Scott Kinoshita: Q&A with comic creator

“Super Temps” creator Scott Kinoshita is interviewed by Alison of “Alison's Education”, also created by Scott Kinoshita. Its going to get weird, folks.

Alison: For our readers — “Super Temps” is the comic strip that the Interrobang runs.

Scott: I'd like to start with an FAQ about the strip. It won't take long, there's not too many:

Q: Did you really draw that?
A: Yes.
Q: You drew that? Really?
A: God-dammit, YES!

Alison: You're a virgin, aren't you Scott? Let's get back to the comic strip. We've pretty much well established that you are one seriously weird dude. So — dare I ask where you get your ideas from?

Scott: Aliens beam them directly into my brain. No, I'm kidding. Actually I have several personalities within me and their battles for control get expressed in my drawings and stories.

Alison: Uh-huh. I liked the “Aliens” answer better. It was slightly less creepy. So you have a lot of female characters because it's been awhile. Aww, poor dear… Anyways, why does Skull Girl have big boobs and runs around in butt-floss?

Scott: Actually the butt-floss joke came from a really terribly designed but popular Marvel character from the 90's called “Psylocke”. She was supposed to be Chinese and a ninja, but she just looked like a porn star with squinty eyes. She had this terrible costume with major butt-floss, huge boobs and was basically totally absurd. This leads into the origins of “Super Temps” itself. The original “Super Temps” concept starred High Voltage as a comic-book creator gone super. The story went along with him basically predicting everything that would happen to him because he wrote stuff like that, and going along falling into traps anyway because that's ‘what was supposed to happen'. He ran across a parody of the Psylocke character who was evil only because her costume was incredibly uncomfortable. He offered to make her a new one, and once out of the old outfit she realized she wasn't evil at all — just cranky because the way it rode up her bottom. She also had a cybernetic spine implanted because where she came from all the women had huge boobs and needed the reinforcements to stay upright.

Alison: So how did you switch the story to Skull Girl's?

Scott: I got to thinking about the old cartoons I used to watch in the 80's. The bad guys would make up some ridiculous plan and lose every time. The idea of bad guys who were basically paid to lose and make the heroes look good spawned from it, because basically that is the job of villains in any mainstream “good vs. evil” story. I'm not quite sure when Skull Girl took the lead — probably because the idea of a sweet, innocent girl trying to be evil was funny and had potential.

Alison: Tell me a little bit more about Skull Girl.

Scott: Skull Girl's real name is “Molly Mukai”. She was born to Robert and May Mukai. Robert Mukai was better known as “The Slasher”, an evil ninja-overlord kind of super villain. May was the typical ‘damsel in distress' female friend character to the heroes “The Slasher” fought on a regular basis. Molly was “Daddy's Girl” and wanted to grow up to be a super villain like her father. In Super Temps, just about everyone has a super power (called ‘talents'), but most powers are useless so the majority prefer to work mundane jobs. Mentally, Skully isn't stupid, but she is extremely reactionary — she acts before she thinks most of the time. She's got a bit of an erratic and often explosive temperament, but most of the time she's happy, cheerful and enthusiastic. She only starts throwing around the “Blams” (the sound her power makes) when people are really rude to her or get violent first.

Alison: Scott, I'm afraid we simply don't have much more space in the paper for this interview. Anything to add?

Scott: Just be sure to check out the on-line web page. I've even created a section to “Email a Super”. And read the Interrobang more often and get involved, because you only get out of school what you put into it.

Alison: Which in your case would be great marks, a tiny amount of recognition and absolutely no sex. I think you're doing great!

Scott: You're still angry about the dildo joke.

Alison: Yes, I'm still a little angry about the dildo joke.
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