MILWAUKEE ORAL HISTORY PROJECT The Reminiscences of Joshua Felician
ART START Columbia University 2018
PREFACE The following oral history is the result of a recorded interview with Joshua Felician conducted by Mariama Noguera-Devers on Month Day, 2018. This interview is part of the Milwaukee Oral History Project. The reader is asked to bear in mind that they are reading a verbatim transcript of the spoken word, rather than written prose.
Felician – Session #1 – 3
ATC Interviewee: Joshua Felician Interviewer: Mariama Noguera-Devers
Session #1 Location: City, NY Date: Month Date, 2018
Q: Okay. Hello. My name is Mariama Noguera-Devers. I am here with Joshua Felician. Did I pronounce your name correctly?
Felician: [00:15] Yes, it's close.
Q: What is it?
Felician: Felician.
Q: Felician?
Felician: Yes.
Q: Oh, okay, sorry. Josh Felician who is a participant in the 2018 Portrait Project, and we're here to do an oral history interview. So, I just wanted to remind you what the Portrait Project is. I know you already did your photoshoot with Casania, [phonetic] but as you know, this year, we're focusing on young men of color in Milwaukee, [Wisconsin] and New York City, [New York].
Felician – Session #1 – 4 And through these images, participants can show how they see themselves, how they would like to be seen.
I have here with me the Portrait Project from last year just to, kind of, refresh your memory of what it's going to look like in the end. But the idea is it's going to be—sorry—your photo and then there's going to be a little excerpt to accompany it. Last year, we had someone write the stories, but as I said, this year, we're doing oral history. So, cool.
I just want to make sure, too, to tell you that if it is that—the purpose of this is not to pry into your information. This is not like an investigation. [Laughs] The idea is just for us to, kind of, just get to know a little bit more about you, about your story, about your photo that you took and —yes. Also, if there's anything that I ask that's, like, you don’t feel comfortable answering, just feel free to let me know, and I won't feel bad or anything if you say, "Sorry, Mariama," you know? I'll just understand. So, cool. So, I'd just like to start off by asking you—so I have these questions here as a guide, but of course, other things might come up and stuff. So, if you see me looking at the key [phonetic] bullets because it's just a guide. Cool?
Felician: [02:37] Okay.
Q: Maybe you can start off by telling me—tell me something about your life, like where were you born—? And, yes.
Felician – Session #1 – 5 Felician: [02:55] Oh, I was born in Brooklyn, [New York City]. I was born and raised in the same place. I never moved, which is kind of weird. Not weird but I mean like it's going to be really weird when I have to move out on my own and stuff because I've lived in the same house for my whole life. I'm 20, so you should know that that's—how's it [phonetic] feel.
Q: Yes, and a lot of people couldn’t say they've been in a place and time—so yes. How do you feel about your neighborhood?
Felician: [3:27] My neighborhood has always been the same. I mean, it used to have a lot of kids there to play with when I was younger, but most of them moved out. It was only me, my cousins —well, basically, my whole family is like one block was the reason. We all lived together for some odd, strange reason, but yes, it's quiet. I mean, no, it's not quiet. Come on, it's definitely note quiet. [Laughs] It's just natural to me. I don’t know. It's not even on my block. I actually like it, especially when—like my favorite part is when it's snowing even though I hate snow. But when it's snowing out, and you go to one end of the block, and you go in the middle of the street, and you just look at the other side of the block, it looks really nice. It's really pretty.
Q: Yes. I know you mentioned that there used to be kids there but there are no longer kids. Were you referring to like your family members?
Felician: [00:04:25] No, no, I'm referring to friends that live on the block like—
Q: Oh, like neighbors?
Felician – Session #1 – 6
Felician: [04:28] Yes, like neighbors. We will go to their house and knock on their door, like it, "Is this kid coming outside to play with us today?" and the parents were like, "Kid, your friends want to play with you outside," and then he come outside. There was like ten to fifteen of us, I would say, outside playing the whole time but then things changed. You know, they moved out. It's just me, and my brothers, and my cousins. Yes, that's right.
Q: What did you-all play?
