TANIA del RIO ON MANGAKA AMERICA

[MattBrady]

by Benjamin Ong Pang Kean

November 1 sees the release of a very special tutorial on manga created by non-Japanese for North Americans (and non-Japanese fans and readers).

Appropriately titled Mangaka America, the gallery/tutorial book features the work of 11 North American manga-style artists such as TOKYOPOP’s Rising Stars of Manga winners Tania del Rio (Sabrina the Teenage Witch), Lindsay Cibos and Jared Hodges (Peach Fuzz), Svetlana Chmakova (Dramacon), Amy Kim Ganter (Sorcerers & Secretaries), Shatia Hamilton (Fungus Grotto), M. Alice Legrow (Bizenghast), Christy Lijewski (RE: Play), Rivkah Greulich (Steady Beat), Felipe Smith (MBQ), Sharknife and Peng creator Corey “Rey” Lewis, Jesse Philips, and Will Staehle. Most of the art is non-sequential, pin-up style work but each of the artists were also asked to create a couple new, never before seen pieces specifically for the book.

In addition, there are eight tutorials in the book featuring various techniques. For example, Rivkah teaches digital inking, Christy Lijewski teaches character design, Felipe Smith teaches facial expressions, etc. It also includes some tutorials on digital coloring, mech robot designing, digital screen-toning. Each tutorial is expressed through the artist's unique voice - so it lends a more unique and personal feel than your average tutorial.

There’s also Q+A's with each artist so readers can get a glimpse into their techniques, likes and dislikes, including a foreward by America’s manga guru, Adam Warren, who was very supportive of this project.

Newsarama.com sat down with Mangaka America co-author Tania del Rio for a chat about the genesis of Mangaka America and her hopes and aspirations for the American manga movement.

Newsarama: How did the idea for Mangaka America come about?

Tania del Rio: My husband Will [Staehle] and I noticed that while there are a lot of high quality tutorial and gallery books featuring Japanese manga artists there wasn't anything of that caliber for a Western audience, featuring Western creators. Oh, there's been plenty of knockoff How to Draw Manga books that have been popping up here and there - we've all seen them in the bargain section of Barnes and Noble. Sadly, many of these books seem to exist only to make a quick buck by jumping on the manga-making bandwagon. Very few of them actually have decent techniques - or art, for that matter. Realizing this, Will and I then began to discuss making a high-quality manga tutorial and gallery book featuring professional Western manga artists who are actually working in the field, such as Lindsay Cibos, Jared Hodges, Amy Kim Ganter, and M.Alice LeGrow, to name a few.

NRAMA: How did it get picked up by HarperCollins? Well, for one, your husband, Will Staehle, is an art director for HarperCollins, so...

TdR: Yes, that definitely streamlined the process a bit! Will was able to speak directly to the people at Collins Design, which is an imprint of HarperCollins, about our idea. Collins Design has already brought over and published the popular books, Japanese Comikers 1 & 2 as well as Comic Artists Asia for a Western Audience. Using these as an example, we told them: What if we did something just like this, but featuring American creators? They were very enthusiastic about the idea from the start.

NRAMA: How did it then come to the point of deciding which creators to include in Mangaka America?

TdR: At first, we were mostly concerned with getting a wide range of styles. Western manga is very diverse and we wanted to show that through our artist selections. We gathered the names of several promising up-and-coming American and Canadian manga artists and showed some of their work to the folks at Collins Design. It was difficult to narrow it down but we finally formed a list of people whom we wanted to ask to take part in this first volume of Mangaka America.

It was important to us that we not only have the most well-known people featured. Of course, we do have some fan favorites such as Svetlana Chmakova (Dramacon), Corey Lewis (Sharknife), Christy Lijewski (Next Exit). But we wanted to put the spotlight on a couple artists whose work has not been as widely published and show off what they can do, such as Ms,Shatia Hamilton who have a lovely painterly style (and who did the cover).

NRAMA: For someone who's won TOKYOPOP's Rising Stars of Manga talent contest and who's currently doing original, manga-influenced (some call it OEL, others label it as global manga, world manga or simply American manga), what are your views on manga and the pop culture phenomenon that it's created in America and abroad?

TdR: I'm personally very excited about the whole global manga movement. I feel the unending arguments about what to call it, or whether manga is really "manga" if it's not Japanese are silly and are getting in the way of what is turning out to be an exciting and impressive art and storytelling style. I do feel Western manga is its own thing, separate from mainstream comics and media, and deserving of its own label, whatever that may be.

On that note, we realize there may be some criticism over our choice to call the book "Mangaka" America. Some will say that Americans automatically cannot be considered mangaka because they're not Japanese. However, we disagree. The title alone is intended to express the fusion of East and West into a new style. We're treating it as a loan word that is given new meaning by our own culture. Also, it's interesting to note that the original books that inspired us, Japanese Comikers 1 & 2, use an English loanword, "comics" to describe their Japanese artists. It works both ways!

NRAMA: That said, what are your thoughts on non-Japanese manga works by non-Japanese creators such as yourself and the other creators who're showcasing their stuff in Mangaka America?

TdR: Will and I put this book together to support Western manga and to show that it's not just Americans trying to copy Japanese artists. All the artists are influenced by Japanese manga, yes, but each artist has their own unique style and voice. And this is something we really want to encourage. I think Western manga will develop its own voice that will get stronger as the years go on. It will still retain an essence of the Japanese style, yet become more confident on its own two feet as it evolves into its own unique thing. As a side note, in the book we have Q&As with all the artists, and we asked each of them their own thoughts on the growing Western manga trend and it's quite interesting to see how varied all their answers are! There is no one right or wrong answer!

