I've had a stupid throat thing for the past couple of days. Hopefully it doesn't mature into something worse. I got lost on my bike last night while coming back from grocery shopping and as I tried to be somewhat adventurous and take a small side road I was taken totally off course and into some wierd part of my neighbourhood. Plus, it was at night so it doubled the difficultly level of trying to find something I recognized. That's probably what did me in. Ouch.

As mentioned in a past post, I'm a big fan of Gantz and the creator Hiroya Oku. So, naturally, once I heard of his new series Me~teru no Kimochi I started reading it as well. I just bought the first collected volume of it actually. It's a fast read. I think I finished it in about 10 minutes. I won't bore you with a detailed plot rundown but basically, it's about a 30 year old hikikomori who's father (being his sole supportor) dies and leaves a recently married 20-something year old wife. The chick/widow tries to help him un-hikikomori. Hard to believe but, yes, hilarity ensues. The art is not as detailed as Gantz and the figures less defined and more cartoony but it serves the story well and pushes it's intent of being a love-comedy. I'm always amazed at how he builds his characters from the inside-out. Even the poor bastards that died during Gantz had presence. Well, for the most part. Anyway, I recommend checking it out. ahem... legally of course. Of Course!

I'll be hitting Comitia this weekend with some friends so I'll make sure I post pics and a report from that. I've been told editors from various publications will be there so I'll be taking along some samples to show and, hopefully, leave with a few connections.

I'm out.

TAK

Just got back from a very thought-provoking and inspirational meeting with editor E-san and my buddy Ryusuke. Like, holy shit. I dunno where to start. From the beginning, I guess.

Last week, Ryusuke asked if I'd like to sit-in on one of his monthly meetings he has with his editor to watch them discuss plot points and other business related things. I've learned that it's standard practice here to meet once a month in person to go back and forth over scripts and breakdowns. A practice which I quite dig, to be honest. It's a lot more personal than e-mail and allows for more interaction than a phone call. No wonder most manga-hopefuls move to Tokyo.

We met at a nice coffee shop in Shinjuku and after the formalities E-san and Ryusuke did there thing. I've never written a script for Marvel so I'm don't know how much input the editor has in terms of plot or dialogue but I was amazed to see these two tossing around ideas while agreeing and disagreeing but never arguing. Ryusuke described it as being told what was weak with his ideas but in a manner which allowed him to reassess and improve. He also mentioned that one of the crucial steps in becoming a successful creator is being paired with a successful editor. One that you can get along with and understands you as well as having a strong enough spine to openly state what's yay or nay with follow-up suggestions. So, in a way, he's like a therapist.

They continued to talk about a potential signing event and other tie-ins and how his comic should end. They stressed that they plan stories with the trade in mind since weekly and monthly magazine sales have been steadily dropping and that it was a growing trend in Japan. Sounds familiar. They wrapped up their business talk and then we discussed my situation and offered me advice. I showed them my sketchbook, some BFX pages and a few original MJ pages. They were both really into the MJ pages saying that they rarely see anything in pencil anymore. It's usually either inked or digital print-outs. Anyway, the jist of what E-san told me can be broken down into 3 points:

1. Understand j-storytelling, modify my pages for right-to-left reading and compose the layout for a spread. Not a single page.

E-san mentioned that he loved Hellboy but a direct reprinting of the material in a j-magazine would never fly. The merits of decompressed storytelling have been debated to death over the net but when it comes down to working in Japan, the work must be told in a visual manner that readers here are accustomed to. It's as simple as that. I feel I've been able to sustain a more j-friendly style during my time at Marvel and, at the same time, experiment with things through BFX. I'm about 80% confident. When I first began drawing sequentials it was right-to-left so I don't think I'll have much trouble with that but I'll see how it goes once I start thumbnailing. Composing for a spread is something I failed to consider, though. How dumb is that, eh? I'm used to having Chevy ads on every second page. I've stuck with square panels throughout my career but I may have to rethink this.

2. Find a magazine or publication that will accomodate my work whether it be look or genre.

With dropping sales, many publications have resorted to specializing. So, a magazine geared towards 30~40 something males will only have comics with themes relating to their needs and lifestyle. Salariiman Kintaro is a good example of a specialized comic. Same goes for comics geared towards housewives or cooking fans or pachinko fans but think of a magazine with nothing but. The reader must be thought of first and foremost over creator wants or ambitions. This is not a universal rule since many breakout titles don't fit formulas but, they too, have a solid grasp of who is or isn't reading. E-san mentioned the recent influx of gentsuke comics which are comics with an attached and established property. Many new artists are going this route or are even suggested to begin this way since it alleviates much of the writing and allows for more drawing. A number of books done in this manner sell purely through the strength of the art and are supported by the artist's fandom. The downside to starting this way, though, is that you run the risk of not being accepted otherwise.

3. Unfortunately, I forget this last point. I recall it having to do with the above somehow. I should've been taking notes...

We headed for some yakiniku (j-barbecue) afterwards and talked about life and stuff which was a perfect way to end the evening. I've been very fortunate to meet so many generous and supportive artists and editors so early on in my stay. I've been asked to produce a short thumbnailed story with text so that will be what I'll be doing from here on in. I was convinced I'd have to have a finished and polished product but I've been told my experience at Marvel is a definite asset and gives me a leg up compared to an average rookie. Kudos once again Marvel.

So, yeah. The gears are in motion.

TAK

I finally finished SMLMJ 15 last night. I have a few covers to finish still but it feels odd being un-monthlied. For the past 3 years I've been fortunate enough to have steady work and I'm finding it somewhat wierd not worrying about the next issue now that it's all over. In a good way, I guess.

Sean just shot me this link to a Slate article talking about good superhero books for non-superhero fans. SMLMJ was spotlighted with images on their front page even so that was mighty cool. Go me. Go US!

Speaking of superheroes... I was in a used bookstore today just peeking around and flippin' through the rows upon rows of comics and came upon this:

No, it's not David cosplaying as Spider-man. It says it was published back in 1996 but the look of the art harkens back even further. Like, the 60's and 70's. I'm assuming by the Marvel logo up top it's legit. Anyway, I haven't given it a good read yet but it's nice to see it not following standard Spidey lore.

It opens with a Japanese high school student named Yu Komori standing alone in a school science lab griping about how he's made fun of by other students. He's surrounded by big radioactive machines and then this happens:

It must be advanced science 'cuz I sure as hell didn't get to play with alphas or betas back when I was a student. The powers kick-in soon after and he's bending iron bars and clinging to walls but, oddly, no web skillz. So, naturally, this:

I gave the book a quick scan and saw Electro, Lizard and some dude hopping around like a kangaroo but I don't know if that was made up or not. I have #2 here as well and got them both for 2 bucks so it was quite the steal. Says there's a total of 5 so I'll make sure to keep an eye out for the rest. Here's hoping I don't get sued for putting these up.

TAK

I was drifting in and out of sleep in my kotatsu last night when I got a text message from my buddy Erik telling me that NHK was broadcasting a documentary on Urasawa Naoki. I immediately flipped on the TV and sat mesmerized for the next half hour. The program was about 44 minutes and I caught the last 2/3 of it but it was a meaty 2/3, let me tell ya. The program is hosted by 2 anchors and they interviewed him while they showed documentary footage of him at his studio, working out story with his writer and editor and finally, jammin' on his guitar at a small club in Tokyo. If you click on the links above you'll see a few pics. Unfortunately, the text is all Japanese but I'm sure an online translator will help you understand the jist.

He did some live inking and it was awesome seeing just how rough his under-drawings were. I'd say pencil is really just a step to help him place his figures and the true drawing happens with the ink. It looked like he was wingin' it but you wouldn't believe how everything came together in the end.

Like, dude...

Edit: Thanks to a comment by Tew, you can see the video here. It's in Japanese unfortunately but hopefully there will be a subtitled version up soon. I've also found that a quick search on YouTube will give you the program in 5 segments. Just look up "Urasawa". Thanks, Tew.

TAK

I finally got to watch Children of Men the other night. I've been looking forward to it for a while now and it did not disappoint. It reminded me of the game Half Life 2 with it's dystopic and oppressive glimpse into the future, er... without the gravity gun of course. Although Clive Owen woulda rocked the house with one of those. Anyway... The film's theme is a simple one. I can think of a number of past movies which have dealt with a similar plot but CoM gets a leg up on all of them through pure filmmaking tour-de-force. I can see it pleasing a wide audience with it's extended and uncut ground-level action sequences accompanied with it's more subtle character based near silent moments. The way they repeatedly used sound as an additional tool to suck you into what's going on was awesome as well. For instance, drowning everything with a high pitched eeeeeeeee after an explosion. Very cool. I also appreciated many details being left unexplained. It helped push the immediacy of what was going on in front of me. It was quite brutal and unapologetic with it's violence though so if you're opposed to seeing a dude get shot in the head or bodies lying all around you may want to close your eyes. The rest of it is gold.

I'm almost done the last issue of SMLMJ. Took me forever to get back into things. Damn. I have a free schedule to do whatever I want after so I have that to look forward to.

And totally unrelated... Y'know how everyone raves about them thick-ass weekly and monthly magazines that come out here? Well, here's the proof:


TAK

Being in Japan is awesome and I have no regrets in moving. I could give endless positives to state my case but I DO miss a few things about home. Here's a short list:

Law & Order - Every night at 2am they would show past episodes with some reaching as far back as the original cast. For a who dunnit show, it's probably the best in my opinion. Screw all the clones, man. I would watch this while I worked without fail after Conan. My fave being McCoy. Bless his unrepentant icy cold heart.

Restaurant Makeover - I've gushed numerous times about how I love this show. Yeah, it totally tries to tug at your heartstrings but it comes across as genuine and the reveals at the end are always kickass. I've tried looking for torrents of this thing but haven't managed to come across any. If you find some let me know.

My view - Let's compare this:

To this:

Yeah... 'nuf said...

Pizza - Numero Uno at Davie and Granville was probably the best pizza in all of Vancouver. For a buck fifty a slice, you had a dizzying array of pizzas to choose from and all of them being fan-fucking-tastic. Perfect for post clubbing or drinkin'. All the pizzas here seem to have mayo on them. Like, what's up with that?? And no slices. You either dish out close to 30 bones for a medium or nothing at all. Come to think of it, this could be a prime business opportunity...

Utility included rent - When you pay for everything seperately it really gets to be a pain in the ass. Gone are the days when I could wear shorts around the apartment in the dead of winter or take hot showers till my fingers pruned. This week, I got bills for my water, electricity, gas, phone and internet. That's too much work...

Tim Horton's - Some may argue that their coffee tastes like silty rain water but I fucking love it. Where else can you get a medium for a buck and some change? Take that, Starfucks.

That's it for now. I'm sure I'll be missing much more Canadiana in the near future. In the meantime, I've got comics to draw.

TAK

What an amazing few days. Really. Everything I hoped for when moving here just came true in the most awesomest way.

It started with C.B. inviting me out to Nakano which, I've been told, is the new Akihabara for highbrow nerds. I met up with him and a handful of talented artists and an editor. Some I knew of, some I didn't. We exchanged business cards but being the unorganized loser I am, I only had 2 left and didn't have nearly enough to go around. I promised to have more by the next day. We proceeded to hit up Nakano Broadway which is an enclosed strip-mall type building with multiple levels and a bizarre assortment of stores. Like, seriously. A hairdresser was next to a restaurant which was next to a store that sold darts which was next to a thrift shop for vintage Japanese toys. Peppered throughout were shops selling figurines, gacha-gacha and anime cells. Display cases with old old comics were lined up against the walls but unfortunately, had stickers explicitly banning photos of any kind. Sorry. I was mesmerized by cells from Nausicaa, Laputa and Doraemon. I had to buy one for my sister since she had plans to move into a new place. Today, infact.

So, after shopping and wandering, t-san mentioned she'd never been to a maid cafe and wanted to get a picture taken with one of the waitresses. There was an Alice in Wonderland based cafe upstairs so we went up there and had a coffee. Unfortunately, they weren't cool with pics so she had to go home empty handed. Such a secretive industry. wtf.