Felician: [05:04] We, usually, will play football because when you're small, the sidewalk is big enough for that. So, we usually play football. We used to play freeze tag with the football. What else did we play? Oh, we just played catch. We'd just do a bunch of random stuff, like we even made up a game called crash and bash. I remember that. I don’t know why I remember the name, but it's called crash and bash. That's when RipStik was just new, like RipStik just came out. So, my brother had a RipStik, and my friends had RipStiks. And so, what you would do is just, like, run around and try to knock each other off the RipStik. You can't touch them or anything. You've got to use your RipStik to try to knock them off the RipStik. You try to hit them with it, like—oh, you've got to do something. Yes.
Q: What would you say is your most memorable childhood experience that you can remember?
Felician: [05:55] My most memorable childhood experience. Let's see. How old are we talking about, do you think?
Felician – Session #1 – 7
Q: Any, and like childhood, I would say, is like before teenage years.
Felician: [06:14] Let's see. Probably when—what did I do? It's probably that crash-and-bash moment when we added like—because we would go on a HAM [phonetic]. We used to just add any type of vehicle, so we added roller skates and bikes. Why did we add bikes? I don't know, but we just added those two when we got washed up. That was crazy.
Or maybe the time when I went to MADD Fun with my brothers in—
Q: What's MADD Fun?
Felician: [06:50] MADD Fun is like this—what would you say?—indoors, amusement, park for kids. Yes, it was an indoors, amusement park for kids. And it was pretty crazy because my brothers, we-all—before we ever pulled up, we just looked at the place like, "What is this? It's so tiny. A grocery spot, something?" As soon as we walked inside, that place was humongous for no reason. It was crazy.
Q: How may brothers do you have? Because I know you've mentioned you have a sister—I mean, I met your sister.
Felician: [07:25] Yes, I have a lot. I think I have like—how many do I have? I can't remember. Six, seven?
Felician – Session #1 – 8
Q: Six brothers?
Felician: Six or seven brothers, yes.
Q: And how many sisters?
Felician: [07:35] Like nine or ten. Oh, no, we're past ten. No, I think it's just ten, yes, just ten.
Q: Wow. That was—
Felician: [07:44] And just recently, I met my long-lost sister like a week ago. No, it was just Sunday. Sunday I just met my sister that I haven't met ever since I was like—I want to say— seven? No, that's way before.
Q: How was that meeting?
Felician: Seven, it was seven, I would say, you know? What?
Q: How was that, like, meeting?
Felician: [08:10] I was just like, What? This is crazy. She kind of looked like us, but then again, she looked a lot like my sister if anything. I was just like, "Yo, what, I should—" I didn’t know
Felician – Session #1 – 9 how to react. It was kind of quiet until we mentioned The Office, the TV show The Office because everybody loved The Office. If you don’t love The Office, you're just weird, right? The Office was like—we were just talking about The Office, and we started—some things started to click you know? Now, we went to Old Navy, we got clothing.
Q: Well, I have a lot of siblings too. I have nine siblings, so I know what it's like growing up in a big family. How would you describe that, like growing up in a big family for you?
Felician: [09:06] What do I say? How would I describe that? I was born in a big family. I was the fifth one of our clan, right? [Laughs] That's how big it was. I was the fifth one, so I mean, I was always born in a big family. It's not like we're all in the house together, and most of them live other places. Like some of them live here in New York, [New York]. I mean some of them live here in Manhattan, [New York City], some of the live in Brooklyn, [New York City], some of them live in The Bronx, [New York City], some live in Queens [New York City]. It's just like we're all scattered all over the place, right? So, we don’t have time to really meet each other all at the same time. I swear, the day that every single one of us get together will be the day. I had never seen that. I think I've seen that one time, but it wasn't all of us. It was like two-thirds of us, and everybody was like, "Wow, this is a huge family." Yes.
Q: Do you think the reason why that big meet-up doesn’t happen is because everybody is spread out?
Felician: [10:06] What?
Felician – Session #1 – 10
Q: Do you think the reason why the big meetup hasn't happened is because everyone is spread out?
Felician: [10:10] Yes. I feel like because everybody is so spread out, and either they have other things to do or they have their own issues that they had to deal with. None of us really have the time to set a date. You know how rare it is for all of us to have a free day, that one time together? That's about almost twenty of us having a free time to just hang out with each other. That's rare.
