JUMPING INTO MORGAN LUTHI'S SNOW

[MattBrady]

by Benjamin Ong Pang Kean

Love!

Destruction!

Space pirates!

Deep dark secrets!

Redemption!

And really, really big robots!

The ingredients for a series described as “Blade Runner meets Sesame Street”?

Morgan Luthi, one of the winners of TOKYOPOP’s Rising Stars of Manga talent competition, certainly thinks so.

Like other RSoM winners before him, the 26 year-old creator will soon witness the release of his own global manga project from TOKYOPOP.

As part of our ongoing series of features on up and coming creators (and industry pros) looking to make a splash… nah, a tidal wave of their own in the vast pool of manga, Newsarama.com checked in with Luthi for a chat about his October-debuting Snow.

Newsarama: According to your editor Paul Morrissey, you had submitted somewhere around a billion entries to RSOM. Despite rejection after rejection, you persevered and kept on creating brand new stories for each RSOM competition.

Finally, the judges took notice of your evolution as a creator and your story "Seed" impressed them enough to land you a runner-up spot in TOKYOPOP's Rising Stars of Manga 5.

First of all, what made you decide to become a comic/manga creator? What got you into making drawing as a career that you'd pursue?

Morgan Luthi: I took an interest in drawing at a very early age and my parents simply made sure I had access to markers and paper. As I grew up I continued to draw and make my own comic books throughout junior high and high school and it was just a natural progression for me to pursue it as a career. However, I didn’t really set out to go right into comics; I was open to anything where drawing was the main focus -be it storyboarding, comics, animation, etc. and I studied animation at San Francisco State as a means to move in that direction. Right around the time I graduated was when I first learned about the Rising Stars competition and the possibility of pitching TOKYOPOP a story. I was determined to place in the series and went through a few submissions, which for me, was the process that really solidified my desire to become a comic creator.

NRAMA: What're your artistic influences?

ML: I really love stuff by Tezuka and Miyazaki, but I don’t tend to pull as huge amount of inspiration from comics as I do movies and animation. Stuff like The Road Warrior, or even Pee-Wee’s Playhouse is what really motivates me.

NRAMA: How'd you get into the manga craze?

ML: I think it was actually video games that turned me on to manga, which seems kind of odd, since now you typically see a licensed video game come out after a manga/anime gets big, but I can remember being mesmerized by some of the artwork in games for the Sega Genesis and discovering that all of that was drawing from somewhere else, outside of the video game format. Form there it just snowballed into an interest in the manga and anime that was available at the time. Stuff like the early Viz releases of Nausicaa and Ranma ½, and anime that was running on the SciFi network, really awesome stuff like Robot Carnival and Vampire Hunter D.

NRAMA: There've been quite a bit of criticisms on global manga, previously known as Original English Language (OEL) manga. As a creator who's born and raised up in North America, what're your thoughts on global manga?

ML: I think it’s great that global manga can offer so many aspiring artists a way into the industry and provide them with the opportunity to share their stories and ideas with a wide audience. However, I understand that there are purists that perhaps thumb their nose at anything that doesn’t come from a strictly Japanese creator or maybe doesn’t want anything to do with something that’s not a traditional “American comic book” regardless of who drew it. To me comics, manga, global manga, whatever you want to call it is still a comic, I just hope people at least give global manga a try before forming an opinion –because not doing so means missing out on some really great stuff like East Coast Rising or MBQ, which is a real shame!

NRAMA: Before we discuss about your very own global manga project, Snow, let's focus our attention on the entries that you had submitted to TOKYOPOP. Other than "Seed" were there others that you felt that you could have done better, and do you intend to propose them to TOKYOPOP or any other publishers one of these days?

ML: I view the rejected entries as part of the learning process. Sure, they could have been better but I personally don’t feel that they are strong enough to pitch elsewhere or pursue them any further than I already have. They did indeed lose for a reason!

NRAMA: What are your thoughts on webcomics?

ML: I like webcomics a lot, and I’m a regular reader of Penny Arcade, but I still like the feel of the printed page in my hand, and the ability to take a comic with me, without hauling a laptop around. Although as portable devices like the iPod get larger screens I may change my opinion. There’s certainly a place for webcomics and I think the massive readerships and popularity of some have already proved webcomics to be as legitimate a format as printed comics.

