QCP: Let’s start with the burning question on everyone’s mind: How did you get into anime?

JB: Growing up with 90’s anime gave me the best childhood,along with the pipe dream that maybe someday there was the possibility that I could produce my own anime series or even have my own anime studio. The chances of making that a reality were very unlikely, since I took medical courses, in college only to follow that up with a career in real estate sales! The chance came in 2012 when a friend of mine was impressed with a few of my miniature sculptures and introduced me to a western animation studio owner who wanted me to do some miniature model figures for an original project she planned to pitch in Busan, South Korea that summer. I ended up getting there to present the content itself and saw a way to finally enter the animation industry with a different tactical approach.

My entry into anime was completed when I met Mr. Brian “Bobby” Barredo within days after arriving from Busan. For the next two years, we planned out the process of upgrading his anime studio (Cat Animation) and later on deciding to make a bigger one, which became Studio Nine Lives and it’s sister school, South East Asian Center of Animation Technology or SEACAT. Our aim is to produce an army of next-generation animation professionals by making sure that kids growing now up don’t just dream about having their own studios, but have the knowledge & resources to make it happen.

QCP: How do you decide what projects to take on, as a studio?

JB: We envisioned Nine Lives as a total animation outfit, handling full production work up to corporate project requirements. While we keep anime production close to heart, we actively seek projects that offer us new challenges and provide the best opportunities for our studio and creators to grow, even if it is not anime-related. At present, we are deep in outsourced anime work from Japan, which keeps us on our toes as we prepare for big projects coming up throughout 2020.

JB: If you could work on any project you wanted right now, what would it be?

A: We have set our eyes on a lot of original content out there, including [QCP’s original property] King Blood (laughs), but we would to love to work on Boku No Hero Academia with Studio BONES or WITs Kabaneri Of the Iron Fortress.

Those are my personal takes but knowing Brian, that guy would shoot for anything involving MADHOUSE! (laughs)

QCP: I can relate… I’m a total MADHOUSE fanboy, too!

JB: Yoshiaki Kawajiri will never die! (laughs)

QCP: Speaking of which, do you remember the specific movie or tv series that started your passion for anime?

JB: For me it was Chodenji Machine Voltes V. I grew up watching that show, like most Filipino kids of my generation.

Dragonball Z and Ninja Scroll didn’t help either! (laughs) The pivotal series that made my animation dream burn brightest throughout the years will forever be Takehiko Inoue’s Slam Dunk.

QCP: Really? Interesting! Why Slam Dunk?

JB: Filipinos are madly in love with basketball and with Slam Dunk, I found myself relating to one character’s knee injury and the subsequent struggle to reconcile his past and injuries to get back to the game he loves. it really hit home. To see a creator be able to portray heartfelt emotions through a sports anime, that certainly lit a fire.

QCP: Sports manga are surprisingly underrated.

JB: Yeah, they are. My top two anime are Slam Dunk and Haikyuu and though they are quite popular, I think they should get more credit.

QCP: I have a particular fondness for Eyeshield 21. Yusuke Murata infuses every on-field image with more fighting spirit than a lot of more straightforward shonen battle manga.

JB: Yeah, “Eyeshield 21” is a damn good one. no wonder YM got the nod for “One Punch Man”, his gritty aesthetics really lends itself well to sakuga.

QCP: What are your thoughts about the current state of animation?

JB: Well, the prevalence of CG and 3D effects certainly gave rise to the possibility of higher qualities of animation… but there seems to be more of a focus on quantity over quality, on new and old IPs alike. While I miss the classic animation “feel”, there’s certainly some new titles worth watching for. You just have to choose well, I guess! (laugh) 

Ok-- let's get this part out of the way first: I love Harley Quinn.

Have done since her debut on Batman The Animated Series. My mother let my dad take me to see Tim Burton’s brilliant 1989 Batman film (I was 5 at the time) because she was under the assumption that Batman was always the high camp she remembered enjoying in the television show from her childhood. Thanks, Adam West! My journey into comics began shortly after learning to read with classical mythology, so I was totally prepared for all manner of tales about monsters, demons, serial killers, human traffickers, etc. Quickly becoming an avid comic reader, 10 year-old me was a DC & Marvel veteran who spent a lot of mental energy filling in the blanks on the softened-for-cartoons versions of Bats, Spidey & the X-Men. 

