Interview conducted by Amy Letts; Reposted with permission.

Barry Linck creator of the webcomic Phineus: Magician for Hire takes the hot seat…

Q1: What is ‘Phineus: Magician For Hire’ about?

A1: Phineus is a fantasy/horror/sci fi comic, published on the web, about a paranormal investigations team.

Phin and Sara Beam make up the Beam Agency. The married couple solve all manners of supernatural problems, from vampires and werewolves, to evil garden gnomes, zombies, Elder Things and evil sentient eyeballs bent on world domination.

Phineus is a wizard. A magic Adept, who can cast spells and do magic. Sara is a gun-toting, butt-kicking archeologist and former superhero. Together they protect the world from all the things that go bump in the night.

Q2: Phineus and Sara may be married but they seem like they’re from different world – How did these two get together?

A2: Well, they are from very different worlds, but the same as well.

In the Phineus universe, certain people are what I call “Freak Magnets”. Certain people are genetically destined to run into the paranormal or supernatural. These two are Freak Magnets.

Aside from that Phineus is all about magic. He was literally born with the ability to control magic, on an innate level. He’s what I call a “Magic Adept”. In D&D terms he’s a Sorcerer, along with the Chaotic Good nature. He’s a little unpredictable. He did get guidance from the Vatican and went to Fourier Mystic-college to learn to control his powers.

Sara was born into a whole other world. She’s fairly normal. Her father was a government agent, working for a secret organization. He taught her about combat and shooting, although no one was aware she , herself has a special ability. She never misses when shooting. Sara became a member of a Pittsburgh-based superhero team, GD7, with her best friend Emily.

During a mission in 1988, Sara and Emily ran into Phineus, who was thrust into a demonic plot. Together they solved the case, and fell in love.They’ve been together ever since.

Sara distrusts magic and only grudgingly uses it, in the form of magical trinkets that Phin gives her.

Q3: What were your inspirations for creating ‘Phineus: Magician for Hire?’

Q3: Well, clearly “Dungeons & Dragons” and other types of gaming…”Warhammer 40,000″ & “Shadowrun”.Comic-wise, Matt Wagner’s “Mage” series’, Bill Willingham’s “Elementals” & “Ironwood”, & all of Mike Mignola’s stuff, “Hellboy”, “BPRD”, “Fahfrd & the Grey Mouser”& “The Chronicles of Corum”.

In films; The Highlander, “Big Trouble In Little China” by John Carpenter. Plus most all of Carpenter’s films. Big Trouble in particular for it’s attitude that you put everything in that you like and make it all work, together.

And all the general mythology, folklore and legends I can devour!

Q4: But you don’t just have a multitude of inspirations, you also have a multitude of projects! How do you manage so many?

A4: Well, all my projects just sort of appear out of nowhere, so it seems.

Phineus has been my obsession for 25 years, now. He was created in high school, during a computer graphics class I was taking at Carnegie Mellon University. I fiddled with him for a while and the Phineus we all know came about in University at Edinboro University (in the US).

During all those years, I’ve been blessed to meet a lot of creative people that I’ve worked with. Brian Babyok was the first and most prolific. We did a bunch of other one off projects over the years and then “Weirdlings” a Lovecraftian webstrip that ran almost 4 years and most recently “Gaslight Tales”.

In addition, I do a Doctor Who parody comic with James Riot, Called “Bastard Who: The Gentleman’s Chronicles” and random projects that people come to me with. I am also toying with the idea of bringing back a comic I did back in the 90′s “Gil:The Walking Dead(or Vampires Suck)”.

I am truly blessed, as I have a load of friends who are writers and get scripts from them for my comics. I love to write, but I love to draw more. I always leave it open, if anyone wants to write me a story, I’ll draw it.

I also have four, count ‘em, FOUR stories of Phineus, being written and drawn for me. That is a kick!

As to how I get it all done, a midst a daytime job and kids and life, I draw fast! More than that, I draw small. I draw my pages at 8 x 12. What that does for me, is make my studio very portable! I draw anywhere and everywhere. On the couch, at work at my daughter cheerleader practice, everywhere.

The hardest part is keeping focused and not lazy, so I make myself deadlines and plan out as far in advance the stories I want to tell. I have a self-induced 3 day a week schedule for Phineus that I rarely miss. I do a 24 hour comic every year. 24 hour comic = 25 pages = 9 weeks of updates.

I figure out how many pages I need to get done in a year, figure how many I need to average in a week try and keep to it. Some weeks I’ll get a boat load done and some weeks I get bumpkus. It all evens out.

Q5: Drawing fast helps! Do you have any advice for Artists who want to ramp it up?

Draw a lot. All the time. Every day. The more practice you get, not only do you get better, you get faster.
Draw everything. People. Phones. Laundry. Practice everything.

Get comfortable with your style. Get very familiar with your characters. If the story allows it, embrace the cartoony. A looser, more cartoony style allows you to draw faster. Now, I’m not uber-cartoony, but the looser, less realistic style both fits my story and my personality.

Use your computer. I don’t spend a lot of time filling in large black areas. I put a little “X” in and move on. The “fill” tool will become your friend in Photoshop.

