Manga Artists :: Part 2: Digital Artist Gez Fry

I love the magazine Digital Creative Arts, and one of the main reasons I love it is to look out for any new articles about Gez Fry. I have two so far, which I will post here for my future reference.

:: DCA Issue #15 from 2004, pgs. 27 & 34-35 ::

"Brief Encounters"

We gave four talented illustrators the same brief, and then sat back and waited to see what they would create. . .

The brief: Winter makes you think of snowflakes, warm fires, icy car windscreens, bags of christmas shopping, long colorful scarves, roast chestnuts and raw red noses. Or does it? What does winter 2004 mean to you? What moods does it evoke, what memories or dreams does it inspire? Create us a piece of digital art for the next cover of DCA that only could have come from you.

Gez Fry
Age: 26
Years as prof artist: 1.5
Web site: www.folioart.co.uk
Illustrative Style: A mix of Japanese influence, painting, games and manga
Credits: Sports Illustrated for Kids and Kingfisher Books
Brief Tacking MO: seeks inspiration
Brief tackling tip: "Make sure there are no doubts in your mind about what the client wants, so that you can feel relaxed and make the kind of image that will appeal both to them and to yourself."

At 26, Gez Fry is still pretty new to the illustration game, but you wouldn't know it to look at his work. Practically and technically speaking, his way or working is still evolving, but there's a purity about his technique for approaching an image that speaks volumes about relying on natural talent. Quite simply, Gez doesn't force the brief into an idea, rather he sits and he waits until the brief speaks to him.

"I made a cup of tea and had a think about it," says Gez of his reaction when the DCA winter brief arrived. "Then I went to Yugahama beach, near where I live in Japan."

Once he does get down to actually creating the image, Gez goes straight for the digital option, escewing the original route: "I started by making a really loose sketch of what I had in mind. I used to use a pencil and paper for sketching, but recently I've been using my Wacom Intuos2 tablet to draw directly into Photoshop. It's taken me a while, but it's now the drawing tool I feel most comfortable with." Because he'd tapped into the brief to begin with, and had come up with an image that he wanted to create, actually producing it was a fairly straightforward affair for Gez.

It's not always that simple, though, and sometimes Gez will kick off with several ideas before deciding which he really wants to take through to completion. But he always tries to follow his gut instinct, "even if [his] brain is saying no." Gez says that creating the cover of DCA was the most enjoyable brief he's ever had, and also "the most open-ended."

Valuable Lesson

If there's one lesson to be learnt from the DCA's Brief Encounters, it's that one size doesn't fit all. Every Illustrator will have their own way of tackling a brief, and every art director their own way of writing one. Make a connection with someone, and then get across what you want done as clearly as possible. And if you think you might be conversing at cross-purposes, get on the phone and hammer it out. You should be able to tell if you're not reading from the same hymn book, and the smart illustrator will adapt to what their client really wants, rather than pushing ahead with the image they burn to ceate. Listen. Question. Persist. If you're responding to a brief then there's little else to be done. You'll know when you've got a solid handle on the idea, so don't rest until you're holding it.

And if it's you that's writing the brief, then learn to relax a little. Don't bind your artist's hands with suggestions that are impractical, or ideas that are uninspired. Be lucid, be factual and be succinct. Pick fantastic artists, and then trust them. Flick back through the previous pages if you don't believe this strategy can work. From a 67-word brief, we got back four images good and exciting enough for the cover. It turns ouot it's called a "brief" for a reason.

Captions on the page: The finished DCA cover feels like winter, as well as depicting something far from the stereotypes you might expect. Gez's studio in Japan (top) is his creative haven. From there, he likes to let a brief breather before diving in.

::

Awesome article, no? Through the interview, article setup, and images (sorry I'm not including those!) you get a sense of how a modern artist works and thinks, which has inspired me in my own processes, and how to successfully tackle an assignment. From the FMA artbook, Inuyasha artbook, and Bisco Hatori asides in her mangas, I get a better sense of the variety of projects an artist must tackle besides just doing the manga itself. (Manga cover, magazine covers, posters, etc.) so the info on tackling a brief is fabulous and incredibly useful.