After years of seeing "versions" of my favorite supers onscreen, I thought this new character, originally the Joker's jester henchwoman, was a breath of fresh air. She seemed like the perfect fit for both the show and the Joker, the first real Manic Pixie Dreamgirl. She was funny but also scary, vulnerable and just overall awesome. Best of all? She didn’t seem nerfed for kids tv. She just seemed oddly... real. And she was contagious. That complex reality bled onto anyone she shared enough screen time with. She helped me to see Poison Ivy as the troubled yet brilliant and sensitive person the show had always hinted she was. Besides Catwoman, no other character tested Batman's rigid sense of right and wrong more beautifully. Even Joker seemed multifaceted when Harley was around. I cheered as loudly as anyone when she ditched that clown, and those Harley/Ivy episodes were some of the best the series had to offer.

OG Harley & subsequent versions over the years tended to show a woman that was preyed upon by a master manipulator who pushed her to the edge of sanity. To the edge, not over it. She was definitely traumatized, but the original portrayals never presented any extreme mental problems. Sure, she was codependent & had a temper. And shitty taste in men. Those traits in moderation are not craaaazy. That's just being human.

Harley continued to evolve over the years, shaped by many creators and performers across multiple mediums. Her look has changed, her status as villain or antihero has vacillated and her relationships have been presented more and more as on her terms rather than something foisted upon her by chance.

The characterization problems started in comics, but David Ayers' disappointing 2016 Suicide Squad film brought this lesser Harl to the masses, along with a version of her *ahem* more revealing New52 costume, seemingly metahuman durability & chalk white skin. I always loved the idea that Harleen had the ability to take her jester clothing & clown makeup off, sit around with an equally dressed-down Ivy and talk about who they really were, what made them tick. This new Harley (like her modern comics counterpart) was always "on", displaying very little of the soulful, mature character many of us comics & animation fans know and love. Despite that, she was definitely the highlight of the film, and there were flashes of brilliance that made me believe Margot Robbie could get to the fundamental truths of the character if given another chance. 

And that brings us rather neatly to Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn).

Harley Quinn, last seen in the aforementioned Suicide Squad, has just been dumped by the Joker & is forced to make her own way in Gotham City’s underworld. In short order, she meets Dinah Lance, Renee Montoya, Helena Bertinelli & Cassandra Cain. All of these ladies have, for various reasons, fallen onto the radar of neat-freak gangster Roman Sionis, played with scenery-scarfing delight by Ewan MacGregor. Forced to band together to survive, they eventually learn that despite their considerable individual talents, they're more formidable as a team.

For some reason I still can’t quite articulate, I remember being slightly underwhelmed when the cast was announced. I liked all of the actors... hell, each of them has had at least one role I absolutely loved them in-- but I still felt they were odd choices for their respective roles in this movie (more on that later). The trailer was where I got genuinely worried that Warner might be climbing back into the hole so many creators toiled to pull the DC film properties out of. 

However, as I said in the beginning, I love Harley Quinn. I was definitely going to see this movie. In Margot Robbie, I felt Harley had a champion on par with Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool or Hugh Jackman as Wolverine; an actor who would work tirelessly to get their character right, on the page & onscreen, however many tries it took. Plus she was saying some interesting things about what she thought the the film & the character should represent during the rollout (and I know the movie isn't the trailer), so I was at "cautious optimism" by the time I sat down to watch the film.

I was totally wrong about one thing: the cast is the best thing about the movie, and that’s not some backhanded compliment. K.K. Barrett's production design is great, colorful while not feeling cheap or phony, and Cathy Yan has a great eye for fun directing choices that keep things zipping along... but the cast is the real MVP. They’re actually great.