It's not like it bothers me. It doesn’t really bother me because I mean, I've seen all of them except the one that lives in Manhattan. It's crazy because they live not too far from me. I just don’t know where they live. Yes.
Q: Okay. I know you're working now.
Felician: Yes.
Q: And so, how has that experience been balancing school, and work, and—?
Felician: [11:11] Balancing school and work isn't—has not been hard at all. I thought it was going to be more time consuming because the school requires my time. But the fact that I had school first and then I went to the job, and they were okay with it. They just told me, "These times, you've got to come in." It was always a set schedule that I've had, so I didn’t really bug
Felician – Session #1 – 11 about that. It's just like—I don’t know. Lately, things have been going on and then I had to attend to like family businesses then that will probably get in the way of things. So that's why things might happen like, yes.
Q: And this discussion is kind of switching gears, but who have been the most important people in your life?
Felician: [11:57] The most important people in my life, obviously my parents. If I had to say other than family members, I would say most of my people in my life other than family.
Q: It doesn’t have to be other than family. It could be anyone.
Felician: [Sneezes]
Q: Bless you.
Felician: [12:16] Thank you. I can't really think of anything because family is so casual. I don’t want to say family. That's so casual. Let's see if I have a friend that's been—oh, wait, hold on, okay. I don’t—
Q: Okay, you first mentioned—
Felician: —want to be coy [phonetic], oh, my goodness.
Felician – Session #1 – 12
Q: It's okay. You first mentioned your parents, right?
Felician: Yes.
Q: How do you say your parents would describe you? Like maybe you can choose one parent.
Felician: [13:00] If I choose my dad, he, obviously, would describe me as careless or useless— no, not useless. I mean careless [laughs] because I usually forget a lot of things. I don’t know. Because I do a lot of things. You know I have things that's going on that I have to take care of. But then it's like sometimes, he would ask me for several things and then I can't get that done because I have something else to do that time. I tend to forget what he asked me to do because it would be for example like—oh, look, I have to—I actually have to polish this pendant he got for me because it was scratching me, and until now I haven't done it. And he gave me that about like a month ago because I just forget. He gave it to me, but I don’t wear it because it's scratching my chest. So, it's there until I'm—like I have the time to actually go to the jeweler to just like—who thinks about just, Let me go to this jeweler right now? When you have to go to work and then you had to go to school, you have to work, and you had to do all these things, you don’t think about the jeweler, nothing. You know what I'm saying? So, it was like—and things like that. He's just like, "Oh, you're always forgetting. You're always forgetful. You're so forgetful." I'm like, "All right, cool. That's cool."
Felician – Session #1 – 13 Now, if I said my mom, one thing that—one word that she will describe me is, I would probably say, selfless. Because out of my whole family members, I think I'm like—not me, but everybody knows that I'm the most selfless. For example, my brother, he doesn’t like it when nobody gets on his bed, but the baby sister because him and the baby sister is like that together.
Q: Who? Daysha [phonetic]?
Felician: [14:39] Daysha, yes. So, it's whatever Daysha wants, that's what he does, but, like, he wouldn’t let anybody touch his things, things of that nature. But me on the other hand, I'm like— I usually go like, "As long as you take care of my stuff, all right". Let's say like, okay, you needed to glue something together, and I had the Krazy Glue, and I don’t need it at the time, I'm just going to give it to you. He's not going to give it to you. He's going to like, "No, get your own." He's [unclear], that's what I'm saying.
Q: Yes. So, I knew you gave, like, two different descriptions of how your parents would describe you. How do you feel about their descriptions?
Felician: [15:27] My mom, I feel like that makes a lot of sense because I am pretty selfless. Like nothing much faze me too much. And that nothing much faze me goes along to what my dad will describe me as careless because he always called me careless so, you know, that's cool because I actually am. I'm not going to sit here and be like, "Oh, I remembered all these things." It's like there are some things I don’t remember, and some things that I do remember. I don't know. It's not the end of the world for me. That's what I'm trying to say. But he'd been calling me careless
Felician – Session #1 – 14 since I was like—I don’t know, I was young. [Laughs] That's what I'm saying. It doesn’t hurt me. He knows it doesn’t hurt me. He used to call me that whenever I did something. Like I forgot something, he's like, "Careless," that's it. I'm like, "All right, cool." Yes.
