a while I enjoyed it so much, and it was growing so exponentially, I dropped school to see what I could make of the comic.

Hello Tim, thank you for letting us chat with you(it’s a honour). My question is: Will you ever go to a convention somewhere in Europe for your European fans?(I’m dying to meet you.)

Tim: I would love to get overseas for a convention, but it’s mostly a matter of getting invited and travel/lodging etc.

What is your general day like as a webcomic guru? Do you read other comics?

Tim: My days are incredibly varied. Usually I start off with answering/reading email for about an hour. Then it’s onto one of a dozen projects I have going at once. I usually work 12-14 hours a day

How hard is it to do the CAD website? Do you spend a lot of time on it, or is it quite simple? I’ve never actually seen behind the scenes of such a popular website, so why don’t you give us some insight?

Pierre: The site is not really complicated. The important part was to make sure that everything someone sees is cached as all pages are viewed a lot. You just can’t make a totally dynamic website. Everything gets cached and there is no database calls.

Pierre, in what program do you use to code?

PierreEditplus. It’s the only software I use.

Pierre: How long did you spend learning/coding HTML/PHP?

Pierre: I’ve been coding for years… I started using PHP when it was at version 3 and never went back.

For a young comic artist such as myself is it worth it to start a comic and how much dose a comic artist make a month?

Tim: You cannot, cannot, cannot go into this expecting to make money. Out of the literally hundreds of thousands of web comics out there, only a handful of us make enough money off of them to call it a living. If you are going to start a web comic, do it because you love it. Because you want to share your stories with other people. If you do it for money, I guarantee your comic will be a failure. If you do it for love, there is no way you can’t succeed.

Frederic: Please, stop spamming as it will only result in your muting/ banning as well as exclusion from the game raffle. 🙂 Thanks!

Who was your role model growing up?

Tim: Todd McFarlane, and Bruce Lee.

What are the specs of the comps you use for gaming?

Tim: My gaming rig is an Athlon 64 3700+ on Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe. 80gb SATA HD, 2GB Ram, Dual GeForce 6800GT’s.

Pierre – I myself am starting coding, although I have never taken a class I understand the basics of most languages. Did you take classes, or did you learn from tinkering?

Pierre: Everything I know, I learned myself. Look at other people’s code, buy a couple of O’Reilly books and that’s all you need… well this, time and patience :).

Will you ever consider making a CAD movie or video game??

Tim: I have considered it to great extent 😉

How many hate mails have you gotten from Jack Thompson?

Tim: Only one. It wasn’t anything worth sharing.

When you were growing up, what did you want to be when you were an adult?

Tim: From as far back as I can remember, I wanted to draw comic books. My goals switched to film/claymation for a couple of years in high school. But then I came back around to comics again.

What do you think of the Xbox 360 and are any of the launch titles on your wanted list?

Tim: I actually just got word that my 360 had shipped. It will be arriving tomorrow. I got Kameo, PGR, Call of Duty and Perfect Dark with it. I had wanted Dead or Alive 4, but it got pushed back and replaced with call of duty

Pierre: How did you meet Tim? Are you strictly business partners, or good friends? Explain if possible.

Pierre: I met Tim a couple years ago when I went to him to purchase some advertising for my former company. I though he was a great guy with a really cool web comic so when I started ZeStuff, it was clear in my mind I wanted him to be on board. Things picked up from there and I started helping him more in his day to day operations. We have since then developed a great relation… Straight relation!

How did you meet Brittany?

Tim: Heh, that’s sort of an interesting story. The very first convention i ever attended was Connecticon in 2003. Her sister is the co-chairman (she helps run the convention) and so Brittany was there, and that is where I first met here (very briefly). Over the next couple of years, I became good friends with Matt and Briana (who run Connecticon), until we all got an apartment together in Connecticut last October. It was then that I started spending time with and really getting to know Brittany and we fell in love.

Pokemon or Digimon (we REALLY wanna know man!)

