Manga

Here are some of the manga I’ve drawn (what is manga?) since 1998, when I was 18. I also first started drawing at that age. At the time, I had only wanted to pass the time at a boring University course (programming), but it was the beginning of something that would eventually become a career. Over the years, and before I first started working professionally, I have drawn a whole bunch of short stores to try and improve my craft. These stories varied in content and quality, and they’re all up here to be viewed. Watching my style grow and change over the years is gratifying - I never drew as a child, but it seems that as an adult, I’ve made alot of improvements over the years. The further in the past you go, the worse the art gets…

Since April 2010, I’ve also participated in an online venture called Bento Comics, which is a Print-On-Demand site (one which I explain on this LJ entry) that allows users to collect and print their own short comic anthologies. A number of these comics are available to be viewed on that site, and there are direct links to it from here.

These stories are arranged in order of most recent to the least:

• 2009 - Shoes (Horror - 6 pages)
  
• Story: A young man, walking backstage at the Chinese Opera, encounters a single shoe in his path…
  
• This was a short story I did for an anthology called “Journeys”, which was a collection of short stories from Western manga artists. It was for a trip to Japan’s Comitia, a giant convention where amateur manga artists/illustrators sold their work. I really like this story - short and spooky.
  

• 2008 - Sleeping Chick (Cute Animals - 14 pages)
• Story: Zzzzzz…. *wakes up*  *looks around*
  
• Here’s something I came up with while allegedly attentive at a publishing convention. I had a notepad with me while I was listening to some of the greatest minds in fantasy fiction talk, and all I could think of was chickens. It’s cute, short and sweet.

• 2008 - Portrait of a Sociopath (Horror - 2 pages)
• Story: A sociopath - in his own words
  
• This was done at the same time as 2 one-page stories, but the subject matter is a lot more serious. I didn’t release this story for a long time because of its subject matter - it’s based on a horrific true event and features the culprit. In the end, I wrote 2 more pages of text after the 2 pages to explain the problems I had in releasing this story.

• 2008 - Sci-Fi Comics for Telepaths (Science Fiction -1 page) and World’s Shortest Horror Story (Horror - 1 page)
• Story: The title tells you all you need to know
  
• These two are short 1-page stories I “drew” as a fun aside. They’re “pixel art”, meaning that the art style used is purely pixel arrangements, not pencil-on-paper style of drawing. I did it to experiment and it was fun for a while - it’ll be interesting to see if I can draw a longer story using this “art style”.

• 2007 - Princess Zelda (Fantasy - 8 pages)
• Story: Princess Zelda, titular character of the Legend of Zelda Nintendo gaming series, reflects on the skies over Hyrule
  
• A short story I did for LifeMeter Comics 2, an anthology of short stories about video-game related characters. It was good fun to write a story about Princess Zelda - as a huge Zelda fan, it’s nice to see it from Zelda’s perspective. The art is also quite beautiful, especially the cover page. Also, while the story says “8 pages”, it’s actualy 8 half-pages. So it’s 4 pages.
  

• 2006 - Message To You (Romance - 4 pages)
  
• Story: A balloon carries a message - Will you be my valentine?
• This link leads to BentoComics.com (where the story is stored), and the e-book (In DRM-free, ePub format) is also available there.
  
• This story is super-cute and I like it heaps. It’s got a great concept, and despite being only 4 pages, managed to tell the story really well.
  

• 2006 - The Two-Dollar Deal (Romance - 8 pages)
• Story: Boy Meets Girl at a tacky two-dollar store. Is there any hope for romance?
  
• This was done way back when I decided to try using brush pens. That was a massive failure, but the story itself was pretty good. It was inspired by a friend who used to work at a 2-dollar store (and would bring these ugly yellow rubber chickens to work), and the 8-page story was structured so it would fit the Hagio Moto declaration “If you can do a complete story in 8-pages, you can write a story in any length”. Proved! it was also done for a “Generations” anthology collection, if I remember right.
  

• 2006 - Only Flora (Cute Animals - 5 page)
  
• Story: Every morning, a young woman walks past an old beggar woman and her dog, and hears their story…
  
• Don’t quite remember why I did this - I think it was to experiment with a particular style of cross-hatching? Either way, it’s not very good - I have a re-working of it I need to draw.

• 2005 - Ten Years Ago Today (Horror - 10 pages)
• Story: It was a dark, stormy night when the phone rang…
  
• This link leads to BentoComics.com (where the story is stored), and the e-book (In DRM-free, ePub format) is also available there.
  
• This was done for a Wirepop anthology, back when I as serialising a horror story called “Block 6” there. We had a choice of doing something based either on our serialised stories, or something totally original. I opted for original.
  

• 2004 - Blood of Snow (Samurai Action - 29 pages and ongoing)
  
• Story: Three people trapped in a blizzard, two hell-bent on killing each other over an incident in the past…
  
• I did this so long ago I can’t the heck remember why I started drawing this. It’s fun to draw samurai action though, and the panelling especially is interesting and unusual. Luckily I still remember how the story ends, and so I’m sure I’ll get to finish it someday.
  

• 2004 - Yuen (Chinese Fantasy - 30 pages)
• Story: A boy goes to the Nezha temple at night to pray for his mother’s recovery from an illness. Any luck?
  