Jurnee Smollet-Bell is understated & surprisingly physical as tough-as-nails chanteuse Dinah Lance, a classic “woman trying to keep her head down in a bum situation”. She gave modern comic book moll vibes & I Stan. Rosie Perez's Renee Montoya brought a dose of realism to the candy-coated insanity swirling all around her while also giving Harley an entertaining foil for the first 2 acts. She has probably my favorite fight scene in the entire movie.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead, the person I went into the movie thinking was the most grossly miscast, is hands down my favorite character in the film. She's equal parts ruthless & socially awkward, a take on Huntress that is somehow both anachronistic & perfectly in step with her comic counterpart. Even newcomer Ella Jay Basco brings a unique charm to what could have easily been an irksome reimagining of fan favorite Cass Cain as a sassy teenage pickpocket. MacGregor’s turn as Sionis is less a character than he is a symbol, acting as a stand-in for various brands of broken maleness, but the guy’s clearly having a blast and he has decent enough chemistry with the leads. Chris Messina as Victor Vsasz is an absolute snoozefest, a waste of both character and actor that I’ll give no more space or attention.

Now for the elephant in the room: Margot Robbie's Harley is my least favorite thing about the whole movie.

"But Chris..", I hear you yelling at your computational device, "...you said she was the lone bright spot of SS!"

True, but in a film with clever, unmuddied direction & other actors that actually display some semblance of emotion or charisma for more than one scene a piece, the bar has been raised this go round & Robbie's frantic mugging limbos under said bar by a mile. What’s worse is that she actively takes screen time that could be better spent fleshing out one of the other four characters. Only Huntress (who has probably the least screen time of any of the leads) actually has a backstory, but her origin is a large part of the plot. One could be forgiven for thinking the she wouldn’t have had one at all otherwise. We don’t really know anything about Cassandra Cain, Montoya is literally just Stock Cop, and you could make a whole movie out of how the hell Dinah ended up singing at Sionis’ club. And where the hell is the Joker?! Why is he letting Harley destabilize Gotham’s balance of power or letting Sionis threaten his ex-puddin’ while also claiming to be the the underworld’s top dog? Instead of answering these questions, we get a bunch of throwaway characters attacking the newly-emancipated Quinn and Suicide Squad flashbacks that look even uglier than before when placed side by side with the production design of this film. The fact that most of these characters are so thinly characterized yet still connect is a testament to the performances and chemistry of the central cast.

You get the feeling that a lot of this movie was Robbie as producer, exerting her ideas & energy onto a massive production that needed a lot of moving parts to line up in order to work. It's not easy to have everything riding on you, whether it’s the future of the DCEU, progressive representation of women in film or just your own movie stardom. I understand that and I sympathize. This frantic, flailing movie is the product of some 3 years of rewrites and pitching, shooting on and off for 9 months, plus all the promo stuff. Every interview that I've seen the cast do has basically been Robbie explaining things ad nauseam while Jurnee Smollet-Bell or Mary Elizabeth Winstead kind of quietly nod in agreement, with the exception of the recent season premiere of Hot Ones, where capsaicin finally allowed someone else get a word in edgewise. The real problem with that comes when you see the movie and realize she’s contextualizing so much of the film on other media outlets because the film itself doesn’t really seem to have the time or interest, leaving it’s star to try and explain what we actually see onscreen on the press tour. This leads to a situation akin to Final Fantasy XV, where the player needed heaps of supplemental content to understand what could and should have been included in the story proper. She just seems overworked, similar to when Ben Affleck wanted to perform the Herculean task of writing, directing & starring in the next solo Batman film. Maybe Margot & Harley both need a little break?

The internet is scrambling to diagnose why a well-reviewed movie starring a beloved character played by a popular actress is underperforming at the box office, citing everything from the trailer to the rating to the movie’s title, with many (including BoP creator Gerry Conway) blaming the lackluster box office on sexism, but I think there might be a simpler answer: this version is trying to pull from the entire history of Harley to create a singular characterization from sometimes disparate portrayals. It doesn’t help that Robbie’s Quinn exists in a universe that’s constantly shifting under her feet after every film.

