Imagine for a second you’re an amateur mangaka dreaming of making it big. You’ve read dozens of different manga and follow new the new chapters of your favourite series religiously. You’ve debated on forums about whether one character could beat another, and you’ve spent hours diving deep into the psyches of your favourite characters. You’ve armed yourself by cultivating a keen eye towards panels and pages, and you know all the genre conventions and are familiar with all the tropes and tricks that billionaire mangaka make their living off of. You can do it, right? Just put what you’ve learned down on paper and you’ll become a hit!

Whoa there, hold your ponies. The road might look clear but the pitfalls are gonna get’cha.

I’m going to assume here that you want as many people as possible to read your work and enjoy it. I’m assuming that you’re currently doing your work for love and for free, and that success in this endeavor means people appreciating the time that you spent on it and maybe future opportunities. I’m also going to assume that you want to be the very best artist and writer you can be, and that improvement is always something that you strive for. One last assumption I will make is that you are a unique individual, and want to do something to call your own rather that riff off of others. That’s a lot of assumptions, but I hope you’ll roll with me here.

Put down the G-pen for a second. I want to talk about something that I think affects anybody who labels himself a mangaka.

What the heck is a mangaka?

Let’s not mince words here. Chances are you’re not a Japanese citizen, and that’s the assumption we’ll roll with. You as citizen of a non-Japanese country do not have the same opportunities that a Japanese person has when it comes to becoming a pro mangaka. You might want to learn Japanese, go to Japan, and then have your work published in big name magazines, but we’ve got to be realistic here. Even if you were to become absolutely fluent in Japanese, understand the culture enough to create something that Japanese people will enjoy, and somehow have the chance to live in Japan for a while, the competition in Japan to be a professional mangaka is staggering. There are tons of people who work hard every day of their lives, slaving away as assistants under known names, just for the chance to make it big with a series once in their lives.

So, for a second, let’s pretend that we’re not going to be famous mangaka in Japan living the Japanese Dream hanging out with people like Rumiko Takahashi, cracking beers with Akira Toriyama, and communing with Osamu Tezuka as he smiles down at you like a father from his heavenly throne.

The first thing you do is figure out what it means to be a mangaka. Do you use that word? Shockingly enough, I don’t. I consider myself a graphic novelist. Placing the label of mangaka upon yourself is limiting - it makes you think ‘I have to do things in this style!’ But the best manga and comics don’t bother with categorizing themselves, they just do what they do. Did you know that Shaman King’s creator drew a lot of his influences from Hellboy? I didn’t!

What I’m trying to say here is that placing labels upon yourself is limiting yourself, especially when you don’t need to. Japanese mangaka sometimes do things one way when they would rather do it another way, simply because that’s that limitation placed upon them. Heck, placing labels in general is limiting. I’ve had friends who scoffed at American comics because they think it’s all spandex-wearing superhero antics. Well, guess what. Other people can say the same thing about manga replacing the superheroes with constipated half-naked men that spend three episodes powering up. (No angry letters, please. I love Dragonball.) You’ve got to throw these labels away sometimes in order to explore things that other people find value in - and by reading new things and exploring new territory you’ll find your visual library and ideas developing further.

A manga that takes its cues only from other manga will be a derivative piece of work. A graphic novel that takes a little bit of everything from manga, classical art, videogames, famous literature, movies, TV shows, life, and your own personal ideology will be something different, something that could really be uniquely called yours.

Write what you know and are inspired by.

This is one of the most important things that I think amateur creators fall down hard on. The first instinctual drive of the newbie is to copy what they really like. Of course, for the storyteller who’s just starting off that’s not a problem at all. By copying what other artists do, you find out why they do these things and how they do these things. As you copy more and more, you’ll attain knowledge and that knowledge will give you the skills you need to create. But sooner or later you’ll have to break away from what you’re copying, and this is where a lot of creators start having issues.

Let me throw two examples at you. Oda Eichiiro and Kishimoto Masashi. Do you know who they are? Chances are, if you read a lot of shounen manga, you do, and even if you don’t you at least recognize their work. Oda is the creator of One Piece, and KM is the creator of Naruto.

