Talking about manga in NY, UK and Kumamoto!

LATEST: The big NY comic convention in April was great - I had good meetings with publishers, distributors (John and Jenny!), fans and fellow creators... and my talk on alternative manga in Japan went well. My first time in the USA and much to my surprise i liked NY. Even found my very own 'Wilson Street' in Brooklyn on my way to the convention. To my amazement NY people are polite, much more than Londeners anyway.

Previous: I recently did a lecture talk at the Contemporary Art Museum Kumamoto (CAMK) here in Japan about my Lafcadio Hearn manga. I discussed WHY i chose to do a book on this gentleman from Meiji era Japan. HOW we went about making the manga, and therefore discussed the very process of how to make comic books in general. Then we looked at individual pages, and considered how they were done. It went very well, thankfully, with intelligent questions from the audience afterwards. I have done this kind of talk about 6 times now, or it it 7? My training as a college teacher helps out. Or does it? Maybe all that NLP training helped more...

Now I have to prepare for the talks i will give in the New York Comics Convention in April (18th), and the Bristol Comic Expo in May (10th) - both on the alternative/indie manga scene in Japan. Called 'Manga Alternatives' - Gambaru! On the New York Comic Convention website (click on link title to go) it has me up as a guest. Thats a wee thrill, as its on the same page as Grant Morrison, who is a big influence on me (and is also Scottish, into Magick and 1960's music - good taste he has!). See ya there Grant.
http://www.nycomiccon.com/App/homepage.cfm?appname=100453&moduleID=2920&LinkID=28544&campaignid=42919&iUserCampaignID=34133038

IRAQ: OPERATION CORPORATE TAKEOVER book

Noted as one of the 'Top 100 books of 2007' by The Comics Journal poll of critics!

The cover and interior pages from the new documentary book IRAQ: OPERATION CORPORATE TAKEOVER, out NOVEMBER 2007, and published by excellent UK activist charity WAR ON WANT - www.waronwant.org/ . Art by Lee O'Connor, script by myself. The books is a grass roots look at how corporations like Bechtel and Halliburton are exploiting the situation in Iraq for their own ends. Its deals with issues like the pressure of oil companies on Iraq and the terrible behaviour of Private Military and Security Companies as a private military force. Based on the extensive research and on the ground contacts of War on Want, we see how a young Iraqi man, Nazem, explores the situation in his country, and searches for a positive way to do something about it!

It was launched at a special event on Nov 6th in the London ICA, as part of Paul Gravett's excellent COMICA celebration of comics (see photo from the day). This year was by far the best line up yet. The IRAQ: OPERATION CORPORATE TAKEOVER book (ISBN: 9780954659639) is available from Diamond distributors, in their December 2007 Previews catalogue under the 'Boychild Productions/WoW' listing. Code: DEC07 3504. Also from the Boychild Books website - click the post title to go there.
Or buy here now from the PAYPAL button below.

A free preview pdf of the book can be had here:
http://www.waronwant.org/Graphic%20Novel%20-%20Iraq:%20Operation%20Corporate%20Takeover+15063.twl

The book has attracted a lot of media attention so far, from various non-comic book places. Reuters, Austrian Radio, UPI, a newspaper in Dubai, even some military personal websites! Check out some of them below, this one is on Chinese TV's English channel, with a very cute presenter introducing the clip:
http://www.cctv.com/program/cultureexpress/20071129/102938.shtml

Also a TV news clip which Reuters made (with my goodself sporting a beard!) was shown in various places, including Germany, France, Korea, India, etc. This is the original transcript of it:
http://tvscripts.edt.reuters.com/2007-11-20/2f2d4580.html

A short film which promotes the book and the important issues is on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGELxbvzTEo&feature=related

The DUBAI newspaper aricle on the book:
http://www.7days.ae/print.php?id=63228&flag=s

A review by two US chaps that were initially against the book, but were won over:
http://comicsand.blogspot.com/2008/02/iraq-operation-corporate-takeover_09.html


The UPI report on it:
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Entertainment/2007/11/05/new_graphic_novel_depicts_todays_iraq/5087/