Q: And what about the brother? I know you mentioned one of your brothers just now about him being a little bit more protective of his stuff, and what's —
Felician: He's protective.
Q: —your relationship like with him.
Felician: [16:24] I mean, you know we're cool. Yes, that's my brother, you know I can't do nothing much. I can't say nothing much, but like he's my brother, you know? He's actually the closest friend I have—you know what I'm saying?—because he's there with me all the time.
Q: Is closest in age to you?
Felician: What?
Q: Is close in age to you?
Felician – Session #1 – 15 Felician: [16:45] He's eighteen now. He just turned eighteen, so you know, that hype would get into his head. And it wasn't that much for me when I turned eighteen, but it was much for him, so I was like, Wow. Yes, but like—yes.
Q: How would he describe you?
Felician: [16:59] He would describe me—what would he say? Probably, he would say like I procrastinate too much because I do procrastinate when it comes to schoolwork. Procrastination. I don’t really know how he would describe me. I haven't thought of that. All I could think about is the procrastination because I do tell him like, "Yo, I'm supposed to get this homework done a week ago. It's due tomorrow." It's like—yes. So, I would say procrastination. I procrastinate a lot.
Q: And how do you think people—like, I know, you named your family, but how do people outside of your family, like other people that you interact with on different—in different ways, how do you think they perceive you?
Felician: [18:01] They'd probably call me like—I don’t know—maybe funny because I have friends, right, they call me lame because I make the corniest jokes. I don’t know. Maybe like in a heated moment and I would be like, "So what's the deal with airline food?" some corny stuff, some corny joke or something. Yes, so they'd probably call me corny but like, yes, I don’t know what to say about that. Corny? Yes, that's it.
Felician – Session #1 – 16 Oh, no, a father figure. Not in the way of like I'm your father, no, not like that. I'm just talking about like I'm always the responsible one out of the room. That's also one key point. Like these guys will want to go do something, and I'm just like—I'm out here pointing the wrongs in this, the—what do you call it? Yes, I would say wrongs. I can't—what's that word? It's at the tip of my tongue. Yes, okay, just the wrong.
Q: So, corny was your first [unclear], or was it funny?
Felician: It was funny, funny, corny—
Q: Funny and father figure.
Felician: —and responsible.
Q: Oh, responsible, like responsible? Funny and responsible. Okay. A little different from the other ones that we got. Careless, procrastinator, and—?
Felician: Selfless.
Q: And selfless?
Felician: Yes.
Felician – Session #1 – 17 Q: But I can see the connection. How do you feel about those descriptions from your friends, like funny, and the father figure, responsible?
Felician: [19:46] I feel good about it because—you know? Because I always like—oh my god, that word is so—like I—okay. I would say I'm funny because I do laugh at my own jokes, too, so. Sometimes, I'll be there. I'm just, like, making jokes in my head. I'm just like, Yo, you are funny, man. I don’t know. I'm just doing that.
I said they will call me responsible because I'll just be thinking of scenarios, what might happen that they should look out for. For example, I say like if they wanted to go to the corner store and give the corner-store man a fake twenty cent or just like a fake quarter, a fake dollar, right? I'm like, "Yo, if you do tha,t you just might get caught, you might this and that, start an argument. One thing go to the next, you might go to jail or something." I'm just that guy. That's what I'm saying, I always give the outcomes of things.
Q: And kind of pushing other people's perceptions to the side, what do you think makes you you? How would you describe Josh Felician, Felician?
Felician: [21:02] Felician, yes. I would just say like—I can't really describe like—
Q: Well, I'll ask a different question. What has stood out to you about yourself throughout your life?
Felician – Session #1 – 18 Felician: [21:20] What stood out to me the most?
Q: About yourself. What makes you you?
Felician: [21:32] I guess it's the attitude I bring to the table, maybe that because I don’t get, like, really upset at things. The only thing I get upset at is like probably playing a video game and I die too early. Like in "Fortnite" if I'm the first to die that gets me angry. But other than that, there's nothing really much that gets me angry that other people would claim to get angry. Like there's—I don’t know.