Tim: I honestly don’t even know what the difference is…

How did the idea of the Chef episodes develop? Is there a point to them, or are they just there to mess around with your loving audience? 😀 

Tim: I was drunk. To be more specific, back when I was still updating five or seven days a week, I went out drinking one night, and hadn’t done the comic for the next day yet. I knew I had to get something drawn before I passed out, and when I woke up, there was Chef Brian.

What is your most time-consuming game?

Answer: Right now, it’s World of Warcraft. Actually, the most time consuming game for me is always an MMORPG. It started with Everquest. Damned timesinks, those games.

Pierre: What’s your advice for a young web designer looking to get started in the business, and what would you advise for a learning method?

Pierre: Work a portfolio. Really…do as many projects as you can to build up your skills. Do websites for your friends, families and even free work for small companies. Once you’re confident enough, it’ll be time to throw yourself in the freelance work. But with so many web designers out there, do yourself a favor and make sure you have quality work to show to people before you ask for their money ;).

Pierre: ZeStuff is obviously a very lively site. Did you one day just decide “I think I’ll try this out”, or did you just have the resources to make an attempt? Is being an entrapeneur profitable?

Pierre: Brian Clevinger (www.nuklearpower.com) needed some help with his own store. By the time I offered to find him a printer and ship him his shirts, Scott Ramsoomair also asked if I was interested in doing his store work. Within 2 months, our first store was online and we were serving their customers. Being your own boss can be as fun as it can be a pain. You don’t have reliable pays and you work long hours but at the end of the day, I would not do anything else.

What’s your build in World of Warcraft?

Tim: The character I play right now with the Ctrl+Alt+Del guild is a L60 Shadow Priest. I melt faces.

Pierre: how many CAD orders do you get a day?

Pierre: I have no idea…. I’m not in charge of shipping stuff.

What Would Jesus Do for a Klondike bar?

Pierre: He’d probably just take one… I mean, he’s freaking Jesus.

Tim when do you think the MX-3 will be all ready to go?

Tim: Hehe, it’s almost done. It’s been well worth the wait. I actually went to see it tonight. I’ll show you a picture, one secE http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/temp/mx1.jpg. There she is. Only a little bit more work to go. Wet sanding the paint and then buffing, and some detail work

Pierre, what made you or Tim want to change the layout of the site? Although it looks great I didn’t see any flaws with the previous design.

Pierre: Tim felt it was time for something new.

How did u come up with the Mac panthers? That’s just genius!

Tim: It really all just fell into place. Sometimes the humor just writes itself.

Pierre, I sometimes decide to code a small feature for a site in PHP, then the next thing I realize its 5 hours on and I’m close to making a full CMS system when all I wanted was a password system. Do you ever get those days where you code for no reason?

Pierre: Back when I was working as a programmer, I would code for them about 10 hours a day and then go home to code some personal projects for about 4-5 hours. I code to relax from coding. Go figure.

If I’m going to get at least one question answered, it’d best be this: Would you play a game involving pants made out of the hair of Jesus?

Tim: Third person or first person perspective?

Favorite flavor of Mountain Dew?

Tim: I don’t drink soda

Tim: what did you think of the combat revamp in SWG?

Tim: I feel sort of bad for the people who still play that game. At least it was unique before. Now they just want to turn it into a World of Warcraft clone. I half expected one of the iconic professions to be “Orc Rogue”

Pierre: It’s very obvious you’re a talented coder, and that must take some time. What do you like to do in your spare time? Movies? Spend time with a significant other? Or videogames as well? or something else?

Pierre: I play ice hockey and World of Warcraft, mostly. Since me and my “significant other” are also getting prepared for Baby #1, that takes the rest of my time right now. I’ve also been seen to sleep at occasions.

Who would win in a fight, Staypuft Marshmallow Man or Godzilla (This is to Tim and Pierre)?

Pierre: The Kool Aid guy.
Tim: I’d vote for Ultraman

Tim, Do you like the Starcraft series?

Tim: <3 <3 Starcraft. And I’m really looking forward to Ghost. I had a chance to play multiplayer at E3 and it was a blast. Of course I was the only person on my team doing anything. I was flying our base around shouting for help while one of their Ghosts was inside trying to kill me.

