series by Mizuki Kawashita

Ane Doki, a manga series that I have been following, just got axed by Shonen Jump!

It is said that the series was having bad ratings in Japan, and hence the publisher decided to axe this series.

That’s the world of manga in Japan; although you get to be very famous and your comic may never look like ending, like One Piece who has been running for more than 10 years, yet the downside of it is that your manga series can be easily axed when your comic isn’t favored by the community.

I am slightly disappointed that they didn’t continue with Ane Doki, which was getting interesting with the development.

Background of Ane Doki

Ane Doki is a harem romantic series by Mizuki Kawashita, who was the author of another romance manga series called Ichigo 100% (otherwise known as Strawberry 100%).

It revolves around a young 13 year old teenage boy, Kouta Ochiai, where suddenly he met a daring and mysterious high school freshman girl, Natsuki Hagiwara, who was 17.

Natsuki Hagiwara gatecrashed Kouta’s house, taking advantage at the fact that his father, seemingly the only kin of Kouta, was suddenly transfered to another place due to work.

She therefore stayed at Kouta’s house, apparently running away from home, but she remained mysteriously and avoided questions about her background and the reason of her running away from her.

Romance brewed between Kouta and Natsuki, as Natsuki was daring, beautiful, and always tried to maintain physical contact with Kouta.

Kouta, on the other hand, was just a 13 year old guy, and he was constantly frustrated and flustered over Natsuki’s behavior.

After which, more girls are added to the story, and the series ended at 26 chapters.

My opinions of Ane Doki

Ane Doki was fresh, but lacked realism at the start. The whole gatecrashing of a 17 year old beautiful girl at a 13 year old boy’s house really seemed unlikely.

Also, ahout a 17 years old girl, who is as beautiful as swimsuit models, would have developed feelings for a 13 year old boy just seemed too incredible.

However, I thought being manga, having some form of fantasy and ‘out of this world’ dreams can be intriguing, so I stayed with the manga series.

And I kind of liked a little as to how the story goes, and the mysteriousness around the female lead.

But since this manga series is featured in Shonen Jump, in Japan, and the community there didn’t rate it well, it was axed.

Final words for this post

Manga is a difficult industry, as it is really an unforgiving career. In Japan, they don’t really allow you to have a slow start.

And I do recommend taking a look at Ane Doki, although it is a short series. The artwork is really great, and there are some moments that are rather exciting.

That’s it for today’s post! Stay tuned for more updates on manga journey!

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from Creekside Artists

I was just offered a proposal by http://digitalstrips.com/ to be one of their Manga bloggers for their website!

And they are going to give me some money as an incentive or appreciation when I blog for them! However, nothing is decided by both parties yet so I can’t comment any more than this.

Yet I am truly overjoyed when my manga-journey blog is recognized!

What does this mean?

What is important is not the amount of money that I can get out of blogging, but what it truly important is that when you put your heart and soul onto your dreams, be in your own manga or webcomic journey, there will be others that will recognize you!

I hope this will encourage all those who are daring to do webcomics or manga as part of their vision.

You see, we start small, and then end it big. Too many of us are discouraged because the road seems tough and everything looks like chaos.

Like one of my beginning stickman art to practice the art of illustration, road are full of hurdles.

So it gets really tiring fast when noone is walking alongside with you in your journey.

However as long as you continue, even in the smallest steps, you are still progressing. Just don’t stop at any point!

A cord of three strands is not easily broken.

I am also going for Japanese lesson to learn how to speak and write Japanese, while going for manga classes.

However, there was once that I nearly gave up Japanese altogether, because I had to skip Japanese class to complete my university assignments.

And I held up the whole class because I couldn’t translate some English into Japanese. It was an embarrassing situation.

A classmate came up to me, encouraged me, and asked me to start a study group for Japanese together!

That really encouraged me altogether, and after awhile, during my holidays I was able to pick up again and continue my journey!

Now I wished I have someone to walk with me in my manga journey too.

And all that is hanging on with me is my manga teacher.

So if you have like minded friends who are into manga drawing, do form a “study group” together if possible. Otherwise, it’s easy to give up, as the lack of practice will dull our abilities.

Final words for this post.

