Mangaka America

Ah~ fresh illustration! After doing all this writing for S&S it feels awesome to draw again. The above picture was done for Steelriver Studio's "Mangaka America" book. It'll be published in November of 2006 by Collins Design, an imprint of Harper Collins. Similar to their "Japanese Comickers" book, it will feature the illustrations of 11 manga-influenced artists along with notes on their favorite tips and tricks, and a forward by Adam Warren. Here's a list of the other artists involved:

Christy Lijewski, Lindsay Cibos and Jared Hodges, Shatia Hamilton, Svetlana Chmakova, Rivkah, Tania Del Rio, Corey 'Rey' Lewis, Filipe Smith, Mary Alice LeGrow, and Jesse Phillips.

Give their sites a visit! More details on the book as info rolls in...

I also updated the illos section of the site, as well as the store section. Two of my original pictures are on sale at Gallery Nucleus online. Nucleus is also opening their Unicorn Show this weekend, March 18 from 7-11. It will feature the work of many amazing artists, including many from Flight such as Chris Appelhans, Jake Parker, Michel Gagne, Catia Chien, Israel Sanchez, Yoko Tanaka, and much more~! BE THERE!!

I just started reading Stephen King's latest, "Cell". It's pretty interesting, I'm enjoying the beginning a lot. For those that don't know, it's a horror book about how everyone who used their cell phones at a certain time suddenly became zombie-like feral beings, attacking/eating everyone they saw. It's pretty gruesome, but I hope they turn it into a film. If anyone's looking to read some fun zombie action, I recommend it along with Ross Campbell's "The Abandoned". I guess the gross horror side of me that was so in love with Clive Barker in middle school is still around!

I also watched a Korean drama called "Full House" this past week. I was curious about it because it's loosely based on the comic by Won Su Yon (one of my favorite artists!), and it also stars Bi/Rain, the kpop star that helped me design Josh's character a bit. The storyline was pretty over the top, but it was great research for S&S and really got me in the mood for romantic comedy. I also have "Sweet 18" to watch, recommended by my mother. Full House was very darling, although it did drag a big in the middle (for like... 8 episodes...). After watching the Korean dramas, though, I realized they're helping me a billion times more than the romantic comedy movies I've been watching. I even took notes!

I'm so grateful for this because writing for S&S has been a struggle lately, I keep getting stuck on rewriting things. I think my artistic training has me so visually-oriented, it's hard for me to be happy with a script and move on to the next chapter to write without seeing the solid visual results of an actual comic page. I keep going back and changing my mind on things without the physical pages to tell me to keep going... All the subtleties of the scene are worked out in the thumbnailing stage so the scripts themselves are already missing at least half of the impact. Well... I'll stick to this plan of writing first, drawing later for this book. I think it'll be worth it in the end with the time I'll save on page redraws. Maybe?

Also, for better or for worse, Tokyopop now has a forum. Check it out.