I noticed that when I was working and on my first month, I got two complimentary cards and barely anybody in that—in my department got a complimentary card. And then some lady was always talking about like, "You always had—you have this good smile. You should keep that on your face at all times." I was like, What? Because I didn’t even know I was smiling. I was just there. I'm thinking in my head, [phonetic] I'm just like talking and I'm just smiling all the time, like, "Oh, that's crazy," so I'm just like, Wow.
Q: Sorry to interject, but what's a complimentary card?
Felician: [22:35] A complimentary card is like a card where the person felt that you did so good that they have to send—like they have to write it down and send it to the company or something like that.
Felician – Session #1 – 19 Q: Oh, that's cool.
Felician: [22:46] Yes. Like when you do good enough, yes.
Q: So, you've received already, and you haven't even [unclear] get that though.
Felician: [22:52] I have. I've have received two and I have—you know, yes. And it's rare to come by they told me because not a lot of people take time to like sit there and give you—like after they buy what they bought, not a lot of people stay there and fill out a card just saying how good you are, you know? Because you must have did that good for them to like sit there, write the whole time, thinking like, Oh, this guy was that good, man. I've got to write on this card, you know? Yes.
I didn’t even know about the complimentary card. The person had to tell me about the complimentary card. That's the crazy part of it. Most people are like, "A complimentary card, what is that?" It say like, "When you did so good in this and that." I'm like, "Oh, thank you," so yes. Yes. I would say that yes, I'm just like a guy who doesn’t faze as much to certain points or a certain degree.
Q: That story stands out for you with the complimentary cards? Because you're saying that you didn’t even know you were smiling—
Felician – Session #1 – 20 Felician: [24:12] Yes. Because I'm out there, I'm just talking to the lady. I'm telling her about the shoe that she could get and the benefits of it. And she's talking about, "Oh, you have a beautiful smile." I'm like, "Oh, wow, thank you so much," this and that and—yes. In other situations where like the customer is being rude, and I don’t—I'm not going sit here and argue with you. I got other people to handle, you know? So, I'll help you as much as I can. If you can't be helped, I'll send an associate to help you also to see if they could something about it. And when that rude lady gets—leaves, my coworkers will be like, "Yo, how did you—?" You know like, "Yes, she was so rude, man. I want to" this and that, this and that. I'm like, "I'm just here. That didn't really faze me to a point where I'm supposed to be angry or nothing like that." Yes. Yes, that's about it.
Q: Cool. And so if you were to describe Josh in three words, what would you say?
Felician: [25:20] Wow, that's the last thing, you know?. How would I describe myself? Well recently, I will say procrastination would take up on me lately. What else? Oh, procrastination, optimistic, assiduous—is that the word? Yes, I think that's the word. Yes, assiduous. It's when you're working hard, like you've been hardworking.
Q: Cool.
Felician: Yes.
Q: And to, kind of, shift gears a little bit to return to the Portrait Project, can you tell me a little bit about your photo and the concept behind it and stuff if you can remember?
Felician – Session #1 – 21
Felician: [26:29] I remember. It's when I was like talking to the mic, and I didn’t get the CD yet. That's the sad part.
Q: You didn’t what?
Felician: [26:39] I didn’t get the CD, yet. Is it—? Like no, I can't see it, not yet?
Q: Well, they're still editing it and stuff.
Felician: [26:43] Oh, okay, cool. Let me describe the photoshoot, I would say it's, kind of, cool because even though I didn’t get a CD yet, I'm just like—I just can't wait to see it. I really can't wait. The point of it was that it depicts me as an actor, like how would I like—how would I look on the red carpet on the camera. Like I could just imagine my parents just sitting there watching in the red carpet like, "Hey, that's him, look at him, look at him!" [Laughs] They'll probably make fun of me like, "Why his tie too tight? Why his shirt —?" you know talk about— Everybody is going talk [unclear] about you. My parents always talks to me like—not in a mean way, but in a friendly way. Like, "Man, look at you looking all like a bum," in a funny way. So, I could picture that like my parents are probably—not my parents, my brothers, and sisters, and my family just like sit around and watch me on TV talking, giving inspirational speeches or something, and like—yes.
Felician – Session #1 – 22 One of the main things I wanted was to be in like a superhero film or something like—you know? Because that always intrigues the kids. It intrigues me until this day. Like I'm twenty, you know what I mean? Reading comics since young.