Pre-rule your pages. I just started doing this and it’s like lightning! I plot out the story and go in a program (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign) and draw all the boxes and gutters out and print the pages out on Bristol. That way when I draw I just grab the sheet and I’m drawing!

Draw a lot. Did I already say that?

Q6: Has being a Role-play Gamer helped you with creating stories for Phineus: Magician for Hire?

Yes, definitely. As well as my theater and film background.

Role-playing has gotten me to think as a character, act as a character would act. Being a DM, helped me create worlds, tell stories and create conflict in the stories.

In addition, all the monsters, magic, and Myth are right in there. I know most of the stuff in , say, the Monster Manual, is based on mythology. That said, the various gaming manuals itemize and describe the characters so succinctly that they sort of become my go to Beast-encyclopedia.

There have been stories I’ve done directly lifted from advesntures I’ve played with my game versions of Phin and Sara. I’ve even created a RPG around Phineus, with the help of my friend, John Burris. I’m even working on a second edition.

Q7: You must be very proud of making four complete Phineus stories. How has Phineus evolved in that time? 

I’m actually working on my 7th Volume of Phineus! Aside from my daughters, it’s the most monumental thing I’ve ever made!

It has changed a lot, over the last 25 years, mainly because I’ve learned how to be consistent and how to write and draw better.

As a story, it’s grown as the characters have grown. My characters are roughly the same age as I am, and I put them through similar things that I go through. For instance, the heart attack Phineus suffered way back in “Rotwang” (Issue 6, Volume 1) happened as I was going through a divorce. My heart was broken, so I “broke” his heart. That sort of thing.

I have also, planned and made it known that Phineus will turn evil, eventually. I’ve been adding lore that leads to that throughout.I have tried , and largely been successful, in not only writing a comic, but creating a whole world. I’ve learned to world build.

The other thing that has changed in that time is that I publish it on the web. When I started all this there was no internet. I self-published and distributed it in comic stores. I basically put out a book whenever I could afford to do so, like 3 times a year. Since the advent of the internet, I update 3 times a week, that’s over 150 pages a year. That alone makes me do more, reach more people and tell more stories!

Q8: What has the fan response to Phineus been like? Do their comments influence you at all?

I have a growing and very rabid pool of fans.

There are people that I know if I see at a con and I don’t have anything new, they’ll ream me out! The really cool thing is that a lot of the response I get is from other creators that I admire, and find out they are fans of me! That’s cool.

The other nifty thing is, that since I’ve been doing this so long, I have adult artists that have grown up fans of Phineus! The tell tale sign of that is the very large Fans of Phin section of the site that has guest art by some of my favorite artists, yourself included. Plus I have a growing Fan fiction collection, too. Love that.

Facebook has been a boon for connecting with fans and finding out, instantly what they like or don’t like. I’ve even pooled people to find out what story they’d like to see. I’m just thankful people care what I do.

Q9: What’s it like being a part of the the ‘Old Dying Kitty Comics’ Studio?

Old Dying Kitty is really awesome.

I used to be a part of Rampage Network at first then signed on with Wevolt, which was a pretty cool deal for a while. Those other places just didn’t work out. James Riot, of “The Path”, “Bastard Who” & “Anunnaki” who was a Wevolt Studio-mate of mine started up his own website and invited me along.

We are two like minds seemingly separated at birth. We now have a home for the paranormal and sci fi that we love to create. James’ has since added Calvin Garcia and Vaughn Reynolds’ “William Feist”. There’s also another undisclosed comic also coming over to ODK, as well.

The really cool thing is that we have a very “Bullpen” attitude towards each other. Although our books are our own, it feels like we’re all in it, together.It feels like I’m in on the ground floor of something destined to be legendary.

As for Phineus, this is probably going to be the best year, yet. Lots of life changing stuff is happening. Lots of fun stuff. I have great plans for Phineus in the near future & far future. I don’t think I’ll ever stop telling Phineus stories.

The beginning of the year saw fellow Pittsburgh comic creator, Jon Towers’ “Mother of All Monsters”, his very own killer Phineus story. Jon is , if you can believe it, more productive than me. He creates “The Non-Standard Assembly” series of webcomics and books. He’s inspiring.

I am also involved in three crossovers with Phineus, coming up, this year. I have a three-way crossover with James Riot’s “The Path” & Adam Black’s “Locus” called “Trinity”. This was begun a while back, but put on the back-burner, due to scheduling issues.It’s awesome & Lovecraftian.

Next up, we have a yet unnamed crossover with “William Feist”. Vaughn and Calvin and I are in the plotting stages. It will also be Lovecraftian. See a pattern? I’m really loving the process with these guys.

We also have a story in the works with Shawn Atkins & Seth Fronzoli’s “Explorers of the Unknown”. It will be very retro and cool. EOTU is a paranormal superhero book that’s a gas. These guys are hosted on my other studio-mates Strumhaus site, the home of “Weirdlings” and “Gaslight Tales”.

Having so many creative friends is a boon for my drive and creativity.

Thankyou for the interview Barry and good luck with Phinius: Magician for Hire and Bastard Who and all the other bajillion projects you’ve got on!

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