NRAMA: Why is it the right timing to do something like Mangaka America now?

TdR: Obviously, manga is more popular nowadays than ever before. But a key factor is that global manga is finally getting the respect it deserves. For a long time, a lot of global manga was frowned upon and rejected by the hardcore anime and manga purists. But now that so many quality works have been published by talented, passionate artists, people are starting to take note that this is a valid and respectable art form - and you don't have to be Japanese to create an entertaining manga.

NRAMA: Adam Warren is one of the pioneers of the manga movement in North America. He, together with Fred Perry, Ben Dunn, first introduced Americanized manga works such as Dirty Pair, Gold Digger, and Ninja High School, respectively. I guess it's a no-brainer to invite Warren to provide a foreword. But what made him say yes to it? How did you manage to get him to participate in this project?

TdR: Adam Warren was definitely at the top of our list of people to ask to do the forward. Will and I are huge fans of his work and he's such a respected inspiration to countless others as well. I admit I was a little nervous about asking him to do the forward because I wasn't sure if he would like the idea, or somehow be offended by it. But, to our delight, he was very interested and supportive right from the beginning. It was a real pleasure working with him - he has a great sense of humor (obviously), and it shows in his introduction!

NRAMA: What do you hope to achieve with Mangaka America?

TdR: We hope to show people that Western manga is a respectable art form in itself and that these artists are really, really talented people creating quality work. We asked the artists to create some new, never-before seen pieces of art so that the book would be full of fresh material - and it's a real treat to see what they came up with. We also wanted to have a tutorial book that went beyond "draw three spheres, add some big eyes and wings, and now you have a manga fairy!" Most of the artists created a tutorial based on a technique that they are especially skilled at. Rivkah, the creator of Steady Beat, did a great in-depth tutorial on digital inking. Felipe Smith (MBQ) did an entertaining comic-tutorial on facial expressions. We also have an incredible mech-drawing tutorial from a guy named Jesse Philips, one of our "underground" artists. We also have detailed tutorials on digital coloring, toning, character design, and more.

NRAMA: Are there plans for more Mangaka America volumes in the future?

TdR: I can't announce anything formally, yet. But we are indeed looking at the possibility of future volumes.

NRAMA: Anything else that you'd like to add?

TdR: We'd like to give a shout out to TOKYOPOP and Jeremy Ross for their support on this book. Quite a few of the artists in the book are currently working on projects for TOKYOPOP, which is the leading publisher of global manga. TOKYOPOP was really cool about allowing us to show off some of the great pieces that their artists have created for their own manga series. It's because of them that global manga has started to become recognized and respected across the world.

Also, we'll be launching the Mangaka America website with the official release of the book on November 1st, so make a bookmark for www.mangakaonline.com. We have some extra content that couldn't get into the book because of space restrictions, so we'll be putting some additional bonus material such as more in-depth artist Q+As on the website.

Will and I also have a company website: www.steelriverstudio.com where you can get some more info on the book as well as our other projects.

[jasinmartin]

What a great idea (didn't realize the genesis of this project)!
Looking forward to picking this up!

Plus it features a couple of my favorite creators (and others I'm sure worth checking out)!!
Hopefully this'll make more people, in various circles, aware of these great up-and-coming creators!

[New Way]

manga is a global art movement that needs to be chronicled. It's so much bigger then it's country of origin now.

[Cray_ws]

Originally Posted by New Way

manga is a global art movement that needs to be chronicled. It's so much bigger then it's country of origin now.

If thats so, which I do agree with you, however I don't think it should be labeled as Manga as the term has been used to describe a style of art instead of its true meaning comics.

[Merdle]

so so true, people often use japanese words to cover whole concepts, forgetting that to the people of japan it is just a word.

Anime and Manga are the biggest culprits. They are not a genre, they are cartoons/comics.

[DynamiteKid]

I can't help but feel apprehensive about this because the tutorial aspect of the book doesn't sound significantly different from the other "How to Draw X Style" in that it teaches a style of art rather than delve into the underlying principles that apply to that style as well as other styles of art. Felipe's expressive tutorial, for example, displays how he handles a range of expressive faces. It's good to look at and learn from if you want to draw like he does. If you have your own style and are looking for insight into another artist's approach, there's not much to draw from as there is no explanation for the creative choices made for each expression.

I'm aware that there has to be a personal touch to tutorials and Benjamin did say at the beginning of his article that the tutorials have quite a personal touch. I just don't know if some of the tutorials, if they follow the same format of showing and not really explaining, can rightly be simply called "tutorials". A more accurate description would be like "Draw The Marvel Way" but replace "Marvel" with each artist's name. This brings me back to where I said I don't see a significant difference between these tutorials and those offered by other "How to Draw" books. I'm not a fan of the vast majority of them as they teach superficial aspects rather than foundational knowledge. Unless there is more to the tutorials in Mangaka America than teaching a personal style, there is little difference in these teachings than the ones in any other manga tutorial book.

I know that the book isn't just offering tutorials but no one else weighed in on that part of the book. As far as I'm aware, this kind of gallery collection is the first of its kind for Western/North American manga. I've come across sketchbook/collections by individual artists, which sometimes offer some tips, but never a collaboration like this. It's a good thing and hopefully it will be the first of other such collaborative efforts.

[Chuy]

Where are Ben Dunn and Fred Perry? *Bows* They're like the grandfathers of American Japanese Style Manga ...

See American Japanese Style Manga doesn't roll off the tongue like manga so ... I'll stick to calling it manga ... sorry.