Making comics truly is a journey. The time it takes to read never really reflects the months and years in the making. It’s something I never fully appreciated before becoming a creator.
5 Comic Kickstarter Lessons
We’re setting up to do something we haven’t done in a long time…launch a Kickstarter for our next manga. Even if you’ve run a successful campaign before this can be a daunting prospect. Sending your creative ideas out to the mercy of the crowd, waiting for a collective thumbs up after 30 nerve-wracking days of promotion.
Kickstarter For Social Gaming
The E3 Expo is the biggest week in the gaming calendar. So this week feels like the right time for us to launch our biggest GamePad project we’ve ever taken on: a Kickstarter for social gaming.
Patreon Campaign For British Manga
We had a great success with our last Kickstarter for the complete edition Samurai Chef and we’re now excited to announce the launch of our new crowdfunding campaign on Patreon!
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: Illustrator
It’s been two months since we released the complete edition of Samurai Chef out into the wide world. The response has been great since its debut at Hyper Japan and the book has since been picked up by Orbital Comics, Petit Miracles Hub and the Prince’s Trust Tomorrow Store.
You will also be able to get your hands on our new manga book, plus the Collectors edition at the London Anime and Gaming Con, February 7th-8th.
Before our first event of the year comes along, we want to take a moment to look back and give you an insight into the making of the book by talking with the people responsible for putting it all together.
This week we’re talking to the illustrators on the book starting with the person responsible for bringing the characters and the book to life, Pinali:
Which part of the book did you work on?
I was responsible for the majority of the artwork in the book, which means character design sheets for every speaking character, translating the provided script into a comic layout, sketching, inking, shading and lettering/sound effects for each individual page.
I also did the cover artwork and illustrations for most of the promotional materials, like the Kickstarter rewards!
What was your highlight during the process?
Probably reading the script for the second half for the first time and getting to see how it ends and begin visualising in my head how I’m going to get it across in image form.
What was the biggest challenge for you?
I’m a huge perfectionist, so if a drawing isn’t coming out just right I have the bad habit of redrawing it over and over until it does, which can end up cutting into time I should be spending, say, eating, for example. This happens quite a lot, so I’d say that was the biggest challenge; overcoming those perfectionist moments and realizing that what I think is imperfect probably looks fine to just about everyone who isn’t me.
What do you hope readers will take away from Samurai Chef?
I hope it gives them some laughs, mainly, and that the characters will stick in readers’ minds for a while. I really think the characters are one of the strongest points of the book. I love them all.
Who is your favourite character in the book and why?
Probably Jimi; I love how passionate he is about what he does. Kamu is a close runner-up. He’s just so serious about beating this monkey! It really seems to offend him that the Samurai Chef is a monkey for some reason.
Who has been your most inspiring illustrator?
Bill Watterson; I often find myself using techniques I learned at the age of 8, looking at Calvin & Hobbes strips, and it’s probably my biggest inspiration when it comes to having that life and visceral quality in my drawings.
Kickstarter Characters
As part of our Samurai Chef Kickstarter campaign, we rewarded our top three backers with the opportunity to be included in their own personalised Samurai Chef comic.
Each backer would be able to describe their own chef characters that will make a meal to face off against the Samurai Chef in a one-off story called “Ambush”.
We’re happy to say we’re making good progress on the comic and can reveal the three characters (and their teams) that will be in the comic:
“Mr Samuels’ Steak Shack”
Mr Samuels is the Steak Shack’s head chef. A tall and proud lion with very fashionable twin puma assistants.
Highly idolised and well-respected, failure is not an option for Mr Samuels so you can expect him to put up a fight against the Samurai Chef.
“Sharvan’s Okonomiyaki Stop”
Head chef Sharvan is an Asian Black Bear and is backed by very confident looking bulldog and alligator chefs. Watch out for the dish that gets cooked up at the Okonomiyaki Stop.
“Twice the Spice”
The inspiration for head chef Eeson came from the photo of a backer’s husband. We hope she’s happy with the look!
We’ll be sending the comic out to our top three backers later this month. The comic will then be available for a limited time in 2015 also so stay tuned!
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!
Kickstarter Comic Book
Aaaand we’re back! Our first attempt to kick start Samurai Chef Volume 2 fell short of its goal but that didn’t stop us from progressing. We have begun making the comic and have now launched a new Kickstarter for the combined Samurai Chef Volume 1 & 2 comic book.
Our goal is to raise funds to print the combined edition of Samurai Chef containing volumes 1 and 2. This 150 page book will be released in November 2014.
The first and second volumes will be combined into a single book, so even if you missed it the first time around you won’t be left out. We’re creating original manga and if you can get involved and contribute to the Kickstarter right now.
