Frist Comics News: What are the Dweores?
John Ottinger: Dweores are mechanical beings (robot) that live in a land of their own. They dwell in different towns villages, tribes and have many different cultures… The word Dweores is a real word, it’s old English for the word dwarf, so there my little robots.
1st: How did you come up with them?
John: I love toy robots I have hundreds in my studio so I decided to create a robot world of my own. The first thing I did was, I stared at my collection for an hour of two. When I came out of my robot trance I realized that they were just interesting shapes and colors and I had no emotional connection to any of them. So my first parameter put on the list was to create robots with an Instant Emotional connection. The second parameter makes the relatable to eastern and western cultures. The third parameter, make them a force of good in the world, make them something that will make people feel good or inspired.
1st: How did your daughter, Jessica, inspire your work?
John: There is a lot of her in the human character May, a 13-year-old girl that came to the Land of the Dweores to search for her father who when missing there. Jessica also wrote the poems and the verbiage in the first book Inside the Dweores she’s an amazing writer.
1st: How did you son, Daniel, map out the world of the Dweores?
John: Daniel is a wonderful artist and literally drew the map that is in every Dweores book. We both loved the map that is in Tolkien’s The Hobbit and wanted an interesting one for this world.
1st: Where does all the junk they repurpose original come from?
John: There is wreckage and junk throughout their world from the 1800s to present time… They repurpose it to make incredible things. The junks origin still hasn’t be reviled in the comic book yet.
1st: How many Dweores are there?
John: I’m not sure yet. There are so many different Dweores cultures in their world, mountain Dwores, desert Dweores, village Dweores, mining Dweores, forest, jungle, ice. I think there are lots.
1st: Who is Kaso?
John: Kaso has the mind of a cautious emotional teenager and has a very dry sense of humor. He hates danger and adventure. Kaso would rather be in his bike/junk shop tinkering. He can’t believe he was chosen by the Elder to be one of the Village Protector. He has the ability to take any broken junk and combine it with some other rubbish. Combining them with lightning speed to get some new crazy invention. He works in an instinctive makers trance and is always as surprised at what he has made.
1st: What makes them want to explore?
John: Dweores are very curious intelligent creatures, in some of them this curiosity builds up and they pack a backpack or hope on a beast and go on a quest sometimes for years before returning home with story’s, treasures and some new dents.
1st: How did the art book come about?
John: Well the first art book “Inside The Dweores” started out as just a bunch of doodles in my sketchbook. Every day on the train I would draw one image, inspired by what I saw outside the train window. By the end of the year, I had hundreds of glimpse of their world so I made Xerox copies of them and stapled them together and submitted it to San Diego Comic-Con. I was totally shocked when I found out I was accepted. “Oh no, I have to figure out how to make a book!”
1st: Were you selling these book exclusively at comiccons?
John: Yep, just at cons, for now, making comic books and art books takes most of my time and there is the day job and giant sculptures.
1st: In addition to the art book there are now Dweores comics. How many issues are there so far?
John: I have 3 comic books out so far book zero, book one and book 2. People loved the art book and wanted to know more about them. They had so many questions about them I decided to start a linear story so they could get to know the Dweores and explore their world.
1st: What is the story so far?
John: In the peaceful natural world of the Dweores Villages are being attacked by some unknown force, Dweores and equipment are missing. The elders chose one Dweore to from each of the attacked villages to find the hidden enemy and stop the attacks. They are called Village Protectors, Hazo, Gama, Kaso and his pet Yamchi. We also meet May who’s come to their world to look for her missing father and brother. May is my Alice in wonderland and Snow White, she has no super powers. She has just her determination, intellect, kindness and her new friends.
1st: Tell me about the Dweores “I Can Do This” CD?
John: A musician friend Matt Harris asked for a copy of the all the pages of my book. He put them up on a wall in his studio and recorded music for some of his favorite pages. He came up with some really wonderful interesting songs.
1st: How did the Dweores get to be Facebook Stickers?
John: My first year at San Diego Comic Con someone from Facebook came by my table and asked if I would be interested in having Dweores stickers in Messenger. I said Wow that sounds like fun, yes. The Dweores went global overnight. Now I have fans around the world and with FB analytics, I can track the top 50 countries that use them, there age and gender and how many millions of time they are used.
1st: How did the Dweores get on the Big Bang Theory?
John: Well two years ago I meet an ex-pro wrestler, he told me he had his books and toys on the show. So I thought I’d try to get the Dweores on the show, It took me 2 years to find the correct path and prepare the right presentation. I sent it in that afternoon and got an email that evening, yes we want it but we need it the next morning on the set. How this season you can see the Dweores statues, posters, and books on the different sets. It’s crazy seeing Sheldon taking with Kaso and Gat in the background.
1st: What’s next for the Dweores?
John: At this year’s San Diego Comic Con I’ll have a full color 68 page Dweores art book and there are more statues, and Dwores figurines, mugs, and lots more surprises. coming this year. I’m very interested in creating a game and or an animated show for them.
1st: How can people get the Dweores comics?
John: Right now I just sell them to fans at the cons, or you can email me.
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