At ComixTalk, Brigid Alverson talks with Kage no Matsuri creator rem, winner of Kodansha’s Morning International Manga Competition, and Eijiro Shimada, editor-in-chief of Morning Two magazine:
Now that you have a longer comic in print, Vampire Kisses, can you talk a bit about the differences between working on a fairly short comic for the web and a longer one for print—in terms of planning and the actual work?
Holy crap, it’s like the difference between night and day for so many different reasons. I mean, Vampire Kisses could not be any more different than KnM. Mainly because it’s not my story at all, and I don’t really communicate with the writer. Bikkuri (the writer for KnM) and I are very close so it’s kinda like his stories are my stories, too, and I get to put in a lot of input as a result. In KnM, I was totally free to do whatever I wanted and experiment artistically how I wanted. In the case of Vampire Kisses, everything is restrained and scrutinized by a ton of different people. The planning and actual work for VK was (is still) daunting since I am very new to the industry. I also hear that people who publish original titles are given much easier schedules that what I have. Everything is in steps: thumbnails, sketches, inks, and then toning, and each step needs to meet the demands of Harper Collins. So even though it was fun, and it still is, I feel like it’s a commission rather than my own work.
Related: The Star of Malaysia profiles rem
The Star also profiles second-place winner Lim Hwei Lin
