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Today, I’m talking with my friend and web comic creator, Wes Molebash. His daily comic strip You’ll Have That! is featured on the Viper Comics website. Viper is releasing a second volume of his collected strips soon.

DAVID HOPKINS: To make this official, for the record, you acknowledge our friendship and all that it implies? I’m interviewing you as my friend and thus I probably know more about you than the average idiot with a comic website.... and you think I’m awesome. :)

WES MOLEBASH: Yes.  We are friends.  We have shared phone conversations and have exchanged several e-mails discussing everything from religion to the minutia of life. We have a bond that makes us far more than mere “acquaintances”.  Ha ha.

DAVID: See? This whole “interview my friends” series is just a pathetic attempt to prove to people that I have friends.

WES: To each their own, my man.

DAVID: I’ve told you this before, but I see a Blondie influence in the types of stories being told in “You’ll Have That” with the husband and wife—or maybe Blondie is the template for almost any married couple comedy? You’ve denied the influence. I’m way off.

WES: Blondie isn’t an influence, but I definitely understand the comparison.  I write a comic strip about a young married couple, so I’m not breaking any new ground.  Dagwood Bumstead is a dumb husband and so is my character, Andy.  Blondie is the level-headed, rationally thinking wife and so is my character, Katie.

DAVID: I love stories about the family dynamics. With marriage stories, you either have Blondie or I Love Lucy. It wouldn’t be interesting if the sensible ones married each other. Although, Katie does have her irrational moments, yes?

WES: Both characters can be pretty irrational.  Andy moreso thank atie, but Katie has her moments.  Mostly out of frustration towards Andy, though.  So I guess you could say Andy brings out Katie’s inner irrationality.  Ha ha.

DAVID: So tell me, who has influenced you? What did you read as a kid?

WES: I’m influenced and inspired by lots of people.  In the realm of comics and comic strips, I’m mostly influenced by Michael Jantze (The Norm), Bill Watterson (Calvin and Hobbes), Darby Conley (Get Fuzzy), Paul Taylor (Wapsi Square), and Scott Kurtz (PvP).  Other inspirations include comedians Brian Regan and Dane Cook, and musicians like Sufjan Stevens and Ben Folds.  The reason I’m inspired by those two musicians is because, as songwriters, I think they have the same objective as a cartoonist:  they have to tell a story and they have a very short time in which to do that.

DAVID: I had never thought of that before. Very true.

WES: I had never thought about it until I had talked about influences and inspirations with my friend, Jef Mallett.  He creates the syndicated strip, Frazz, and he’s another one of my many heroes.  When I asked him about his inspirations, he listed several singer/songwriters and gave me the same explanation I gave you.

Ben Folds is an awesome example, because he can tell an entire story (conflict, climax, resolution) in a three- to four-minute song.  So, if I’m writing a short storyline, I can listen to Ben’s songs to get an idea of what details are important to make a very short story work.

DAVID: I know Doug TenNapel’s been a read inspiration to you. Why’s that?

WES: Doug TenNapel is one of my heroes.  Not only is he an outstanding artist, but he’s a wonderful storyteller.  What I love best about his stories is there’s always a moral or lesson to be learned, but it’s never presented in a “kiddie” or condescending fashion.  Usually, the main characters have some sort of character flaw, and by the end of the story they’ve redeemed themselves in some way.

Additionally, Doug is a conservative Christian, and he’s not afraid to discuss religious issues in his books and on his blog despite the current political climate. As a Christian myself, that’s a huge inspiration for me—that someone else in the biz allows his faith to largely influence his writing.

DAVID: Have you ever felt pressure to either “tone down” or “build up” Christian elements in You’ll Have That?

WES: Not really.  I never set out to make YHT a “Christian comic”. That’s the last thing I want to do, really.  I just want to write a comic about real life situations that I’m familiar with.

It’s funny because sometimes my Christian ideals will slip into the strip and I don’t realize it.  I’ve received e-mails from people asking if I’m a Christian based on certain strips, and I’m always like, “Wow, I guess that strip did kind of represent a moral of some sort.”

Last year I had a strip where Andy’s co-worker, Murray, was trying to show Andy a picture of a girl in a swimsuit magazine. When Andy turns down the offer, Murray questions Andy’s sexuality out loud. I based that on a true story, and I put it in the comic because I thought it was funny.  But I received some awesome e-mails from people who caught a “Christian” message in that particular strip, so I thought that was cool.  Especially since the message was totally unintentional. I was just trying to create chuckles.

