RISING STARS OF MANGA IX: SHANE GRANGER (WITH JASON HENDERSON & TONY SALVAGGIO)

[MattBrady]

by Benjamin Ong Pang Kean

Unlike the other Rising Stars of Manga winners who’re developing and creating Original English Language manga (OEL) for TOKYOPOP such as Jess Stoncius’ Work Bites, Felipe Smith’s MBQ, M. Alice LeGrow’s Bizenghast, Amy Kim Ganter’s Sorcerers & Secretaries, Lindsay Cibos and Jared Hodges’ Peach Fuzz, Christy Lijewski’s RE:Play, Ron Kaulfersch and Mike Schwark’s Van Von Hunter and Irene Flores and Ashly Raiti’s Mark of the Succubus, the November-debuting Psy-Comm is the brainchild of writers Tony Salvaggio and Jason Henderson (Sword of Dracula) with art by Shane Granger, a runner-up in TOKYOPOP’s 2 Rising Stars of Manga competition with his entry “Possessions.”

”I'm personally really excited about Psy-Comm,” TOKYOPOP editor Bryce Coleman told Newsarama. “It's an cool new manga property on an epic scale entitled Psy-Comm. Psy-Comm takes place in a not-too-distant future where massive corp-states have replaced all sovereign nations. War still exists, but now it is scheduled entertainment--the ultimate opiate for the masses. The elite soldiers of the corporate armies are the Psy-Comms, genetically altered warriors possessing various telekinetic abilities. Mark Leit is destined to be possibly the greatest Psy-Comm of them all, but when a haunting image from his past causes him to throw it all away, he finds himself on the run from his own corp-state, bounty hunters, assassins and his former best friend. This book is going to blow the roof off the joint, and I'm incredibly psyched to see it come to fruition (pun intended).”

“Psy-Comm started as a concept by Tony Salvaggio, who is also my partner on Clockwerx, our long-developing "Victorian robot war" project at Humanoids, which is already written and paid for (two book-length scripts) and will surely someday see print, I believe,” co-writer Jason Henderson said. “We wanted to write a big, sprawling manga title. And it is huge—there's a two-page spread where this giant sort of advertorial blimb hangs over the field, broadcasting coverage of the war to all the infantry.

Psy-Comm is about a future where war is a sponsored and scheduled event. “This war brought to you by Texxon,” Henderson added. “The heroes wear brand patches on their sleeves, and the greatest heroes of all are the Psy-Comms, young soldiers trained to use their minds in an amazing variety of ways. So you don't just have psychic commandoes who can read minds—you have telekinetics, gravity manipulators, clairvoyants, pyrokinetics, every possible power that might come from learning to tap the inner resources of the mind.

“And in this world of pitched battles of infantry, tanks, guns and super-powered commandoes, the greatest two heroes are Mark and David, two buddies who fight for a country called ElectromediaCorp. And one day while Mark and David are behind enemy lines, Mark, who can see the future, stumbles across a beautiful girl who's about to go to her first battle. And suddenly he begins to question everything.

“I've been thrilled that this project has been getting the attention it has: we even got called out in the Time Magazine 2005 comics preview, which was sobering because it means that people have high hopes for the book.”

Jason Henderson has published five novels and is currently the writer on a slew of modern horror/adventure comics such as the commandos-versus-vampires comic Sword of Dracula and the witchcraft-romance Sylvia Faust. Co-writer Tony Salvaggio is a computer animator, writer, musician, and a videogame, anime and manga junkie. His past credits include lead animator on Spongebob Squarepants: Revenge of the Flying Dutchman for PS2 and Gamecube.

“Psy-Comm started as an idea at one of Jason and mine's pitch meetings,” Salvaggio reiterated. “I had a couple of ideas about a world where Corporations own everything, even the kinds of food you eat (thanks to GM crops and the like), and the wars are fought to keep the population in control and in line. I also always wanted to do something with the trappings of BOC's Veteran of the Psychic Wars. I didn't want to do it exactly based off the song, but I loved the imagery and the ideas of psychics battered and torn up well before their time, youngsters with centuries of battle scars, even though they may still be teens. Jason threw in the love story angle and some other points, the elements of the Psy-Comms, their popularity, how the common people live, and the other elements soon fell into place. And we had our pitch. We work pretty organically that way. It's great.

“When TOKYOPOP (thanks to Mark Paniccia) hooked us up with our artist, Shane, it felt right almost from day one. When we got the first scenes in and downloaded them, it felt right. His art has been great every step of the way. It’s very true to the story and is authentic to manga art through and through. Every week, I get new pages and I just can’t believe he trumps himself each time. It’s like my new favorite show. I can’t wait until art drop days to see what happens, and I helped write it! Usually there will be a scene that is in my head one way, and Shane may come up with a totally new way, that I hadn’t envisioned it. Often that scene will be even better. He also is a real stickler for detail and has contributed a lot. He’s not just complacent with drawing the book, he want to help make it the best book we can make. It’s really great to have him on the team.