Pierre: Excluding anything you’ve designed, what would you say has been the most stylish site you’ve seen?

Pierre: I’m a programmer, not a designer. I don’t do things beautiful, I make them efficient.

Tim and/or Pierre: If you could only choose one game system, which would it be? 360, PS3, or Revolution?

Pierre: I have no idea. Since I’m not buying any of them, not before a good while anyway, I’m not in the loop.

Pierre: As someone who has no experience with programming, how would one get into the “business”?

Pierre: Get experience? Check my earlier answer to FTA Satan

Here’s my question, what new games are you anticipating?

Tim: Off the top of my head, the new Elder Scrolls. It looks amazing.

Tim: What is your internet connection?

Tim: Broadband. FreakinEComcast =P 😉

Tim or Pierre: Which one of you would win in a fight?

Pierre: Tim’s a black belt and I don’t run too fast.

Tim: Yeah, I’m a black belt in Tae Kwon Do.

Are all the CAD characters based on real people?

Tim: No. Ethan and Lucas are based visually off of my best friend and me. All of the personalities are created though

Tim: You have a knack for art and being humorous at the same time, that’s quite some talent. Are there any other talents you have that people might not be informed about? For example, maybe you’re a craftsperson. Is there anything else you excel in?

Answer: I’m pretty good with mechanical stuff, and I enjoy working on my cars when I can, to an extent. There is still stuff I leave to professionals. In high school, my best friend and I won a bunch of awards for our claymation. We were flown down to DC to accept an award at the John F. Kennedy center. A National Scholastic Gold Key, to be exact

Tim and Pierre: Have you read Ender’s game? If so, what did you think of it?

Pierre: doesn’t ring a bell, sorry.

Tim: I read it in high school. I really enjoyed it. But not the sequels very much

Do you ever give speeches?

Tim: Not really speeches, but I do Q&A sessions at conventions.

What do you prefer PC or Console games?

Pierre: PC…without a doubt. I guess I’m just used to it.

Tim: PC I think. Though they may even out with the release of the 360, and how easy it is to be online with the console, but I have always enjoyed the mod community that exists for PC games you can’t do that stuff with consoles

Are Applegeeks and CAD going to do anymore crossovers? I know I enjoyed them. My Favorite CAD is “Life in a Jar”.

Tim: We haven’t discussed anything. To be honest, I haven’t read Applegeeks in ages. Who knows what the future holds, though.

Are you guys looking forward to Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess?

Tim: Absolutely. I’m a huge Legend of Zelda fan. I had the limited edition gold cartridge for Ocarina of Time.

Pierre: As earlier stated, I believe you said you learnt everything from yourself or from examples (about coding), but did you ever read any “PHP for dummies” books? Do help books like that help? Are you currently reading any non-informational novels, EX: King or Pike?

Pierre: I only read books published by O’Reilly. Nothing else.

Do you guys prefer using Keyboard and mouse for gaming, or do you use a controller or joystick?

Tim: Always a keyboard mouse

Pierre: Mouse and Keyboard. I’m clumsy with a joystick.

Tim: EXCEPT when I was playing Battlefield 2. I bought a very expensive joystick just to use with copters/jets. I sucked with jets, but I was pretty damned good with those whirlybirds.

What are your favorite music artists?

Tim: Way too many to list, but I’ll rattle off some.

Pierre: Boum Desjardins, Mario Pelchat, Daniel Boucher (both from Quebec). For American signers, hum…Green Day, Simple Plan, White Stripes.

Tim: Fall Out Boy, Johnny Cash, A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, My Chemical Romance, Coldplay, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Jason Mraz, Franz Ferdinand, Al Green, Barry White, Marvin Gaye, Oasis, Green Day, Stealer’s Wheel, Ted Nugent, Maroon 5, ZZ Top, Warron Zevon, etc. etc. etc.

Pierre: I’m being corrected about Green Day and Simple Plan. I didn’t mean to say American but English. My bad.

Did you expect such a rush of questions? Does it make you feel good?

