Adje: How did you come up with the idea for Dr. McNinja? Is it somehow linked the the fact that your first story involved his clash with McDonald's or is that completely unrelated?

Chris: I came up with the name, "Dr. McNinja" as a forum handle, before I actually came up with the character. After coming up with the name, I photoshopped up an avatar for what a Dr. McNinja would look like. And then actually quite a while later, I actually drew this Dr. McNinja fellow. Slowly I started to come up with stuff for what that sort of person would be like, and what a world would be like that could logically contain such a character.

I didn't want to do the McDonald's story first, but I had to do a comic for a class, (I was a cartooning major at The School of Visual Arts), and I wanted to draw my first Dr. McNinja comic. The McDonald's one happened to be the story idea that was the most fleshed out at the time, and I had to run with it to get the homework done.

Adje: How do you come up with ideas for the comic?

Chris: Well, like I said, the first thing was coming up with ideas that would fit into a world where a doctor could also be a ninja. I have a pretty surreal sense of humor that I like to express in my artwork, as well as an appreciation for good action/adventure in comics. So that guides things. And finally, the one "rule" for Dr. McNinja is that it is guided by a twisted sense of logic. Everything is bizarre, but it must make sense to itself. I just let my inspriation run through those filters. But mainly it's just me having fun. If I come up with a fun idea, I'll find a way to make it work, because if I'm having fun, then so is the reader.

Adje: As you pointed out in the mouse-over text recently, your last few comics have been drawing on the Nintendo classic: The Legend of Zelda. Are you a gamer?

Chris: I am a very casual gamer.

Adje: How do you manage to put together such high quality strips three times a week? Can you describe your process a little (in terms of the software you use and how you divide the tasks involved)?

Chris: There are two tricks to putting out this comic 3 times a week without burning myself out. The first is that I make enough money from it that I don't need another job. When I was doing it in my spare time, you can see there are a lot of corners that were cut. The second big reason I manage to get it out at this frequency is that I have an inker and a colorist working for me.

The process goes like this. One day of the week I write out as much script as I can, at least 3 pages. Then the rest of the week I spend drawing the comic and whatever other various chores and miscelanious duties I have to handle. I like to draw with a tablet in photoshop to lay out the comic because the computer gives me a lot more freedom to make mistakes and change things up. After the layout is sketched out, I print it out, and then use a lightbox to trace it onto high quality bristol paper. Then with pencil I draw out all the details and stuff. At the end of the week, I FedEx all the pages I pencilled to Kent. Kent "traces" my pencil drawing with ink, using brushes and fountain pens. This part of the process cleans up the messy pencils, and ads in texture, shadow, and varying line. When Kent is done, he scans the pages into his computer, and then emails the images back to me. I clean up the scans in photoshop, and make sure the artwork is pure, crisp black and white. Then I add the word balloons and dialogue, put in some notes for our colorist, Anthony, then I email it to him. He does the colors in photoshop, and then it's ready to go online!

Adje: Do you have a mustache?

Chris: I can't grow a decent mustache, and it kills me. And the whole mustache thing is definitely rooted in the fact that I will never be able to have one myself.