An interview with Giorgos Zaikos (author of Polandball comics)

Day 2,092, 14:52 • Published in Slovenia Slovenia • by Ice Killa

Comics often make you smile. They explain the situation not in words but in pictures. And that's why many of you adore them. They are so simplistic and easy to comprehend. But has any of you ever asked himself who's the author behind these creations of eRepublik Polandball? Probably not. So here's an interview with Giorgos Zaikos where he in detail reveals his personality. And if I my add, he explains how Polandball drawings are made.

Could you introduce yourself?
Hello, my name is Giorgos Zaikos, I am 23 years old and live in the greatest country in the world (Britain) but am from Greece originally. I'm probably most known on erepublik for my Polandball articles. 😁

Explain where you found eRepublik?
There was a gaming forum I was looking at many years ago, and one whole section was just spammed with people posting their refferal links to erepublik (they all got banned after posting them of course lol). I clicked on one and that's how I got here.

And what appeals you to play this on daily basis?
First of all of course the trolling, many nationalists can get butthurt pretty easily and it's no effort at all to exploit it. Secondly there are many good people on erepublik (see: my friends list) and thirdly it's good to contribute to your eCountry.

You are very famous for your Polandball comic drawings. Why did you start drawing them?
I first got the idea around after seeing another Polandball comic article by someone else (unfortunately can't find the link to that one right now) regarding a dispute involving inci. However, this Polandball was purely propaganda for TEDEN, so I made my version which was essentially the same but for ONE, the alliance we were in at the time. It was my most popular article yet, getting over 100 votes while my others had only got maybe 10+, so I made more and more Polandballs about other things that happened on erep.

Could you enumerate how you draw your Polandball comics? I would say many of us are interested in that. How long does it take and where do you find the inspiration to do it?
Nothing special used, just good old MSPaint. Sometimes they look a bit different depending on whether I drew them on my laptop or PC though. They don't take that long to draw, I couldn't be bothered doing them if they took up a lot of time xD. It does depend what countries are involved though. Britain can sometimes be annoying to draw, but a country like Poland only takes two seconds. As for the content, it's usually pretty obvious when something is happening (wars ect.) but I can also check the media of the various countries to see if there's anything polandball-worthy going on. There'll always be something happening between some country or another, and sometimes I get a request from a country to write an article for them too. However, if the stuff happening is not too interesting I can just make something up or write about something that happened in the past. For some reason no one really seems to mind if the article has zero facts at all (example: the CTRL article was entirely made up).

Do you have any artistic talent whatsoever?
Haha, nope, did alright at art in school but I wouldn't say I was any good at it. Come on, haven't you looked at the Polandball articles? LOL

Don't you think they are simplistic and minimalistic? Only the best can do that and make it look good.
Well if you say so Howly, thanks. Yeah people just read Polandballs for the message I think, not to look at pretty pictures. It would probably look annoying if there was too much detail anyway.

What is your goal by drawing Polandball comics?
I wouldn't say I have a goal as such. Obviously some are drawn to provoke a reaction (you know which), but if my articles get votes and subs and people like them then I would say that I have acheived my goal. Also they are always the #1 voted articles in the whole of eUK media (unless someone buys votes for their articles) so that's good as well.

Are you so jolly and whimsical in real life as well?
Hahaha, you think that? 😃 Well, I try to be. It is always better to look on the bright side of life, or try to at least. Being miserable never got anyone anywhere. 🙂

So are you suggesting you not only draw these comics for others to laugh at them, you also enjoy making other people happy? And it makes you feel good?
Yes yes, it's good to know that they liked it, and it is always a good feeling when people say that they 'lol'd' at one of my Polandballs. I like to make people laugh, and especially Brazillians because they have the greatest laugh of all.

As a British citizen in eRepublik, who do you consider as your closest allies? And why?
Our closest allies... hmm... I love all of TWO but personally one of my favourites is Argentina (I know I know, the airstrike, but that was a long time ago). I have lots of Argentinian friends in erepublik and they're always good fun even though some people in the eUK have been trying to get congress to vote no to the MPP. Poland is a good friend of ours, I like Poland very much, even though they have Wales currently. Well, they say they're doing it to protect us from 'possible invasion' so I'll have to take their word for it. xD

Also I might be biased here but I'll also say eGreece.

