1. I was quite excited about creating my very own comic as it related to a lot of my interests
including manga as well as my overall desire to go into the illustration industry. Now as I
approach the end of the project I faced a lot more challenges and problems than I first
anticipated and the number one enemy was time.
Our first task was to research the current market in our chosen field so the logical thing
for me to do was to go to Forbidden Planet and Travellers’ Tales Books in Manchester
and ask the staff there what kind of manga sells the best and trends that are appearing the
market. I also created a survey to hand out to customers and passers-by in that area. This
was where I hit my first snag. I did struggle quite a lot to approach people on the street to
ask them for some of their time. I worried that I would become something of a nuisance.
This fear was only compounded when Forbidden Planet refused my request to ask some
of their customer’s questions. This in many ways restricted the outcome of my primary
research although I did get some useful insights into buying trends and popular genres
which helped me decide how I would then market my own comic.
My next task was to generate some ideas for my comic’s concept which I had no problem
with at all as I already had a strong idea for a story which had evolved naturally in my
head and it was just a case of fitting it to the market research. This was pretty simple as
there are so many widely accepted genres in this market that it was more a case of making
sure it was produced in the right format. Because while manga fans are open to new
manga’s they usually like to try them first before really investing money into the many
volumes that follow. One thing I was certain of was that I wanted my comic to keep to
very manga style roots but really wanted it to appeal to a western audience. So the idea of
my story adopting a western culture and approach seemed the most logical way to attract
that audience as it would be easier for them to relate to it. I tried my best to incorporate
some of things I had learned from the critical approaches to audiences unit, especially
with the two-step flow model which I genuinely think applied to the general manga
audience.
To start the design process I first started looking at artists both from eastern and western
cultures as well as modern and traditional. It was important for me to look at traditional
Japanese artists like Hokusai where you can really see the roots of artistic styles and
expressions found within the manga art style. I also looked at modern illustrators where I
was seeking interesting ways to approach line art which is something I really wanted to
apply to my own work. My design pack also included some of my own designs for
characters and concepts for the universe. However I feel that the time we had left kind of
freaked me out into starting the actual production of the comic which I do regret as I feel
if had given myself more to refer back to I would have found the production process a lot
easier.
I had initially planned to draw out my pages and then edit them as I go along and started
to do this with the front covers but then I thought for the actual comic pages it would be
best to draw them all out first as then I would keep the constant flow of the story. This is
where I made the mistake of not dividing my time equally and I left myself very little
time to edit the actual comic pages on the computer. I underestimated greatly how long
the process of editing the pages would take. I also spent too much time seeking out more
appropriate software for the task when I eventually discovered methods that made using

2. Photoshop a lot easier. I was very pleased with the results of the methods I used in
Photoshop and it actually gave the comic pages a sense of authenticity, it also allowed me
to explore and experiment with the software with quite a range of pleasing results.
My biggest struggles definitely came when I started drawing out the comic pages and this
could be for several reasons. The amount of different subject matter I needed to draw for
the comic I constantly had to find reference images to assist me and it was a struggle to
find appropriate help. In hindsight I should have spent more time going out and taking my
own reference images and I did to an extent for anatomy posing but could have done
more for the environments. Again this was because I allowed myself to get wound up by
the constant time frame which wasn’t really necessary. I also struggled with the quality of
what I was drawing, I never felt really happy with it and it was only when I started to edit
on the computer that I realised it was coming together and wished I had persisted with
some of the pages I scrapped up to this point.
At the start of this assignment I aimed to have fifty pages of a comic and a one minute
thirty second animation. However this was a huge amount to put on myself and I think it
was this kind of pressure looming in my head that made drawing out the pages quite
difficult. This is because I constantly had my head what I still had left to do and this
affected how I felt about what I was doing. What I had set myself to do in a production
time of two months is what most manga artists do in several, and that isn’t even including
the animation. I found it so difficult that it got to the point that all the initial enthusiasm
for the project had almost vanished and things I should have compromised on early like
how much I produced only happened later down the process. Itwas only towards the end
of the process I started to realise the only one creating that intense pressure was I and the
important thing was really the quality of the work and the process, rather than the
quantity.
Overall I am pleased with how the pages I finished came out and although it is by no
means the finished product it does give a good sense of the concept. I just wished I had
realized earlier that it would have come together in the end and hadn’t wasted a lot of
time fretting over perfecting every drawing. I do have in my head a wider scope of how
my concept will evolve and I do hope to continue developing it in the future. This project
has really taught me the importance of utilizing the time you have and making sure you
scope the whole process rather than getting stuck on just one small section.