Q: Why a superhero film?
Felician: [28:05] Because superheroes are just like—they're different, like they're really different. I don’t know what it is about superheroes, they're just—like they could do the impossible. They could do things that people would want to do. It makes your mind just reach out there for possible things. For example, let me ask you this question. Everybody knows Thor, and everybody knows Magneto, okay, Thor and Magneto. Now, Thor, he has Mjolnir. Mjolnir is the hammer made from a dying star. And Magneto is the master of magnetism. Now, Thor's hammer could only be lifted by someone who is worthy, and we all know Magneto isn't worthy, I don’t think. He's a bad guy, but since he's the master of magnetism, can he lift it up? That's a question that you can't really think of. Can he really lift up the hammer since he's the master of magnetism or is he not worthy enough to lift it at all? That's a real question. So I was just like, Wow, this is something yes, to think about. So, yes, it's just the possibilities of things that could happen is [unclear]. Yes, yes.
Q: So, you're interested in like the impossible, the impossible?
Felician: [29:25] And the impossible, yes. And the fact that just like a lot of—like lately, a lot of shows trying to mix the impossible with the possible. Like for example Luke Cage. Luke Cage,
Felician – Session #1 – 23 he has the powers of light. He has to go through, like, regular people issues, also superhuman issues. Like he had to fight his stepbrother who had like a super armor. You know a super armor, breaking through stuff, right? He got shot with the Judas Bullet, this and that. It was crazy like—
Q: And who, would you say, is your favorite or who inspires you, which superhero?
Felician: [30:12] I would like to say—
Q: Another question, kind of, tagging on to that is when you were doing that photoshoot, was there a specific superhero that you were thinking about, or was it someone that you came up with on your own, or—?
Felician: [30:32] No, that was someone I came up with on my own [unclear] because I always wanted light, lightning and, I mean, electric and ice power. So I'm like, Oh, I could be my own thing. Ice and electric, that's crazy. I was over here thinking about things I could do that would be like super cool. If I could ice, like an ice sword but then I'll melt it, and your feet are on it, and I just electrocute you. You know how cool that will be or if I do like crazy combos and those things? Yes.
Q: Is there any, sort of, reason in particular why chose those powers?
Felician: [31:06] Yes, because of the combination. Like electricity and water, that's a crazy combo. Like if I splash water on you, and I electrocute, right? I'm not trying to kill you or
Felician – Session #1 – 24 nothing, but I'm just trying to stun you or something. You know what I'm saying? I can do twice as much damage. That's what I was saying about—I'm thinking about like the way that you connect, right. Like if you had the power of fire and wind—I'm just throwing that out there. Blow a wind and then fire trails follow like—yes.
Q: So, one thing I realized from you talking about like superhero stuff is you're really interested in these stories. Have you ever dabbled or thought about like writing it on some—
Felician: [31:51] I've done that ever since elementary school. Like it all started with this thing called [laughs] the Adventures of Tin Man. Have you heard the name Tin Man? He always like— oh, I want to—you have paper? I'm going to just go with that one.
Q: Oh, yes, you could draw on this.
Felician: [32:10] All right, I got. I'll just—
Q: Like I have a pen here. I have a pen here.
Felician: [32:14] Yes? Oh, you have a pen? These are—how do you—? Okay. He was like this. He always had a t on his chest and his head, it was like—how was it? It was like this. He always had a t on his chest and his head was a square, but the front of his hair was always like this. Yes, yes, yes. And then his arms like that, and it had the weird-looking Mega Man glove on it like that, and his hands were like this. I don’t know. Let me just do this real quick. Let me just—oh, I
Felician – Session #1 – 25 don’t know, boom. And then he always had that weird pants, boxers, underwear-outside type stuff. And how was his feet? His feet was like—
Q: Wait. Is this like from a show?
Felician: [33:03] No, no, no. This is my original idea like—
Q: Oh, I see, a drawing.
Felician: [33:05] I've been at this when I was like elementary school. I wasn't watching no shows for this. I just thought of like the Mega Man glove that he did. That came—I don't know how, but I swear, I did that first before Mega Man but then I was—it was showing before I was born, so I can't claim that. But like it was something like that, and he had a giant t on his chest at all times like it was kind of corny but—
Q: Oh, wait, t is on it for Tin Man?