A Paypal button is here - below - if you want to get the book directly from this blog. The issues are vital, the story engaging, the art wonderful and its another effort to extend the range of comic books, so give it a go:

Classical Comics

I have written a comic book version of the novel A CHRISTMAS CAROL, by Charles Dickens. For the UK publisher, CLASSICAL COMICS, which will be out October 2008. My version highlights the social realism of the book, mixed with the very engaging characters that relay the moral in the story. They are making a line of high quality adaptations, including with my good friend Neill Cameron,who has done the art for the first of this line of books - HENRY V. This book is out now. Their aim is a good one and they have a great team of people working on their books. So, please click the post title and check them out.

EXTRA: Just found out that the artist on A Christmas Carol will be Mike Collins, who has been professional artist for more than 20 years. He has worked on many well known books, such as Batman, Judge Dredd, Doctor Who, Star Trek, and Harry Potter. So its lucky for me to have such an experienced artist drawing my script. He even has good taste in music - likes Joni Mitchell, one of my favourites too! Here are two pages by him, David Roach and James Offredi.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/michael.collins17/mikecv.htm

BOYCHILD MANGA AGENCY

Over the last few years, since i moved to Japan, I have become more and more involved in doing coordinator and editor type work, as well as my main work of actual writing. So I decided recently I should formalise that into a specific section of Boychild Productions, with the name of BOYCHILD MANGA AGENCY.

I've got involved with help to organise the manga section of the Bristol Comic Expo in the UK. In 2006 we brought along its first Japanese guest, Sakura Mizuki, direct from Japan for his first visit to the UK. Then in 2007 we put together 12 manga creators in a specific 'manga alleyway', including 5 Japanese creators and two Chinese. This year the manga section will be even larger. I also became involved in organising the translation of a famous Japanese manga book into English for a UK publisher. I worked as the coordinator between a US publisher and a Japanese artist on the production of a150 page book last year. Recently another UK publisher asked me to find a Japanese manga artist for their new book and to find another Japanese artist for a Library event. I have also started working with a manga agent in Tokyo on similiar things.

So the BOYCHILD MANGA AGENCY will be the name for this type of work I do alongside the Japanese agent from now on. The main thing we will specialise in is finding Japanese (but also Chinese and Korean) manga artists for American and European publishers looking for 'real' manga artist to work on their books. We can also do the same for design, advertising companies and magazines. We already have several artists sign up for this, but we need more. So submit your artwork to us to be considered as one of the list of artists that companies look at. A special website for this is being prepared now, and the money details worked out. Publishers and companies can contact BOYCHILD MANGA AGENCY already to say what kind of artist they are looking for.

Contact me in English:
info@boychildproductions.co.uk

UK webcomixthing March 2008

The indie event, UK webcomixthing March 2008 is on 22nd March and Boychild Books will be there represented by Andy Woolf and Lee O'Connor. Several of our books can be bought there and lots of other good stuff from people in the very creative indie comic book scene in the UK. This image here is nothing to do with it though! Its from an advert from 2006 book THE JAPANESE DRAWING ROOM, with Sakura Mizuki as artist. This was a possible ad to use in Diamond Previews, but we used a different better one instead. Click to expand it to full size. This book can anyway be bought from the Boychild Books stall, so there is some slight connection! The Giraffe pic is by Lee O'connor, to be included in the event anthology, showing Nazema nd his sister from our IRAQ book. UK webcomixthing , March 22nd, Great Hall, Queen Mary University - Mile End - London - UK

http://www.ukwebcomixthing.co.uk/2008/exhibitors-booking.php?PHPSESSID=e41a56364b5be4173ce52d46d6d8053c

