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.
We met our illustrator Pinali at the London Comic Con shortly after creating the mayamada brand. This was back in 2011 and Pinali was making her own comic, something Lao and I hadn’t done before but were about to learn in a big way! We sold her on our vision for this anthropomorphic universe and the rest is history.
Lao and I had 4 story ideas to start: Samurai Chef, Serious, 11th Hour and Hot Lunch. Before we had thought about a full book, we wanted to get stories out into the world so made a few introduction pages for each story. It allowed us to practise making comics while getting people familiar with the characters for each story to come.
I look back on those earlier pages now and actually cringe a little! I’m sure that most creators do the same. I feel like looking back at your old work with a touch of embarrassment is a positive sign you’ve made progress as a creator. It doesn’t mean the work itself was bad at the time, just that you’ve developed to a point that you’re producing higher quality work now.
That progression has been a massive benefit for us as storytellers, particularly on our latest manga release. The difference between 2012 and 2015 Caesar’s character design alone should prove that.
Hot Lunch Volume 1 Journey
Hot Lunch has always been a heist story. It’s always been about Taishi being framed for a crime he didn’t commit. And I’ve always planned for the narrative to see Taishi recruiting a crew of thieves to take down the Circle of Flavour. Those early introductory manga pages showed some of those story beats. From seeing Taishi framed and his dream dashed to recruiting Tancho and Bruce to his crew.
Fast forward four years and three manga releases under our belt and we were ready to work on Hot Lunch with “The Outer Circle”, a 24-page release and start to the full story.
Our experiences with Samurai Chef and Serious meant that we brought a lot more knowledge to the production of Hot Lunch. In 2019 we launched a Kickstarter to complete the full volume 1 story…and this is where the story gets rocky.
Our first Kickstarter campaign failed, even though it was our best planned campaigns and got off to an incredible start in the first 24 hours, but ultimately falling short at 81% of our funding goal.
We regrouped and went again. Launching a second campaign that was not only successful but became a Kickstarter staff pick! So we were on our way in terms of producing the artwork, but from there our team ran into a series of serious personal problems that really knocked us back and cause ongoing delays for most of the year.
It was a tough time for us and one that we had not been though. Up until that point, we had only had to deal with minor production issues. But life has a way of taking over and I guess this was our time to experience that. Thankfully we were able to make it through and in December 2019 sent Hot Lunch Volume 1 to print! Those initial introduction pages we put together earlier in the decade had now become a 148 page graphic novel – quite a journey!
Bringing Ideas To Life
The Hot Lunch story sees the protagonist Taishi on his own journey to follow in his late father’s footsteps to become the greatest chef in Japan. But Taishi is framed for a crime he didn’t commit, exiled from the prestigious Circle of Flavour organisation and forced to change his goal. He decides to make it his mission to bring down the Circle of Flavour with the help of a ragtag crew of thieves.
In many ways, the story is the same as those first introductory pages indicated. But so much had changed since then. We became better storytellers and now had a community of people who were actually waiting for our next story.
It’s a great feeling to be able to take your initial ideas and turn them into a finished product. Even better when people not related to you enjoy those stories and we get to meet them at conventions and schools.
So now Hot Lunch Volume 1 is out, work starts on writing the next addition to the mayamada universe. With another journey on the horizon, you can check out our latest release and give us your thoughts. We hope you find the journey the Hot Lunch characters go on just as interesting as ours!
