Interview With Omeow of Oi!: Tales of Bardic Fury

 

1. What drove you to make webcomics? Why choose that medium?

 

I just like making comics in general and want to make my work easy for more new readers to find. Even though I create my work intended for the print versions, the majority of comic readers today read webcomics, so it would be crazy not to publish your work online. I started putting my webcomics online in 2012 and have been doing it ever since. The instant direct feedback I get from readers is really useful when working on new pages.

 

I want as many people to read my comic as possible and putting it free to read online is the best way to do that.

 

2. Why set Oi in ancient Ireland? What attracted you to Irish culture and folklore?

 

In the original concept of the story, it was going to be set in a generic fantasy setting. When I told my college teacher about my research of historic bards in Ireland and Wales in preparation for making the comic, she suggested I set the story in the real world instead, to avoid it being too similar to Game of Thrones. I have always loved Asterix comics as well as world history, so decided to go with this idea. I wanted to make a story about bards and druids, and Ireland was one of the regions where that culture truly flourished. Bard satires had the power to make kings step down, if they were vicious enough. Ireland had a society that gave druids, bards and their music a great amount of power, so I thought it would be best to set the story there. Ireland also resisted Romanization at a time when the rest of Europe was part of the Empire, and I didn’t want the story to be too Roman-centric. I don’t have anything against the Romans, but having read and seen many stories in that setting in my life, I wanted to try something different. I love all mythology, and did not know much about Irish mythology before starting this comic. It was a pleasure to research and learn about while writing this story. Oi is a fantasy comic and not historically accurate and full of anachronisms, but I try to take inspiration from real history and myth to keep it somewhat grounded.

 

3. Music is very important to Oi’s story. What kind of music do you like? How has music influenced the characters and story of Oi? What kind of music do you like?

 

Like most people, music has always been an important part of my life. I used to play saxaphone in middle school orchestra, and played bass in different bands in high school and college, so some of that experience helps inspire the comic. Character designs are also influenced by the fashions of famous idols and pop stars. Rhiannon for example is named after the Fleetwood Mac song, and the costumes she wears are inspired by Stevie Nicks and Janis Joplin, and Dana’s look is inspired by Blondie, Nancy Spungen and Flea from Red Hot Chili Peppers. I also wanted to do a comic that wasn’t centered around fighting and thought centering it around musicians and idols would be interesting. The most recent pages of Oi have been a 60+ page fight scene so that idea’s out the window now.

 

Music a has a lot of power over everyone, so I thought making a comic about the idea of a society that grew up without music being introduced to music would be fun.

 

I love and am open to all kinds of music- EDM, trance, trad, classical, pop rock and hip hop. Some of my favorite artists are Modest Mouse, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Sinead O’ Connor, Amy Winehouse, M.I.A, Katie B, Avicii and Journey. The Pogues are one of my favorite bands. Even though I’m not Irish, for some reason I loved their music. In high school I bought all their CDs, and later in life I got to see Shane MacGowan and the Pogues perform 2 Christmas shows in Brixton Academy. My love of the Pogues music probably put a lot of roots in to me wanting to set the comic in Ireland too.

 

4. In the first few arcs, magic as very low-key in the setting and arguably didn’t exist. Now its more obvious and front-and-center. What made you decide to emphasize magic in the setting more?

 

In the beginning, I tried to be subtle about it. Without music, the people lost their connection to magic. And Bryan the bard, being raised in the repressive druid academy of Tara, does not know the true power of music either. Is Star Seal the druid a crazy cult leader who convinced his daughter she’s a magical selkie princess, or does he actually know what he’s talking about? When I did start introducing magic in to the story, I wanted it to start subtle. The idea is that all of the characters other than Star Seal start the story at a pretty low level, so even when magic does happen it is not that impressive. It’s finally at this point in the story that magic is starting to be more fully introduced as a major element of the plot, just like it is in real Celtic and world mythology. I wanted to give the reader the experience the characters are feeling as they learn about their true power to control and bend space-time itself by jamming on their instrument and resonating with the universe.