Bristol International Comic Expo, 2008

Info on me in Japanese

ショーン・マイケル・ウィルソンは、スコットランドの首都エジンバラの出身であり、現在は日本に在住し活動している。グラフィッィク・ノベル「ANGEL OF THE WOODS」、「CHIMPIRA （MANGA MOVER）」、アワードを受賞作である“詩漫画”　「BEAUTIFUL THINGS」、「YAOI Volume One」 「A Christmas Carol」 「Iraq Operation Corporate takeover」「THE JAPANESE DRAWING ROOM」。「The LAFCADIO HEARN's JAPANESE GHOST STORIES　（怪談）」のライターである。　
幼少の頃から、コミックブックを書くことは彼の夢であった。初めて出版された作品は１９９８年、ロンドンの大規模なコミックアートエキシビジョンにて展示された。
「THE JAPANESE DRAWING ROOM」は英国の美術館"Bournemouth"と共同で製作された。
彼はまた日本人アーチストとともに　著名な日本の近代作家　：夏目漱石とラフカディオ・ハーン（小泉八雲）の作品から漫画バージョンとしての作品を製作している。「The LAFCADIO HEARN's JAPANESE GHOST STORIES　（怪談）」　は２００７年の春に出版された。
彼の最新作「Iraq Operation Corporate takeover」は英国のチャリティー団体 War on Wantと共に2007年１１月に出版され、各国のメディアから注目されている。

彼の新しい作品「雪女」は２００８年２月に携帯電話のe-bookからダウンロード可能になる。

彼は、英国のグラスゴー大学、エジンバラ大学、およびロンドン大学で、心理学と社会学を専攻。つまり驚くべき秀才である。彼はコミックブックの製作者でありまたフィルムの監督もでもある。カルチャーを扱ったいくつかのドキュメンタリーを制作している。このフィルムは英国と日本のTV番組でも放映された。

- NEW MOD GENERATION (Channel 4)
- MAYDAY 2001 (Homechoice/　Telewest)
- THE JAPANESE INVASION (Japan 2001 festival)

しかしコミックブックの製作は、より彼のハートに近い。

影響を受けた人々：Jorge Luis Borges, Franz Kafka, Krishnamurti, John Lennon, Arthur Lee's band LOVE,　マジック、the Marx brothers,Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, Northern soul, Psychedelic music, Terence Stamp, Scott Walker ...

CLICKWHEEL comics on the net

"Clickwheel is a young, UK-based company with big ambitions. We owe what we are to many talented cartoonists and to additional contributors too numerous to mention by name. Clickwheel is the first and only site dedicated to distributing comics for iPods by utilizing both our powerful online features, as well as the iTunes store and it's free for you to use."

One of my comics, THICK DESCRIPTION is on this Clickwheel site, free to download. Its a good site and looks to be expanding consideraby in the near future. Check it out by clicking this post title.

Swedish festival

I am to be a guest at a Swedish comic expo in MALMO november 10 and 11th. Nice!
I used to live just up the road, in LUND, as a international student in the lovely University there. I have very good image of Sweden. Click the post title to got to their website, which is of course in Swedish! ... update: here is a photo of me seeling my wares at the event. It was a VERY good little festival - interesting people, a excellent comic book school they have there, well organised by Fredrik Stromberg,and some great work being done there.
http://www.isv.se/

10 Reasons why comic books are better than films.

10 Reasons why comic books are better than films.

Some of these refer more to the film and comic book indusrty, rather than to films or comics themselves. In some I am half joking, but in others I'm deadly serious!

1. Cost and Time.
Some big dramatic effect can be made in a comic book for a matter of pennies. A similar special effect/CGI/etc could cost millions in a big budget film - so why bother? Is it not an outrageous waste of money when there are so many things desperately in need of funding (like education and health). The world doesnt NEED another expensive explosion scene in a film, we've got enough already! The comic effect can be also made in a fraction of the time involved for a film. As an extension of this: comics can generally be made more quickly than films.

2. Personal vision
Aren't you astonished by the sheer amount of people involved in making a big budget film? The end credits that require TWO songs to be played over them just to fit everybody in! The requirement to have so many voices involved because of the complexity of film making does mean having a personal vision in the creative work is so much harder than it is in comics. This is despite the autuer theory, which is largely discredited now many think. Comics, on the other hand, are still normally the product of one, two or perhaps three minds. This is definitely true at the independent level, but even in bigger companies. This fact alone creates a whole box full of positive characteristics.