NRAMA: Do you plan to do webcomics some day?

ML: I think if I ever did a webcomic it would be a side story to a book of mine that had already been released, I might even do this for Snow at some point down the road which ideally would be offered on a webpage and as some sort of free download that can be viewed off-line or on an iPod/PSP. This is not to say that I wouldn’t mind coming up with something that is designed to work solely as a webcomic.

NRAMA: Okay, let's talk about Snow. It's about sci-fi madness that contains all the ingredients that would make Blade Runner (incidentally, one of your favorite movies) outdated, right?

How did the project come about?

ML: Oh no! I don’t think you can ever out date Blade Runner, nor was that my intention. Although Blade Runner was definitely a strong inspiration, to the point where I sometimes find myself describing Snow as Blade Runner meets Sesame Street.

Snow really came about, from my desire to do create a simple, fun, and somewhat random take on the classic space opera. It’s certainly evolved since the original pitch and has become a bit darker in places, which is great because it allows me to push the story in ways that I had purposely limited myself from originally.

As for the project getting picked up, it was around the time I had finished “Seed” that I had sent in a pitch for Snow. By the time I placed in Rising Stars, TOKYOPOP had already shown an interest in developing Snow further. It was really an incredible whirlwind of acceptance and success that I didn’t expect in the slightest.

NRAMA: The idea of The Warmongers seems like an influence from comics itself. Galactus from the Fantastic Four comics come to mind, although there's also Unicron from the Transformers series.

How much do you draw inspiration and influences from comics in your work?

ML: The Warmongers are definitely homage to Galactus, and the towering animated Japanese robots of the 60’s and 70’s. Which itself is kind of a snapshot of my inspiration, in that it’s a hybrid of animation and comics. I think when I originally started drawing I drew more inspiration from comics than I do now. I was really into Shirow’s Ghost in the Shell and Tezuka’s Tetsuwan Atom but as I grew older and started studying animation I started to pull more inspiration from Spumco and Bruce Timm (to name a scant few).

NRAMA: Characters like Snow, The Warmongers, The Ghost, Katarina, The Crow and the space pirates known as SSCAB (The Space Syndicate of Criminals, Assassins and Bandits) have the potential to rival even the critically-acclaimed and fan favorite sci-fi manga titles such as Planetes, Blame!, Akira, Battle Angel Alita and the like.

In your opinion, how does Snow compare to other manga-ka and creators' works categorized under the sci-fi manga genre?

ML: I don’t think Snow necessarily takes itself as seriously as the titles you mentioned, but I’m absolutely blown away and flattered if people put Snow in with such company. As far as how Snow compares to other global manga, it is definitely a bit more action oriented and violent but it’s certainly not of a hard-sci-fi persuasion.

Also, because planet Hub, where the story takes place, is a derelict hideout for a galaxy of criminals and runaways it provides me an opportunity to create all kinds of weird characters –kind of like a perpetual Mos Eisley cantina.

NRAMA: Will the two rival sisters from "Seed" appear in Snow?

ML: The sisters might make a cameo in a crowd shot somewhere, but that’s probably all they’ll get since they really aren’t in the same universe. (I guess I owe them at least that much!)

NRAMA: Finally, what do you hope to achieve with Snow?

ML: Well, I want Snow to entertain. If it makes people laugh a few times and they get excited over the prospect of what happens next then I think I succeeded in what I set out to do. Of course, if the book is a crazy success and it allows me to continue working in comics I won’t complain either! I just hope people will give it a look!

Snow Vol. 1 is scheduled to be in stores on October 10.

[Black Beetle]

Sounds interesting. Hmmmmm...


Oh, and first post!

[skinnyboy23]

WTF!?

That looked cool.

[Mr.Dee]

yeh that reminded me of FLCL a lot.

[Jon Malin]

The artwork looks very cool.

Best of luck with the book.

-Jon

[350z]

Like I have already said in other posts: The choices outside of Marvel and DC (and even Darkhorse, Image, and IDW) are getting to be difficult. There are many worthwhile projects out there right now, and this looks like one of them.

[Zaxxon]

COOll!! i like the bird guy!!!


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SKunkbutt