Jenny Romanchuk is the brainchild behind The Zombie Hunters. She's 21 years old and currently attending Sault College of Applied Technology in Ontario studying graphic design. Jenny also spends a good amount of her time freelancing for roleplaying books. After finishing the first chapter of TZH, I wanted to sit down and ask her a few questions.

TZH was based off a dream you had. How long after the dream did it take you to decide to make it into a comic?

Like, a day. Haha.
At first I didn't think to make it a comic though, the first plan was just to make it a series of pictures, and silly little random blurbs about what was happening. It was just for fun and a joke really. I didn't see its potential for an actual full blown comic until much later.

How long did you take to plan the comic before you launching the first strip? Do you write chapters in advance, or as your going along?

Well I'll be brutally honest, I went out on a limb, and jumped into this entire project head-first and blindfolded. Just no freaking clue what I was doing. I probably did a weeks worth of haphazard planning before the first few comics were launched. Infact I/we were all in such a rush to get started those first 3 comic strips are actually *not* supposed to be there.

For one, they are in pencil, and two they might conflict with the future storyline. Technically they should be scrapped and revamped, which they will in the future, once things settle down, I have some big plans for the future site in mind. I find myself a perfectionist, always changing and tweaking things, making things better. All the chapters are/going to be completely scripted out like a movie. I input the dialogue, the scenes, character expressions, panelling, it just makes it easier when it comes to drawing everything out.

I am still planning, plotting, and scripting the chapters right now, even as I type this. I have the bare bones plot and everything laid out, its just fleshing everything in that takes a while. It's a fictional story, obviously, but I am attempting to make this world and characters as plausible and believable as possible, along with having those fictional elements which make things fun, which I am finding to be more and more of a challenge, keeping things balanced. But I like a challenge, and things have been failing into place rather nicely, so I think things will all work out.

TZH was based off of a dream you had. Anyone who's read the TZH FAQ or subscribes to your Deviant Art journal has read it; should we be afraid of TZH turning out exactly like the dream?

Never fear! It is definitely not going to turn out like the dream haha. Bits and pieces of the dream will be incorporated into the story, but as far as the plotline is concerned the TZH story, characters, world, they all heavily deviate away from the dream. The dream basically got me interested in the zombie genre, and inspired me, I get a lot of inspiration from my dreams.

Have you always liked zombies, or is this a new facination since your dream?

Before the dream I was absolutely freaking terrified of zombies. Terrified! I would watch a zombie movie, and my heart would be racing, my palms would get all sweaty, adrenaline would just be coursing through my veins, and I would sleep with the door locked and all the lights on afterwards. It was actually really sad at how much I was afraid of them. It didn't help that I am really Hemophobic (intense fear of blood) if I see blood in real life, read about it, or (sometimes) see it in movies, I'll pass out cold. Yeah I'm that much of a wuss. It sucks because I have no control over passing out, how embarassing.

But since the dream I am not as terrified as I used to be, the dream, like, cleansed me of my fear, and now I actually get all excited, as well as freaked out while reading/watching zombie flicks. I'm still hemophobic as all hell, but at least when I draw gore I am fine haha. Which is good because there is a lot of gore involved in the zombie genre.

I know your friends help you with the site and with some editing; do they have any say in regards to the writing? Did they choose their own zombie-fighting skills or how they'd like to be attacked by zombies?

Well yes and no. I am always happy with ideas and input, but as far as the plot goes, aside from Sammie (she is the brainstormer/editor) and myself, no one of them really knows whats going to happen next. I work in a lot of their personality and actions, I would call them up sometimes and ask, what would you do, or say, in such and such of a situation? Or with their backrounds, unless it conflicts with the storyline, they get control over it, or, with most cases they trust me enough to just let me run wild haha. And sometimes I just like toying with them. Take Katie for example, for the longest time didn't know what was going to happen to her person after she fell of the wire. Technically, she still doesn't know! *evil laughter*

For their character skills and abilities I based them all on a lot of their own real live traits.

Katie is taking GIS (computers+maps=GIS) in University, and she is ALWAYS the navigator when we go on trips. She the one with the map and the only one who knows how to read it. She can always get us from point A to point B no problem. She has always been the one who always knew a fair amount about computers. Hell she's the one who built and is running the site. So she is our Mapper and computer techie. And she's scary when angry, using anything she can get her hands on as a weapon.

