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…