I am still not due with my next assignment with my manga teacher, and hopefully I will be able to produce some drawing first before going through my inking lesson.

And I will let you know about the progress of this manga blogging job. I’m keeping my hopes up and I hope you are encouraged too!

That’s it for this post. Stay tuned for more updates on my manga journey!

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from buddy_scalera

In a webcomics forum, I asked a question to find out if there are anyone who is already earning some money from their webcomics.

It is a valid question, because to me, the future of webcomics is really dependant on whether is it profitable or not.

Webcomics and money

The result is this, almost everyone who replied were not earning money directly from their webcomics; many of them claim that because people liked their artwork, they are offered jobs instead.

What are these jobs? Some of these are as follows:

• Drawing a cartoon for an ad, a postcard or a flyer.
• Design a mascot.
• Editors of some magazines, websites or business newsletters wanted to use some webcomics from the webcomic artist’s website.
• Designing special gifts for someone special.
• Drawing an illustration for a book.

Now these are just some of the jobs that I have come across; there may be others out there. As you can see, a webcomic artist do earn some money indirectly from their webcomics.

However, it has a bad effect, because webcomic artists spend less time on their webcomics and more time making money by drawing for other people instead.

Also, there are webcomic artists that earn directly from advertisements at their websites, but usually they only earn enough to buy themselves a cup of coffee and not enough to earn a living.

This is rather sad to me actually.

Is this statement true? “If you’re doing a webcomic for the money, you’re doing it for the wrong reason.”

Personally, I don’t believe in that statement.

A webcomic or a manga artist must make enough money to support a family and enjoy life, to produce a great storyline and artwork for people to enjoy.

Imagine having a working person that can only work on their comics or manga after their work.

He or she cannot focus in their passion for webcomics, as other responsibilties such as supporting the family and maintaining a livelihood.

As a result, they are prone to commit errors, some of which are listed in “How to start a webcomic: Top 10 mistakes to avoid“, and it destroys their readership.

That is why most people, especially parents, discourage and even forbid their loved ones from indulging in creating manga or webcomics, because it is impractical for life.

And they are not far from the truth.

There are so many people who think little about artists, just because drawing isn’t a very profitable trade for many people.

Hence, so many people give up on creating their own webcomics or manga, and who can blame them?

Does money destroy creativity and originality in webcomics or manga?

That’s some of the concerns that people have, because they fear that the motivation of money can kill creativity when webcomic artists are too focused on trying to please their audience or employers for money.

In my opinion, money does not necessarily destroy creativity and originality; it is down to different individual’s beliefs.

It is as good as saying, the rich is proud because he has alot of money, and the poor is humble because he has no money. That’s a sweeping statement which may not be necessarily true.

Some webcomic or manga artists are able to stand their ground in their creativity and originality, without bending towards money, while others may not be able to do it.

However, this is surely not a reason to discourage people from making money directly from webcomics. It is just down to different individual’s belief system.

Final words for this post

As I am doing my own manga journey, I will be looking at options of how I can make money from webcomics directly.

It is not because I am just money minded; its just that a good webcomic needs alot of time and devotion for quality and recognition.

And if I do come across anything substantial, I will try to share them to you.

So what do you think? “If you’re doing a webcomic for the money, you’re doing it for the wrong reason.” Share it at the comments below.

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from warren ford

Today I am going to share about the reasons for starting a webcomic instead of using other traditional means to become a semi-professional or professional manga comic artist.

Myths of the pros & cons of webcomics

Before I begin talking about reasons why I want to start a webcomic instead of using other traditional means, I will want to talk about some myths first.

Myth #1: Webcomics are better than traditional paperback comics or manga because the former reachers a bigger audience in the Internet than the latter.

Webcomics certainly nullify geographical & physical boundaries, and it allows exposure to the international audience through the Interent, but yet many webcomics in the Internet remains obscure or unknown. Somehow the better known comics & manga are still in traditional paperback form.

Maybe because most people are still more comfortable with traditional paperback than with webcomics.

Also, many traditional paperback manga or comics are available online because of many scanlation groups & online comic or manga websites. Therefore webcomics still face fierce competition in the Internet nevertheless.

Myth #2: There is too much competition from popular titles & publishers for manga or comics in traditional paperback form. In the Internet, everyone has equal amount of chance to prove themselves.

