Just one name. Like Madonna, or Conan, or Snuffleupagus.

     But he is much more than one thing! Oh yes. Voltaire is an animator, filmmaker (he did a stint as director for an MTV project), cartoonist, musician, game designer, and all-around Gothalicious dude. He came to the attention of the Critical Kobold with Chi Chian: The Role Playing Game, After his work was reviewed by our own cranky humanoid, he agreed to be interviewed for the Penderyn Campaign Website.

     He is a brave man. But he's also very dedicated, creative, and of a good humor. So check out his website (www.voltaire.net), and then join us for a little idle banter between man and kobold.

     The following interview took place on Dec 28, 2004.

     Voltaire has navigated the shadowy depths of the tunnels leading to the Critical Kobold's office. He's been shown to a chair which, while perhaps not terribly comfortable, is at least fairly stable. (Sometimes the Kobold chews on the furniture, and legs tend to need replacing.)

     He's in the cave that the Kobold refers to as the "observatory". We're not sure what that means, but at least most of the unidentified skeletal remains littering the floor don't smell too bad. Some candles light the dank chamber, which is a little disorienting when they reflect off the small disco ball dangling from the ceiling.

     The Kobold enters shortly thereafter, bathrobe open disconcertingly and a satin fez at a rakish angle.

     With the release of the Chi Chian  rpg, "game designer" has become the last in a long line of titles for you; singer, songwriter, filmmaker, director, comic book artist, animator, Goth dude… what other title would you like to add to your repertoire in the near future?

     Seriously though, I just started making toys and that is something that I have been  wanting to do for a long, long time. There was a Chi-Chian statue made a few years ago by Japan’s Fewture Models, but that was more of an art piece. Now I am making plastic figures of my new comic book character DEADY and that makes me really happy…..or at least as happy as a “Goth dude” can get.  ; )

V: Ideally, supplements would be a good idea. But my plate is full right now and I don’t know if Aetherco/ Dreamcatcher (who released the game) can put it together at this time. My priority would be to try to get the Chi-Chian comic book series re-released as a graphic novel. That would make for an EXCELLENT source book for the game, naturally.

     But because of the length and the fact that it’s in color, I suspect that my publisher (Sirius) would have serious (pardon the pun!) reservations about putting out a book that would be THAT expensive to print without having an indication that there’s a market for it. I’m in the process of developing Chi-Chian as a live action feature film and video game. If that happens, I’m sure the graphic novel, as well as RPG supplements, would follow.

V: It’s my middle name.

     Do you get to write that yourself, or do you have servants who think these descriptions up for you?

V: All of my ad copy is written by the same imaginary army of robots and zombie slaves that read and write all of my fan mail for me. ; )

V: I am just an all around dork, really. I love Star Trek and Star Wars equally and can really bulls-eye a wamprat with my T-16 when it comes to Star Wars trivia! There’s lots of Star Wars and Star Trek references in my Oh My Goth! and DEADY comic books prompting reviewers to say that my comics have high “geek appeal”, whatever the hell that is!

K: In Chi Chian, there's a war between New York and New Jersey. You grew up in Jersey. Perhaps some latent hostility there we should discuss? Hmmmmm?

V: I was in Tokyo in 1989 directing a TV commercial when I got the idea for Chi-Chian. But it wasn’t until 7 or 8 years later that I started to draw the comic book. I worked on the books for about 2 years. Then I started working on the web series for the Sci Fi Channel’s website.

     That was the best year of my career! I was getting paid to wake up and work with Chi-Chian. It’s very satisfying to be telling your own stories with your own characters! It beats the hell out of making TV commercials! So Chi-Chian has been a part of my life for the better part of the last 16 years!

     And yes, Sushi good. Me love Unagi. There, ya happy?

V: There is no such thing as a typical workday for me. Sometimes I wake up at 3pm and do some drawing for my T-shirt apparel deal then go out with my girlfriend and get hammered on sake. Some days I wake up  at 7am, take my son to school and then sit around writing songs or recording them. Some days I am up at an all night café until 8am churning out pages for one of my graphic novels. At least 5 days a month I am playing a show in a different city. 2 days a week I am teaching a stop-motion class at The School of Visual Arts in NYC…yeah, it’s just one big adventure…. Now if only I wasn’t poor.  ; P

V: Hai! Despite the fact that my “time living there” was 5 weeks, I do savvy the lingo. My Japanese is not great but it’s definitely enough to get by on.

     I have been back a couple of times. The last time was just a couple of months ago. I was there to perform my first show in Japan! I did my whole show in Japanese. It was a pip! I don’t know how to say “pip” in Japanese though…I saw a Chi-Chian statue in a toy store in Osaka! That was very exciting. And someone told me they saw some of my DEADY toys in a store in Harajuku-Tokyo. I hope to go back really soon.

     I juggle my schedule, does that count?

V: I don’t read books. I have read 3 books in my whole life.

     "Dirigible."

V: They are exactly the same. Seriously. It’s all the same to me. It’s all just the creative process in action. I get equally excited and equally frustrated in the process of creating all manner of unrelated things.

     Then I spill the batter all down my Incredible Hulk Underoos, and it's so frustrating! The pan's waiting for pancakes that'll never come, and I've got three pounds of batter in my shorts! Now, I'll prob'ly have to have some goddam Pop Tarts or somethin', man! God, I hate that! Why do bad things always HAPPEN TO ME?!

     Ummm... I'm sorry, where were we?

V: Do unto others as you’d have them do unto you.

     I see by your band's schedule that you'll be in San Francisco on January 8^th. Will you bring us back a souvenir?

V: I’m 37 and I am the YOUNGEST member of my band!

V:  A lot of people don’t realize that in doing what I do, I am in essence running a business. And part of running a business is keeping in touch with what people are saying about your product, how much it’s selling for on eBay, etc. So every once in a while, I will do a search on Google for DEADY, Oh My Goth! , Chi-Chian, etc.. to see what comes up. I was VERY pleasantly surprised to find the review you wrote.

     Anyway... In my review of your Chi Chian rpg, I gave it a rating of two out of five dice when taken as a stand-alone game product. However, I mentioned in the review that if one were a Chi Chian fan, it should be considered a four out of five rating. (And, to be honest, I rarely give a rating that high, so go ahead and pat yourself on the back!... Go ahead. Do it. Now.)

     So, was the rpg written for comic book fans to lure them into role playing, or for role players to lure them into your comic books?

V: I would have to say that the game was created for Chi-Chian fans who are also gamers. People who are into my work are VERY often gamers so that’s not as big of a stretch as it may sound. And we crammed tons and tons of information about the Chi-Chian universe into it for Chi-Chian fans who aren’t gamers and don’t wish to play the game but would love an in depth look at the world of Chi-Chian beyond the comics. But it was also created with the hope that other gamers not familiar with Chi-Chian would discover it and want to play it. I don’t know how realistic that is, but it was our hope.

     I was intrigued by the fact that you found so much of it to be “weird”.

     And as I crawled around on the web, time and time again I kept reading (in reviews of the web series mostly) that the reviewer found the Chi-Chian story to be really weird. It seems to be a popular assessment of the property. But the thing is that I don’t see it at all! I really don’t see anything weird about Chi-Chian or her world. It all makes total sense to me. So now I am REALLY worried that I am just nuttier than a fruitcake and I don’t even know it!

…hold me…

     Well, bear in mind that "weird" isn't  a bad thing. I liked the weirdness of Chi Chian. Believe me, if you knew some of the things I was into, you'd see weirdness like you've never seen befo... uh, let's move on.

V: 

Chi-Chian on paper

Countless adventures await

I have done my job

Cheers!