As a Greek what is your opinion on countries being called in a mockery way?
Well, re: the Macedonia thing, I've never had a problem with them being called Macedonia. Erepublik though, you might have noticed, is full of extreme nationalists, and of course the Balkans is also full of nationalism. Both sides argue constantly, never getting anywhere, spamming every article in the media with even the passing mention of Greece or Macedonia (actually I saw this coming as I was signing up to erep and this is why I chose to be an eBrit). Politicians use Macedonia to distract people from the real issues facing Greece today (i.e: the huge bloody debt) and Macedonia is wasting tons of public money on huge bloody statues that don't improve anything either. Personally I think it's time to let Macedonia be called whatever they want and move on. Balkans works better together.

Do you think some people should grow up and realize how pointless nationalism is (i.e. how they are being manipulated by it)?
Yes, I think they should. Unfortunately every time people fall for the same tricks pulled and do not realise that in actual fact they are being manipulated. People should remember though that nationalism never got humanity anywhere except into wars and conflict. And also it's bloody boring seeing this tripe splashed across erepublik every day.

What is your opinion on the media module? Whom do you like reading and what do you think is missing?
The media module has been going downhill lately. You can see it as articles these days get less readers than previously. I think media used to be a bigger part of erep, but since the removing of links and the emergence of a 'voters club' it has been becoming less and less. Annoyingly how many votes you get also depends on what country you're in. After my first Polandball I gave permission for this guy in Indonesia to repost it in his country. His article (which was just mine posted in Indonesia) got over 700 votes while mine only got 100+. It's a little harder to get your news seen as an eBrit. And personally I think the 'voters club' is another thing that is ruining the media module. I feel the buying votes is a hollow victory, I would rather have people vote Polandball because they enjoyed reading them, and not because they're being paid to vote for it. However this also means that my articles can't compete with people who have bought thousands of votes from people who probably didn't.

Have you met any inspiring individuals here? Could you present them if possible and explain why you think they stand out?
First of all hailey14, was one of the first friends I made on eRepublik, although sadly now left. The #hailey channel on irc used to be a great place for lulz and meeting other cool people. It was also a neverending source of drama. InvencibleMX for being totally awesome and for sending nice messages when I came back to erep. ChewChewShoe for being the coolest Swede ever and not taking things so seriously. Severrus Snape for always supporting my Polandball articles and for bashing NuevoOcho's far more popular Polandballs and saying mine are better. And last but certainly not least, Howly for being the coolest Slovenian CP and yet also the jelliest, and for talking some common sense where there otherwise is none. 😃

Some time ago you took a break from eRepublik and then came back? Why leave and return?
For some reason eRepublik just started becoming boring to me. A lot of the cool people had left and not a lot was happening. It just seemed that I was wasting a lot of time doing the same old, same old. Also I was back in Greece for some of this time and not rainy Britain. 😃

But eventually I became reminded of eRepublik again and decided that I might as well give it another go, seeing as my articles were always popular and I went back and got a ton of nice messages from people happy that I'd come back.

His story on coming back.
Well, for some reason I was watching a British news channel at 7 in the morning, and then this advert came on and it was all 'Macedonia Timeless' and all this (I don't know if you've seen any of these adverts) and it made me think of erepublik. So then I thought, I should go back, it can't possibly be more boring than watching the British news at 7 in the morning. And so I returned, a lot had changed, we were in a totally new alliance and the balance of power had shifted. But eUK was still strong, hail TWO!

Beside drawing, do you do any writing?
I sometimes write a little but I wouldn't say it's a big interest of mine. Years ago I used to write a lot of silly stories and such, but not so much now. 😃

Any plans for the future?
Just keep doing what I'm doing currently. Hopefully I can make Polandballs even more popular and maybe have a more active role in the eUK. However I can't be bothered with the ePolitics and stuff like that so don't expect a CP any time soon. Maybe in the future eUK will be the world superpower and we will be the leader of THREE. xD

Would you like to add anything else for the readers?
Thanks for reading this interview, hope you enjoyed it.

I thank Giorgos Zaikos for taking his (un)precious time and answering to the set questions.

Best regards,
Ice Killa aka Howly