DAVID: I guess I’m projecting my own Christian insecurities onto you. In my stuff, there’s obviously universal values of kindness, compassion, and responsibility that aren’t necessarily specific to any single religion. (No one’s ever told me they caught a Christian message with Karma Incorporated—although both Tom and I are Christians, Catholic and Methodist respectively) So I… sometimes wonder, maybe I should freak people out and do something a little more… spiritual? Subtle and allegorical, not a glorified sermon.

WES: I’d like to do something like that, too.  I’ve got ideas swirling around.  We’re starting to see more and more Christian creators creating quality stuff, so I’m gonna let those guys be the guinea pigs right now while I take notes.  :)

DAVID: You based the character Katie directly off your wife. Did it cause any problems when a certain someone (ahem) started a thread on your message board claiming that Katie is evil? Are there any subjects that are off limits to Andy and Katie?

WES: It made my wife self-conscious, yeah.  You didn’t do anything wrong by starting the thread because Katie can be pretty mean sometimes.  Plus, that thread turned out to be pretty fun.

DAVID: Haha. Yeah, it was.

WES: One of the things that readers probably don’t understand is that this comic strip is very much based on my wife and I.  To the point that some of the conversations between my wife and I are quoted almost verbatim in the strip. Some of the comedy in the strip is impossible to make up; it’s taken directly from real life!  But on the flip side of that, a lot of the strip is total fiction.

Because so much of the humor is derived from real life, Tricia (my wife) worries that when Katie does something fictional (such as insult Andy’s mother) my readers will automatically associate that behavior with my wife. It’s understandable that she would be concerned, but I doubt that’s ever been an issue.

As for topics that are off limits, I try to stay away from sex.  I’m sure that Andy and Katie have an active sex life, but I don’t feel it’s important to make it fodder for the strip.  I dance around the topic sometimes, like when Andy asks Katie if she wants to “make out”, but other than that I try to stay away from it.  My wife and I don’t openly discuss our sex life with our friends and co-workers, so Andy and Katie take the same discretion.

DAVID: That’s a very diplomatic answer. Haha. So is “make out” code? I mean, do married couples really make out?

WES: I don’t know if married couples “make out”. I wrote a strip where Andy asks Katie if she wants to make out, and Katie responds by saying that married people don’t make out.  I received several e-mails and message board posts assuring me that married couples do, in fact, make out.

I just think the term “make out” is funny.  It’s a very “high school” phrase, and I think that’s what makes it funny when applied to a marriage.

DAVID: Speaking of, when are Andy and Katie going to have a baby?

WES: Andy and Katie will have a baby whenever my wife and I start having children.  It’s very important to me that I continue to “write what I know”, and if I were to toss a baby into the strip I’d totally be faking it.  I won’t be able to honestly channel all the expectations, emotions, and humor involved with parenthood until I have kids myself.

DAVID: When the day comes, you should totally announce the pregnancy to your friends through the comic strip!

WES: Not a bad idea . . .

DAVID: How have Andy and Katie changed since the beginning of the series?

WES: I don’t know.  I’d like to think they’re starting to figure things out career-wise.  Katie’s going back to college, and Andy is trying to become a syndicated cartoonist.  I think those are important steps for the characters.

My secondary characters, Steve and Emaline, have recently moved in together after a whirlwind romance.  I’m hoping to portray some of the growing pains in that relationship in the near future.

DAVID: We talked about this on the message board, but Will Andy do a comic strip about a married couple closely resembling Andy and Katie with the main character doing a comic strip about a married couple closely resembling… and so on?

WES: Yeah, that’s the plan.

DAVID: Awesome.

WES: Again, there’s nothing really ground-breaking about this strip; I’m just ripping off my life.  Ha ha.  Andy’s been submitting strips to syndicates and he’s revealed that the strip is based on Katie and himself. So we’ll see what happens .

DAVID: I hope Steve and Emaline aren’t based off people you know, because this question might be awkward to answer. But isn’t moving in together contrary to the whole Christian “True Love Waits” stuff, yes? Will that become an issue? Will Steve and Emaline be a cautionary tale?

WES: Yeah, it’s contrary to that ideal, but, again, I’m not trying to write a “Christian” comic.  I’m writing a strip about stuff I’ve experienced in life.  A lot of the stuff Steve and Emaline have gone through, and will go through, is based on my friends experiences and my own experiences.

My wife, Trish, and I lived together before we were married, but we were engaged at the time.  So it wasn’t like we were taking marriage for a test drive.  I don’t know if that justifies anything, but I don’t really care if it does.  Ha ha.

DAVID: Good! You know the Amish actual have engaged couples live together before they get married. And if it’s good enough for the Amish…

WES: Well, the Amish don’t play Nintendo, either.  So I wouldn’t necessarily jump on the Amish bandwagon so hastily.  Ha ha.

