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The webcomic creator is never far from his audience. Whether it’s social media, public email addresses, Discord servers, or just the comments section under a page, there is a connection and conversation that develops that is unique to the medium. We’re continuing those conversations here, albeit a little more formally, by interviewing webcomic creators to pick their brains about craft, storytelling, and their personal experiences with the medium.
Ben Floyter is one of the recognizable mainstays of webcomics, with a bibliography spanning the many platforms and eras of modern webcomics. Probably his most iconic work, the WEBTOON series “Interval of the Sword”, ended in 2018. Four years later, he started his new project, the fantasy series “The Beekeeper’s Tale”.
What inspired the book?
Ben Flotter: I’ve been wanting to do, I don’t know, for lack of a better term “high fantasy” for a while. Scattered landscapes, overgrown fantasy ruins, clashing armies, all with a more mythic tone. The Beekeeper’s Tale is a chance for me to do all that. I think a lot of inspiration – both tone and style – comes from The Dark Crystal, The Hobbit, “Final Fantasy IX” and “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.” Oh, and a decades-long fantasy TTRPG game.
After completing a project as long as Interval of the Sword, were there any major changes you knew you wanted to make in the way you approached your next webcomic?
BF: Well, I knew for sure that I didn’t want to do something as long or as involved as The Sword Interval lol. Of course I’m saying it now, but these things always seem to end up taking longer than intended. But yes, I wanted a project that would be less of an intense commitment. I was going through a very difficult time in my life when the Interval of the Sword was ending. I figured it would be healthy to do the next project at my own pace. To that end, I decided to freelance for The Beekeeper instead of publishing with WEBTOON this time. And it feels good to have my own website and make my own update schedules again.
What came to your mind first? The design of the beekeeper or this story about the broken sword of the God of War?
BF: Interesting question! I guess technically the broken sword plot comes first. This whole scenario – and its twists and turns – is something I’ve had for years. The Beekeeper heroine and her arc on the other hand came to me about a year ago (at 4am on a sleepless night if I recall). I knew she had to be chosen to go on a great journey, and it turned out that the sword scenario fit perfectly. I often write like that. Many different half-formed characters, scenarios, and scenes float around, eventually gravitating toward each other and combining into something more solid.
Between Parallel Dementia, Sword Interval, and The Beekeeper’s Tale, you have three separate fantasy series. So how would you describe the difference in genre and aesthetic for this new series?
BF: Remember “Parallel Dementia” huh? You know, until you asked me, I didn’t realize The Beekeeper’s Story was the first webcomic I’d ever done that wasn’t set on Earth. This is interesting. Genre-wise yes, this will be a bit more fabulous. The logic of the world is a bit more fairy-tale and fantastical, and the aesthetic is more stylistic and low-tech than my previous projects.
Even in the first few pages of the series, you focused on creative ways to present the book, especially in terms of plating and detailing. How do you challenge yourself creatively on a project?
BF: Hey thanks Yeah I’m really happy with this first page especially. The rest of the comic won’t feature the infinite canvas as heavily—I do plan on printing this book one day—but sometimes it’s fun to use the medium to your advantage like this. I can’t say I do these things specifically for the challenge or flexibility. It’s more like, sometimes I want to do a hundred-page car chase between dozens of characters, or cut a huge isometric dungeon, or a battlefield with hundreds of bodies, and it’s just like, “Welp! I guess that’s my next few weeks, months, years, etc!” And then, well, yeah, if I pull it off, maybe I’ll bend a little.
Continued below
What are the main fantasy comics in your eyes?
BF: For webcomics, I’d have to say Rice Boy, Slay Six Billion Demons, and Viper. Oh, and I recently read Ten Earth Shattering Blows and I can’t recommend it enough. Great webcomic. To print, I know it’s predictable, but Hellboy and its spinoffs are so good in mood and pacing.
Your homepage has a lot of mollusk-based designs among the soldiers, which made me wonder how you approach the design and different character styles in a fantasy book like this?
BF: There are many factions at play in The Beekeeper’s Tale, and I want to keep them distinct from each other while still looking like they belong in the same world. I also want to avoid The Beekeeper’s Tale looking like a generic D&D setting, but not go too far and get too alien or goofy. So to inspire and limit the design, each faction loosely fits into a garden theme. Snails and slugs vs. weeds and thorns in the intro, for example. From there, some smaller details may hint at more about the faction. The slug army, for example, has leather trim and gold flecked armor because they come from a cold region with access to a wealth of ore.
Who were your biggest influences when you got into comics, and do you feel like they’re such a strong factor in your art now?
BF: Jeez, when did I first get into comics? Jonan Vasquez’s Invader Zim, Kuta Hirano’s Hellsing and Mike Mignola’s Hellboy. But I started out in communities full of other aspiring comics creators, and I think we all influenced each other quite a bit—perhaps more than any professional. And I think that’s still where a lot of my drive to do this comes from talking to other creators, seeing new work that’s always coming out, and just being promoted alongside other people.
You can find The Beekeeper’s Tale here on Ben Fleuter’s new site.
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