manga Archives - Page 3 of 6

Samurai Chef Creators: Illustrator

mayamada February 3, 2015 No Comments

We’re continuing our look into the making of the new and complete edition of Samurai Chef by talking with all the the people that had a major role in putting it all together.

It’s been two months since we released the book an you can now find it at Orbital Comics, Petit Miracles Hub and the Prince’s Trust Tomorrow Store. You will also be able to get your hands on Samurai Chef at the London Anime and Gaming Con, February 7th-8th.

For now, here’s the view from another illustrator responsible for the book’s introduction page, Nikki:

Which part of the book did you work on?

The Premise page.

What was your highlight during the process?

Getting to draw something anthropomorphic for a change.

What was the biggest challenge for you?

Fitting all the text on the page!

What do you hope readers will take away from Samurai Chef?

Enjoyment and belief that monkeys can be samurais too. And sometimes your dinner can bite back! 😀

Who is your favourite character in the book and why?

Would have to be Samurai Chef. What is there not to like about a quiet, deadly protagonist?

Who has been your most inspiring illustrator?

Attack on Titan (and impatiently awaiting the new season).

London Anime & Gaming Con

mayamada January 4, 2015 No Comments

We will be attending London Anime & Gaming Con this February Saturday 7th to Sunday 8th and have loads in store for you.

Collector’s Edition Manga

Not only will the new and complete edition of Samurai Chef be available at our stall, so will the limited Collector’s Edition! This sealed manga book comes with a new cover, four extra pages of story, a pin badge set, and a download link to the colour edition of our digital comic Samurai Chef Origins.

Plus, 5 copies will be stamped with the mayamada logo on the inside cover. Whoever gets a stamped book will be made into a mayamada character in a future book. There will only be 20 copies available exclusively at the event, so be quick!

How To Create Manga Panel

Interested in making your own manga? Or just curious as to how we put ours together? See us on the downstairs stage on Saturday 7th Feb for a panel on create manga. We’ll go through the process of outlining a story, creating characters, working with artists and finally pulling everything together into you very own comic.

We’ve released two books and we’re working on more for 2015 so come and ask us about the process from 1:30pm.

Anime Inspired Clothing

Along with the new comic we will also have our range of t-shirts, hats and sweatshirts on offer at our stall, including a brand new design.

And that’s not all, join us at the event next month to find out what other surprises we have planned. London Anime & Gaming Con is looking bigger than ever and we can’t wait for our first convention of the year. See you there.

You can buy your tickets at www.londonanimecon.com

Kickstarter Characters

mayamada December 18, 2014 2 Comments

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

mayamada November 23, 2014 No Comments

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!

Coming To Hyper Japan Christmas

mayamada October 29, 2014 No Comments

Next month will see our last major event of 2014. The year has gone by so fast! We’ll be exhibiting at the Hyper Japan Christmas Market from Friday November 14th to Sunday November 16th.

Hyper Japan is one of our favourites on the convention calendar, ever since we used to visit before starting mayamada at its old Truman Brewery home.

We’ll be bringing some new treats for the Hyper Japan Christmas Market and we can’t wait to show you want we have in store.

Complete Samurai Chef Print Edition

If you’ve been following us for the past few months you’ll know we recently wrapped up a Kickstarter for the complete print edition of the Samurai Chef manga.

It will include volume 1 and the new volume 2 in a single book and and will be shown for the first time at Hyper Japan.

If you backed the Kickstarter, your limited edition and extended editions of the book will be one their way in November too.

Charity Christmas Card

We’re also doing a major creative and charitable collaboration for the event. We’ve teamed up with Aid For Japan and have been receiving entries for our Christmas card competition.

We will be picking a winner in November and turning it into an official mayamada Christmas card. It will be sold at Hyper Japan to raise money for children orphaned by the Great East Japan Earthquake and subsequent Tsunami in 2011.

If you haven’t sent us your entry yet and would like to, head to the competition page for more information.

That’s not all…

And then there the usual selection of t-shirts, sweatshirt and new Samurai snapback and beanie hats available at Hyper Japan.

Make sure you visit our stall to take part in our regular FREE raffles too. You can win a mayamada poster featuring our cast of characters just buy stopping and saying hi.

This event will take place at the National Hall, Kensington Olympia and you can buy your ticket here

Pharrell “It Girl” Video

Nigel October 17, 2014 No Comments

Running mayamada has given us plenty of opportunity to see all kinds of reactions to the phrase “anime and manga”. There have been some interesting reactions over time, luckily most of them positive.

Although we know anime and manga does have a strong following, it has lived largely outside of the mainstream since the days of regularly watching Dragon Ball Z and Naruto on TV. This despite the massive growth of events like London Comic Con and Hyper Japan.

That’s why it was great to see Pharrell, arguably the biggest music star on the planet right now (sorry Kanye), release a new video for his single “It Girl”. It’s a great visual mix of anime and old school video games, and fun to watch.

Seeing such a big artist delve into our world was a pleasant surprise. But the video wasn’t without controversy and several major websites have highlighted the “Lolita Complex” theme running through the video.

Admittedly, there are parts of Lolita fascination that can be considered creepy to people already familiar various anime and manga subcultures, so it’s easy to see how a mainstream audience would find it so troubling.

But beyond that is the wider implication of anime and manga being discussed in the mainstream at all which shouldn’t be ignored either.

We started mayamada to help increase the awareness of anime and manga, our goal is to show that it’s not a collection of weird stereotypes, but another valid form of entertainment and storytelling. Our line of clothing and comics go some way towards changing perceptions, and we’re always excited to see other people use the style in creative ways.

Between Pharrell’s “It Girl” video and the new Jordan Brand Slam Dunk Collection, the awareness of this part of Japanese culture will only continue to grow and that’s a good thing.

But maybe try using some older characters in your next anime video Pharrell? Just to be safe.

Kickstarter Comic Book

mayamada September 27, 2014 No Comments

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.

Samurai Chef Vol.2 Kickstarter

mayamada July 7, 2014 No Comments

The Samurai Chef Volume 2 Kickstarter is now up and running. Check out the project and help us bring the second volume of the story to print this autumn.

For those that are able to back the project, there are a lot of cool rewards on offer with exclusive artwork, limited edition cover and a special colour edition of Samurai Chef Origins up for grabs.

We’d also like to give a special shout out to Dobsons for letting us film the project video in their showroom.

Thanks guys!

The Original 11th Hour

This my friends, is the original 11th Hour design. I enjoyed creating these characters and look forward to bring the story to you all very soon.

It was a popular Tee and we still have a small number of the shirt left.

London Anime & Gaming Con

mayamada May 18, 2014 No Comments

We’ll be making another appearance at the London Anime & Gaming Con this July 5th and 6th and we’ve got a lot in store for you.

A bit hit at February’s LAGC, and we’re bringing a new summer colour way of the popular Norio t-shirt design plus Norio phone cases for iPhone 4, 4S and 5.

You’ll also get to check out the upcoming Samurai Chef inspired snapback caps and get 10% off when they are released later in summer.

And last but not least, we’re bringing the Character Trail game to LAGC!

Find and scan the 7 mayamada characters hidden around the Rocket Complex for a chance to win a mayamada prize bag including t-shirts and comics.

Each character will give you letters that you have to rearrange to get the secret word. The first person to complete the game and say the secret word at the mayamada stall will win.

You can get your tickets right here. Stay tuned details of this and our other activate and next month’s London Anime & Gaming Convention!