Felician: [33:29] Yes, for tin and his—how was his eyes? Like that? He was looking something like that. Yo, yes, that was him. Yes, yes, yes. Yes, it was the Adventure of Tin Man. He was always fighting. I had like a whole comics or I had like three, four, I think, like up to ten stories about this guy where he's just doing his stuff like fighting—who was it? Plastic Patron I remember because I always had the p—no not the p—the alliteration, always beginning of the word, that's what it's called, right?
Felician – Session #1 – 26
Q: Yes, alliteration.
Felician: [34:06] Yes, alliteration, always the beginning, so it was like Plastic Patron. I did Grimy Gunk, I think it was. It was some slimy guy. There was just a lot of people he had to fight and then he went to space, he went all the—you know, I don’t know what else. I was just like drawing and drawing the comics all day long. It was really fun, I can remember, oh. [Laughs] Well, I remember that, okay. Yes.
Q: And what inspired you to come up with it?
Felician: [34:42] Oh, okay. It was the time where this guy, our neighbor, he used to have like these old comics, and he just gave it to us because he didn’t know what to do with them. We had stacks upon stacks of comics. I don’t know why, but my mom didn’t want us to keep it because it was taking up space in our room, so after like me and my brother rushed through reading them all—because we knew the inevitable was coming, and my mom's going to throw it out, so we just hurried up. But I read them all, and she threw them all out at one day. I don’t know what day it was, but I think [unclear]. I think [unclear] something like that. Yes, she just threw them all out, and ever since then—I must have been like in elementary school. I think this was—this guy was in like second or third grade, I was doing it. And that year, I would have drawn like so many comics and then each one was like five pages or so. It wasn't too long or nothing, nothing too drastic. You just have the simple like he went to space, he was fighting this guy, went back to
Felician – Session #1 – 27 earth, that's it. It's something casual. It wasn't nothing too crazy. I don’t remember making up big plots of story—
Q: Would you say that that guy giving you all of the comic books was like your first introduction to comic books and stuff, or like you loved it from before?
Felician: [35:58] It was my first introduction to, like, actually trying to draw comic-book characters, right? Because I don't know how to do it exactly. I wanted to so bad. Because the way I see people do it, it's just like—because sometimes when I'm watching them drawing it, I'll be like, "Yo, how does that—?" It looks like nothing until they connect it to something else and then you were like, "Oh, that's the draw line", this and that, this and that. I'm like, Wow this is—that's crazy because—
Q: And what is it about comics that draws you to it then?
Felician: [36:29] I just really love the art style. I really, really like the art style. Like right now, I'm trying to read up on the IDW Transformers comic. Actually, I know that sounds corny, but like, yes, I just really—I don’t know. I don’t know. I love Transformers. Like I loved Transformers ever since young. It has always been Marvel Transformers for me, that was it. Transformers has always been there for me, but yes. So that's why.
Q: So, you love the art work of comics?
Felician – Session #1 – 28 Felician: [37:00] The artwork of comics, especially with IDW because I don't know what it is about robots, but I just love the way robots look, especially in your own design. Like you can make them have like, for example, big shoulders at one point, and you can make them have a turd come out his earlobes or something. Like you could just do whatever you want.
Q: So, you like the creativity of it, you know, being able to—
Felician: [37:22] The creativity, yes. The machine, like the way it works.
Q: And you being able to kid of choose—
Felician: Yes.
Q: —how it looks? Okay. Is there anything else you wanted to tell me about comics, superheroes?
Felician: [37:41] No, not really. I mean as I watch like—
Q: If you could create your own story, if someone was coming to you with a comic book, and they're like, "All right, boom, Josh, let's create a story, create a new series," whatever else?
Felician: [37:55] Yes. Well, what I was thinking—I don’t know if it's taking—I think it's taking, this should be taking. Because I was just thinking of it on the way here actually. That's the weird
Felician – Session #1 – 29 part. Because I had been thinking about a lot of things, like a lot of things. I've been thinking about making my own story about superpowers, I've got a story about this.