I believe I parted ways after this. Oh, wait. No. We hooked up with another editor and a bigtime artist afterwards and had another coffee. I hadn't slept much the day before so all this coffee was timely, let me tell ya. The shopping and stuff beforehand was cool and everything but sitting down and seeing how down-to-earth all these people were was one of the biggest joys that day. I didn't say much and focused on listening. I can't really remember what we talked about actually. lol. Shit. I was kinda out of it. We all parted ways after coffee and I was on a high for the rest of the day and crashed early.

Anyway, mañana. C.B. had a new year's party scheduled for 7 that night so after getting some work done the in the morning and taking a nap, I hopped on a train for Shibuya. For destiny. There must have been around 10 people when I got there with many more arriving over the course of the hour. The artist's and editors from the day before were all there so it was nice to see familiar faces. Drinks and feasting ensued, along with more trading of business cards of which I had none. Yeah. I suck. Cheers to booze, though. Everyone was loose and talkin'. I got to pick the brains of a bunch of artists and editors. What a treat. The J-comics industry was such a blackbox to me for so long but now I feel somewhat familiar with it and it's structure. I asked questions regarding what a monthly schedule is like and what it's like working with assistants and how one goes about hiring them. We talked quite a bit about Comic Studio EX and the merits of digital vs. analog. I even whipped out my sketchbook and had people take a look at it. So humbling. Fuck, man. What else did we talk about... Oh, I was asked which magazine I was thinking about applying to and was told to just hit up as many as I could. I was under the impression that it was wrong to take the same work to multiple publishers but was told it didn't matter. The more you make the rounds the more chance you have. Quite naturally, I suppose. Last call came and went. Trains here stop at around 12:30am so most of the people left in order to make it home. Not me, of course. C.B., myself, O-san and M-san continued to drink into the early hours. Ahh, Japan. I love that last call is totally relative here.

I don't remember much after this. I was pretty shitfaced and tired. I have a bunch of contacts to follow up on and new friends to hang with. Hopefully I'll be able to visit studios and stuff in the future. It's nice to feel grounded and more confident with things. With work. The industries here and backhome are surprisingly similar. Work ethic is worlds apart though. I heard some crazy stories about pencilling 16-20 pages in 3 days. And that's considered normal.

I'm out. Thanks, C.B. Much love, dude.

Tak

So, I just experienced my first mini-earthquake since landing. My entire apartment shifted sideways for a split second. It was very wierd. I braced myself for more but none came. Growing up in Canada where hardly anything happens other than being pounded by snow, the earth moving underneath you is an odd notion to come to terms with. It's dirt, man. It's supposed to stay still.

My new Maxon tracing machine came by courier today. I bought it at Comiket a couple weeks ago and it finally arrived. I call it a tracing machine but it's not like it traces backgrounds and images for me. I wish it did, though. I've been going ghetto-style, using plates of glass with a lamp underneath, these past few years so when I saw it being sold for very cheap I couldn't help but buy it. Hopefully, this will help me pump out better and tighter backgrounds.

TAK

Over at his blog, C.B. has been doing a great job finding and posting quirky little J-things. I spent the last few days hanging with some friends from outta town enjoying some off-time so I will attempt to do the same, although very little of it will be comics related.

New Year's is big here. Bigger than Christmas. And Japanese boxing day is one big circus with millions and millions of people throwing caution to the wind and shopping. Imagine the entire population of Canada (around 30 mil) times 2 or 3 all hitting the streets. Below is a taste of Harajuku, one of the many fashion-centric places of Tokyo, on the 2nd.

When you're in Japan, there's a list of things you have to do and one of them is Pachi-slo or Pachinko and Slots. My friend makes a living playing these things so we jumped in one to try our luck. One of the newer machines are these Evangelion-based machines seen below. "Shinji-kun!?"

I also wandered into a music store to check out some guitars. I need a strap but couldn't find one I liked so spent my time gazing at really really expensive things. I'm familiar with 4 and 5 string basses but an 8 string!?

That same night except in Shibuya.

Food is a big allure of the country for me on top of all the comics and ahem other things... It's such a competitive market here that many chains and stores have to drive prices down to compete for customers. Fine by me. For a few bucks you can have a nice warm and healthy meal in seconds, illustrated with a bowl of gyudon below.

That's it for now. Here's to a promising 2007, all.

TAK