Comics Bulletin logo
Search
  • Big Two

    Recent

    • 2.5

      Review: Batman #65 and the Price of Borrowing From Better Tales

      Sarah Lau
      February 20, 2019
      Big Two, Big Two Reviews, DC Comics, Reviews
      2.5
    • Monday Morning Pick 'Em - February 20th 2019

      Sarah Lau
      February 18, 2019
      Columns, Dynamite, Image, Marvel Comics, Miscellaneous Comic Book Content, Monday Morning Pick 'Em
    • Micro Reviews: Wonder Week!

      Sarah Lau
      February 14, 2019
      DC Comics, Dynamite, Image, Marvel Comics, Reviews
    • 5.0

      Review: Wonder Twins #1 Is a Wondrous First Issue

      Sarah Lau
      February 14, 2019
      Big Two, Big Two Reviews, DC Comics
      5.0
    • 4.0

      Review: "Batman Troika TPB" Brings Back The Classic Bat

      Sarah Lau
      February 9, 2019
      Big Two, Big Two Reviews, DC Comics
      4.0
    • Friday Favorites: Crisis On Infinite Earths

      Sarah Lau
      February 8, 2019
      Columns, DC Comics, Friday Favorites
    • 0.5

      Review: 'Heroes In Crisis' #5 Illuminates The Series' Fundamental Flaws

      Sarah Lau
      January 30, 2019
      Big Two, Big Two Reviews, DC Comics
      0.5
    • Marvel's Conan the Outdated Barbarian

      Sarah Lau
      January 29, 2019
      Big Two, Marvel Comics
    • Friday Favorites: Intercompany Crossovers

      Sarah Lau
      January 18, 2019
      Columns, Dark Horse, DC Comics, Dynamite, Friday Favorites, IDW, Marvel Comics, Top Cow
    • DC Comics
    • Big Two Reviews
    • Marvel Comics
  • Indie

    Recent

    • Monday Morning Pick 'Em - February 20th 2019

      Sarah Lau
      February 18, 2019
      Columns, Dynamite, Image, Marvel Comics, Miscellaneous Comic Book Content, Monday Morning Pick 'Em
    • Honoring A Legend: Fantagraphics To Resurrect Tomi Ungerer Classics

      Sarah Lau
      February 15, 2019
      Classic Comics, Fantagraphics, News, Press Release
    • Micro Reviews: Wonder Week!

      Sarah Lau
      February 14, 2019
      DC Comics, Dynamite, Image, Marvel Comics, Reviews
    • Interview: Caitlin Kittredge talks the future of Witchblade

      Sarah Lau
      February 12, 2019
      Indie, Interviews, Top Cow
    • 5.0

      Review: A Wondrous Journey With "Wandering Island Vol. 2"

      Sarah Lau
      February 7, 2019
      Dark Horse, Manga, Reviews
      5.0
    • 2.0

      Review: Vindication #1 Deserves Incarceration

      Sarah Lau
      February 7, 2019
      Image, Indie, Reviews, Top Cow
      2.0
    • 4.5

      Review: 'G.I. Joe: Sierra Muerte' Orders Up Action À La Carte

      Sarah Lau
      February 6, 2019
      IDW, Indie
      4.5
    • 4.5

      Review: Red Sonja #1 is a Showcase of Biting Satire

      Sarah Lau
      February 6, 2019
      Dynamite, Indie, Reviews
      4.5
    • 2.5

      Review: The Shape of Elvira #1 Hits and Misses the Mark

      Sarah Lau
      January 31, 2019
      Dynamite, Indie, Reviews
      2.5
    • Action Lab Entertainment
    • Archie Comics
    • Boom! Studios
    • Dark Horse
    • IDW
    • Image
    • Oni Press
    • Reviews
  • Manga

    Recent

    • 5.0

      Review: A Wondrous Journey With "Wandering Island Vol. 2"

      Sarah Lau
      February 7, 2019
      Dark Horse, Manga, Reviews
      5.0
    • Review: Weekly Shonen Jump’s New App Experience