“TOKYOPOP has been really cool to work for. Our current editor, Bryce has really stepped up and has been great to work for. He’s had quite a task with our large team and he still finds time to check in on us and help us get the story tight so that it all works. Quite a daunting task with people spread all over the country.

“As Jason said, we also have our Victorian mech story Clockwerx by Humanoids, which is the first thing we wrote together, in various forms (the seeds of which started in late 1999). It’s been cool to continue to write together and to see the fruits of our labor solidify into this book. Psy-Comm is big, big in our minds and we love writing it. I always approach ideas and writing as “the stuff I would want to see or read.” If it passes the test of ”I would definitely pick that up off the shelf” then I want to try to get it out there. I want to share my passion for manga and anime in this book; first and foremost I am a fan and want other fans to share the journey. It’s what keeps me writing my “Calling Manga Island "column and recommending manga and anime to like minded friends and acquaintances. I’m hoping that this comes across in our book, it definitely takes the things I know and love in anime and manga and puts it out there on the page.”

According to Henderson, Psy-Comm has the biggest team TOKYOPOP has worked with: an editor, two writers, a penciler and an inker. Traditional manga is done by one guy, “as if Charles Shultz were alive and making novel-length adventure stories. But the result looks and feels so much like a manga because we've been very supportive of one another and have worked very organically, constantly sending notes back and forth.”

“There's a huge difference in the way Tony and I wrote this script compared with, say, how I've been writing for this August's return of Sword of Dracula. For one thing, a TOKYOPOP manga is 156 pages long, give or take. So we needed a pretty clear outline just so we wouldn't get lost in all those pages. We circled around and around a script—first writing an outline, then a more detailed outline that broke out into chapters, then we actually wrote most of the script in Microsoft Excel, if you can believe that.

“So it's panel for panel, page for page, for 156 manga pages, which are smaller—generally you have 3-4 panels per page. And no caption-narrative, really, which is more a style choice for Tony and me. My stuff always has a lot of narrative captions, and I enjoy that, but for Psy-Comm, we steered away from it.

“Of course once it's in Shane's hands, and this is very important to me and Tony, Shane is free to adapt and doesn't have to stick with the panel-for-panel script, so long as the art hits all the dramatic points. The reason we allow for that diversion is because Shane is the artist—it makes sense that as he's working on a sequence, he might have a better way to break it up or draw it.

“You gotta see the action in this thing. Shane Granger, one of the Rising Stars of Manga, is the artist, and he just slaves over the work. I don't think I've ever seen such a lush manga, man.”

We’ve also caught up with the RSOM winner for a quick Q&A:

Newsarama: What made you decide to enter the Rising Stars of Manga contest?

Shane Granger: I was thinking of drawing a short comic book just for fun when a friend of mine happened to mention the RSOM competition. I was not a big comic book or manga reader at the time (although I was a fan of anime and video games), and hadn’t heard of TOKYOPOP before, but nevertheless I decided to spend a couple of months drawing an entry. Basically, I just wanted to see if I could do it.

NRAMA: How does your RSoM entry relate to the first volume of Psy-Comm?

[b]SG[/b]: Psy-Comm was quite a bit more challenging because it was my first time working with writers rather than drawing straight from my own imagination. There is a sort of translation process when working with writers; trying to visualize what they have in mind then finding a way to sell those ideas to the reader visually. Ideas and images that begin in your own mind are inherently inspiring and this kind of supercharges the artwork. But when working with someone else’s material every day, especially on a long-term project like Psy-Comm, you sometimes have to coax yourself into becoming immersed.

NRAMA: What's it like to see your very first volume of Psy-Comm finally getting released in November of this year?

SG: Psy-Comm will be my first published book and that’s pretty exciting for me. I constantly wonder what people will think of the book and what kind of response it’ll get. I just hope there will be some people out there who enjoy it.

NRAMA: As a reader, what're some of your favorite manga/comics?

SG: Easily my favorite manga are Battle Angel and Akira. My own art style is heavily inspired by these, or so I’d like to think. I also recently discovered GTO which is a great book. In all honesty, though I’m not a big manga or comic book reader; most of my inspiration comes from anime, video games and movies.

In the next few days, we’ll take a look at other OELs by the likes of Becky Cloonan, Keith Giffen, Greg Hildebrandt, Jen Lee Quick and others.

For an earlier interview with Jason Henderson when Psy-Comm was first announced, click here.

Related articles:
TOKYOPOP’S RISING STARS I: JESS STONCIUS ON WORK BITES

TOKYOPOP’S RISING STARS II: FELIPE SMITH ON MBQ

TOKYOPOP’S RISING STARS III: M. ALICE LeGROW ON BIZENGHAST

TOKYOPOP'S RISING STARS IV: AMY KIM GANTER ON SORCERERS & SECRETARIES

RISING STARS OF MANGA V: LINDSAY CIBOS ON PEACH FUZZ

RISING STARS of MANGA VI: CHRISTY LIJEWSKI ON RE:PLAY

RISING STARS of MANGA VII: IRENE FLORES ON MARK OF THE SUCCUBUS

RISING STARS OF MANGA VIII: RON KAULFERSCH & MIKE SCHWARK ON VAN VON HUNTER

TOKYOPOP'S RISING STARS X: WES ABBOTT ON DOGBY WALKS ALONE

ON FIVE SETS OF RISING STARS: JEREMY ROSS ON TOKYOPOP'S RISING STARS OF MANGA

[Rivkah]

Woah . . . . . . . . . O_o

I gasped when I saw that two-page spread. And the plot is fascinating. o_O

This is going to be an amazing book. O_O

[rchilton]

Can definitely see the Otomo influence. I'm sold, this looks and sounds great!

[emo_pare]

Wow!!!! I must have this one when it comes out!
Can't wait for November....

[chojinlocke]

Wow! Thanks for the support!

I really agree about that 2 page spread. When I downloaded it from Shane, I just couldn't believe it. He has worked so hard on this book, and it shows. I just can't picture another artist on this book. He's fantastic!!!!
There is a lot of stuff coming out of the OEL line that I didn't know about, soon to put a hurt on my wallet!!
With all the good stuff coming out, I don't guess there will be a lack of OEL manga to review on my column.

I'm curious how many of the OEL gang are going to be at Comicon. I'll be there, and probably Shane. I look forward to meeting the rest of the Tpop gang. It'll be great to put some faces to the art I've been seeing in the books.

Anyway, I hope you all like the book as much as I have been digging the other OEL manga I've been reading.

-TS

[DCON]

wow... im impressed!... i think im gonna check it out

[zeraze1]

I was sold on Psy-Comm months ago when I heard the refreshingly original premise. Now, after seeing this artwork, I'm so glad I added this book to my pull list since I think this sucker is going fly of the shelves.

This is going to be one sweet November.

zeraze

[smitch]

[quote]Originally posted by MattBrady
[b] by Benjamin Ong Pang Kean



”I'm personally really excited about Psy-Comm,” TOKYOPOP editor Bryce Coleman told Newsarama. “It's an cool new manga property on an epic scale entitled Psy-Comm. Psy-Comm takes place in a not-too-distant future where massive corp-states have replaced all sovereign nations.


I can't wait for Psy-Comm. Psy-Comm's art looks good, and Psy-Comm's premise is very interesting. Psy-Comm!

[jasonhenderson]

Thanks for the support, guys! I'm really stoked about this because this is the SECOND series Tony and I came up with hanging out at Austin Java Company.

And Snow is hot, too.

-Jay

[jasinmartin]

Finally got my hands on this, and really enjoyed it!

Looking forward to volume 2.

[MrGranger]

I just stumbled upon this post. So how is this series?
Looks interesting.

[chojinlocke]

Originally posted by MrGranger
I just stumbled upon this post. So how is this series?
Looks interesting.

Hi Tony S. here. I'm kinda biased being the co-writer and all, but we've been getting some pretty good reviews over all, Neo magazine out of the UK digs the book and Play magazine as well. Neo had the craziest quote yet, with:

"Trying to find fault with Psy-Comm is on a level par with attempting to prise a tub of chocolate ice-cream from the hormone driven hands of a heavily pregnant woman"

Plus a lot of other creators have dug it. We're working on book 2 and trying to make it rock even harder than book 1.

You can check out the preview here and decide for yourself....

http://www.tokyopop.com/mangaonline/...rent_issue.php

I'm hoping others will chime in, but that might get you started on whether or not you dig it yourself.
-TS

[MrGranger]

Originally posted by chojinlocke
Plus a lot of other creators have dug it. We're working on book 2 and trying to make it rock even harder than book 1.

Cool...I'm not a big Manga fan (though I do love anime) but I do like Jason's writing. (I'm not familiar with yours, sorry). Plus I'm a Granger but, lest anyone think that Shane is being sneaky, am not Shane. And who could resist picking up a book by another Granger?!

I'll try and get my local store to order me a copy. Thanks.

Shawn...not Shane.

www.kingtractorfilms.com

[chojinlocke]

Originally posted by MrGranger
Cool...I'm not a big Manga fan (though I do love anime) but I do like Jason's writing. (I'm not familiar with yours, sorry). Plus I'm a Granger but, lest anyone think that Shane is being sneaky, am not Shane. And who could resist picking up a book by another Granger?!

I'll try and get my local store to order me a copy. Thanks.

Shawn...not Shane.

www.kingtractorfilms.com

Cool, another Granger, and a fan of Jason's work. Way cool. This is my first published work (hopefully our other book will from Humanoids will be out late in the year/early next year) so I haven't been out in print before (other than being agent salvaggio in SOD and some ideas we trad back and forth). I do the Calling Manga Island column over at CBR but, if you're not a manga fan, you might not have seen it. If you are into anime at all, you might want to check it out, I often recommend things that people who don't get into manga might dig. For example, if you are a Conan fan with an open mind, you might dig Berserk. Newsarama has an awesome manga review column as well.

Hope you dig the book. We are really proud of it, and volume 2 should rock even more.