::

:: I wanted to get this posted, but I'll put up the second article as soon as I find it. Sorry for the delay! ::

Manga Ideas :: Part 1: A poet's take on writing without fear

I love reading about poetry and the people who create it. They often have a unique take on the writen word and a philosophy of writing that is quite intriguing. So an article in our school's newspaper, talking to a local English professor about her feelings on writing, caught my attention today. Her comments on the events that fuel our writing appy very well, I think, to any art form that tries to create stories or excite certain emotions in the audience. I'm not sure just yet how un-anonymous I plan to be, so for now I will leave out names and specific details, if that is all right. The message, not necessarily the person, piqued my interest, and it is that message which I want to convey. I will take a cue from Jane Austen and leave a blank where the names should be.

::

When it comes to words, _______ said she likes "the raw, ragged and real. Sometimes when people are writing, they are afraid of what will come out. Afraid that when the story takes on a life of its own … they are not sure of where it will end up and that scares people. But facing what comes out on the page is very important to healing and I think that it is something that should be confronted, not ran away from. Personally, I love it … how language lends itself to the real experience and I can uncover that."

Holding true to the experience is something that ________ said she feels very strongly about and tries to continue that in her writing and in her teaching.

"A person may be writing a story about their dad and a part comes along that the dad would have sworn under his breath, for instance, but they won't include that in their poem, they try to clean it up. Or, they only use it to lend impact, trying not to offend someone. I think that detracts from the story," she said. "Writing that which holds true to the reality it is based on is much more powerful writing than writing that doesn't. I tell my students not be scared of words, but that means not being scared of what family, peers or friends may say about those words. One can't be scared about what another person is going to say."

________ said she gets most of her inspiration for her own poetry from the valley. "_______ is such a beautiful place; I love it. But I also get it from animals, people, the stories I read," she said. ________ said she mostly finds herself reading the works of Ken Brewer, Steven Dunn, Sylvia Plath and Sharon Olds, to name a few.

::

A great article. I had been thinking just this morning about another manga that has been rolling around in my head for ages, a project totally of my own making that draws from my own background and culture and does so in a way that is more biographical than anything else I think I will ever create. It would be a radical departure from the things I typically dream up and be more real I think and more reflective of my own exeriences. But there is nothing really like what I want to do in either the culture of my local area (small town communities) or my religion (most local literature or religious "modern" novels are a watered-down treatise of life-changing events or are too culture-specific for the themes to appeal to a broader, grander audience). So while I truly want to create this a small part of me hesitates, wondering if anyone I know will even like it or if I would be branded in a certain way if it ever got published. I would do it well after Elicia and I got started on our bigger, more fantastical projects, and it would be a small side project in a completely different style and genre, so I hope not. But ________'s words give me courage. It wouldn't be crude, of course, since I don't really do crude, but it would be real, maybe searingly so, since I can be horribly blunt when I want to be and I find at those times this causes me to alienate the very ones I am trying to reach. But it would be real and revealing and depressingly optimistic, and I hope that in not shying away from being truthful, more people will relate to my story and main character than won't. So now I am mentally greenlighting my project and ideas for it. I think the idea has merit, and it it fails it will only be in the execution of the writing or drawing. We'll see.

Also, sorry for being so vague about project ideas. I'd just rather nor reveal them or talk about them in specifics until they are in a more concrete form, such as published on the web or in a book (if that day ever comes.) Hope you understand.

Writing Manga :: Part 1

First off, I'd like to say that every creator has their own process. I think it is something you have to figure out for yourself, and I feel it is quite egotistical for someone to say "this is the best way to write/draw/tone manga." Even celebrated Manga-ka shouldn't say this, because no matter how much I worship them their process can naver be 100% my process. Which is a good thing, allowing for variety and spontenaity in a medium of constant change. That being said, an aspiring manga artist is stupid not to learn the many ways in which manga is created, or feel they are somehow above learning the necessary skills and processes of the medium. Once they have learned the basics and are grounded in the traditional processes, I feel they will then be able to pick which is the best way of writing/drawing/etc, or at least know from where to start. Like the old adage says, know the rules before you break them. Or whatever the actual saying is. It also makes perfect sense to combine several processes; whatever works is what is best in my opinion. So while I am documenting my own process here as it shapes itself, I hope anyone actually reading this does not latch onto that for dear life and say "I must do it like that!" Because for all you know, our styles could be very different and then using my style will make you crash and burn. I make no promises that I am even doing it the best way for me! Also, as an aside, I feel the idea of studying the "how" of others and basic, tried-and-true techniques and then creating your own "how" applies to any medium in the arts or sciences, regardless of the background or the prestige of the medium. That is what art schools are for, and why people even attend them in the first place (besides it looking really good on a resume, of course.)

