Kasaix: Hello Doujin Army! I’m here with another truly talented artist, the one and only Gagala! I’ve been following his work for quite some time, and finally decided to reach out for an interview. To my delight, he accepted! His work is amazing. He primarily draws Kim Possible art, and the style is near 1:1 with the show itself.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Thanks for taking the time to hang out. How’s it going, Gagala?
Gagala: If my health status would be better, I could say that I’m fine, but it’s not. Due to this situation, my creation process is way too slow. I would feel much better if I could work as fast as I wanted to. But thanks for the praise, it’s a pleasure to be here.
Kasaix: Let’s start at the top, could you tell me how you first got into art?
Gagala: Long, long ago, in the mid 80s, I purchased my first own computer, an Atari with b/w screen and a hand scanner. I scanned comics for editing some of the female toons, to make my own versions of them. But I wouldn’t consider that as art, it was only editing, just for 
fun.
With the years the PCs became bigger, faster and more colorful, with the possibility to make screenshots from DVDs or TV and then came the Internet. I live in a country that is mostly late when it’s about cartoon series, so I saw ‘Kim Possible’ for the first time in 2006 and as I heard that this series has been canceled in 2007, I started with my own KP versions. You can see it as a kind of protest, a reaction on a dumb decision of a big company.
Kasaix: Did you go to an art school, or are you all self taught?
Gagala: All self taught. Biggest problem has always been the used software. The first ‘professional’ graphics suite I used was purchased and it wasn’t cheap, but didn’t work better than other freeware graphic programs. When I was tired of Windoof, I switched to Linux OS and since then I’m using a free and open-source vector graphics editor. It’s still a little buggy and not perfect, but it works for me.
Kasaix: What are your favorite characters and themes to draw?
Gagala: Uh, there are so many of them that I like. Not only Kim, Shego, Bonnie, Monique and Ann, I also like those supporting toon characters, like the Mad Dogs Cheerleaders and characters from other series, like Musashi (aka Jessie) from Pokémon, Melissa Chase (Milo Murphy’s Law), Raven (Teen Titans), Vanessa (Phineas and Ferb), Arielle (Little Mermaid), Candy (Dave the Barbarian), Betty Rubble (The Flintstones), Futura (The Real Ghostbusters), Calla (Adventures of the Gummi Bears), Jasmine (Aladdin), Wendy White (Poochini’s Yard), just to mention a few.
You ask about my favorite theme to draw, but I have to clarify that I’m not a pencil artist, I wouldn’t consider myself as an artist at all. Others do and I’m thankful for that.
My favorite themes are the annual Xmas pictures, which are of the harmless kind, and the summer beach pictures.
Kasaix: Your work with the Kim Possible series is legendary. I love it. Kim apparently sleeps with any girl that moves, and she frequently has multiple girls over. What first drew you to the Kim Possible series?
Gagala: It is always nice to hear someone likes my work. My first works have been edits of screen captures from the series. Something that made me very grumpy years later, as I realized that the whole KP series was produced in full HD format with an aspect ratio of 16:9, at that time I had TV recordings of the ‘cheap’ kind only, with an aspect ratio of 4:3. I even made an own short animation with Bonnie (Bonnie004.gif) in that crappy format. After little edits came bigger changes, but it can make more work to edit a screen capture, than to create a completely new picture. So I started to make my own versions, but I can’t recall which work has been the first, completely made by myself.
Kasaix: Do you have your own canon for your hentai comics? Like, is there an on-going story, or interconnected elements that carry from one project to another?
Gagala: It was planned, but that is hard to realize. In my beginnings I still made a few commission works and most of them didn’t fit into ‘my’ KP universe. In my KP world all characters are an adult now, Ann is divorced and married with Shego and all females are lesbians. I always wanted to make comics about that, how it came to this, but I currently have so many different projects, that I can’t find the time for that, maybe in a few years from now.
Kasaix: What do you feel is your best picture yet, and why?
Gagala: Others decide which my best work is, but for me my favorite picture is the Xmas work from 2007, it’s full of peace and love.
Kasaix: Where do you get the inspiration for your projects from?
Gagala: Watching an episode of any cartoon series. It’s terrible, each time I see something I did not notice before and I get an idea for a picture, or even a comic. I still have a huge pile of ideas that are waiting to get realized, but my working pace is too slow and time is running out. Nobody lives forever.
Kasaix: How long does it typically take you to finish a project?
Gagala: As mentioned before, I’m working very slowly, due to my bad health. On good days, I could start a picture at the early morning and have it done at noon, but such days are very rare. I have started too many projects (sorry for that), so each still developing comic now even takes longer. Example: ‘The Tale of Kiki Possible’ started in January 2011 and it’s still at work. Yeah, shame on me.
Kasaix: Is there a project you'd really like to work on in the future?
Gagala: I would be happy to be able to finish all current running projects as soon as possible. But I can only work on one project a day. On bad days only for minutes, on better days for hours. ‘The Tale of Kiki Possible’, currently at page 29, will not have more than 40 pages. The largest project ‘KP’s Last Mission’ will probably never find an end. Take a look at the cover and you will see how many encounters Kim will have. I can only hope to live long enough to get this huge project done.
Kasaix: Do you have any original characters?
Gagala: Kiki Possible is an own idea, but she will be just a clone, made with DNA from Kim, Shego, Bonnie and Kaori (the singer at the ‘Bermuda Triangle’, from the movie ‘So the Drama’, I made her a dickgirl in that comic). My work is based on parodies of existing toon characters.
Kasaix: What setup do you use to draw?
Gagala: Inkscape 0.92.4, GIMP 2.10.8, running on Xubuntu Linux 19.10, Quad Core AMD Ryzen 5 2400G with Radeon Vega Graphics (what is necessary for big graphic files)
Kasaix: Where does your username come from?
Gagala: I can’t recall when it was, must have been in the end 90s, I needed a username for a forum. On the radio I heard ‘Queen: Radio Gaga’ at that moment and thought that this username should start with ‘Gaga’. I chose Gagalala, but that forum only allowed 6 digits, so it became ‘Gagala’. At that time I couldn’t find any other Gagala in the web, didn’t have a clue that this is a regular name and even a family name. Today even companies are using this name. I apologize to all those who are having this name, it never was intended to steal it.
Kasaix: Let’s wrap it up here for now. Do you have any final words to all your fans?
Gagala: Changes in life are becoming faster and faster, hang on to what you love and stay faithful. Be good. Always. Thank you.
To those who are supporting me: Thank you very much for your help and endless patience. I will always be in your debt, you make my livelihood, bear hug!
I’d like to thank Gagala again for taking the time to hang out. If you’d like to follow his work, check out the sites below:
