SVETLANA CHMAKOVA TALKS DRAMACON

[MattBrady]

by Benjamin Ong Pang Kean

It’s Con season!

Anime Expo was held this past weekend. Next weekend, the annual San Diego Comic-Con International promises to be another slam bang extravaganza event for comics enthusiasts. Next month, it’s WizardWorld Chicago, baby! Bring on the cosplayers and the Stormtroopers!

So, have you ever been to a Con and… struck by Cupid’s arrow?

Svetlana Chmakova’s Dramacon, an October-debuting Original English Language (OEL) project from manga powerhouse TOKYOPOP, tells the story of two convention-goers finding love at a convention that they attended.

The Russian-born Chmakova and her family moved to Canada when she was almost 16. She has a Classical Animation Diploma from Sheridan College. She has drawn for how-to-draw-manga books, RPG manuals, toy designs, animation, book covers and illustrations. She is the creator of Night Silver at wirepop.com and the Ignatz-nominated Chasing Rainbows at girlmatic.com.

As mentioned, Dramacon is about two con-goers meeting and falling in love. “Christie Leroux is a budding writer and came to her first ever convention to promote a comic she started with her artist boyfriend,” Chmakova explained. “She is a bit of a spaz and a complete pushover to anyone who knows which buttons to push (like her boyfriend). She is somewhat naive and trusting, but intelligent and fast to learn from her mistakes.

“Christie’s boyfriend, Derek Hollman, is the artist for their comic. Derek mostly looks out for himself, and it wouldn't occur to him to extend the same courtesy to others.

“The love interest, Matt Green, is… Well, Matt. He’s a very complicated guy. Reserved and withdrawn, he has a biting sense of humor and is very cautious of forming emotional attachments to people, having had a very hard time among his peers. There are many obstacles for the star-crossed lovers to overcome, not the least of which is the fact that they live on opposite sides of the country and the con is over in 3 days. Ooops! The set-up of the story is your good old shojo romance that has been done to death, yes, but my book is worth your time because I’m funny and dramatic and stuff, and will send hitmen to your house if you don’t buy and read it. (Ahh, just kidding!)

“The idea for Dramacon occurred to me after a repeated sighting of a cosplayer in a cool costume at one of the cons I frequent. I was too shy to even ask his name, but I kind of thought ‘what if’ and before I knew it, it became a story idea.”

According to the creator, she was contacted by TOKYOPOP “after having seen my online comics at www.girlamatic.com and www.wirepop.com

Like many other OEL creators/manga-ka, Chmakova herself is a fan of manga and comics. She is into MARS, Ranma ½, Naruto, Hot Gimmick, Fruits Basket, Planetes, Blade of the Immortal, Girl Got Game, Couple, Tramps Like Us, Peach Girl, ShutterBox, Paradise Kiss, Confidential Confessions as well as Thieves and Kings, Transmetropolitan (and anything else by Warren Ellis), V for Vendetta (and anything else by Alan Moore), Why I Hate Saturn (and anything else by Kyle Baker), Courtney Crumrin, Preacher, Strangers in Paradise, ElfQuest, the Flight anthologies and Sandman.

“I think I’ve already pretty well formed my writing voice by the time I got to read all of these, so the influence is hard to gauge,” she said when asked about her influences. “But they did show me new horizons of writing, different styles of storytelling, subject matter, ways of setting up situations, developing characters. I think I am more versatile now.

“[I am] living the dream, now. The income is more steady. A freelancer’s life is very stressful—you never know when the next job will come in and sometimes there are ‘dry spells’ when no one needs you. A steady paycheck is a welcome change.

“I learned a lot about pacing [from the TOKYOPOP guys], making stories work on a larger scale, production, deadlines, etc. It’s been an invaluable experience. Also, they keep telling me that I’m like, awesome and stuff. It’s news to me every time I hear it [laughs]

With Dramacon, all that she wants to do is “to write an entertaining story, and hope no one will notice but will still be influenced by all the preachy morals I snuck in there. Also, to grow as a writer and an illustrator—I am learning an incredible amount working on this.”

The first chapter of the first volume of Dramacon is available for free at www.tokyopop.com/takuhaionline

Visit her website at www.svetlania.com

Dramacon Vol. 1 is scheduled to be in stores on October 11, 2005. Her "Adventures of CG! in Tokyo" strip was just announced as being included in current issues of CosmoGirl magazine. Finally, Svetlana is holding a Dramacon contest, which can be found here

Related OEL articles:

HANZO’S A MIDNIGHT OPERA

BECKY CLOONAN ON EAST COAST RISING

KEITH GIFFEN & BEN ROMAN ON I LUV HALLOWEEN

RIVKAH ON STEADY BEAT

JEN QUICK ON TOKYOPOP'S OFF*BEAT

JUSTIN BORING & GREG HILDEBRANDT JR. ON WAR ON FLESH

TOKYOPOP'S OEL MANGA PIONEERS: RIKKI & TAVISHA SIMONS

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

[DBHughes]

Very glad to see Newsarama profile Svet's new book; she's a shining talent that truly deserves the description of "star" in the firmament of artistic entertainment. She has a long, successful career ahead of her; and I am all the more excited that this opportunity will help scores and scores of people realize what I and many others already knew.

[Rawle Austin]

Wishing Svetlana Chmakova continued success as her talent is plain to see.

Also, great to see Newsarama really covering Manga heavily as its growth and popularity is a breath of fresh air in the industry.

This is particularly noticed in my local Forbidden Planet (London) where the Manga section is always buzzing with excited crowds.

I've never looked at manga as closely as I have now (being a superhero zombie) though I did get the first four Crouching Tiger adaptations (by ComicsOne) which I enjoyed. Looking forward to reading some great stories.

Tokyopop is up there with Marvel & DC as the titans of the industry. Great to see!

Growler

[tania del rio]

I love the premise! And I'm also happy to hear about her work appearing in CosmoGirl. I'm sure that will introduce a lot of teen girls to shōjo manga.


Good job!

-Tania