Anyway, enough for my tangent/soapbox of the day, and on to the topic at hand. Elicia and I are still in the process of how is best for us to write manga, but we have had some brilliant sources on the topic, which I will talk about here. These are helping us a lot, and are worth a blurb or two (or three.)

:: Playwrighting Class ::

Elicia took a playwrighting class last semester from one of the most brilliant profs on our campus, and shared her notes and thoughts from the class with me. Writing a play is different from writing a movie, book, and of course manga, but some of the basic principles apply to all of the genres, namely how to create good dialogue, characters, scenes, express the theme, etc. Her prof made great powerpoints which she printed off for me, and which I read voraciously. (if the links to the slides were still up I'd post them here; alas they are not! But she is taking the next level of playwrighting from him now, so if he has good new slides I will post those.)

Anyway, the topics of the slides break down into as follows: 12 rules for what makes good playwrighting (FYI they are have fun/entertain, don't try to be original/profound, displace/distract/amplify, lay ground rules early/know what you are doing, repetition equals emphasis, make your characters choose, bring characters into conflict, give your characters secrets, aim at urgency, speak in realistic language, use the environment, and observe the world carefully); thought and premise; language and diction; conflict and dialogue; and character. I'm sure there were more but Elicia didn't print them off for me. She also gave me a list of helpful vocab, which gives a definition for another wonderful sheet Elicia gave me, which is the definition of a diathesis. We are definitely going to use this when we write. The definition is:

Diathesis: The outline of a play's plot in the form of a graph with sequences and sections presented as a balanced structure that prioritizes complications in parallel sequences revolving around a central sequence; parallel plot elements necessary to express the play's thought; see breviloquence.

The bold words in the definition are some of the class vocab. Basically, it is an outline of your whole story showing how early actions tie in or parallel later actions or consequences. His diathesis example is of Euripides' "Medea." (If you don't know who/what that is, I would suggest some classical reading is in order, and stat.) For example, the beginning actions (Medea's past crimes: Jason betraying her and Creon's intention to banish her and her sons) parallel the actions at the end (Medea's present retribution: Medea triumphs over Jason and has a self-imposed banishment. And don't tell me I spoiled the play for you, as it is over 1000 years old and a famous story. It's like the comics where people say that someone spoiled King Kong for them; the joke lies in how can this possibly be spoiled for you, since everyone knows the story!) Apparently a diathesis also helps to prevent writer's block, as you already know where the story is heading and don't have to sit and guess. But there is also a lot of freedom too: the major actions and plots of the story only are outlined; the minor actions and all the dialogue is free to be spontaneous, but now has a clear direction in which to go so the writing doesn't get bogges down in tangents. A famous playwright who used the idea of a diathesis put it this way, when someone asked him how his play was going (to paraphrase): "It is finished; now all that is left is to write the words." Or something to that nature.

The idea of writing an outline of a story first and the script second greatly appeals to me. I've always been a pretty good essayist, mainly because I had the formula for an essay drilled into me in middle school, and have used that ever since to great success. As a graphic designer, I have learned to be my most creative when I have certain parameters set in front of me. If I am given a project, a booklet for example, and told to do absolutely whatever I want, I simply can't begin; the possibilities overwhelm me. But tell me that I need the booklet in this size using these colors and fonts and these specifications, and I am raring to go; the limitations free me somehow. I think that is one reason I am excited to do manga; you get to draw whatever you want, but it must be in black and white (most of the time) and it must be this certain size, etc. And the idea of drawing my layouts from a script, not drawing the layout first and having the words come to you later of fit into the prescribed space, is thus more satisfying to me. Knowing what the script specifies I draw will allow me to be more creative in what I draw. Granted, we haven't done a lot of layouts yet, but this method is the most appealing to me. Though it is many other ways in the manga world to great success.