Tim: It’s pretty cool, but at the same time I wish it could be more personal than this. That’s what Digital Overload is all about. Hoping to ditch formality and just hang out and play some games with you guys.

Internet Explorer or Firefox?

Pierre: Firefox all the way.

Tim: Firefox, definitely

Tim/Pierre: Obviously we know you’re a big fans of World of WarcraftEr at least play it a lotEhat are your favorite gamesEf all timeEn each of the other stations? (XBOX, PlayStation, GameCube, SNES, SEGA etc.)

Pierre: Shining Forces 2

Tim: Fallout 1 and 2

Tim: Is what you do now the number one thing you want to do/ have accomplished in your life? Do you feel as if you wouldn’t want to be anything else, and are grateful for what you do? (And just for randomness: Do your friends idolize you, or do they just go on like its normal?)

Tim: I couldn’t ask to have a better job than this. Getting to do this for a living is an incredible experience that I am very thankful for. I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world

Tim/Pierre: Have You Ever Heard Dane Cook? What do you think?

Tim:Heh a couple of years ago a friend of mine had me listen to a tape of his. i thought he was pretty funny, but forgot all about him. Recently I’ve been hearing his name a lot, so i grabbed his triple CD that (I guess) just came out. He’s a pretty funny dude.

Pierre: Have you ever been a “junkie” to a game? For Example, I used to be HOOKED on Star Wars Galaxies (Pre CU!!!) and I couldn’t get enough of it. Has this ever happened to you?

Pierre: That would be my relation to World of Warcraft most of the time. I’m in a down right now which is good because things are getting done ;D.

Tim or Pierre iTunes, Winamp or Windows media player?

Pierre: Was WinAmp until it stopped working but I’m too lazy to figure out why so iTunes now.

Where did you get the name Tim from?

Tim: Tim was a name I used for a character in some fantasy short stories I used to write. I used it for my cleric in Everquest, and have been using it ever since. It originally was a deviation from the worth “Absinthe”

PIERRE: Have you ever written or will you write any Firefox extensions?

Pierre: I write when I need and right now, I don’t need anything else added to it :).

Tim, I know that you are a very big World of Warcraft fan, but how do you feel about it’s rival, Final Fantasy XI? Myself being an avid FFXI player I would like to know what attracts you to World of Warcraft and why you think it is better. What do you think the Pro’s and Con’s are of each game? Perhaps your answer will finally settle the masses of World of Warcraft and FFXI rivals.

Tim:I really disliked FFXI. Madsen from Little Gamers made me try it out. I guess I’ve never been a big fan of Final Fantasy anyway, so that may be why I didn’t like the game

Tim or Pierre – i’m currently sitting in a moldy old bean bag chair. What do you sit in?

Tim: A pile of money. 😉

Pierre: Tim’s money

What is your favorite liquor?

Tim: I would have to say, overall, Captain Morgan is my best bud 😉

Pierre: Amaretto diSaronno. No other brand

Is there any way i can get those Morrowind Skins you made?

Tim: I’ve never really released any of my Morrowind skins. I did skinning work for Jedi Knight 2. You may be thinking of Ian from Mac Hall. He did a lot of Morrowind work.

What’s your favorite board game?

Tim: Puerto Rico. I kick ass at that game

What Happened to CAD Battlefield 2?

Tim: I got back into World of Warcraft and lost interest in Battlefield 2 🙁

Hey Tim, you got Halo Pc or CE? If you do, please tell me.

Tim:No, I don’t have Halo on the PC. I play that one strictly console

Tim/Pierre: What is your favorite SNES game?

Pierre: That would be Final Fantasy 3 (now called Final Fantasy 6).

Tim: Shadowrun ;). I loved me some of that game. All night long.

Tim: We may be wrapping this soon, so I just want to slip this in here….December 1st. Big, big announcement. Watch for it ;). You won’t be disappointed.

Pierre: What was the very first site you made? 

Pierre: My first ever site was RPGCGI.com. There’s nothing on it now but I still own the domain. I can’t resolve myself to get rid of it. It’s like my first internet steps.