      Sarah Lau
      January 23, 2019
      Manga, Reviews
    • VIZ MEDIA ANNOUNCES THE RELEASE OF URUSEI YATSURA SIGNATURE EDITIONS

      Sarah Lau
      January 16, 2019
      Manga, News, Press Release
    • Interview: Andy Nakatani and the Future of Weekly Shonen Jump

      Sarah Lau
      December 19, 2018
      Interviews, Manga
    • VIZ Media Launches Shojo Manga Series - KAKURIYO: BED & BREAKFAST FOR SPIRITS

      Sarah Lau
      December 13, 2018
      Manga, Press Release
    • 74%

      Review: "Juni Taisen: Zodiac War" Vol. #1 Murders My Perceptions

      Sarah Lau
      November 26, 2018
      Manga, Reviews
      74%
    • Comictober 2018: GYO By Junji Ito

      Sarah Lau
      October 28, 2018
      Columns, Manga
    • When Japanese Influences Meet Western Art Schools: a roundtable

      Sarah Lau
      May 19, 2017
      Manga
    • Review: 'ZOMBIES ASSEMBLE' #1

      Sarah Lau
      May 12, 2017
      Indie, Manga, Reviews
    • Reviews
  • Small Press

    Recent

    • ICYMI -- Small Press Comics Criticism and Whatnot for 1/26/19 to 2/1/19

      Sarah Lau
      February 4, 2019
      ICYMI, Small Press
    • ICYMI -- Small Press Comics Criticism and Whatnot for 1/19/19 to 1/25/19

      Sarah Lau
      January 28, 2019
      ICYMI, Small Press
    • ICYMI -- Small Press Comics Criticism and Whatnot for 1/12/19 to 1/18/19

      Sarah Lau
      January 21, 2019
      ICYMI, Small Press
    • ICYMI -- Small Press Comics Criticism and Whatnot for 1/7/19 to 1/11/19

      Sarah Lau
      January 14, 2019
      ICYMI, Small Press
    • ICYMI -- Small Press Comics Criticism and Whatnot for 12/1/18 to 12/7/18

      Sarah Lau
      December 10, 2018
      ICYMI, Small Press
    • ICYMI -- Small Press Comics Criticism and Whatnot for 10/27/18 to 11/2/18

      Sarah Lau
      November 5, 2018
      ICYMI, Small Press
    • ICYMI -- Small Press Comics Criticism and Whatnot for 10/6/18 to 10/12/18

      Sarah Lau
      October 15, 2018
      ICYMI, Small Press
    • ICYMI -- Small Press Comics Criticism and Whatnot for 9/29/18 to 10/5/18

      Sarah Lau
      October 8, 2018
      ICYMI, Small Press
    • ICYMI -- Small Press Comics Criticism and Whatnot for 9/22/18 to 9/28/18

      Sarah Lau
      October 1, 2018
      ICYMI, Small Press
    • ICYMI
    • Reviews
    • Tiny Pages Made of Ashes
  • Columns
    Random
    • True Blood 4.02: "You Smell Like Dinner"

      Sarah Lau
      July 9, 2011
      Columns, Shot for Shot
    Recent
    • Monday Morning Pick ‘Em – February 20th 2019

      Daniel Gehen
      February 18, 2019
    • Friday Favorites: Chuck Dixon and Scott McDaniel’s Nightwing

      Daniel Gehen
      February 15, 2019
    • Monday Morning Pick ‘Em – February 13th, 2019

      Daniel Gehen
      February 11, 2019
    • Comics Bulletin Podcast
    • Comics in Color
    • The Full Run
    • Jumping On
    • Leading Question
    • The Long-Form
    • Reboot Comic Book Club
    • Slouches Towards Comics
    • Top 10
    • What Looks Good
  • Interviews
    Random
    • Marc Andreyko: The Evolution of the Manhunter

      Sarah Lau
      December 16, 2009
      Interviews
    Recent
    • Interview: Caitlin Kittredge talks the future of Witchblade

      Daniel Gehen
      February 12, 2019
    • Interview: Andy Nakatani and the Future of Weekly Shonen Jump