Like I have previously mentioned, many webcomics still suffer from obscurity, and what is going to make the readers click on your webcomics amongst the thousands of other online manga & comics?

The playing field of marketing is a little different in the Internet than marketing traditional paperback manga comics, as now webcomics are under the mercy of search engines and Internet marketing techniques. Noone will magically appear in our blogs & websites if we do not know how to market our webcomic in the Internet.

Therefore publishing traditional paperback comics or manga has the same amount of competition against publishing webcomics for the Internet community, as the former is about picking our comics or manga amongst the thousands of manga comics within a comic bookstore and the latter has similar scenario likewise.

Pros of starting a webcomic

I will discuss about the pros of starting a webcomic in my context, which more likely has similar contexts in other countries as well.

Pros #1: Publishing webcomics has significant less overhead costs than publishing traditional paperback manga comics

A full 30 colored page, US-style comic may cost about SG$8,000++ for 8,000 copies, but in Singapore(my homeland), with only a population of about 5 million people (as of 2009), selling 8,000 copies is a great achievement! I must take note that I am an unknown author amongst so many other manga comic books.

Also, I would need about SG$30,000 of investment money to publish traditional paperbacks effectively. Webcomics has significantly less overhead startup costs than publishing traditional paperbacks, easily less than a couple of hundred dollars startup fees. (See previous post about the tools and equipment needed to start up a webcomic here.)

And the worst scenario is being unable to sell our manga comics, and the stock is left at our storage room to collect dust! Therefore, webcomics is certainly a better startup option than publishing traditional paperbacks.

Pros #2: Webcomics allows time and space for experimentation, while traditional paperback manga comic doesn’t allow much experimentation at all.

Manga or comics may fail to attract readership for a number of reasons, and in many Japanese publishing companies, they will cut serialization for any manga comic that fails to attract popularity.

Imagine having a stockpile of goods in our storage room, and it is because our manga comics are just not attractive to readers for whatsoever reasons! That is one major flaw of traditional paperback manga comics.

As there is little to no fee involved in uploading our manga comics into our domains or gallery, we can experiment against time whether our manga comics are attractive without incurring great overhead costs.

Pros #3: Marketing webcomics in the Internet involves much lesser time than marketing traditional paperback manga comics

Many publishers are not too kind to authors who are just beginning their careers, and in Singapore’s context, Singaporean-made manga comics are not the best kind of books to sell; publishers will rather import well-known titles from Japan and have a translation team ready to cater for Singaporean needs. Therefore it is likely to face rejection from publishers, and at the end of the day many have to take the route of self-publishing.

Self-publishing is a great pain itself.

It is a hassle and time-consuming endeavor to go to different distributers or retailers to market our own manga comics. Distributers or retailers will so often think that self-publishing authors are rejected entities from publishing companies, and dealing with them effectively will be a challenge.

Moreover, transporting goods to distributers or retailers is by itself another big physical and time-consuming challenge.

With webcomics, all we need to know is how to market our manga comics in the Internet, which has little to no overhead fees or charges. More time can be effectively spent on developing the webcomic better, or to have private time for oneself.

Cons for self-publishing or starting a webcomic

Con #1: Difficult to earn a living out of a webcomic

This is obvious, as compared to professional manga comic artists, who are paid by the amount of pages they produce from publishing companies, it is truly difficult to earn a living out of a webcomic.

Self-publishing a traditional paperback manga comic, if in success, can rake in tremendous amounts of royalties and popularity, but compared to a webcomic, it is difficult to point a finger to where the revenue and income will come from.

The majority of readers for manga comics are mostly teenagers, which may not have a debit or credit card or paypal to purchase a good read from webcomics. Hence, webcomics have a great disadvantage in the area of income.

Con #2: Need considerable discipline to post webcomics dilligently

Readers can be fickle, if we do not post up new comics or manga dilligently, readers may forget all about the story we want to portray to them.

In publishing companies, there is pressure from editors and bosses to make sure manga artists produce their work. The company do pay the authors per page.

However for self-publishers, as we do not have a definite income or revenue for our work, our motivation to work diligently for our manga comic will suffer tremendously.

