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SO YOU WANT TO BE A MANGA-KA... |
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by Eric Searleman |
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You read Shojo Beat every month and you’ve caught manga fever. You dig the artwork of Ai Yazawa, Matsuri Hino and Yuu Watase, and now you’re hooked. You can’t help it—you want to be a manga artist, too!
What can you do?
You can sell your entire collection of Shojo Beat on eBay and buy a plane ticket to Tokyo—one of the most expensive cities in the world. Once there, you can hunker down to learn Japanese. Renting an apartment the size of a closet, you’ll live on ramen and natto while scribbling away in your sketchbook. If you’re lucky, an editor will acknowledge your genius and give you a shot in his magazine. And then, after all that, the fun really begins. You’re on the hook to produce 40 pages of comics per week. Don’t even think about sleeping. You’re going to be chained to your drawing table 24 hours a day.
Thankfully, that’s not the only way to break into the manga business. There are plenty of American artists who have carved out a nice little career for themselves without stepping foot on Japanese soil. |
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"So You Want To Be A Manga-Ka ..." by Eric Searleman been edited for shojobeat.com; the complete article appears in the March 2007 issue of Shojo Beat Magazine. |
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Want more articles like this PLUS six of the most addictive shojo manga from Japan delivered to your doorstep every month—before they hit the newsstands? Click here to subscribe now! |
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