• Drawn for a Japanese competition (Manga Academy, I believe), so this reads from right-to-left. It was really just an excuse to draw a Chinese fantasy story using one of my favourite characters from Chinese mythology. I was also testing some kind of colour+b/w art style… which in my opinion didn’t work out at all. But, I will TOTALLY draw more Chinese fantasy someday. And I’ll get it right next time.
  

• 2004 - TwinSide (High School Romance - 14 page and dead)
  
• Story: A pair of twin sisters attend a high school, where one of them has a crush on someone…
  
• This was done for a TOKYOPOP pitch that got rejected, and it was a good thing too. This pair of twin sisters would eventually go on to become the unhappy twins in the 3-volume horror story “The Dreaming”… and it’s peculiar to see them in their earlier incarnations as high school dramedy bit-extras. And this isn’t even the first incarnation of these two!! These are the ONLY two characters I’ve created who has jumped “story”. It’s not something to be encouraged.
  

• 2003 - A Girl Called Marion (Western - 16 pages)
• Story: A young man is wanted Dead or Alive for Murder, and Marion is the reason why…
  
• A story done for the same Japanese competition as “Yuen”, so that’s why it reads from right-to-left. This one won a high-recommended, and I can see why… it’s quite a good story, told well, and was originally meant to be a prelude to a longer story. The unfortunate thing about these kinds of “preludes” is that the longer stories often end up not getting drawn because of their length… but you never know.
  

• 2003 - Greenhouse (Romance - 10 pages)
  
• Story: A short silent story, about a girl who walks her dog past a greenhouse every day
  
• Not a very good story - this was done for the “Generation” anthology in 2003 and I was rushed to come up with something good. Or just rushed, because I didn’t come up with anything good. As every creator knows, when you’re mediocre, you’re just mediocre.
  

• 2003 - Keeper of the Soul (Fantasy - 13 pages and ongoing)
• Story: A little girl sits with her family inside their fortress, when a loud knock is heard through the door…
  
• This story still has top-quality background art, despite being drawn back when I couldn’t hold a pen properly. It’s amusing - I look at my older art, and see that I was long established at drawing backgrounds years before I figured out how to draw people properly. Either way, this was a prelude to a longer story that will never get done due to its length, and it’s more of a “mood” piece. As a mood piece, it excels. I look back and is astonished that I did this back when I was 23. Well, not actually, since “A Short Ghost Story” done 2 years earlier proved that I had nailed story-telling quite early on.
  

• 2003 - A Chinese Ghost Story (Fantasy - 16 pages and dead)
• Story: A travelling scholar meets a beautiful young woman, who turns out to be a ghost under the control of an evil monster.
  
• This is an adaptation of an old Chinese ghost story from an anthology called Liu Tsai, and is a more updated version of the same story I did in 2000. This was specifically for a TOKYOPOP submission that got (thankfully) rejected, so it’s now dead in the water. In retrospect, I’m grateful.
  

• 2002 - Twins (Comedy - 30 pages)
  
• Story: A pair of twin sisters attempt to diet to squeeze into a lovely dress…
  
• What the heck possessed me to write a story about dieting?! Ah, the inexplicable things you do when you’re young. I think I drew this for some kind of Taiwanese manga competition in a girl’s magazine, which explains why the original art for this no longer exists. I committed the cardinal mistake of sending my originals in to a competition. Dumb. Either way, this stars the very first incarnation of the twin sisters from “The Dreaming”… as kinda goofy. Once again, I’m puzzled about the person I was when I was 22.

• 2002 - Air+Space (Comedy - 50 pages)
• Story: Two pilots duel in the skies for the affections of a girl called Sierra.
  
• This story finally explained to me why I should never, EVER do comedy. The original story was written in 1999 I believe, and the years haven’t been kind to it. It was just really awkward. I guess comedy just isn’t my thing.
  

• 2001 - A Short Ghost Story (Horror - 30 pages)
• Story: A group of girls hang around a girl’s toilets, as their friend changes in there. Suddenly they hear a scream…
  
• Well, it would seem that horror and I were quite at home with each other even back before I knew I was a horror “fan”. I drew this short story as a challenge of sorts to myself, and re-reading it again 8 years later, I passed with flying colours. Once again, this story demonstrates that when I was younger, I was way better at drawing backgrounds than I was at drawing people.
  

• 2000 - A Chinese Ghost Story, Older Version (Chinese Fantasy - 48 pages and dead)
  
• Story: A travelling scholar meets a beautiful young woman, who turns out to be a ghost under the control of an evil monster.
• The older version of the 2003 Chinese Ghost Story, albeit with crappier art. I think I stopped drawing this story when I realised my art just wasn’t up to par. I spent years in some kind of artistic limbo, churning out drawings of people that could really have used an anatomy class (though the backgrounds were pretty good). I wish I enrolled in some kind of art course. But then, I was still studying for my programming degree back then, and thinking I was going to be a programmer. So that’s why I didn’t take up an art course. Life can be unexpected at times. 

• 1998 - Shirley’s Story (Psychological Drama - 64 pages)
  
• Story: A young girl’s best friend commits suicide by jumping infront of a train, and she begins to hear train noises every night…
  
• The first manga I ever drew, and the first original story I ever wrote. Normally, this sort of thing is kept away from public eyes because it’s bound to be embaressing, and this is definitely embaressing. But I guess we all have to start somewhere. There’s really not much to say about this except that everyone thinks they’re really deep when they’re 18.
  

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