Xfyre: I’d just like to say now, thanks a ton to Tim and Pierre for being here 🙂

Tim: You’re welcome 😉

Pierre: It was a real pleasure!

Tim: I can stay and answer questions until my girlfriend gets home.

Tim: Then we’re going to see Walk the Line

Pierre: I have 15 more minutes until I have to leave for my hockey game.

Pierre: I can answer some more too.

Question: How do you feel about the web comic by Scott Ramsoomair, VGCats, and will you being doing any joint projects with him or any other web comic artists? 

Tim: I’d love to do some joint projects with Scott (VGCats). He’s just have to wake up for more than an hour or two 😉

Tim: Shamans are overpowered agree/disagree?

Tim: Mildly disagree. I played a Shaman up to level 46. I can see where people get the idea they are overpowered, but it mostly stems from ignorance. People just don’t know how to fight a shaman. I can wreck shaman with my shadow priest. They can be beaten, if you know how.

Xfyre: We’ll be running the raffle after they head out, so stick around 🙂

Pierre: with the announcement of a big announcement being on December 1st, do you think the website will stand up to a slashdotting? 🙂

Pierre: I’m not worried about that ;D

*The Offspring or Green Day?

Tim: I would have to say Green Day, but only because of American Idiot. Offspring has more consistency in their earlier albums.

Pierre: Green Day

Tim: But American Idiot was really good.

Tim, if you could create a WOW race and class, what would it be?

Pierre: happy fun time trolls? 😀

Tim: Ogres and Deathknights (Horde version of Paladins)

If you had a CAD breakfast cereal, what would be in it?

Tim: Nothing but marshmallows. Even the freaking box would be made out of marshmallow. You’d die of sugar overdose

Do you still want a murloc pet:

Pierre: YES!!! 🙁

What’s your opinion of in-game advertising?

Tim: I think it’s a cool idea, if it fits. Don’t put it in there just to put advertising in there, but if there is a billboard there anyway, why not put a real advert on it? Just don’t slap Pepsi all over the gun in Doom 3.

In your opinion have game endings become Worse Recently? i.e. Halo 2 Half-Life 2.

Tim: hehe no. at least we GET endings now. When I was a kid it was just “Game Over, thanks for playing!”, and it kicked you back to the title screen.

For Tim: Have you ever considered ending the Ctrl Alt Del series? As in bringing it to a close?

Tim: Never seriously. I’ve got a pretty hot temper, but I love CAD too much to stop.

Pierre: Well folks, it’s a wrap for me. Thank you very much and see you around later 😀

What is your favorite anime?

Tim: Berserk

Tim: Thanks for joining in pierre 😉

Xfyre: Thanks pierre!

Pierre: Thanks XFire! It was fun.

Tim: Go kick someone in the face with your skates for me

Xfyre: lol

Pierre: I’m a goalie 🙁

Will you make Pierre and you actual characters in CAD?

Tim: I have appeared in CAD, from time to time. Pierre is too pretty to be in the comic.

Tim : If you were to change 1 thing in the world, what would it be?

Tim: I’d get rid of ignorance. I think all other problems would be automatically solved

How did you decide to use the name Control Alt Del?

Tim: “Overclocked” was already taken. In the end, I liked Ctrl+Alt+Del better anyway

Red or Blue?

Tim: Green. Green is my favorite color. But I look better in blue. It matches my eyes

cadpierre has left the room.

My girlfriend is a BIG fan of CAD (unable to make it tonight unfortunately), would you ever been interested in helping me propose to her through a comic?

Tim: I couldn’t do it via a comic, unfortunately. I could do it on the front page though. With maybe an image of Ethan saying something like “Hey, this jerkface wants you to marry him. Do you pity him enough to say yes?” 😉

DS or PSP?

Tim: PSP, definitely. Although the DS has been pulling up from behind over the last couple of months. The PSP looks sexier though

Have you ever watched the Pure Pwnage episodes?

Tim: I’ve seen some of the Pure Pwnage episodes. A lot of people email them to me because they think Doug is a real life Rob 😉

Tim, why do you hate Nintendo?

