Ashikai is the artist of our latest Premium title, Shamrock! Check it out in the Premium Section!

First off, well done on your promotion, Ashikai!
o.o
That’s my speechless face. Thank you much, kind sir~

We’ll start at the beginning, how did you get into the whole art scene?
Crayons. Crayons and finger paint. I used them to draw my scenes of art.

Seriously though, I was the child who wanted to draw on everything; the walls, tables, my face... I have pictures of me in kindergarten and first grade sitting in a classroom full of clean kids... except for me and my paint-spattered face. Good times. =u=

Besides that, my Mom is a pretty amazing artist, so I was around art stuff my whole life. I remember stealing her sketchbooks and trying to copy her drawings on the next page. She used to laugh when she’d open them up and find my hideous little attempts at replicating her art pieces in her books. I refused to believe her advice (“Use shapes when you draw! Don’t just outline!”) as a kid, though.

We moved around a lot to tons of different cities, and being an only child I had to find things to do, especially when I started at a new school and didn’t have any friends yet. Art was convenient, and it kept me busy... and out of trouble (which was probably more the point).

I understand that Shamrock isn’t the first comic you worked on, can you tell us a little bit about some of those earlier comics?
*insert sputtering noises here*
Uhhhhh... Welp, besides the odd Pokémon fan comic, I have a fantasy series called GreyRune, a golf comic called ParFour (joint project with a writer), a literary adventure comic called Pen15 (or The 15th Pen, also done with a writer) and a slice of life diary comic called Reality-U.

Reality-U is technically complete, very short, and was made as a documented history of the crazy times in college. Believe it or not, there are no strips about parties or anything like that. I just happened to have the weirdest classmates and even weirder teachers. Lucky me!

The 15th Pen is a moderately short story about a little girl who gets sucked into a Sherlock Holmes novel (literally) and discovers that literary classics are getting re-written. She ends up befriending a whole cast of characters from famous literary classics and they hop from book to book in order to collect the 15 pens of the authors in order to prevent the classics from being rewritten. It’s a cool project, probably about five-ish volumes total. I’ll probably pick this one back up eventually.

ParFour was a slice of life comic about a teenage kid who loves golf and a girl in his class... hijinks ensue. This was the comic that made me realize that slice of life really isn’t my thing. I completed the first chapter but never went beyond that. Don’t think I’ll be finishing it.

GreyRune is like, my comic baby. It’s the ultimate form of the first fantasy story I ever wrote, and it’s a story I really, REALLY want to

 work on. It’s based on Norse Mythology and serves as an exploration of cultures, religions and politics around the world and what really makes them different. The story follows the adventures of a short-tempered dragoon-dropout-turned-blacksmith named Loki, as she accompanies Saelier, a young emmisary from Alfheim. Saelier is entrusted with the task of investigating the sudden decline in the world's mana supply. This is the story that I’ll be working on after Shamrock is finished. :)

What was it about Shamrock that made you decide to work on this as a main series?
I don’t remember. Shamrock was originally a romance, you know; it was supposed to be about a bassist and a singer, and it was only supposed to be like, 50 pages. I don’t remember when or why it turned into a ghost story. Like I mentioned earlier, slice of life/romances are totally not my thing.
Once it turned into a ghost story, I thought Shamrock would be great practice for me before I started GreyRune. It was only supposed to be three volumes.

That didn’t happen. >_>;;

You seem to put a lot of thought into the scientific principles behind the Gates and Poltergeists in Shamrock, was it difficult to put all that together?
Was it difficult? No. I love science-y things~~~

When it came time to address the battle aspect of this comic, I decided that I wanted to make it as fundamentally sound as possible. Rather than just say, “It works cuz IT’S MAGIC,” I wanted to make a system that was believable. I also wanted a female lead who was a science nut.

But there was this one moment when I was reading a chapter of YuYuHakusho... the main character, Yusuke, just kept pulling more and more power out of NOWHERE and then getting the stuffing beat out of him. He’d then miraculously pull our MOAR POWAH and... well, the battles just started lacking any sense of intensity. =\

That was the point where I decided that my main character should be relatively weak, and win with more eclectic approaches, or maybe some crazy science on the fly (like making use of the electrical conductivity of water or copper if the environment allowed for it, etc). The result was Sam. I’ll be honest, I think she’s just going to get crazier as the series goes on. Crazy is fun to write.