3. Comics are more experimental, vital and bold.
Why do you think the film industry steals every decent idea that comic books have? The amount of films based on comic books has increased considerably over the last ten years or so. But ask yourself: how many can you think of that are anywhere near as good as the original in terms of artistry, boldness of vision, uniqueness, or even plain good story-telling? Only the 'American Splendour' film comes to my mind.

4. Films don't care about their viewers, but comics do!
This sounds strange, I will try to explain...If you are watching a film on TV, you can go off to the other room for a while and the film rudely carries on without you - as if you weren't there at all! A film is self contained, it doesn't need you to let itself unfold. On the other hand, you can put down a comic book that you are reading, and go on holiday for a week. When you return, the comic is right there, patiently waiting on you to turn the next page! So, comic books need the readers to make them come alive. Comics go at your pace, films just carry on regardless - whether you are paying attention or not. A lot of the time watching a film you are in such a trance that your are not even paying that much attention.

5. Reading comics books is more active process.
It follows on from the above that reading a comic book is a more active process than watching a film. It involves more of your intellectual processes. You have to make the story come alive, to voice the dialogue in your mind, to connect the visuals and the text, etc. Watching a film, though it also involves a perceptual process, is just that bit less active. This means that comics are also more personally engaging. You put your own interpretation to it, more so than with a film, so it becomes something you feel close to.

6. Books are physical.
A simple observation, but still important. For most people it still feels better to have a physical book in your hands than to read the same story online. Films do not have a physical presence in the way a comic book does. Yes, you can hold a VHS/DVD in your hands, but its basically packaging. Its not the film itself. Comics books are the paper they are printed on. There is an tactile pleasure to be had from holding one in your hands, turning the pages, etc.

7. Movies get too much attention - support the underdog!
There is such a mystique about films and actors that, after a while, there is often a desire in intelligent people to turn away from them, to have a negative reaction. They don't need anymore attention put their way. So lets put some of our money and time into more neglected art forms - of which comics is one very deserving example.

8. Actors get paid too much (Or the famous ones do anyway).
Why should they get so much for what is basically standing around in someone else's clothes, reading someone else's lines to someone else's direction! I've been behind the scenes in several big budget films in the large studios and a lot of the acting is really not that hard! Its often just being in the right place and the right time, and everyone around you does the hard work: the make up team, the technical people, the stage designers, the production assistants, etc.

By comparison comic book writers and artists get paid much less, even the very well known ones. Even though they often totally create the world of that book by themselves. There may be an editor, letterer, colorer, etc that help a lot. Still, by comparison, the central team in comic books creates the core of the artistic work for much less financial reward than with the film industry. (Of course I should say: some aspects of acting are VERY difficult, subtle and impressive, and that many new actors gets paid very little and struggle for years).

9. The Film industry sucks!
This is a somewhat debatable point as the comics industry has not got a good reputation either when it comes to treating its creative people well. Still, having been involved in both to some degree, in my opinion the film industry it is even more two faced, whirl-wind, and cut throat than the comics industry.

10. Other people involved in the making of films get treated badly.
By 'other people' I mean the behind the scenes individuals such as production assistants, make up, extra actors etc. The film industry is a bastion of class distinction, or you might say even apartheid! The main actors and 'above the line' creative team are like Gods, who have their own little world that exists near to, but oh so far removed from, the grubby world of the 'untouchables' who actually do much of the work of making the film. The world of these 'lower types' consists of standing in line in the rain for a meal of beans and hash brownies, waiting in dingy rooms for hours, long tedious work late into the night repeating the same scene again over and over. Of getting up even earlier than the main actors to make sure things are ready, of very little job security or health benefits, almost no recognition and certainly no glamour. Its a very unfair working environment and quite undemocratic. Perhaps, though, this is inevitable within such a money orientated industry?

Again, by comparison comics don't have such a unfair working environment or so many people involved that are treated so badly. Even with a well known Japanese manga-ka they often have only two assistants, who share a very similar working environment to their manga sensei. Still, to be fair, stories of miss-treatment of assistants can be found in the comic industry. But the point is that it's not as bad or as common as in the film industry.