The last handout from the class I will mention is the paper "Five Ways to Improve Your Dialogue" by Lou Anne Wright and William M. Downs, published in the Sept/Oct '99 Dramatist. Fabulous paper on how to write good dialogue for plays. Basically, it explains that you need to understand why humans talk in the first place; what needs and desires are motivationg the character you are writing, i.e. why they need to speak; and to create vigorous, concise sentences that are not everyday speech but a heightened and edited form of it. Then they talk about the five main things you should or should not do when writing, which I will list below.

1: Avoid Conclusionary Dialogue. It bores the reader and tells them exactly what to think. Instead write between the lines of a character's emotions or language. Basically, show us with their actions and what is not being said that they are happy/sad/depressed, not have them tell us they are happy/sad/depressed.
2: Listening. People in general filter words though their own needs, emotions, and views, which means that we misinterpret what is being said constantly. (Sad but true.) So the way in which your character reacts to what someone says can bring life to your writing and make it feel more natural, and reveal tons about the character.
3: Obvious Exposition. Exposition is important, and can work well, but when done badly it causes the story to stagnate and the characters to become boring. A common example of this is the telephone ringing at the beginning of a scene. (Example from Mangaland: In "Inuyasha," I found myself getting annoyed with the character of Myouga the flea but had no clue why. I've since figured out that since he is supposed to be very wise, he quickly became the Mr. Exposition for almost every episode he was in. That, and not Myouga himself, was what was getting on my nerves. I love Inuyasha, but I plan to not do that in my own works.) Ways to prevent this faux pas from happening are to weave the exposition into the storyline in a way that helps the story move forward, such as hiding it in conflict or arguments. After all, "a play is never about people who agree with one another," and I think the same thing can be said for manga as well.
4: Uneeded Exposition. Unless the audience needs the exposition to make sense of the story or the character's reactions and motivations, leave it out. " Good exposition is lean." Also don't feel the need to repeat exposition multiple times for your audience to get it, or you will begin to bore them. This whole topic kind of makes me laugh, because I can't think of one manga in which we don't have a flashback. (Some friends of ours were joking that if for a Naruto drinking game you took a shot each time there was a flashback, Sasuke's flashbacks alone would give you alcohol poisoning. I mean, there are flashbacks within flashbacks going on there. But because there is so much going on and because they really help to better explain the motivations of Sasuke, they don't get too boring in my opinon. But boy there's a lot of them! It almost becomes the Sasuke show for part of the season. And I loved Kakashi's backstory too, but again you learn so much about him and it is action packed, so it works well.)
5: Filler Words and Lines. Basically whatever takes up unecessary space between the real conflicts and ideas of the story. Keep the situations alive and spontaneous, and these become unecessary. After all, brevity is the soul of wit, and there is no room in manga panels for unecessary words.

Another important concept from the class is to get used to writing a lot. Start writing at least an hour everyday, and you will get in the mode of writing fast. I think this can apply to drawing manga as well. And also the fact that there are no new stories, only new ways to tell them, so don't freak out about being revolutionary. Just find a new situation in which to express an old theme, and you can't help but be successful.

So that is the brilliance that was Elicia's playwrighting class. What a long entry! One more helpful book before I close:

:: The DC Comics Guide to Writing Comics, by Dennis O'Neil ::

This is a thin paperback that is becoming for me a must. If I was teaching a class on how to write comics or manga this would be one of the required textooks; it's that good. It's sort of a part of a series of books that DC has put out, which are all fabulous. He covers a lot of the same points Elicia's prof did (remember when I said that good rules for one medium appy to all? So true!), but also explains how both DC and Marvel writes comics and some good rules for any beginner to keep in mind. It also shows that comic artists actually write their comics in script format, so that is another reason why Elicia's playwrighting class was excellent. Don't let the fact he is not a manga writer throw you, because the info inside is really great. There are also hints on how to get a premise for a comic (i.e. a manga series) greenlighted. (Hint: it starts with a great story idea, no duh.) Sweet!