Final words for this post

As I am still a student and am still exploring the prospect of becoming a semi-professional manga comic artist, webcomics is the way to go for me. For the very reason that I do not have enough funds and I am still building necessary skills to produce manga comics.

That’s it for this post for now, more updates for manga journey soon!

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from Corona Public Library

I have always wondered about a manga artist’s salary, and how does that artist earn a living. I believe that this is one big question to many people, and especially to aspiring manga “artists-to-be”.

After searching in Google and in many places, the answers provided are less than satisfactory.

However I chanced upon articles about Satou Shuuhou, the manga artist of Umizaru and Blackjack ni yoroshiku(seinen manga, which is for young adults and maybe unsuitable for teenagers), where he spoke about his distress with his publishers in his blog.

Subsequently, Satou Shuuhou reveals his income, expenses and some of his struggles as a manga artist. Now, he started to sell his manga online.

Therefore, I am going to list some facts and figures about Satou Shuuhou, and I believe any reader reading this article will have a rough idea of how does a manga artist earn a living, and how much much is he paid.

This may be old news for some people, because Satou Shuuhou posted all these information months ago within this year. However, something strange happened in the Internet, as Wikipedia and many other websites do not contain much about Satou Shuuhou and his manga works at all.

Usually, I am able to pick up information about manga artists and manga through Wikipedia and many other places, but just for Satou Shuuhou and his manga works, it seems like someone deleted much information about him.

So if you happen not to know, this is for you.

How does a manga artist get paid by a publishing company?

In Japan, when one’s manga comic gets serialized, the author is required to produce a chapter of roughly 20 pages weekly to be published in weekly manga comic magazine.

The author is paid per page by the publisher, and Satou Shuuhou revealed that newcomer artists today are paid 1,000 yen per page (~USD$11), while about 10 years ago Umizaru’s serialization paid him 10,000 yen per page(~USD$112), and his recent best-selling manga BlackJack ni Yoroshiku paid him 35,000 yen per page(~USD$391).

A weekly manga comic magazine usually publishes about 50 issues in a year.

So if we work out the math, we will see this:
Newcomer artists: 1,000 yen perpage X 20 pages in a chapter X 50 issues = 1,000,000 yen a year (~USD$11,174)

Umizaru: 10,000 yen per page X 20 pages in a chapter X 50 issues = 10,000,000 yen a year (~USD$111,767)

BlackJack ni Yoroshiku: 35,000 yen per page X 20 X 50 = 35,000,000 yen a year (~USD$391,080)

For the newcomer, it really looks sad. And we haven’t discuss about the expenses to produce the manga comic yet, and also the pay for the assistants.

In addition, if a tankoubon (trade paperback) of the manga comic is released by the publisher, the author gets a standard rate of 10%, which usually does not change even if the sales are good. Poor sales may force the royalty to drop to 8-9%.

Manga artist expenses

This is Satou Shuuhou’s expenses in a nutshell when Uzimaru was serialized.

Costs per month:
Tax: 80,000 yen (~USD$895)
Monthly pay for 3 assistants: 470,000 yen total (~USD$5,257)
Monthly food expenses for the staff: 100,000 yen (~USD$1,118)
Cost of drawing materials and reference materials every month: 100,000 yen(~USD$1,118)
Rent for the studio: 70,000 yen(~USD$782)
Utilities bill and other misc expenses: 50,000 yen(~USD$559)

Satou Shuuhou gets 800,000 yen(~USD$8,946) a month for Uzimaru, so deducting everything he has a deficit of 70,000 yen(~USD$782). He stated that he makes a loss of 200,000 yen(~USD$
2,236) a month if he includes his daily expenses and needs.

Moreover, Satou Shuuhou works 20 hours a day usually.

Satou Shuuhou’s editor told him that once his tankoubon is released, Satou Shuuhou will start to earn back what he lost. However it was revealed that no promises of releasing a tankoubon is made at anytime.

A 500 yen(~USD$5.60) tankoubon will give the author 50 yen(~USD$0.55) in royalties.

Final Words for this post

Well, this is a little research on a manga artist salary, based on Satou Shuuhou. There are many other things that Satou Shuuhou revealed, such as his challenges of being a manga artist and such, but I will leave it to another day.

Please await for future posts!

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