Dan has ALWAYS been interested in weapons and design. You go into his room and there are stack and stacks of sketchbooks filled with unique designs from everything from swords, handguns, to extremely complex weapons and vehicles. Whenever I need help with the weapons used in my story I run to Dan :D So it was obvious that Dan should work with Weapons Research and Development.

Maureen has always been the most outgoing and flamboyant and 'badass' out of all of us. You give her a stick and leave her out in the woods she can kill her own dinner and survive just fine. She's the only one out of any of us who knows how to drive in real life, so I figured it be funny for her to be 'the chick who drives the getaway van.' Haha.

Sammie is just a crazy prankster. Very very smart, but crazy. When we are both together we are known to trail off from the task at hand and just talk and talk and talk about something else that doesn't even relate to it. I dunno what it is, but Sammie always is the healer, the one people turn to for help, a shoulder to cry on, she's really good at picking people up and giving them pep talks. She's very, very empathic. So having her be a flamboyant insane field medic just seemed all too perfect XD

Do you have a favorite zombie movie? Have you seen Shaun of the Dead?

I get asked that a lot =D its either "have you seen Shaun of the dead?" or "Have you read the zombie survival guide?" I have lost count! I have seen Shaun of the dead, its such a hilarious and silly movie, it reminded me a lot of my friends, and it gave me that extra push to confirm that I could actually do TZH.

I have to say my favourite zombie movie would be 28 days Later, even though it wasn't exactly a zombie flick. I just loved the the oppressive atmosphere they created. The desperation, the desolation, the confusion, starvation, and loss. All really important elements that they played out rather well.

How long have you been freelancing for roleplaying books? Which ones have you worked on? Do you LARP?

I haven't been freelancing for very long actually, and so far I have only have been published in one rollplaying book for firestorm-ink for their Cyber Generation Gen Gap book. I really REALLY enjoy this roleplaying game, I am like, obsessed with it.

Hahaha, I never LARP-ed before, but if I ever get a chance to I probably would =D Yeah, I'm a dork.

You're 21 and taking a three year program in school. Are you graduating soon; what are you looking forward to after graduation?

I start my final year in September, and I STILL don't know what I want to do when I graduate, so I am technically not looking forward to that, the not-knowing. But things usually have a tendency of working out, so whatever I decide to do I'll definitely be looking forward to it :)

Do you think you may persue comics as a living?

I hope so! If not I will surely persue it as a hobby.

The comic world is a huge complex entity, and I have still a LOT to learn before I can even consider myself as a comic artist. Like I just started this, what, not even a few months ago? Haha, I am still a newbie at this whole thing, but hopefully through constructive crits, guidance from my betters, and people assisting who have been there, will make my comic book journey all the more worthwhile.

What are your artistic influences? What inspires you to create?

I have many influences. The most enriching influences come from my friends, family, dreams, and just plain ol life. Plus, comics. I read a LOT of comics. Surprisingly I don't read manga, just mostly graphic novels of all sorts haha. I recently have fallen upon Humberto Ramos and the 'Out there' series, he's just amazing.

Have you gone to conventions to promote TZH or has all your promotion been online? Would you consider going to cons in the future?

Hahah we went to one convention so far. Anime North was our victim. We were only less then one month into our project, and I dressed up as my zombie hunter character and we ran around handing out stickers printed out on label stamps, haha really not the best way to advertise yourself. Most of our advertising was done though word of mouth and random links from our readers. Our big break came from somethingpositive.net who did a short news article on our site. Needless to say our site died, twice, from all the hits we got. It was awesome =D

We plan on going to cons in the future of our schedules and our wallet permit it, haha.

What are your future plans for TZH? How long do you plan to continue the series? Do you think you may compile the strips into a book in the future?

Well from the looks of it this will be going on for a long, long time. My guess the story itself will possibly run for 5 years? Or longer even. What my plan is that the webcomic is actually a testing phase. I plan on actually revamping the entire comic and actually publishing it as a graphic novel in the future as a series or one big book. It'll be more in depth, you can read about the work involved, the beginning stages, the character building process, concept art, not to mention there will probably be a glossary book that's dedicated to all the creatures, objects, history, and locations of everything in the story. It's a huge almost overwhelming project I am planning on for the future, but like I said before, things just have a habit of falling into place, and just, working out, so I am looking towards the future of TZH with great optimism!

In short this entire thing is basically one big fat learning experience. In less then 3 months time I have learned so much already haha. I am looking at the future with great anticipation of whats instore for myself, my friends, and the comic.