 

5. What does the future hold for OI? What would you like to do with the comic? Where would you like to take the story?

 

After finishing the Banshee Vale arc, I want to do some shorter episodic stories focused on the characters for awhile. The next major arc I have been planning for a long time is the Servius’s Sister Retrieval arc, that will fulfill a plotpoint that was first introduced in Chapter 3- Servius the freed slave’s quest to find his sister Artemisia. Back when they were children, Servius’ parents sold him in to slavery in order to pay for Artemisia’s tuition after she was identified as having oracle potential. She’s currently studying in the Oracle Academy in Delphi, and Servius and the idols of Oi will have to venture out of Ireland and in to the Mediterranean world to find them. I am excited to expand the world of Oi and introduce new mythologies, bards and idols from other cultures in to the story. This arc has been planned for a long time and I can’t wait to draw it. As for the comic itself, I’d like to one day translate it to Irish, French, Spanish and Japanese. I’d love to keep drawing Oi as long as possible and look forward to being able to expand the world and scope of the comic. As long as people are willing to keep reading it, I will be happy to continue drawing it. I love this world and these characters and am grateful other people want to read about them too.

 

Happy Halloween!

 

Oi! isn’t the only comic in a festive mood! Check out these offerings from other webcomics!

 

From Rooted Together comes a trio of costumes made from nothing less than childhood dreams! Don’t they make you want to turn on the television and watch A Disney Halloween Treat?

 

Amazing how sometimes spooky chills can bring up the warmest memories.

 

 

From Tad Danger, Substitute Ranger, we got Zombie Edge!

 

Dare I say, she’s on the edge of life and death!

 

 

From Bagley the OK Magician, we got an entire Halloween special this evening! Be sure to check it out once it drops! And if you want more spooky chills, Chanchimi’s Space Pack just wrapped up!

 

 

Otto’s Movie Recommendation

 

 

To close out our Halloween Special, if you find yourself wondering what to watch while you wait for Trick-Or-Treaters to knock at your door and/or pelt it with eggs, I have something to recommend: Ghost Cat Mansion (1958). It’s a wonderfully atmospheric film. It opens with a slow flashlight journey through a hospital without power then moves to an abandoned, overgrown mansion in the Japanese countryside, and then goes into a flashback to the feudal era where a ghost cat takes revenge for the tragic demise of her owner and his mother.

 

There’s so much atmosphere in this film that you could have it running in the background of a Halloween party just as visual decoration, but you owe to yourself to watch the film as intended.

 

During the 1950’s, Japan was crazy about ghost cat films. There were so many in the 50’s, ghost cats were to Japan what space aliens were to America. While in America, you couldn’t have ghost films that weren’t comedies, see Ghost Chasers, Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow, Spook Chasers, etc, you could in Japan, probably because the populace still had a strong respect for–and indeed, belief in–ghosts. And for some reason ghost cats were really popular in the 50’s. There was Ghost Cat of the Okazaki Upheaval, Ghost Cat Wall of Hatred, Ghost Cat of Gojusan-Tsugi, and of course, Ghost Cat Mansion, which is a great introduction to the ghost cat genre.

 

Maybe you’ve seen the off-beat 1977 film Hausu, well-loved by fans of obscure and weird cinema. A lot of people wonder why the ghost in Hausu is a cat–the reason is that Hausu is a spoof of the ghost cat genre. Part of the reason its so weird to Western audiences is that the spoof element is lost on them…though that’s not to say Hausu on its own isn’t an exceptionally weird film.

 

Ghost Cat Mansion is about a Tokyo doctor who moves with his bride to the countryside for the sake of her tuberculosis. They move into her old family home in the Kyoto countryside and renovate it into a doctor’s office, but a strange woman starts stalking her…and attacking her. The doctor learns from the local priest that this woman is a ghost, specifically, a ghost cat, and the film then shifts to the feudal era to reveal how the ghost cat came to be. Scenes are present are filmed in black and white with a very moody blue filter while scenes in the past are filmed in color–making it a very rare example of a 50’s Japanese film in color, and the contrast is brilliant. Normally you would think “black and white for the past, color for the present,” but it makes sense when you think about it that they would reverse it–the present is where things are haunted, the past is where things are becoming haunted.

 

Though it was never released outside Japan in the 50’s, today you can watch it all on youtube–and with subtitles! Check it out! At just an hour and 7 minutes it fits on anyone’s Halloween playlist!

 

Ghost cat–way more deadly than sail cat.

 

Happy Halloween, everyone!