As for whether or not Steve and Emaline will be a cautionary tale, that’s certainly not the route I’m going for.  And that’s all I’m going to say about that because I don’t want to give anything away.  :)

DAVID: What’s the next new character you are going to introduce to"You’ll Have That”?

WES: I don’t want to say because I don’t want to give anything away concerning a future storyline. But we’ll see at least one new character and the return of an old character before the year is over. I’m pretty excited about it!

DAVID: There’s been a boom in webcomics and independently syndicated comic strips. Fact is even some of the “smaller” webcomic people have higher readership than a top selling Marvel or DC book. The comic strip has always faired better in American mainstream than the comic book. Any thoughts on why this may be so?

WES: I think it’s because comic strips are so accessible.  Most daily strips are gag-a-day, and they involve “real life” scenarios. Whereas, with mainstream comic books, you have an entire universe of characters and mythology that you have to be introduced to before you can fully understand what’s going on in the story.

Not that large universes are necessarily a bad thing.  But it’s harder for an average Joe to just grab a single issue of a comic book and jump into the story full stride.

DAVID: True, Calvin & Hobbes, Peanuts, The Norm, all those represent the epitome of approachable material. However, I’ve noticed some webcomics are building a comic book style continuity, where it’s hard for me to follow the storylines.

WES: Yeah, there are several webcomics that capitalize on large universes and heavy continuity.  With a webcomic, it’s a bit easier to get a hold of what’s going on because you can take advantage of archives, character bios, and story synopses all at the click of a mouse.  But you still have to be devoted to that strip because it takes a lot of time to go through all the strips in an archive if you’re reading a strip that’s been published for more than a year.

DAVID: Of course, you aren’t publishing the strip independently on the web. You are hosted by the fine folks at Viper Comics. What are the benefits to working with a company? How did “You’ll Have That” end up at Viper?

WES: The main benefits are the contacts that come with working with a comic book company.  Magazines, radio programs, other professionals, etc.  It’s pretty cool to get e-mails from pros who consider me a “peer”.

Another major benefit is, unlike an independent comic creator, I don’t have to pay for anything.  Viper pays for my website, my books, all my merch, etc.  Nothing out of pocket for me.  Of course, I haven’t made any money yet, but I also haven’t lost any.

DAVID: I hope Viper brings on more webcomics. Have you heard anything? Horrible Pirates is awesome, but I would love for there to be more.

WES: Actually, Jim Resnowski, Jessie Garza, and I want to see more webcomics on Viper. Jim and I recently talked about treating Viper as a sort of “webcomics group” similar to Blank Label and Boxcar Comics, but we’re still figuring out some of the details on how that would work.  We need to make Viper an entity that a webcartoonist would want to join.  However we’re able get this thing off the ground, I’ll probably have an active role in its creation.  It’s just going to take time.

DAVID: The blog, the MySpace, the Moblog, and the message board are all a huge part of “You’ll Have That”. Is it hard to maintain a creative schedule as well as the blog? Can a creator be too connected?

WES: It gets tough sometimes.  Being a part of all these “social networks” consumes a lot of time.  I used to be really good about updating my blog three times a week like clockwork, but lately it’s been hard to maintain that schedule because I’ve had a pretty busy summer.  When I first jumped on Myspace, I made it a point to respond to every message and profile comment. I still reply to every message, but I’ve really slacked on responding to comments because it takes so long to respond to them if you’ve got a long list of people to reply to!  I try to stay very active on my message board, and I answer all the e-mails I receive.

DAVID: I’ll admit, for my own work, it doesn’t always feel like there’s any major benefit to MySpace, forums, or blogs when it comes to promoting a comic book or graphic novel. Do you think it’s easier to promote with the web something that’s already on the web?

WES: Myspace has been a very valuable tool for me.  I get a lot of click-throughs my Myspace page, and I receive lots of messages and comments from people who enjoy the strip. So, it’s been an awesome connectivity tool.  On top of that, it’s free advertisement.  You can’t go wrong with that!

DAVID: Free, yes, but it does cost your time.

WES: I’ve got plenty of time to interact with fans, though.  I enjoy it, so I never think of it as a “chore”.  Sometimes I spend a little too much time “interacting” when I should be drawing a comic strip, but oh well.  It makes me feel like a rockstar when my comic doesn’t get done because I was answering e-mail, Myspace messages, and talking on the message board.  :)

DAVID: Thank you, Wes my friend, for this interview. I look forward to reading the Andy-and-Katie-are-having-a-baby storyline next week! (See? This is how rumors get started...)

WES: Thanks, David!  I’d better go write that storyline, hadn’t I?

For more information on Wes Molebash and his strip You’ll Have That, CLICK HERE

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