Aya Again 2003: MegaTokyo interview Part 1

By Paul Jacques     November 05, 2003

Please note that this is an abridged version of the interview, and that some questions were asked by other people in the room.





Piro & Seraphim ? the dynamic duo











Going back to where you grew up, what were the influences that pushed you into the Anime Manga world?





Piro Actually one of the things I really had going for me was that I really wasn?t influenced by American comics, I never read them. However I was a big fan of Disney films. Back in High school I really wanted to be an animator, that was my goal, but back then the animation industry in the USA was dead, so I became an architect. I was in Grad school when the Little Mermaid came out, and thought that if I had followed my nose, I would had no problem getting a job at that point. And I kicked myself for many years thinking I had side stepped what I had really wanted to do.





The truth is I?d built my career as a licensed architect, so I had the ability to support myself, and then I used my extra time to try some of the other things like Anime and Manga style works. I gravitated to it because it had a lot of the things you couldn?t find in Disney, little bits and pieces that I found were interesting. Not the robot shows per se, but then I found Kimagure Orange Road, and I thought wow, and then I found more of it, which hurt my credit card because you had to import it- the internet was my downfall [laughs].





When I buy Manga, I?m always interested in the art. It?s not there is anything specific about, but there is a language in itself, just the way it is drawn, stage and paced. There were different modes of thinking and approach that appealed to me. I wasn?t trying to mimic the Japanese Anime style, it just seems to flow in that direction.





How do you feel about web comics selling merchandise and micro payments?





Piro When the internet first started to grow, people thought you could get as much cover as say IBM. The net didn?t follow the same structure, if you had 2 million people reading your web site you?d make a mint, it just doesn?t work that way on the internet. People hate being metered, and micro payments go completely against the way people think. And people are just not going to pay per click to view a comic (that?s my opinion). But it does (having a comic website) have a promotional and advertising value to such an extent, that when you talk to a publisher you can get a book published. But that comes down to a difference between viewing on a screen and holding a book in your hand, as people like to experience it in different ways. And I didn?t like the concept of people having to pay for my work before they had seen it. They come to the site, read it, then buy it if they like it. Enough people do, that I can keep my site afloat now. We are sort of discovering how things will work. Making money on the Internet is a hit and miss things, but if you force it into models it won?t work, I don?t think micro payments will work because human nature doesn?t like them.





There has been an explosion in Manga releases, how much room is there?


Piro The monthly market is going down, because they are only sold in speciality shops, and don?t reach a general audience The graphic books have done really well because book stores have found that people really gravitate to the graphic novels. Now you can buy the rights to a complete series and pump out four or five books in the course of a year. That thing will really take off, and Tokyopop has been able to do really well, and many of the other have been jumping to grab other titles. This means that eventually the good titles like ?Great Teacher Onizuka? and ?Love Hina? will go away because when we are left with ?Lulu and her Magic Fish?, then no one will care for Manga, and the really great back titles we have yet to see will go away. Sometimes I think, good god what are they thinking when they chose that title- success is based on all the great series we have yet to see.





The real growth should be the English speaking artists who can produce this material. MegaTokyo has worked really well that way, as I don?t have to gather an audience, and when I get enough comic strips I go ahead and print a book. The first book we printed did really, so well that the publisher couldn?t handle it. So far the reaction to it all has been very positive. I know very well what will happen, in a couple years time people will come along who can pull the doors off my artistic and writing ability. The only advantage I have is that I?m a little older and that I?m in a hobby that I shouldn?t have been in at my age. So when they ask how I came up this way of staging a comic, I?ll say I don?t know, it?s just what I was use to, because that?s what my influences were. And so the young people who love to draw the Fanzines and comics will come along - not all of them are going to do well - but the ones that are will be really, really impressive. And that?s why I like Dark Horse because they focus on the owner creator. The next 5- 10 years are going to be exciting for people who do stuff like this.





How do you get you get your references to Japanese fashion and architecture?





You look, and you get help, and you have friends who are virtual clothes hangars. For instance, you can ask friends and say what is the Tokyo fashion right now, and bang, off they go taking about it. The fashion changes quite drastically. All cultures are active, peoples taste change, what they wear changes. Fashion is interesting, but I tend to be a little too minutely focussed on fashion, but Sarah helps me out by saying ?You?re not going to make her wear that are you??. And that a day in MegaTokyo last half a year, god I?m sick of drawing Kimiko in this dress, but I cheat and Miho sometimes wears two- three outfits a day. And when Seraphim turns up, she wearing something else because she?s a conscience, so she can. I just enjoy the details of it.





The architecture stuff comes from thinking about space and design, I don?t consider myself a good architect in drawing design. Not because I?m not a good at it, but because architecture isn?t a passion of mine. I was more interested in people inhabiting spaces, rather than the space that was supposed to influence people, which is what architecture is about. What I was more interested in was the people themselves. That why the story telling medium of comics is fascinating, because you can really get in and show what people are thinking and doing. The most unusual similarity between comics and construction is that in architecture they use drawing and lettering to communicate information, and you?ve got to balance; show the lines; put the text where it makes sense; point to parts of the building. This is really similar to doing a comic [laughs]. If you got things going on, and use the drawing to display stuff, there?s no point in writing about what?s in the drawing. Sometimes you can show one thing and say something else. That?s why I leave the dialogue till the end, so I can change dialogue to fit the picture.





In part 2 we discover whether Piro (the character) really is a digital cross dresser!