Q. What is Metal Phone Mouse (MPM) ?

A. MPM started as a text-based RPG thread on the forums of a Swedish game site called Planet Spogg. We were in the gaming section of the site and we were active for a a few years, going on adventures and developing our characters. Sadly, the thread died down and people stopped coming and got social lives.

The webcomic takes place 3 years after the forum thread.

Q. Why the name Metal Phone Mouse?

A. Maria came up with the name back in 2005. The reasoning behind it is as confusing as the name itself. When Maria had to come up with a name for the forum thread, she looked at things around her. A metal phone, and a mouse that also looked metallic. Thus metal phone mouse.

Q. How often do you update?

A. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
However, Sometimes we release the comic a day early or late if we're aiming for a specific date. For example, Our 1 year anniversary was on a Tuesday, So the comic went up a day late. And for Christmas Day 2011 (a Sunday) the comic went up a day earlier.

Q. Where did the Characters come from?

A. The MPM forum game was open to everyone on the Spogg website. The 6 main characters of the Comic story are based on the people that posted and played. People developed their characters and their abilities over years until the thread eventually died down. Some people came and went in the thread. Characters like Legit, Spike, Maria, Eva and Lucide were all active members at one point but left. Similarly, they are still mentioned in the MPM universe but aren't part of the 6 main story characters.

Q. Who helps make the comic?

Shadow, essentially, runs the comic. From writing out initial scripts, to concepts of characters, drawing, web editing... Maria deals with his horrific spelling mistakes, the gaping plot holes and the admin work generated by this. Pieman helps out by testing things as well as inserting his own jokes and providing comic relief whenever he can.

Q. What educations do you have? Did you go to college?

A. Shadow is a Graphic and Web Design graduate, Maria is currently studying English and Film Culture at University and Pieman is in University for English and History.

Q. Where are you from?

A. Shadow is from Ireland, Maria is from Scotland, Squiggle from some part of the UK (London I think), Pieman and Chip are Canadian, while Legit, Spike, Lucide/Brass are all from America. And we all met on a Swedish gaming website.

Q. How long has MPM been around?

A. Since 2005. It has had a few forum threads, a Beta comic and now this main comic that started in 2010. The beta comic that was scrapped is available in the extras page for nostalgic purposes.

Q. Whats the background of the header?

A.

Di Methoxy Propoxyamphetamine. Also known as MPM. During the ages of the Forum thread, I put MPM into wikipedia and found it through the results. It's a lesser known psychedelic drug and a "mind-expanding drug that are able to induce states of altered perception and thought", which suited the madness that was MPM. It unofficially became our logo.

Q. What programs do you use to make the comic?

A. Photoshop CS4 to make the comic. Adobe flash to make comic 10 or any future flash comics. Adobe Dreamweaver to make the site. Maria uses ywriter 5.0 for organizing her scripts.

Q. Why are there faces missing in some of the earlier comics?

This was part of the style I was trying out early on. It indicated that they were out of focuse or their expression was meant to be unreadable. But apparently even our editor thought that was an excuse full of tripe. I've stopped doing it, so don't worry, the newer comics all come with their faces intact.

Q. What was the reason for the 1 month Hiatus?

A. Basically, to make the comics prettier. When we started the MPM comic, the pages were drawn on A4 and made into a 990x1440 pixel image. As you can see now, the comics are only 990x400 (on average).

During that month off we went back and cropped out the images and made them into a more comfortable and manageable size. Where we had 80 large pages, we cropped them into roughly 240 smaller pages. We also made some edits to scripting and readability such as replacing Comic sans from every comic. We also changed the style. If you look at the old versions of the pages (On deviant art) the characters did not have noses. This was the style I was drawing in, and people generally did not seem to like it. So while I was cropping I went back and added noses to every panel of every page. You can't say I'm not committed~

Q. Where is the Base located on the Globe?

A. ... The internet?

Q. Have I run out of questions?

A. I believe so.

Q. Would you like to exchange links?

A. Sure. But if we put a link up, it doesn't mean we expect links back. Just listing general comics and stuff we like. But we'll happily have a look at any links you have and see if we like those too.

Q. I have other questions.

Email us and if it's a half arsed question, I'll slap it on here.

Email: metalphonemouse@gmail.com