Tim: Whoever said I hated Nintendo? =P. I fought on their side in the Nintendo Versus Sega wars of the eighties and early nineties.

If the world was ending and you could only take 3 games with you, what would they be and why?

Tim: Oblivion, The Warriors, and Halo 2. I’m not sure why I would need 3 games if the world was ending though…

Tim, plans for future? 5 yrs 10 yrs?

Tim: Keep doing CAD for as long as I can. I’ve got plenty of other things in the works. One of them will be revealed to you on December 1st 😉

Tim: In the CAD comic, Ethan once had Dial-up internet. Were these comics of obvious pain and suffering meant to describe your own pain of Dial-up? Or have you never had it? Were you trying to reach out to 56kers?

Tim: I had dial up for the longest time. Due to where I lived on Cape Cod, we always got things late. I didn’t get cable TV until I was in high school. I moved away to Rhode Island, then back home to cape cod, which is when I started the comic and it was when broadband finally came to our area so for the first month or two of the comic, I was working on dial up

Does your family read the comic?

Tim: Absolutely. Though sometimes I wish they didn’t. I feel really awkward posting certain comics knowing my grandmother reads them. But my family is really cool about it. My parents are really big fans.

Family Guy or Simpsons?

Tim: Family Guy is wonderful, but the Simpsons win out for me. It has staying power.

What do you think of Fatal1ty, or pro-gaming in general?

Tim: That uber gamer that makes a living winning tournaments? More power to them. As someone who (in a sense) makes their living playing video games… if you can do it, DO IT.

Tim, which of the comic’s you’ve drawn is your favorite?

Tim: There is no way I can choose a favorite from the nearly 700 I’ve drawn. If I could make one book/movie /game into a MMORPG, it would, without a doubt, be George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Fire and Ice series.

what’s the fastest time you’ve drawn a comic?

Tim: I think I’ve banged them out on a couple of hours, when I was really under pressure…

Tim, what do you think of Australians?

Tim: I love that accent

Will you guys be doing something like this again but with less people? Tim: I would love to do this again sometime

Will the arrow gag ever return?

Tim: I currently have no plans to bring that back. Those sort of jokes you have to retire before they get old, so they are remembered fondly, and not with a “good riddance” attitude. But who knows. Perhaps someday, just for old time’s sake….

Another Comic question! In the comic, when Ethan is drunk, he is known to have a little flying winged vodka bottle as a friend. I know Ethan is only based off you physically — but be honest, did you one day see a flying beer bottle while drunk?

Tim: Crazy things happen when you are drunk on Absinthe…

Do you have any pets?

Tim: Not anymore. For a time I had a Bengal cat named Amsterdam, but he wasnt content to be an indoor cat, and ran away. Currently I take care of my girlfriend’s two dogs, Wicket and Dundee. I’m much more of a dog person than a cat person anyway. When I get my own house, I plan to get a Siberian. I’ve wanted one forever.

Tim – Have you ever been tempted to learn Japanese, just so you could order games and consoles earlier then the American release, just so you could try them out?

Tim: Not knowing Japanese has never stopped me from ordering imports ;). It depends on the game. I had f-zero imported before it came out here, because who cares what they’re saying anyway?

What game do you feel to be the most innovative in its genre?

Tim: Grand Theft Auto comes to mind. Hell, they practically created a genre of their own, the “lets piss off that moron Jack Thompson” genre. Who may now be getting disbarred, if you hadn’t heard? What an f!@#&* moron

Tim, favorite story to tell at a party?

Tim: Hehe I’ve got one, but it makes me sound like a complete jerk.

What video game hero do you relate to the most?

Tim: Raziel from Legacy of Kain. Because of the no jaw thing, and the soul eating thing. And he’s cool, and I’m cool…

Tim: Alright, alright, I’ll tell the story. But keep in mind, this was years back, I’m more mature now. ;). So I and a couple of my best friends were in a White Hen Pantry (a Seven Eleven type deal) at like 2 in the morning on Cape Cod one night. Getting munchies. We get our stuff, and we go up to the register and there’s some drunk dude there hitting on the girl working. We’re hungry and he’s just being a jackass, and they’re jabbering away. My friends and I are whispering to each other and giving each other looks.