Most comic characters are criticized for being inaccurate to the source material but Harley has arguably the opposite problem; almost a Crisis of Infinite Harleys, where Robbie and Warner Bros. want to stuff the best elements from every version of Harley into every movie she’s in. It’s supposed to be fan service but instead, often feels scattered and tiring. Not to mention the stuff these films just pluck straight out of thin air that don’t work...

The DC Universe version of the character chose to leave the Joker on her own terms and I thought that was a brilliant and socially relevant writing choice, so it was strange to then see the more mainstream (and arguably more popular) version of Harley be dragged out of Joker’s hideout, kicking and screaming. In a film who’s title was purposely made ridiculously long to accentuate the character’s supposed newfound self-sufficiency, For all of the things that do work well, Birds of Prey just doesn’t feel like what’s explicitly promised on the tin.

Nancy Drew games.

Yep. I went ahead and told you straight from the jump. No use in drawing it out for paragraphs to come. On the off chance you have no idea what I’m talking about, Her Interactive crafts Nancy Drew Games that are both engaging and suspenseful, and if you’ve ever read a Nancy Drew book, then you have some idea of how intense these games can get (The Hardy Boys ain’t got ish on Nancy Drew...but I digress). There's 30+ games in their oeuvre and I'm still trying to collect all of them. The settings range from the set of a popular soap opera to a haunted mansion. There are 33 games, so results will vary-- but the ones I’ve played are pretty atmospheric and most of all, a lot of fun.

Gameplay

So when you first fire up this game, you have to choose the type of adventure you want. I always go straight for the "Senior Detective” mode ‘cause, you know... ba-dum-tsss-- I love a challenge. Next, you’re usually given a few tidbits of back story from Nancy (perfect Nancy Drew voiceover work by the talented Lani Minella, might I add) . After that you set off in search of clues to the latest mystery. The cursor is a magnifying glass and when you hover over something that needs more attention, the magnifying glass glows. Sometimes it’s useless information, but sometimes you think it's useless and you forgot to write down the numbers and it turns out that was the code to get into the safe that you've been trying to get into since the start of the game... again, I digress. It's in first person view and if you’re not careful, you can roll up on the wrong someone. I was sneaking around inside a building once and got the crap scared out of me when I turned around and someone was there.

I just peed a little.

Not only are you forever on the hunt for clues, but Nancy is constantly getting herself into other, more casually dangerous situations. If you mix the wrong chemicals or connect the wrong wire, it could mean game over for you. Plus Senior Detective is of course harder, so there are fewer clues given to puzzles and some of the NPCs downright useless.

  Stanley P. Stuffypants here is clearly not gonna be terribly forthcoming with our old pal Nancy.

Design, Music, Controls

The game is designed so that you have to solve each clue before you can proceed to the next.That doesn't mean you don't have multiple clues or that you’re just stuck (though I have been for the majority of some of the games). You will walk back and forth in the same area scratching your head and combing through everything to make sure that you didn't miss anything and it can get aggravating, but it's so satisfying when you do finally see a clue you missed before. Your attention to detail needs to be on point. The music is pretty good, too. I wouldn't buy the soundtrack or anything, but there are always a couple of songs that I like from each of the games. As for the controls, is a menu-based puzzle game; you’re basically just using your mouse. I'm sure you could use your keyboard... but I suspect the mouse works way better.

Community There’s a pretty active (and growing) community with Her Interactive. The forum on the site has walkthroughs and moderators nearby that you can ask about parts of the game. They make sure to avoid spoilers, which is nice. Not saying I've looked at these forums for help... but I heard that people do that... Nah, I've totally looked and there are times after the fact where I was like “duh!” and there were times where I was amazed that some benign thing turned out to be the answer. It's a great place to talk and learn about the game.

Recommended if: You’re into suburban adventuring, solving mysteries, and just chillin’ out with a puzzle game that’s a bit more challenging than your average casual game.

(And I know I shaded the Hardy Boys earlier, but I would legit play a Hardy Boys game.)

