Forum - View topicManga Answerman - How Do Manga Authors Get By When They're Not Publishing Something?
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CorneredAngel
 Posts: 854 Location: New York, NY |
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Would be interesting to see an example of a manga by a guy or a lady who really does it as a side gig kind of thing. And maybe there really are some! Though that's something I've always thought as a thing about Japanese media in general - the "creators" usually don't have much in the way of "life experience" in the way that European and American creators often do. And I really think that limits the kinds of stories they can tell, or even the kinds of stories they think about telling. |
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zztop
Posts: 650 |
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Not manga, but I did hear Re Zero's author has a day job as a butcher.
He claims most of his inspiration on how to torment Subaru comes as he's cutting the meat. https://m.gamer.com.tw/gnn/detail.php?sn=135899
Idiot question - what sort of "life experience" would Japanese creators be lacking compared to Western ones? Lack of overseas travel and foreign interactions? |
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R. Kasahara
 Posts: 706 |
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Ichi-F immediately springs to mind. It's another autobiographical manga that goes into some detail about the industry, but the mangaka treats it more like a hobby or a side gig. There's probably others out there, but at least that's one that's available in English ^^ |
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CorneredAngel
Posts: 854 Location: New York, NY |
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Things like how working in an office actually, uh, works. Though, granted, not many Western creators do that well either. Maybe Douglas Coupland. |
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InimitableUman
Posts: 99 |
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A mangaka who's career has always interested me is Makoto Raiku. He found big success in Japan with his first series Gash/Zatch Bell, and had a huge studio and house that he would post pictures of on his blog, with toys and models everywhere, high-tech solar panels, and multiple motorbikes in his garage.
After a lawsuit against his publisher that was widely publicized in Japan, his second series Doubutsu no Kuni/Animal Land was poised by Raiku's new publisher to be a hit, spearheading a new monthly magazine where it appeared alongside another manga by a newcomer who was a big fan of Raiku, Hajime Isayama. Of course, Isayama's manga ended up being the huge success, and Animal Land finished its 14-volume run without much fanfare, despite winning a manga award early in its publication. There was never an anime for it, and it's getting the slowest overseas release I've ever seen for a manga by Kodansha who kicked it to the curb because it didn't make them money. Raiku eventually announced a third series called Vector Ball, which from its start was extremely weirdly put together and hard to get into. The characters went from being super-basic shonen archtypes to weird comedy bits constantly, the battle system was unique but took a long time to really be interesting, and some of the humor in the manga was pretty mean. Around the 50 chapter mark, his publishers told him, you need to take our advice and change this manga or you'll get canceled. He acquiesced, they put an announcement in the magazine about the "new era" for Vector Ball, and then he abruptly reneged on his decision and announced himself that Vector Ball was over. Only half of it was ever scantalated, and there was never a whisper of an American release. A couple months after that, Raiku sold his studio. He advertised the sale openly on his blog, something I've never seen any other mangaka do. Currently, he still tweets pretty frequently, but doesn't appear to have bought a new studio and for all we know he might be done with manga. The whole thing is pretty depressing so I've often wondered what life is like for him in the day-to-day. This article covered a lot of the things mangaka can do when they're not working on manga but I'm not sure if Raiku's doing any of those things. Maybe he's just a hermit now, living modestly off what remains of his Zatch Bell money. Who knows. |
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katscradle
Posts: 469 |
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Makoto Yoshitani is a system engineer and has I am Otaryman among others. Feature from the Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/20/AR2008112003659.html |
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HdE
Posts: 50 |
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Really great question that got asked in this column.
I work freelance in comics, mostly on indie titles. When you speak to folks who aren't really invested in comics - sometimes even fans andaspiring creators - it's surprising to hear some of the notions that persist about how much money there is to be made in the industry. I appreciate I'm speaking from a Western standpoint here, and Japan's manga culture is going to be a bit different. but it's VERY hard to turn comics into a full time gig to the exclusion of doing anything else. I've spoken to folks who think I can provide 22 pages of lettering for a comic and that'll finance a lifestyle of booze, drugs, loose women and pool parties. Ridiculous! I don't even have a swimming pool! More seriously, though, it took me a LONG while before I was able to pare back the hours in my day job to concentrate on comics. And even now, I still put in one day a week. The practicalities of making comics for a living can be VERY tough to deal with. |
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Mr. sickVisionz
 Posts: 2175 |
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This was a really good post. |
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