At mayamada, we passionately believe in the power of creativity to make the world a more productive, engaging, and fun place to be. That belief was the motivation behind our #BeCreative campaign that launched this month.
#BeCreative Charity Drive
We’re excited to announce our new creative charity drive for the festive season! At mayamada we passionately believe in the power of creativity to make our world a more productive, engaging, and fun place to be.
So we’re supporting creativity as well as a great cause this December with a fantastic artistic movement!
A Return To London Comic Con
Last month saw mayamada return to the MCM London Comic Convention, the largest comic convention in the UK and a three day pop culture extravaganza in East London.
Capture Every Creative Moment
If you’ve been following mayamada you’ll know that we believe in the power of creativity to make things better, and more fun too.
That’s why we’re happy to announce the release of our new “Be Creative” range of mayamada notebooks!
Serious About This Comic
We’ve had a great response to the Samurai Chef comic since we released it last year. After hitting our Kickstarter target to get the book printed, the amount of positive feedback has been so appreciated. It even got a 4 out of 5 star review in Neo Magazine!
Samurai Chef Creators: Writers
Over the past few weeks we’ve been looking back at the making of the complete edition Samurai Chef manga, talking to the people who played a part is bringing it to life.
We’ve heard the thoughts of the book’s illustrator (both of them), editor and printer. Without every one of these people the book would not have been possible, let alone look as good as it does!
But we couldn’t let them have all the fun, so here are our thoughts on the Samurai Chef book too:
Which part of the book did you work on?
Lao and I created the Samurai Chef character and story.
This involved developing the plot, creating the characters within the story and writing the script for Pinali to translate into the final comic pages.
We were also responsible for managing various elements of production from writing, to the Kickstarter, all the way up to the printing.
What was your highlight during the process?
Seeing the story slowly come together with each completed comic page.
Even though we already knew how the story would unfold, it was amazing to see the words of the script come to life visually page by page.
Pinali has a talent for bringing the characters to life and seeing the little touches she added along the way meant we could experience the story in a new light.
What was the biggest challenge for you?
The editing process. After we got through enjoying the comic, we had to get to the work of making sure it was printed without any mistakes.
We also wanted to get the book finished in time to send books to our Kickstarter backers before Christmas and for Hyper Japan in November. There was a lot of pressure on to put everything together in a short space of time.
Luckily we had a great editor, Lara-Lee, who caught all spelling a grammar mistakes…turns out there were a lot of them! But she stayed alert throughout the whole process and is the reason the book reads as well as it does.
What do you hope readers will take away from Samurai Chef?
Without giving too much away, there are some lessons in teamwork that hopefully come through over the course of the book.
Aside from that, we hope people will take away the belief that if you have a good idea you can bring it to life. The Samurai Chef is an original story idea that we created from scratch. If you’re working with your own idea, it can be done!
Who is your favourite character in the book and why?
We love all the Samurai Chef characters equally as if there were our own children…but we like Zane more equally.
He doesn’t have a huge part in the book but we liked the way he maintains a cool assuredness and balances out Kamu’s somewhat unstable energy.
Other notable mentions go to Ms Yasahsii, Jimi and of course the Samurai Chef himself.
What’s next for the Samurai Chef and mayamada?
The Samurai Chef story is complete for now, but it’s not the end of the character and another book is definitely a possibility in future.
For now we’ll be working on releasing comics for other mayamada stories. Serious is coming next, but expect to see something from 11th Hour and Hot Lunch stories too.
We’ve got a lot happening in 2015 including new clothing designs and event plans too. Stay tuned…
Samurai Chef Creators: Editor
In the lead up to London Anime & Gaming Con we’re giving you an insight into the making of our new manga title, the complete edition of Samurai Chef.
So far we’ve looked at the illustrators who brought the story and characters to life. But images are only half of any good comic, what about the words?
This week we’re talking to Lara-Lee, the editor of the book and the person who made sure the dialogue was accurate and made sense…well, as much sense as a monkey samurai chef on a fantasy television network can make anyway:
Which part of the book did you work on?
I edited the book – so if you spot any mistakes (not that you will…) Don’t. Tell. Anyone!
What was your highlight during the process?
Holding the finished product. Working with Nigel and seeing the story and characters come to life was a pleasure – my job would have been a whole lot harder if he wasn’t as receptive to the changes that needed to be made.
What was the biggest challenge for you?
The time constraints. We had a strict deadline to work to so the pressure was intense towards the end, but I’m a lawyer by day so I’m used to it!
What do you hope readers will take away from Samurai Chef?
Hunger – not just because some of the dishes could be quite yummy (before they come to life), but also a hunger for reading, anime and finding out more about mayamada!
Who is your favourite character in the book and why?
It has to be the Samurai Chef himself, specifically when he’s battling the Cherry Kitchen’s taffy cake. I couldn’t stop laughing at his face throughout this part!
What book are you enjoying now?
Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer – I don’t read many books more than once but this is my third time round. I love the contrasting circumstances of the main characters and seeing them evolve throughout the book. I love any book that has ability to make my jaw drop!
Samurai Chef Complete Edition
It’s been months in the making and we’re so excited to finally have the complete edition of the Samurai Chef manga now printed and in our hands!
We’re forever grateful for the support of everyone that backed our Kickstarter campaign, it’s because of you we were able to get the book done when we did.
It was disappointing to see our first Kickstarter get so close but fail to reach its goal. After it ended we still had people contact us to ask how they could support the book and that led to us launching a second Kickstarter that was successfully funded on October 27th 2014.
Managing the Kickstarter was barely half the battle as we still had to illustrate and edit the book once it was written. Thanks to the amazing efforts of both Pinali (illustrator) and Lara-Lee (editor) we managed to wrap up everything in time to showcase the book at Hyper Japan Christmas.
This edition includes Samurai Chef volume 1 & 2 in 144 pages of action-comedy goodness. It’s printed on 120GSM uncoated paper, 300GSM silk and gloss laminated cover with perfect bound spine.
We’ll start shipping special Kickstarter editions of the book this week. If you didn’t back the campaign, you can get your copy of Samurai Chef online right now.
This book brings the Samurai story to a dramatic (and messy) conclusion. That doesn’t mean it’s the end of the characters, but we’ll begin working on new stories with other mayamada characters in 2015 so stay tuned!