Hey, folks! Stephen here... welcome to my first piece for QCP Media! Hopefully I can keep ‘em coming because I’m not used to writing when I’m asked to write. Then our editor gave us the mission to write about something we liked. Well, I’ve decided what I like. And it’s you guys. “But Steve...” I hear you shouting, “…I’m not into you like that!” Calm down there, buddy. There’s a point I’m getting to. But in order to get there, I have to tell a quick story. I’ve been drawing for as long as I can remember. My Father is an artist. My Grandfather was an artist. My brother is an artist. Chances are, any children I may have in the future will also be artists in some form or fashion or have an eye for it. 

The first thing I ever remember drawing is Superman. He is not just a character I have loved all my life, he is my favorite superhero. Full stop. From there, I discovered the Silver Surfer and started drawing him all the time. Then back to Superman. Then the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Then Street Fighter. I drew everything as a child. Not great, of course. But I kept working at it all my life. That’s the main ingredient to being an artist in general. You keep working at it all your life. There is no endpoint. I would keep drawing different things at different points in my life. But they were always things that weren’t mine, or at least things that could NEVER be mine. My Father reminded me of this all the time. He would encourage my brother and I to create our own characters every chance he got. I loved drawing Superman, but he would tell me that I should create someone like him, because Superman would never be mine. Over the years, I would create a few characters of my own. A lot of them aren’t worth mentioning. A few are. Some of which may yet still see the light of day. But I always went back to doing other established characters. When I was 26, I started looking for work in the actual comic field. This was during a time when I still believed that to be considered a legit professional, I obviously needed to find work with both Marvel and DC. The biggest open secret in the world is that with the advent of social media, that’s no longer true. I bummed around looking for work for a full 3 years and toiled around with a fan fiction before I finally embraced that fact. And on February 28, 2013, I created Shane Longshadow is Hungry. Shane has the one thing none of the other characters I had created before him ever had; staying power. He held my interest, and kept my energy. He got my attention. And 6 years in, I can promise you that nothing else in my life, outside of my family and music, has ever gotten this kind of dedication. His following is small, due to me being the only person that works on him really, but it is growing. I’m constantly asked when the next episode is. I am constantly hearing theories about future storylines from my readers. People actually speculate on what happens next with him. But the thing that Shane has that nothing else that came before him has is my PRIDE. Every time I look at him, I can’t help but think 'Man, I did it. I’m really out here doin’ this.’ If I had 6 extra arms and the coordination to go with them, I would be further along. I could go on, but you still want me to get to the point of this, so let’s get to that. One of the things that’s tiring about creating your own thing is putting eyes on it. It’s continuous and exhausting. But it’s worth it when you put in the work. As an artist who scrolls through social media, I see a lot of talent out there. A lot of potential. A lot of EVERYTHING. But not a whole lot of creativity. A lot of artists put more into fanart of a certain thing than their own actual thing. Just like I once did. And I won’t deny that it brings attention, but if you’re an artist, and you’re one of those who does fanart, and has a following, then you have the perfect opportunity to finally do something on your own because your audience is already there. You need to create something of your own. But even if you don’t have a large following, you still need to create something of your own, because that could still bring you a larger following than “POPULAR THING X POPULAR THING” or “GENDER BENT POPULAR THING” or “CHIBI POPULAR THING” and so on and so forth. A fellow artist I follow who is a lot like me, has their own thing going. They are freakishly talented. The style is clean. But I also saw that like me, the fanart on their page is virtually non-existent. And unlike some of the other talented artists I follow, their following is much smaller. I asked them for their reason for not doing a lot of fanart. This was their response: “[…] I can’t speak for anyone else but when it comes to fan art—or just art I produce in general, there are a few factors that come to mind… …time and goals. Fan art is awesome, and I’d never put anyone down for doing it—I just think for what I’m doing I’d rather focus my time on my own projects, since those are most important to me.” Time and goals. TIME. AND. GOALS. I see a lot of artists produce killer concepts and hype it up with character models and logos and everything else, except the work that has to be done afterwards because of time and goals. They go right back to fanart. And like the artist I mentioned above said (and I echo the sentiment), fan art is awesome. I believe those same artists should be putting time into their own stuff with the goal of being known/remembered for that one day.

QCP: First of all, Thanks for taking the time to do this interview. As a fellow henshin fan, I was immediately intrigued when I first saw some of the art for your project Dial Exces. What exactly is Dial Exces & how long have you been working on it?

