Time and effort

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A single comic page on average takes about 6 hours (21,600 seconds) to produce; from planning the layout to penciling to inking and finally to toning. When compared to the mere 30 seconds or less it takes a reader to read that same page, all the time and effort spent seem undeserved.

However to be more accurate we should take account of the number of readers a comic will have over the period of it’s existence, for example 2,000 readers translates into 60,000 seconds or close to 17 hours a page. That makes more than double the time invested in creating a comic page. Time and effort does pay.

Comic or Manga?

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Have you been hearing a lot of the term “manga” lately and wonder what is manga and how is it different from comics? To answer the latter it would be similar to asking what is the difference between fruits and apples. Manga is a type of comic, just as superhero comics like Spiderman and newspaper comics like Peanuts are all comics.

Manga is the Japanese word for comics. When comic buffs outside of Japan first used the word manga they were referring specifically to Japanese comics i.e.: Comics produced in Japan for the Japanese market. These days manga also refers to comics made outside of Japan that are closely based on the art style and typical subject matter of Japanese comics.
I first started my foray into comics with the likes of Marvel and DC superhero comic books. When American comic publishes started bringing in translated manga such as Akira and Appleseed I found myself gravitating towards these comics from the Far-East and neglected to collect my monthly issues of The Uncanny X-men.

What got me sold on manga was its wide range of subject matter, from serious dramas to senseless but hilarious gags, and most of all its aesthetic artwork: I’ve bought quite a few original manga from Japan just to look at the art even though I couldn’t read Japanese.

Having been an avid fan for almost two decades, not just of manga but comics overall, I recently decided to make comics of my own. It was only natural for me to emulate the art and storytelling style of manga. The use of black and white with gray tones compared to full colored pages makes it more manageable as a single person creator and suits my non-superhero stories.

Tokyopop, a major American manga publisher, recently announced that they’d be calling their line of manga made outside of Japan as Global Manga. That got me thinking, should I label my comics as manga or keep calling them comics as I have since I started making them? Or maybe I should call them manga-stylized comics? Or English-language manga? Or Mangalized Comics?

Obviously in the end I couldn’t decide. So I’ll just stick to calling them comics as they are. I guess what matters most is that my comics are able to tell my stories in the best possible way to anyone who is interested to listen.

By the way, in Japan, do they refer to a Superman comic as "manga" or "ko-mi-ku"?

To learn more about the origins and history of manga, have a read at wikipedia.Manga
To read the comics that I’ve made so far please visit my website, Mangada

World Cup Shocker

What a shocker this edition of the World Cup's been! Just an hour and a half ago home team Germany got beaten well by two late goals from an excellent Italian side. And only a few days ago favourites Brazil got dumped in the quarter-finals by a revived French team lead by the second coming of Zidane. It'll be a mightily grand affair if they go through to the finals to meet the Azzurri.

May Day

Just a couple of hours passed 01:02:03:04:05:06, the time/date sequence that happens once in a millennium. Some people out there commemorated the instance by doing something significant but for me, I can't even remember where I was at that time.

Dang, it's May already and almost half a year is over. Been busy trying to complete my comic by the end of the week, so haven't got any new post up for the last few days. Maybe a sketch will I post in a few hours time. Also got my first ever 'real' comment from Catnapping. Thanks so much for visiting. At least now I know that actual people do visit occasionally apart from the search-engine crawlers and spam-bots.

Lack of foresight

Back in 2004 when everyone and his dog was blogging, I was curious to discover for myself what the blog scene was about. At that time I was into the whole Asian-Buddhist-Zen-Yoga-Nooddles thing and regarded myself full of wisdom and thought it'll be ultra clever of me to have a blog spouting Zenny insightful advice that would guide my readers to enlightenment. After only a few posts I ran out of life changing wisdom-infused advice and realized I wasn't that intelligent after all and resigned to let this poor attempt at getting my piece of the pie in the blogosphere to slide into remain in oblivion.

Today everyone and his dog including the tapeworm in its intestinal tract is a blogger.

Why are you doing what you are doing

Because I have to, because everyone else is, because it's always been like that, because someone told me to, because they say its okay to, because I feel like it, because I can, because I want to. Ask before you do.

Stand up and walk

Sit at the office while you work, sit and stuff your face with lunch, sit on your way home in the car, sit in front of the TV when you're home. Fat asses and bloated guts don't come any easier.

For those who can't seem to find love

Look, there are over 6 billion people out there, aren't you spoilt for choice?

If you are the suicidal kind

The surest and easiest way to die is to grow old.

Inaugaral Advice for people who don't want any

Shut up! Enough said.