I love the designs of the Gates in Shamrock! How do you go about putting those together?
Oooo, uhh... hm. I don’t... know? ^^a

I actually really struggle with monster designs on most levels. I think Shamrock is good for me because there’s one really solid rule that I have to abide by whenever I create any Gate: it has to be based on a real object.

So if I need a Gate immediately, I just look around my house thinking, “What would be the most messed up item to turn in to a horror movie monster...?” I’ve mostly used mundane objects so far, partially because those are the easiest to recognized when they’re all mutated, and partially because... the gates encountered so far aren’t really important to the plot, so I’d prefer if they were less memorable.

There are cases in the story where a Poltergeist mutates just like a Gate would, and for that I normally free-form it. There’s usually a theme to the design that relates character, as well as the object that got mutated. I’d like to say that I really dig into a character’s psyche in order to utilize symbolism and stuff, but I don’t ever really think too deeply about it. Symbolism that appears is entirely coincidental. Ironically, there’s a lot of it. XD

We’ve talked about comics you’ve worked on in the past, but any series you’re planning for the future?
Like I mentioned earlier, I’m definitely working on GreyRune when Shamrock finishes. After that I’m not really sure. I’m currently writing a musical animated movie called The Goose Girl and a premise/plot for a video game (which I’m actually going to pitch so I can’t give details here for legal reasons). Other than that, not really. I’m actually one of those rare artists that doesn’t have many story ideas. 

Any words of wisdom you’d like to impart on young artists?
Never give up, never surrender!

....
Oh, and keep moving forward. As tempting as it is to go back and redraw/rewrite your comics, try to finish a story first. If you never get passed the first chapter, you’ll never get anywhere, and no one wants to be stuck in the eternal re-do loop of doom.

O.o <--I’m watching you. No re-dos.

That’s great! Thanks for your time and best of luck with Shamrock!
Thank you. Best of luck to you all, and to all a good read! *twirls off into the sunset*

Guest: Ashikai

Happy New Year! Let's start off 2014 with a brand new set of promotions that we think you'll enjoy!

Premium Promotion
 

NeverenD by VanRah.

New to our premium section, a series of fairy tales with a twist!

Summary: A dreamlike and forgotten world which could only be reached by Dream Weavers, the only persons able to make their wishes come to life.

Discover a series of tales, adapted from the best known myths, each one taking place in a fantastic world where legends come to life and where everything becomes possible.

Welcome to Neverend.... Read more >>
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Featured Promotion
Lost Nightmare by Miyuli

Summary: Lost Nightmare is a webcomic about the little Nightmare Ink. He is supposed to become the next Bogeyman but he does not really want to be scary. Read more >>

 

 

 

 

Only Human by Sinlaire
Summary: 500 years after the end of human civilization and drastic change of earth caused by wars, in order to survive, mankind use their advance technology to transfer their mind into mechanical body called Automa. After so many decades passed, what left from the past glory of human is a few surviving number of Automa and old Droids who lived within the ruins of human civilization.

But one day, a man who known as "Doctor" and his assistant Yurika found something they never seen for hundreds years. Read more >>

 

 

 

 

 

Congratulations to all our new authors and be sure to let us know what you think of these new promotions!

Happy New Year Everybody!

2014 is upon us now and while we have big hopes for the coming year, now is the time for us to take a look back on the eventful year that was 2013!

In the year of 2013 not only did we launch our printing service for our authors, but it also saw the unveiling of our Marketplace! We created the dashboard for our readers with more great improvements to come! This isn’t even mentioning all the great events and contests that have been going on in the community this year such as the always popular Mega MangaMagazine.net Melee Match!

We also welcomed many great comics to our Premium section!
-Witch’s Quarry
-Gaia
-Okamirai
-Grey is…
-ERA-Ibuki
-Stray Dog
-Urban Reality
-Gravston
-Trouble Next Door
-Mephistos
-Sandra and Woo
-Prague Race
-The Wastelands
-E-Depth Angel
-Shinbuki
-Shamrock

Another well-deserved congratulations to all these series and their artists, as well as a congratulations to all the new featured series we saw during 2013. We are proud of all our artists and are honoured to be helping them all further their careers. We hope that we can offer our help to even more artists in 2014!

Lastly we would be remiss if we did not mention all of our wonderful readers who throughout 2013 have supported both us and our artists in many wonderful ways. From commenting to buying subscriptions, every piece of support you give us is appreciated and we could not do what we do without all your help. We hope that you’ll continue to take part in our community as it continues to grow into the near year!

So we hope you all had an amazing 2013 and here’s hoping to an even better 2014!

-MM Community Team!