      Daniel Gehen
      December 19, 2018
    • INTERVIEW: Todd Matthy talks robots, princesses, and bridging the divide with storytelling

      Stephen Cook
      September 13, 2018
    • Audio Interview
    • Video Interview
  • Classic Comics
    Random
    • Destroyer Duck

      Sarah Lau
      November 27, 2011
      Classic Comics Cavalcade, Columns
    Recent
    • Honoring A Legend: Fantagraphics To Resurrect Tomi Ungerer Classics

      Daniel Gehen
      February 15, 2019
    • Reliving the Craziest Decade in Comics History: An interview with Jason Sacks

      Mark Stack
      January 2, 2019
    • “THE BEST OF WITZEND” is a Wonderful Celebration of Artistic Freedom

      Daniel Gehen
      September 15, 2018
    • Classic Comics Cavalcade
    • Classic Interviews
  • News
    Random
    • Dispatches from CAB Part One: It's an Adventure

      Sarah Lau
      November 18, 2014
      News
    Recent
    • Honoring A Legend: Fantagraphics To Resurrect Tomi Ungerer Classics

      Daniel Gehen
      February 15, 2019
    • Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and Humble Bundle Announce a Limited-time Collection of Must Read Comics

      Daniel Gehen
      February 13, 2019
    • Kickstarter Spotlight: The Boston Metaphysical Society Embrace the Spirit of Rebellion

      Jason Sacks
      January 27, 2019
    • VIZ MEDIA ANNOUNCES THE RELEASE OF URUSEI YATSURA SIGNATURE EDITIONS

      Daniel Gehen
      January 16, 2019
    • DC Joins Comixology Unlimited, Striking a Blow to DC Universe

      Daniel Gehen
      January 8, 2019
    • Image Announces “LITTLE BIRD” Miniseries

      Daniel Gehen
      December 21, 2018
  • Books
    Random
    • Review: Barbara Yelin's 'Irmina' and the Beauty of Third Acts

      Sarah Lau
      April 27, 2016
      Books
    Recent
    • “THE BEST OF WITZEND” is a Wonderful Celebration of Artistic Freedom

      Daniel Gehen
      September 15, 2018
    • Review: ‘Machete Squad’ is a Disappointing Afghan Memoir

      Jason Sacks
      July 31, 2018
    • Review: ‘Out of Nothing’ is the Antidote to Our Sick Times

      Jason Sacks
      July 23, 2018
    • Review: ‘Bizarre Romance’ Shows Rough Edges in the Early Days of a New Marriage

      Jason Sacks
      July 10, 2018
    • Review: ‘The Furnace’ is a Fascinating Graphic Novel of Ideas and Relationships

      Jason Sacks
      July 9, 2018
    • Review: ‘Apollo’ is Great with Facts, Less Great with Mythologizing

      Jason Sacks
      June 25, 2018
What's New
  • Review: Batman #65 and the Price of Borrowing From Better Tales
  • Monday Morning Pick 'Em - February 20th 2019
  • Review: Doom Patrol Episode 1
  • Honoring A Legend: Fantagraphics To Resurrect Tomi Ungerer Classics
  • Friday Favorites: Chuck Dixon and Scott McDaniel’s Nightwing
  • Micro Reviews: Wonder Week!
  • RSS Feed
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Contact Us
  • Write for us!
  • Visit Video Game Break!
Home
Interviews

Immelmann from Ballerina Mafia: Interview

Sarah Lau
August 23, 2014
Interviews

In a hilarious gag comic, stars its own creator as a talking wolfrabbit soon turned into a velociraptor that gets into a silly real-life antics and a little drama with his fellow animal cast that is comprised of real people he knows which can all be found in Ballerina Mafia.

Immelmann, 27, came up with the idea for Ballerina Mafia (BM) when he realized he wanted something more comical and easier to spread around the internet compared to his first webcomic, Concession.

“Concession had started as a light, humorous comic much like BM did, but by then, it had developed a really dark and serious plot,” said the 27-year-old.

Ballerina Mafia launched on September 6, 2010 and its name is originated from a list of unrelated words and phrases meant to be catchy, nonsensical, and irrelevant to the comic.