Now I will leave you, before this post breaks length rules or something. Seriously it's super long; how did that happen? Next part of this section will be on how Japanese manga artists such as Bisco Hatori write, with specific examples. Who knows when that will be, but pretty soon down the line I swear.

Yay for mac photo hosting!

Hooray! I finally found a good photo hosting site that works with a mac. For anyone who is interested, it is Flickr, and you can get to it here. Plus, it is a partner or something with Yahoo, so if you have a Yahoo account already it brilliantly just uses your Yahoo info to create a Flickr account; no having to create a brand new one! Just thought I'd share my joy. =) So now I finally have my little profile pic up and running, and can add photos as neccesary. Squee!

I have up my little ello pic of me as a blue kitty. I made one for elicia too, that is a evil pink kitty, and the two kitties form our studio's logo! they are also e's, though mine is backward, as both of our names begin with "e"; in fact, both of our names begin with "e-l" and our last names beging with "l-o", and this realization begat, in a roundabout process, our name. Logos and branding are not, in my opinion, my strongest point graphically, so the fact this worked out is a testament to sheer serendipity (and a lovely Wacom Tablet.) I will talk about graphic design as related to manga and tools of the trade in time, but not at the moment. Now is for celebrating the joy of Flickr. Talk to you soon.

Blogging is Crack

Okay, it is now official: blogging is my new crack. I didn't think I'd write anything all weekend, but lase eve I logged on because I found the "a href" code and wanted to made links to things in my last post. No, in my impulsive mind it could not wait. And today I had to come into work to get some type and tables set for a proceedings book due to the printers on Tuesday, and what do I do? I come on here first. I'm pathetic. But I have to admit, blogging is fun and the possibilities for this blog are exciting. I even bought a tutorial book at Borders on how to use Blogger. It's from one of the best software tutorial series in the market, in my opinion, but I am still ashamed to admit I have done so. I haven't even told Elicia yet. (Elicia is my sis, btw.) So here you go: my shame fully admitted for all to see. It's actually helped me a bit though, so I'm actually quite glad I bought it. Elicia touts Livejournal as the best place for a blog, but how can I not choose this site when it is so well designed and the book makes it so easy? =) Plus they post my astrological sign. I'm am so excited for the year of the dog to come! Then I can truly say that, yes, it is my year, and mean it. =)

I'm just annoyed with the fact that you can't upload pics very easily here. And the site that works with blogger to store your images doesn't work allow macs to upload pics! Talk about ignoring a good chunk of your target audience. I think. I don't know how many mac people use this site, but I was referenced here by a die-hard mac user, so there's gotta be more than three. Macs aren't going away, sweeties, so please be a doll and alllow me to upload pics? It's just a little code, and I will be forever grateful.

My sis and I bought Final Cut Pro with money we received for Christmas. So excited. I read on animemusicvideos.org that FCP is the "swiss army knife of video editing," or something to that extent, and I believe it. Plus, I learned it in school and now I can keep my skills up. What does this have to do with manga creation, you ask? I think that even though it is an entirely different medium, you get to practice and look at a lot of good camera angles, and work on pacing and timing, which will be useful along the line. So that's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it. =) I can't promise our AMV's will be any good but we sure will try our best to get our concepts across in a pleasing manner. If any actually get online I will link to them from here, I promise.

Oh, and guess what? Manga has helped me in my career! You think I'm lying but I'm not. I read a great article on Tokyopop's web site about manga layout, and getting the eye to flow correctly and such so you do not confuse you audience. And this week I had to create a layout for a project brief, and I utilized some of the concepts I had read in the article! In the past I usually did it intuitively, but this time it was a conscious focus and I think it made the paper a lot better in the process. So that is how manga is helping my current career. =)

I'm so lucky that what I chose to go to school for also helps my ultimate dream of beign a manga artist. More on that later; that will be a multi-parter post in the future.

Manga Artists :: Part 1

I've decided that sections I can see myself adding to over time I will simply divide into parts, so if I want to go back and find the same theme I can easily do so. This first section will be on current manga artists that I love and am inspired by: why I like them, what they do that is just so great, how they have helped me thoughout my manga-creating process, where I learned about them, etc.