Look at their works side by side. For shounen manga, they are remarkably different. One Piece is a manga about exploration and adventure, and Naruto is about one young man’s coming-of-age story. Both stories contain a lot of growth both physically and emotionally, because that’s one of the core themes of the genre, and a lot of fights, because that’s another core theme of the genre. Perhaps the greatest difference in the two works is the way their characters deal with emotions. One Piece characters cry hard and laugh hard, swinging from one mood to another while Naruto characters keep their emotions held in, sometimes ending in tragedy when communication fails to happen and nobody realizes there is a problem.

Both of these storytellers cite their greatest inspiration as Dragonball.

How crazy is that?

But they’re so different!

Well, boyos. That’s because Oda Eichiiro and Kishimoto Masashi are different people, and they put themselves into their work. Both creators have said in interviews that they put themselves into their characters’ shoes when writing and drawing - hell, Oda cries when drawing characters crying - and that lends an extra layer of reality to their characters. It’s one of the reasons that people can relate to them. Not just that, but they put their own inspirations and likes into their work as well. Have you wondered why the ninjas in Naruto have such a militaristic system? Rather than the sneaky spies that you expect from ninjas, they act more like shock-troopers and elite soldiers with superpowers. This is because Kishimoto Masashi grew up near an American military base, and was always fascinated by warfare. The reason that Luffy has such ridiculous powers that don’t fit your archetypical protagonist? Oda wants his readers to be able to laugh and have fun even during serious and heartbreaking moments. These are authors who leave a little something behind every time their pens touch the page.

Really, if there’s anything that I want you to take away from this, it’s don’t be ashamed or afraid of who you are. Telling a story is a very personal experience, and sometimes you might be afraid of putting yourself out there, but the best stories are the ones closest to the heart. Don’t censor yourself, or say things like “No, this isn’t manga-y. This shouldn’t be here.” You are not alone in the world - there are tons of people with stories like yours, and when they read something that resonates with them that feeling will last forever. The creator of Rurouni Kenshin, Nobuhiro Watsuki, drew inspiration from American comics like Spawn and X-Men for much of his manga’s run, and you can definitely see the influences there. He even admitted to reading a lot of shoujo manga in his early years and credits that for giving Rurouni Kenshin the wide demographic appeal that it has enjoyed.

The best and most unique manga and comics come from people with a wide variety of interests and life experiences. But don’t forget, if you’re interested in something but don’t know much about it and still want to use it in your work, do research! Research lends authenticity, and being genuine and honest is the best way for your work to approach a reader’s heart.

In conclusion…

I’ve written quite a bit here, and maybe not all of it makes sense. I tend to write in a very stream-of-consciousness style, and that means my ideas tend to be a little unorganized. But I’m sure you’ve gotten the gist of what I’m trying to say here, since I’ve bashed you over the head with my keyboard enough times now.

The best works come from within you. They come from a deeper place.

Copying what others have done is fine, but only as a starting point. Derivative works might or might not do well, but you don’t want to end up being the Ratatoing to somebody else’s Ratatouille, do you? Creativity might or might not lead to great rewards, but if you follow your heart you’ll always feel good about your work.

Your thoughts, your aspirations, your dreams, your goals, and your idea of a perfect world. The works that have touched you, the events that shaped your life. Family members, or even the weather in the town you grew up in. Smells, sights, and sounds - the things that you could never communicate completely but you try your damndest to. Your friends, the things that you find important, and everything that makes up you. Every little random thing that you’ve thought of or done. These are the source of where all your great works will come from.

Crafting coherent and likeable characters means placing yourself in their positions and then letting them move. Creating an interesting and engaging plot means writing something that you would like to read. Imagining a setting that you would be taken in by means putting your own personal wonderland on the page. Storytelling is a little bit like telling a white lie, in that the best falsehoods reflect reality in some way, giving it legitimacy. You build upon a core of truth with layers of imagination and reality, and at the end of it all you end up with a piece that has both wonder and truth.

And it isn’t a one-way road. Every time you create something, you’ll learn a little bit about yourself. Your characters may surprise you. Sometimes, when you look back on a piece of work, you’ll be all like ‘Did I create that?’ But you did, and you can do it again and even better next time.

I love creating. Drawing, writing, whatever. If you cut off my right arm I’ll learn to draw with my left. I love seeing other people create things, although sometimes I get a little bit jealous and depressed by how good other people are. And if this article has helped you get a little bit better, maybe expanded your way of thinking even just the teeniest bit, then you can bet I’m celebrating at the moment by drawing even more comics!