By
LJ Douresseau
February 8, 2004 - 11:00
For the fifteenth installment of Mr. Charlie, the focus is on Andrew Wong, one of the winners of TOKYOPOP’s Rising Stars of Manga 2 contest. This is the sixth time we’ve thrown the spotlight on one of the RSoM2 winners. There’s also still time to get your entry in before the March 15th deadline for RSoM3.
Andrew is Florida-born, but lives in California where he attended college (Berkeley). Andrew’s winning tale, “Fowl Play,” follows the vivid imagination of a small boy named Tommy. Not only does the story capture the quirkiness of a small child’s imagination and fantasy life with surprising ease, it also conveys how alone and isolated a child can feel in the company of so many “big people.”
Fowl Play is a very fun, monster tale created by a young cartoonist with an eye for how people interact and with the imagination to transform that observation into good manga storytelling. In an odd way, it also has a tone similar to Miyazaki’s Oscar®-winning film, SWEPT AWAY. Wong’s tale is also yet another testament to manga’s diversity:
What was your first experience with comics? What kind of comics were they, and what were the titles?
AW: My first experience with comics was probably a Calvin and Hobbes treasury I got from my parents as a child. There were probably others, but I can’t remember specifically.
At what point were you first exposed to manga and anime, and what were your initial reactions to it or your feelings?
AW: I got my first glimpse of anime when a friend visiting from Canada brought some Cantonese-dubbed tapes of “Dragonball Z” back when I was in middle school. I think what struck me then was the sheer energy of it (kinetic or otherwise).
Around the same time I discovered the graphic novel section at Borders and took home BATTLE ANGEL ALITA by Yukito Kishiro. Alita’s world was gritty and Kishiro’s renderings were so unbelievably detailed. I eventually incorporated the entire series into my library. I’ve been into manga ever since.
What was it about the form that attracted you to manga, and what were the particular titles and creators who appealed to you?
AW: In the first two years of high school I was really into the whole “cyberpunk” sub-genre of sci-fi, so I was naturally drawn to Masamune Shirow’s APPLESEED and GHOST IN THE SHELL.
Although my interests were pretty narrow at the time, I think the thematic breadth of manga provided a more inviting atmosphere than the DC/Marvel universes. Seeing Takahashi next to Shirow at the store gave me the impression that there [was] an infinite number of worlds to explore with manga.
When did you first become aware that there were U.S. based publishers of manga (like Eclipse, Dark Horse, TOKYOPOP, etc.) and what titles did you like?
The same time I became aware of graphic novels at the major books stores (there wasn’t a comics store close to where I lived that I could regularly go to.)
Ghost in the Shell and Battle Angel Alita are some early favorites. Later on I found out about PULP magazine. I liked how it tested the mainstream conception of what manga could be. I only started reading PULP a year or so before it stopped printing, which is unfortunate. At least they’re still putting out TPBs.
Were there elements of manga and titles that you didn’t like or found off putting? What about them didn’t you like?
AW: I suppose the only thing I didn’t like about manga was their cost. Having to put down $15-$20 for a novel that I could finish in a matter if hours often made me hesitant to try new things, unless I got a chance to read some of it at the store. Things are changing, though, which is nice – a lot of titles now are around $10, so we’re getting closer to what the Japanese pay for manga.
When did you become aware of TOKYOPOP and the Rising Stars of Manga contest?
AW: I was interning at Maxim (not the magazine) Integrated Products in Silicon Valley in the summer of 2002. During my lunch break I was browsing the TOKYOPOP website and there it was. Although I intended to enter, I never found the time while I finished up school at Berkeley.
Was the second contest your first entry in RSOM?
AW: Yes.
Was your entry something you’d been working on for a long time, or was it something new for RSOM? Did you have to rework the concept to make it fit the preconceived notions of what manga is?
AW: I thought I had missed my chance with the first contest. I was at the comics store, Legends, in Cupertino, California in late July when I spotted the anthology of the first RSoM. I promptly bought a copy because I wanted to support the contest and the creators.
After thoroughly enjoying the works of last year’s winners, I read the announcement for the second contest in the back and almost pissed my pants. With the deadline four weeks away, I had a lot to do. So I guess I started from scratch for the contest.
How does your work fit in with the “manga style,” and I’m asking this knowing that manga encompasses an incredibly broad base of genres and storytelling techniques?
AW: I think my characters are recognizably manga-esque, though it’s because this particular way of drawing characters is very economical – it allows me to portray a wide variety of situations and emotions without being too weighed down by logistics of reality.
I was also very conscious of using the appropriate angles and contrast levels at each point in the story to enhance the mood.
What is your artistic background as far as training and learning, even it you are self-taught?
AW: My formal training goes as far as a college-level class Painting/Drawing class I took in high school. I have been drawing since early childhood, but my art teacher Mr. Jackson really influenced the way I think about art as a practice.
Is it your goal or dream to be a cartoonist, and how are you working towards that goal in terms of educating yourself about the history, form, and content of comics.
AW: It’s one of my dreams to produce comics. There are times when I spend more time reading books and news about comics than the comics themselves. Books like DREAMLAND JAPAN: WRITINGS ON MODERN MANGA by Frederik Schodt have given me valuable insight into manga in a Japanese context. And of course, there’s the whole Scott McCloud/Will Eisner canon on sequential art that is essential for artists and readers alike.
Oh, and there was an English/Visual Culture class at Berkeley where one of the texts we read was Art Spiegelman’s MAUS. That was cool.
Describe the feelings you had upon being notified that you were a RSOM winner.
AW: I was like, “Whoa, dude.”
Did winning change your long range plans in terms of your work and/or budding career as a cartoonist?
AW: It certainly opened a few doors for me in terms of artistic confidence. I’ve always felt that I’m missing something in my education by not having the opportunity to attend an art school. Of course, there are plenty of manga authors who didn’t train in an art school, so that’s some consolation.
THANK YOU. In addition to thanking Andrew for taking the time out to answer some questions, I always want to thank Mina Sung of PR/Marketing at TOKYOPOP for doing much of the legwork in getting these RSoM interviews going. Check out the TOKYOPOP website at www.tokyopop.com where you can get info on the Rising Stars contest and news on the company’s huge selection of manga, anime, and related products. You can get the RSoM2 anthology at your local comic shop. Just ask them to order it or tell them you’ll take your business to one of those huge chain bookstores like Books-a-Million where they’re always down with the POP.
And if you are a comics creator or publisher and you want to send me material for review consideration or you just want to talk about your book in a Charlie column, punch the click-able name link to send me an email. Holla!
ComicBookBin