6
Above: Antics from Ballerina Mafia

The cast of BM consists of talking animals that stand like humans and features Immelmann as a wolfrabbit and a velociraptor, Shugwar the Panther, Malik the Goat-Badger hybrid, Epam the House Cat, and more. The entire cast of Ballerina Mafia are based of real people he knows and he incorporated parts of their personalities into the characters. The cast bios are exaggerated versions of the real people’s bios and as Immelmann says “just as the characters are exaggerations of their real life humans.”

“Shugawar, [whose] name was a short-lived high school nickname mocking the band Gwar, made a demon panther character one night before BM was ever an idea. It was a late night of hanging out where he made the character as a parody of the idea of a ‘fursona’, thinking that being part demon would be pretentious and out of line. Little did he know that being half demon is remarkably tame by furry standards,” the BM creator shared.

4

Above: Immelmann as a wolfrabbit (left), and velociraptor (right)

As readers follow Ballerina Mafia, they will notice the sudden change of Immelmann’s wolfrabbit character to a velociraptor. He says he needed a psychological push to motivate himself to get fit.

“…so I created this larger-than-life dinosaur persona as motivation – a dominant, manly, athletic build to pretend I was. The idea was that I’d get so used to playing it that dieting and working out would become comfortable and second nature. And hey, it kinda worked! I managed to lose like 60 pounds in a year,” said Immelmann.

In the comic world, Immelmann’s Ballerina Mafia is labelled as a furry and according to WikiFur it is defined as follows: …fictional anthropomorphicanimal characters with human personalities and characteristics. Examples of anthropomorphic attributes include exhibiting human intelligence and facial expressions, the ability to speak, walking on two legs, and wearing clothing.

The 27-year-old says he does not consider the term furry to be a genre and more of a style or a community.

“Imagine seeing ‘furry’ on a list next to ‘horror’, ‘western’, or ‘romantic comedy’. It doesn’t make any sense. It describes what it looks like, sure, but it has absolutely nothing to do with the story, characters, or at all the general feel of a story of work. Furries make sci-fi, fantasy, action, adventure… those are the genres, and while ‘furry’ has plenty of connotations and utilize a lot of similar tropes, it’s not really appropriate to call it anything but a style,” Immelmann shared, “I guess it’s like calling ‘japanese films’ a genre. Sure, it tells you a lot about what you’re in for when you watch one, but there’s a big difference between ‘japanese horror films’ and ‘japanese comedies’. It’s more appropriate to think of it as ‘a japanese vision of a horror film’, and likewise, ‘a furry vision of a furry comic’, and so on.”

8
Above: Immelmann shows what four years of art practice achieves

Ballerina Mafia’s staff comprises solely of Immelmann and he does everything from writing, illustrating, web design, and marketing. The artist says that for each strip of BM it starts as a vague idea that can be the core of the joke or even the basic theme of the strip. Then, it is written down usually in a big list of ideas in a notebook he keeps. He proceeds to sketch out panels on paper to figure out the flow and timing.

“There’s almost never a script written out until the very end for these tiny gag strips,” said Immelmann.

Next, he draws, colours, and tosses his work into Photoshop for text which then he writes out on the spot. He says that process takes about half a day of work that could narrow down to four hours if he does not “screw around much.”

“It varies greatly, and as I usually work on it on Sundays after a late night of drinking, it can take considerably longer,” said the BM artist.

10

Above: Ballerina Mafia #200, drawn in a more detailed style and featuring a crossover of Immelmann’s comics

Immelmann has attended several conventions that include four Anthrocons in a row, twice to FurFright and Midwest Furfest, and he hopes to attend another convention in Boston but says financial reasons have kept him away.

Webcomics have become a popular medium to push artwork out to be recognized and because of that a lot of artists may find themselves up against competition and wonder if it worthwhile in the long run. Immelmann says that webcomics are traditionally given out for free and thus there is no real competition in the medium.

“…anyone who does otherwise is kind of a jerk,” said the 27-year-old creator.