One thing I was thinking about on the way here, it was like a detective, like a real-life detective like an officer, but everyone around him has superpowers but him, and he has to do it and the most dangerous job. He has a partner who has super powers, which is like—I don’t know— something crazy. I haven't thought about that one yet. But all I know is that he doesn’t have powers. The only thing that he has is the fact that like he can endure twice as much pain as a regular human because of his job required him to, you know?
Q: Yes. And if you were to place yourself in this story—
Felician: [38:51] If I have to place myself in that story, I will probably place myself—now, I'll probably be in an episode or two, right.
Q: What would your character be?
Felician: [38:58] Oh, I got it. Oh, maybe I'll probably be like—if you've seen Marvel but his name is Turk. Turk is like—he's just like that drug dealer guy who always had the information for the superhero, you know? They beat it out of him or something. But the thing—the funny part about him is that he's in every single superhero collab. So like, let's say—because you know how Daredevil has a scene, Jessica Jones have one, Luke Cage has one. He was in Daredevil. First, he was out there shipping crates or something like that and then he got busted by Daredevil
Felician – Session #1 – 30 and then he got let go free by something happening. So then on his way to being free, he escaped but then he went into like Luke Cage's universe of the show and—
Q: Sorry to interrupt you but—
Felician: Yes.
Q: —you said that you would go into the show as Turk.
Felician: Yes.
Q: Do you see a relation to Turk?
Felician: [39:52] No, no, no, I don’t see any relationship. You know, I think it's going to be funny if like—
Q: Well, because you said he's the one—
Felician: —I think my character—
Q: —with all the information for these superheroes.
Felician – Session #1 – 31 Felician: [40:00] Yes, yes. He's that guy who's just like, "Okay, I think I know where he is. He's probably at the doc's," this and that, this and that. You know, that's what I'm trying to say. It's not like he's the smartest guy around. I'm just saying like he just knows where to be at, like where this person is going to be. He eavesdrops on the information like—
Q: Okay. I was just wondering if there was a reason why you chose yourself to be that guy.
Felician: [40:23] Yes, I chose him he's in every film. Like it's just funny to see him in everything. Like, "Who's this guy? He was in Daredevil the other day, you know? It's funny to see him then because they always beat him up, like they always do this and that. Like no matter what Marvel cinema here, he's always getting beat for information. It's just funny to me. That's why I was talking about—
Q: And what about Josh? [Laughter]
Felician: [40:47] Yes. Josh probably will be that the guy with the information. I'll probably be like that Turk guy if I had to put myself as a character in there, but—you know? Because if my story is going to be about the detective this and that, I want my character as the person who knows the information, that scumbag, or something like that.
Q: And would say outside of comic book, you would describe yourself as that?
Felician: No.
Felician – Session #1 – 32
Q: The person with the information?
Felician: [41:14] No. [Laughs] No. I just thought it would be funny. That's the thing about comics, like you don’t have to describe it. Like you don’t have to put yourself in a comic book that you describe yourself outside of the real world. Let's say I'm a nice guy in the real world, but in the comics, I want to be the biggest bad guy there is. You know what I'm saying? That doesn’t have—no. Yes, it has nothing that relate to you, but it would be cool to see yourself as a bad guy, you know? I could think of him like if I had, let's say, my water and ice powers, electric powers. Like what if I was the bad guy of the show? It would be cool to see yourself as a different perspective. That's what I'm trying to say.
Q: Makes sense. My final question because I know you have to run to work, and it's—oh my god, it's 3:54.
Felician: Three fifty-four.
Q: Okay.
Felician: Cool.
Q: Maybe I won't ask that final—well, the final question was just ask what your dreams are for the future, but—
Felician – Session #1 – 33
Felician: Oh, yes.
Q: —I know you have to run to work. So, thank you so much for taking this time to sit with me and chat.
Felician: No problem.
Q: Sorry that the time went way faster than we—
Felician: It's cool. I'm just calling them I'm coming.
Q: Oh, no, you said it will only take half an hour for you to get there.
Felician: [42:26] Yes, it's only going to take me half an hour, so—
Q: Okay, cool.
Felician: —we cool.
Q: You go rush downstairs, but thank you so much, Josh. I hope this—
Felician: Right—
Felician – Session #1 – 34
[END OF INTERVIEW]