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
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
posted by TAK at 9:30 AM