Frederic: Thanks so much for staying a bit longer, Tim. 🙂

Tim: The drunk guy makes some sort of jest, and the woman behind the counter replies with a laugh “No, I’m not blonde you know!” and I turned to my friends and whispered “No, but you’re fat as )($*#, though.” And at THAT moment, the store chose to be absolutely quiet, and my comment freaking echoed. My two friends ran to the back of the store and stuck their heads in the freezer and started laughing their asses off, while I was standing there getting the evil eye from the chick and the drunk dude. 😉

Is Brittany A Gamer? If so, do you guys have a game you guys play together?

Tim: She’s not a mega gamer, but she does enjoy games. She loves to watch me play Shadow of the Colossus, and she even beat one of them herself (the armadillo colossus thing), and she kicks my ass in Soul Calibur.

Who’s your favorite character in Soul Calibur? Brittany’s favorite? 

Tim: My favorite character is and always will be Maxi. She mixes it up a lot

Tim: Out of the many comics you’ve made, and company decisions as well, have you ever made a comic, or made a decision, that after creating/doing, you regretting creating/doing it? Have you made any real “mistakes” in your career?

Tim: Yeah. Getting involved in stupid web comic drama I’ve done that at times, and it’s just a waste of time. Unfortunately when someone says something stupid, my first instinct is to correct them, talk sense into them. I need to learn that people will be stubborn about their own ignorance, and ignore stupid drama

Tim: what do you think of Steam?????

Tim: My limited experience with it (Half Life 2) wasn’t too bad. But I’ve heard nasty things. In concept it doesn’t seem too bad, but in practice apparently it sucks.

What is your opinion on the katamari games?

Tim:Those are addicting. I’m looking forward to the next one.

Mario or Luigi?

Tim: Mario and Luigi both suck. They’re a gnome warrior and mage in this guild called on my server, a guild that uses every cheat and exploit in the game to get ahead. is more like it. But the originals, I’d say Mario.

Tim: Ok guys, we have to wrap this up.

Tim: I need to head out to a movie with Brittany.

Xfyre: I’ll be running the raffle in a minute

Tim: I had a lot of fun, thanks for showing up

Tim: You guys are awesome 😉

Xfyre: But first, let’s all give a round of applause to Tim 🙂

Tim: Hopefully we can do this again sometime.

Xfyre: For dropping by and putting up with getting flooded with questions LOL

Tim: Brittany says Hello ;).

Tim: Have a great night and a great Thanksgiving!

Tim: Ciao ;).

Xfyre: Seya Time!

Xfyre: err

Xfyre: Tim

Xfyre: Ok all…….

Xfyre: We’ve got 10 games to raffle

Xfyre: 3 copies of Battlefield 2, 3 copies of Serious Sam II, 2 copies of Need for Speed 2, and 2 of Black & White 2

Xfyre: I’ll be picking the names randomly from the participants

Xfyre: If you win, please send me a message with your name and shipping address so that we can ship the game 🙂

Xfyre: Ok….first the 3 copies of Battlefield 2

Tim has left the room.

Xfyre: First is….Eric!

Xfyre: Next is…..Scan!

Xfyre: Last Battlefield 2 is……cowkiller67!

Xfyre: Okay….Serious Sam II up now

Xfyre: killerb4nana!

Xfyre: Next…backerdem!

Frederic: Thanks all for participating! We hope to see you all for the Mountain Dew MDX event this Saturday!

Frederichttp://www.xfire.com/xf/modules.php?name=XFire&file=cmspage&body=xf_mdx

Xfyre: Last Serious Sam II is….TstclrCncr!

Xfyre: Ok……

Xfyre: 2 copies of Need for Speed Underground II….

Xfyre: century0!

Xfyre: And second one is……Mark!

Xfyre: Ok…..

Xfyre: Black & White II!

Xfyre: tl.Simline!

Xfyre: And last one….Phil!
[End Chat]