Genre: Boy Meets Girl in 10 Pages or Less
Status: Finished (2006)
Pages: 8 pages
Type: Short Story

This story was done for Generation 2006, an anthology by Australian manga artists put out every year by Poshua. For those with long memories, the last story I put out was for Generation 2004, which was Greenhouse. Following in the fine tradition of “under 10 page” stories, here’s one with a storyline I like much more than “Greenhouse”.

The idea for this story comes from Ella, who works with me and Poshua at a gaming company, FKDigital. At this point in time, we’re developing a game called “Chaos Code” for the Japanese market, which I had to mention because we finally got the working game engine from the Japanese publisher Arcsoft. Anyway, Ella also worked part-time at a Two-Dollar store, and kept bringing these hideously ugly yellow rubber chickens to work. When I found out she was working at a two-dollar store, I thought it must be a pretty fun job. Think of all the junk you’ll find in a typical two-dollar store, and how you can put it to good use. And so, that’s how the story germinated.

In terms of art, this time I decided to muck around with brush pens. The end result was kinda dodgy… I used traditional tones as well, and while the brush pen result isn’t dreadful, it isn’t all that beautiful either. Instead, you get this really odd look, one that is definately manga, but not-so-manga at the same time. Worth a try, I suppose, though I still prefer a more narrow line. Perhaps there’s a chance to use an art style like that in the future, though I can’t see why such a thing will happen. I’ve never been a fan of brush-pen manga, and while I’ve seen Western comics done really beautifully that way, it just looks horrendously messy with most brush-pen manga I’ve seen for some reason.

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