Thread "Drunkduck boy in Japan!" in forum "Comic Talk and General Discussion *"

Posted at 8:09AM, Sep. 4, 2009

Hey there, some of you guys may of read my horror comic GUTS here and the follow up comic THE LUMINIFEROUS AETHER but thats not the point.:)

While doing the 2nd comic i had a meltdown as in 'its not good enough!im not good enough!'

Soooo, i left home and travelled.Well now ive arrived in Osaka for a couple months!!
Im here for inspiration,for growth, to get this title right before i inflict it upon the web community! :)

Well, i dont know anyone here obviously, was wondering if anybody from the web community was over here to say hello to.(does drunkduck have an audience in Japan?)
Anyone else tried this?I wanna get some feedback or advice while im here. Im just here to improve my work really for my eventual return.

Aaanywho,Sayanora(sayounara…heh)

Posted at 11:09AM, Sep. 4, 2009

I was going to mildly scoff at you for following your dreams (pah!) but your comic is quite good! I don't know what being in Japan will do for you, though. Unless you want to start making manga. I imagine the comic scene in Japan is overloaded with incredible artists/writers, since it's such a booming industry, though- the volume of competitors might just make it harder to get heard.

Posted at 1:09PM, Sep. 4, 2009

First thing, forget the whole "I'm gonna make it big here and never move back home!" notion. It's all good to be excited and push yourself hard to go somewhere, but it's going to take more than a 2 month visa to do it. The market there is just as tough as it is in the US and UK. Since you've already decided to take off from home, make this a learning experience and forget about comics only. There's way too much there to spend all your time there sucked into doing something you could do anywhere.

Second, pick up a Japanese phrase book and a couple good Japanese to English and English to Japanese dictionaries. If you're actually interested in learning the language, then get yourself a few books to learn with. Beyond that, never doubt the power of just trying. People there that I met were incredibly polite and helpful, especially as long as you at least gave it a bit of effort to try their language. Most folks there speak a bit of English, but don't expect them to be fluent. You're better off forcing yourself not to use English and trying to speak only in Japanese if you can.

The only other thing I can say, is try to spend some time traveling around the country, visiting everything you can. I'll reiterate it, Don't waste your time there only trying to work on comics, you could have done that at home at the kitchen table. Experience everything Japan has to offer and just take the experience to broaden your horizons and do something you couldn't at home. Visit the temples and shrines, learn about Japanese culture, spend some time meeting people and take time to take it all in. In all honesty, I would say you should spend as much time as you can living and learning from it, or if you absolutely just have to draw, take the time to draw from life and draw what you're seeing there.

This is coming from a guy who spent some time in the country there, and is wishing he had the time and money to go back and do this stuff. It's a wonderful country, a great people and an amazing experience if you take the time to experience it.