IT’S DIVALICIOUS! T&A UNITE FOR NEW GLOBAL MANGA SERIES FROM TOKYOPOP

[MattBrady]

by Benjamin Ong Pang Kean

“T&A” might bear different meanings to people who, well, love works of art.

For noted web historian T Campbell and fellow webcomic creator Amy Mebberson, their love of the medium brought about the creation of Divalicious!, a new global manga series that’s scheduled to be published by TOKYOPOP in March.

As Campbell puts it, Divalicious! “follows teenage pop princess Tina Young in her endless pursuit of fame, aided by her hapless personal assistant, Shaquille. It’s a coming-of-age story set in the world of modern American music, which really can be stranger than fiction—where glitz and glamour come easily but maturity comes hard. Tina has many obstacles to overcome, including her taller, sultrier rival Bit Fencer, the subtle, all-conquering corporation A Few Notes, and her own excitability.”

Divalicious! was first featured as Pop Star in Rising Stars of Manga Vol. 5 in 2005. “Pop Star was kind of a sly wink at the Rising Stars of Manga contest that gave Amy and me our "in," but the editors and we wanted something a bit more O.T.T. this time-- something more like Tina herself. We stirred ideas around a bit and came up with Divalicious,” Campbell, who’s also done a fair bit of other “little stuff online and some moderate-to-big-sized stuff online for the last six years” such as Fans, his longest-running and best-received series, although “"The Sluggite Koan" for Sluggy Freelance is probably my most-read single story. Some of my recent work includes Penny & Aggie (in print and online at www.pennyandaggie.com ) and editorships for the comics entities Clickwheel and Graphic Smash).”

“I cold-recruited Amy from her awesome '80s nostalgia comedy, As If.”

“I am a sucker for a good parody, so naturally T's concept grabbed me from the start,” Mebberson said. “While some might argue that the music industry is so insane it's almost self-parodying, I just see that as a challenge to top them at their own game.

“Divalicious! is about a teen girl who can sing the song and talk the talk. Whether that is all that it will ever take to bring her happiness remains to be seen. But she does get to wear some ridiculous outfits and not really care how silly she looks.”

“T gave me some character descriptions, but those were mostly about their personalities and maybe their dress sense,” Mebberson, who looks to Japanese teen fashion magazines as her “bibles” for Divalicious!, continued. “He gave me pretty much free reign to design them. Both of us being cynical 30-somethings watching popular music fracture further and further away from the hair metal and bubblegum pop we grew up with, it's perhaps no surprise that Tina and Bit are an absolute blast to draw.

“For Divalicious!, I find I never have to look very far for inspiration. Such is the nature of our popular culture, it's hard to escape it. Artistically, I draw inspiration more from animation than comics. I like to study feature storyboards (from Disney and Studio Ghibli, mostly) and my layouts usually have more in common with cinematic storyboarding than conventional comic page layout rules.”

Campbell added that the inspiration for Divalicious! was one of nostalgia mixed with jealousy. “I miss the freewheeling fun of some of the kid's comics of my youth, back when Richie Rich had a million titles, Archie had more edge and DC wasn't ashamed to put out Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zoo Crew. If you want that kind of wild, fun, anything-goes spirit in this market, you gotta go with manga.

“Fun came first. Then the idea of a comedy built around the pop music business, which seemed like it had enough craziness to sustain a long-running manga series. The characters grew from there.”

And speaking of characters, there’s the aforementioned pop princess Tina Young. “Somewhere in Tina there's a little girl who had a speech impediment a few years ago, trying to get out and say something to the world,” Campbell said. “Far as I'm concerned, that elevates her above a simple Britney/Lindsey/Christina/Jessica parody.

“Shaquille is her ideal business partner and his feelings run deeper, but he knows that if he initiated one relationship he'd lose the other, and he knows she needs him as a manager.

“Bit Fencer is who Tina would like to think she is, and she's cooler than Tina-- meaning fewer emotional lows but also lesser potential for artistic highs. But this is pop. Who cares about art?

“As for A Few Notes, they're a bit like Hexus, The Living Corporation from Grant Morrison's Marvel Boy. What's creepy is that really, nothing distinguishes them. They sort of pretend to be human on the surface, but in their hearts they are the corporation, and that is all.”

Wait a minute… Did he say Grant Morrison? The Grant Morrison? “I try to take the best from all worlds! For Divalicious!, I am focusing on the funnier manga and anime I've experienced, but I fully expect some other influences to work in their without my knowledge, and that's what should happen. I'm also doing quite a bit of research-- I think real life is often the best inspiration of all. My friend Charles taught me that.

“I've been an enormous fan of Takahashi for some time now, especially Maison Ikkoku. She has such a profound understanding of human nature. I also enjoy reading Yu-Gi-Oh Volume 1, simply because it's scary as hell and a thousand times more disturbing and interesting than the snoozefest the series soon became. I'm enjoying Nana and Absolute Boyfriend from Shojo Beat.

“In comic books, I tend to follow writers instead of titles, and some of my recent faves have been Grant Morrison, Gail Simone and Bendis.

“The comics I'm closest to, though, are webcomics. It's very hard to pick favorites among those since I know many of the people who do them and consider them friends, but I will say that Narbonic and Dinosaur Comics deserve all the praise they've gotten and then some.

“I want to make people laugh, mock music and fashion, tug on the heartstrings a little when nobody's watching, and take shameless advantage of my artist's fantabulous talent. But mostly make people laugh.”

“I ditto that,” Mebberson said. “I love comedy and feel that manga often lingers too much on the angst for my taste. Don't get me wrong, drama is popular and that's fine, but I like to laugh and make people laugh. Mocking is good, too. I am all for mocking. But with love, mind you!

“I have to applaud TOKYOPOP for being open about manga styles which may [‘i]not[/i] be 100% manga. Some of us have a hybrid style which is very hard to have accepted by publishers who still have very strong boundaries between manga and Western comics.”

[Frankfurt]

Ugh. Tokyopop really needs to stop with those cheapo, ugly, "american-made manga" BS.

[bishop-m]

I think this looks pretty good. I'm going to pick it up for my fiance...

[Ayo]

Originally Posted by Frankfurt

Ugh. Tokyopop really needs to stop with those cheapo, ugly, "american-made manga" BS.

No they don't. At least a third and upwards of one half of their line is graphically excellent. That's more than most companies can say.

Re:Play
Sorcerers & Secretaries
The Dreaming
Dramacon
MBQ
The Abandoned
East Coast Rising

all excellent.

[a_de_campi]

That looks really cute! I love the art.