He continues to say that there can be competition in regards to Patreon funding or store funds but people have the ability to read more than one comic at a time.

“It’s not like albums or movies, which people will only buy so many of per year. It’s very much worth the time because, for me anyways, making webcomics was a way of cheating at having a social life. It got my art a ton of exposure that would otherwise be really hard to come by,” shared Immelmann.

Immelmann’s dream for Ballerina Mafia was to get his webcomic onto television.

“I thought it wasn’t 100% impossible to sell the modified ideas in cartoon form to, say, Adult Swim or something like that. I’ve basically lost interest in doing that by now, as all my love and attention has gone to my new webcomic, Order of the Black Dog,” he shared.

9
Above: Mostly female cast of Order of the Black Dog

According to Immelmann, Order of the Black Dog is “a more serious attempt at storytelling than Concession was. It’s split into many stories, but the core tale is about a couple of college-age girls who revive an ancient, secret organization to hunt down secrets and, in particular, unlock the mystery of a dangerous creature found in outer space.

You can find Immelmann’s other links below:

Ballerina Mafia

Order of the Black Dog

Concession


Thanks to our friends at Two Geeks Talking for letting us share this content.

Two Geeks Talking is a partner in Crossroads Alpha along with Comics Bulletin.

 

Ballerina MafiaImmelmannSarah Lau

Share On:
Tweet
Interview: Al Plastino, the Classic Superman Artist Part Two
Video Interview: J Torres, Comics Writer

About The Author

<a href="http://comicsbulletin.com/byline/sarah-lau/" rel="tag">Sarah Lau</a>
Sarah Lau

Sarah Lau is a Digital Journalism and Communication, Media, and Film student at the University of Windsor in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. She joined Two Geeks Talking to polish her writing skills and has interviewed Chris Ecker (Big Bang Comics), Danielle Corsetto (Girls With Slingshots), Jamie Jennings (Lavender Legend), and more. The 20-year-old enjoys anything from video games like League of Legends to Harvest Moon, creates her own costumes and plushies, using Yelp and Instagram, watching Disney movies, and more. The Two Geeks Talking journalist can also be found watching Youtubers like Anna Akana, Bubzbeauty, WongFu Productions, and similar creators.

Related Posts

  • Sarah Lau from Two Geeks Talking: Intern Synopsis

    Sarah Lau
    September 6, 2014
  • Video Interview: April Fawler from Apes in the Woods

    Sarah Lau
    August 30, 2014

Latest Interviews

  • Interview: Caitlin Kittredge talks the future of Witchblade

    Daniel Gehen
    February 12, 2019
  • Interview: Andy Nakatani and the Future of Weekly Shonen Jump

    Daniel Gehen
    December 19, 2018
  • INTERVIEW: Todd Matthy talks robots, princesses, and bridging the divide with storytelling

    Stephen Cook
    September 13, 2018
  • INTERVIEW: Gallaher & Ellis discuss THE ONLY LIVING GIRL

    Daniel Gehen, Thea Srinivasan
    September 7, 2018
  • Interview: Daniel Elkin Will Fight You Over Small Press Comics and Chicken Nuggets

    Daniel Gehen
    July 30, 2018
  • Exclusive Advance Interview: Matt Kindt on ‘X-O Manowar: Agent’

    Jason Sacks
    May 24, 2018
  • Alex Alice: Creativity in the Stars

    Jason Sacks
    October 4, 2017
  • Tillie Walden: Direct Honesty

    Jason Sacks
    October 2, 2017
  • Interview: Chynna Clugston Flores Fills Us in on Her “Inbetween Days”

    Mark Stack
    July 31, 2017
  • Interview: Jason Copland and Michael May, Creators of “Kill All Monsters”

    Nick Hanover
    July 14, 2017
RSSTwitterFacebookgoogleplusinstagramtumblr

Comics Bulletin is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for website owners to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com, audible.com, and any other website that may be affiliated with Amazon Service LLC Associates Program. As an Amazon Associate, Comics Bulletin earns from qualifying purchases.

All content on this site (c) 2018 The Respective Copyright Holders