Chris Turner: Thanks for asking me! Dial Exces is my take on the tokusatsu genre but infused with comic book storytelling. The series follows 17 year old Marcus Dubel who's been granted a fighting suit in order to combat monsters that have begun appearing in his world. I've been working on it for roughly 6 years or so now. This version is actually the second iteration of the story after I decided to give the plot as massive overhaul a couple of years ago.

QCP: What made you decide to reboot?

CT: I made the decision to reboot the series after reading The Almighty Street Team, issue 0. It was one of the first time that an indie comic really resonated with me, that featured characters of color that didn't feel like a troupe [...] It made me take a good long look at what I was doing & I thought to myself "there's no reason a Black kid can't work as the lead in this story that I want to tell". Once I felt that weight lift off of my shoulders, I was really able to hit the ground running & start crafting a narrative that worked the way I needed it to.

QCP: What was your goal when you started writing this character? Do you feel like you had themes in mind when you started, or did it develop more as you got into the process?

CT: Well, initially, I had one goal in mind & that was to show that a person of color could be a henshin hero, if done properly, or any sort of hero for that matter. Over time the overarching theme of the story came to me [...] we're all connected to each other; no man is an island. The things that we do effect the lives of those around us. That's the main theme in the story of Dial Exces.

QCP: Sweet! I always found it odd that Henshin Heroes are so rarely Black.

CT: Exactly! [Laughs] I think sometimes we either limit ourselves or we don't police ourselves enough when it comes to the characters we make. I'm trying to find that sweet spot where people that look like me can see a hero that's like them but isnt just a Black version of "insert character name here." Sometimes that's ok but I think it happens a lot more than it should.

QCP: I agree. What do you feel is the best thing about being a creator right now? Do you think there's something special about making comics in 2019?

CT: Well-- and this is sort of a gift & a curse here-- I think it's good that we live in a world where you don't need to get the ok from the "gatekeepers" to make comics. If you want to make a comic you can make one & that's awesome. Now the flip side to that is that there are a lot of creators out there-- because you can just make a comic whenever you feel like it-- that are putting out comics/characters that just aren't very interesting or compelling & as a whole it can make indie creators look bad. There's still a process to this & a lot of creators are skipping steps just because they've got the skills as illustrators, but their ideas aren't where they should be. They could be with more polished, but without critiques or at least someone who'll be brutally honest with you that you can bounce those ideas off of, you run the risk of putting out a mediocre product as opposed to a great one.

QCP: Totally agree! No offense to anyone, but the endless sea of Toriyama-lite stuff? Yikes.

CT: [Laughs] Yup!

QCP: It seems like a lot of talented storytellers are selling themselves short, which is sad.

CT: They are, man & it definitely doesn't have to be that way but I think you have to be willing to take a good long look at what you're doing & honestly say "is it good or not". If you're just coming out the gate with each and every idea that pops into your head, if you're not taking a second to stop & say "is this the best thing for the narrative?" or "is this really any good?", then you're probably on the wrong track.

QCP: Can you tell us about Dial Exces?

CT: The story takes place in a world were creatures called the Dolm have begun to appear. The Dolm are superior to humanity in every way imaginable-- faster, stronger more durable-- they're a real threat. That's where Marcus Dubel comes in. He finds himself on a sort of an anti-Dolm unit being run out of the world's most prestigious hospital. As the youngest member of the crew, he's paired up with a woman named Ellery Mathis who's been fighting the dolm for the better half of a decade. She becomes a mentor to Marcus as he adapts to the life of a soldier.

QCP: So Marcus lives in a pretty bleak world, eh?

CT: Well, it's not too dissimilar from the world we live in. There's both good & bad, but a lot of the bad parts he's not aware of until he joins the fight.

QCP: Do you have a target date for the webcomic release? Where can future fans find it?

CT: The pilot or issue zero will drop early 2019 & it'll be available to read on dialexces.com. The site is undergoing some renovations right now in preparation for the launch of the webcomic.

QCP: Awesome! Thanks again for your time, Chris!