A list of the artists, in no particular order:

:: Okano Reiko ::

At this point she is probably my favorite manga artist in terms of a mentor on how to become a successful manga artist. She is the manga artist I would most like to pattern myself after, if I had to choose someone. She came to manga from a design background, like me; her musical activities overshadowed somewhat her path as an artist, which I relate to; she is an obsessive researcher like me and includes a lot of her notes in her works, which I think is cool and would like to do myself; she has these lovely, innovative uses of her brushes and tones which I love; she does a lot of historical fiction, which is my favorite genre; and she chose to do manga because it is the best medium in which to present her stories, which is also why my sister and I chose it. So many similarities! Plus, she has a fabulous sense of humor. You can tell from her interviews that she takes her work but not herself seriously, which is refreshing. I have her series "Onmyoji: Master of Yin and Yang, " which is just breathtaking. You can read some interviews she has done in the books "Manga, Masters of the Art" by Timothy Lehmann and "Manga" by Masano Amano (published by Taschen, one of the best art book publishers ever. Not only does this talk about Ms. Okano, it includes a CD containing a live interview! Very Awesome.)

:: Obata Takeshi ::

He is one of my fave manga artists of all time, and has done two of my fave manga series. I've read both "Hikaru no Go" and "Deathnote," and the artwork for both just blows me away. Credit must go to the authors too, obviously, for writing such fascinating stories and characters, but Obata brings them to life so luminously. Of course, it helps that the character of L is my fave manga character of all time. =) I love everything about L, not least of which is his character design and his love of Macs, which are so beautifully drawn in the manga! And who else could help make a static board game like Go so dynamic and interesting? I love Obata's character designs, page layouts, and use of tone. Especially in Deathnote; my eyes are still in training, of course, but it is hard to spot any flaws in the drawings, and he gets such a realistic yet unique style! The short he did featuring Sai from Hikaru no Go, "1000 Year Wanderer," is probably one of the most stunning, well paced, and touching shorts I have ever had the pleasure of reading. I am in awe of Obata, and secretly a little envious of him as well. Here is an interview with him that he also illustrated!

:: Hiromu Arakawa ::

What can I say? "Fullmetal Alchemist" is one of my fave mangas, and one of the most popular in the US. And I think this is in no small part due to Hiromu's glorious skills: the gripping, thought-provoking storylines; the wonderful humor and character relationships; the great character designs; and of course the artwork. In the January 2006 Newtype (which I read at a friend's house but cannot find buy anywhere to buy for myself, sob!), there is a fabulous article about her which talks about her background and her creation process. I love that she comes from an ag background, and because of that she draws herself as a cow. =) Gotta love your roots. And the fact that all of her storylines are inspired by real people she has met over the course of her life (such as parapalegics, homeless people, and Ainu and half Ainu) is fascinating, and helps to explain why those aspects in the manga have always felt so authentic. It makes me wonder which of the people I meet will inspire me as well. It's comforting to remember that life itself, that just living from day to day can be its own research. Plus I got a FMA artbook for Christmas, and in it she is so candid and open about her paintings, willingly pointing out mistakes or which ones she had to rush on, stuff like that. I love her even more now as a result.

:: Masashi Kishimoto ::

What an amazing artist, and "Naruto" is only his first big break! Everything about his work is inspiring: the incredible imagination and pacing of his storylines; the charaters who remain fascinating no matter how often or rarely we see them; the interesting character designs, and of course, his signature unique camera angles of his scenes and characters. My sis bought the Naruto art book and I look at that often, because his line work and copic work is just briliant. The season long filler episodes of the anime made me question the brilliance of the series. That is, until I got caught up on the manga, with Kakashi's backstory, Gaara's kidnapping, and the present arc of Naruto's return to the village. They remain as gripping and fascinating as the first volumes. Kishimoto continues to prove why he is currently one of the best manga artists out there.

:: Natsuki Takaya ::

I'm not a hardened person by any means, but I don't cry all that much any more when I watch movies or read books. So when something does provoke such an unbidden emotional response in me, I sit up and take notice. The storyline in "Fruits Basket," where we learn about Hatori's past for the first time, caused such a response in me, and from both the anime and manga no less. Even now I can't really articulate what about this story can cause such a reaction; is it the pacing, the expressions from the characters, the mood or tone? But there is no doubt in my mind that a master storyteller is at work here: simple yet breathtaking storylines that smoothly transition from lighthearted to heart-wrenching in the same chapter. Her seemingly understated yet charming character designs and smoothly flowing layouts don't hurt, either. It is a manga that for all its darkness always retains that glimmer of sweetness and hope that Tohru embodies, and for that I will remain a joyous and appreciative fan for as long as the series continues.

