What are some of the most rewarding parts of making your own works? What are some of the toughest parts?

The most rewarding aspect of making your own work is you get to do exactly what you want on every part of an idea. The inherent problem with collaborating or being a hired professional is there is always compromise or more often than not you are simply a hired gun. However, when you own the entire concept you are the final decision maker and everything from what happens in the story to how it is depicted is your responsibility - which is a two edged sword.

On the flip side, you now need to do all the work and anything that could be out of place or distracting to a reader is inevitably something that you had a hand in creating... From the color of the protagonists hair, or the weapons they carry, the sky, the ground, the sound effects, what the story feels like when you read it... Certain smaller things that may not be the most important thing in the story are really becoming just as important to the tone, the character and the plot because it all adds up to the final product and must make sense in some sort of way.

What are some of your inspirations and favorite works?

My favorite work is Hard Boiled by Goef Darrow, written by Frank Miller. I actually owned the black and white oversized art version with the images out of order first, before I got the actual story version. Artists like Moebius, Ramon Villalobos, and Katsuhiro Otomo are my favorites. Alan Moore, Grant Morrison and Daniel Clowes are my favorite writers. I seem to lean towards risk taking writers who push the limits of what is acceptable or possible and are not interested in finding a main stream audience, but rather connecting with something real; or deep, for lack of a better word.