:: Bisco Hatori ::

My sister has gotten me hopelessly hooked on "Host Club." And even I'm not quite sure why or how. I probably never would have found it on my own, since stories like this rarely appeal to me, but now I can't possibly imagine my life without it. The best way to describe it is a modern take on the classic screwball comedies of old. I don't like a lot of the so-called "shoujo" or "girlie" mangas out there, but this series manages to have that kind of high-school preciousness mixed in with mad-dash humor, class observations, and nuanced character development. I am guaranteed a laugh each time I read it, and I certaintly can't same the same for a lot of the modern sitcoms about there. The pacing is superb, with a light touch in the writing that gives the gender bending such a humorous tone, yet easily gives way to deeper emotions when necessary. The layouts can get complex yet are surprisingly easy to follow, and the character designs and personalities are just lovely.

:: Rumiko Takahashi ::

"Inuyasha" was the first series to plunge me back into the world of anime and manga when I was in college; I watched the first episode on Adult Swim and was hooked thereafter. It is still one of my all-time fave series. I chalk this up to the fact that the story has a mature side to it, yet appeals simultaneously to my love of sweeping historical fantasy epics and humor. The manga is no less superb, of course, and while her style is very different than mine it is a style I would be proud to claim as my own. Her character designs are some of my favorite. I've also seen "Ranma 1/2," and I think it is to her credit that except for the style you could have difficulty recognizing that the two are by the same author. The characters in Ranma are inexplicably outrageous in their actions yet endearing at the same time, and the series is always funny despite the lack of significant character development. Another artist I greatly admire.

And last, but not least for this section:

:: Naoko Takeuchi ::

I owe so much to her brilliant work in creating her manga "Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon." I loved watching the show on Toonami when I was in high school, but it wasn't until I saw her original manga that I was truly blown away. It was the first time that I can remember really seeing the elegant, simplistic beauty of Japanese manga as compared to the more defined but embellished style of American comics. I fell in love with the way that Naoko distilled the human body, for example, to its essence with her line work, and the fact that less lines and shading could somehow produce for me a greater sense of beauty and feeling, without making the world of the story feel less complex or interesting. It was a very mind-shifting and iconoclastic period for me. Her beginning volumes are slightly less polished than her later ones in terms of style, naturally, but the final volumes are some of the most visually stunning I have ever seen. Her line work and character designs are superb and interesting, and her storylines continued their creativity all the way through the series. She was the first manga artist I really looked to for inspiration and emulation, and I will always be grateful to her and continue to admire her and read her stories for a long time to come.

That's it for now with this section. Not sure what or when I will post next, as MLK day weekend is coming up, but we'll see.

And so it begins. . .

My first post—

Very intimidating, I've never had a blog before. My hope for this blog is to record my artistic process as I foray into the emerging world of manga creation. Here I plan to document my notes along the way: what/who/where inspires me to create; innovations in the world of manga publishing and creation; my process of manga creation as it emerges; and of course my own personal musings on the subject. Basically, to archive for myself and others all the cool stuff I've found and learned. I will be amazed if this actually helps anyone besides myself; if it does please let me know.

I named by blog after the first line of a poem by my fave poetess, because it describes exactly how I feel at this point in my process. Enjoy.

LXI

Each Life Converges to some Centre—
Expressed—or still—
Exists in every Human Nature
A Goal—

Embodied scarcely to itself—it may be—
Too fair
For Credibility's presumption
To mar—

Adored with caution—as a Brittle Heaven—
To reach
Were hopeless, as the Rainbow's Raiment
To touch—

Yet persevered toward—sure—for the Distance—
How high—
Unto the Saint's slow diligence—
The Sky—

Ungained—it may be—by a Life's low Venture—
But then—
Eternity enable the endeavoring
Again.

—Emily Dickinson