So, turn that film off and go read a comic instead. You'll feel a whole lot better!

Scott Walker and me

The fourth album by Scott Walker, 1969. Still one of my great inspirations. Even 'The Drift'. He is mentioned in my manga THE STORY OF LEE.

MAMMOTH BOOK OF BEST NEW MANGA

The MAMMOTH BOOK OF BEST NEW MANGA 2 has a website. That book features a 25 page episode from THE STORY OF LEE. It can be seen by clicking the post title or at:
http://www.bestnewmanga.com/preview/story%20of%20lee.html

We hope that the full book will be comissioned after people have had a chance to see how good the 25 page version is.

THE STORY OF LEE on ROK COMICS

My manga with Yishan LI, THE STORY OF LEE, has a short version on the new mobile phone comics website ROK COMICS. check it out by clicking the post title, or at:
www.rokcomics.com

Its a new service managed by John Freeman, long standing comic book fellow, and a very helpful chap.

Hearn book now out!

At last the Lafcadio Hearn book is out, can be seen by clicking the post title or at:
http://www.amazon.com/Lafcadio-Hearns-Japanese-Ghost-Stories/dp/0978880439

Its very well printed, which shows the art off in all its subtle points. Plus, if i do say so myself, a well written book. It will be in Diamond distributors sometime!, under the publishers name of DEMENTED DRAGON. Please order a copy!

You can see here a photo of a young Japanese girl reading the book in Japan - nice!

New projects for old reasons

In case anyway is watching who may be interested, these are some the comic book projects that I am currently doing or would like to do in the future:
- MOON MAGICK, a long manga with a Japanese artist, about a Japanese girl struggling to learn and cope with her ESP abilities. It involves her finding out about the REAL Chizuko and Sadako, who partly inspired the RING series.
- THE BREAKING OF TEN, about a man who loses his wife and child in a car crash and decided to take revenge on God by deliberately breaking all ten commandments.
- THE QUEST OF THE EAST, I am currently doing with a well known Chinese artist, Jianyi. A straight fantasy story about the search for a lost kingdom in the vast areas of China. (see art above by Jianyi as an example of his work)
- 20 FAMOUS SCOTS, a comic book of 3 page short bios of, er, 20 famous Scots, ranging from Robert the Bruce to Sean Connery.
- FRANZ KAFKA short stories, illustrated version of his very short stories, such as 'An Imperial message.'
- ANARCHISM, I want to do a book that tell some of the theory and history of the real theory of anrachism within a historical story.Possibly centred around Emma Goldman or the Haymarket bombings of the 1870's.
- My own autobiographical comic called ONCE UPON A TIME IN MORNINGSIDE, centred around my childhood in that part of Edinburgh.

Ya!

The Clientele and my manga on radio

I am indirectly doing my bit to push volume two of 'The Mammoth Book of Best New Manga', that my STORY OF LEE IN EDINBURGH is in. As 'The Clientele', the real band featured in my strip, have been telling people about it on their recent US tour:
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2007/06/01/clientele/

"They're out on the road in support of their recently released album, God Save The Clientele. They talked about making their very first trip to Australia and New Zealand; a cool museum trip they had planned but missed; how it came to be that they will be featured in The Mammoth Book of Best New Manga (vol. 2)."

Nice...

Bristol Comic Expo, 2007

The Bristol Comic Expo, 2007 was a great success in general and for me in particular. It was probably the largest attendence they have ever had, and with far more manga type fans around (which the main organisers, Mike and David, were kind enough to say was thanks to me organising a dozen manga creators to come this year, including 5 actual Japanese). I also had more than a few interesting possibilities arise, and one definite, signed and sealed, contract. To write an adaptation of a Charles Dickens book, which I have started already, and loving it.

http://www.ndcomicsmag.com/bristolcon/
- A video of me at the festival.  Im the 5th one down in the 'people' box, under 'master of manga sean'! (though im hardly that).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/barryrenshaw/498518053/in/set-72157600215068387/
- pictures of the event, including me with YISHAN LI of the STORY OF LEE comic, and MISAKO ROCKS of BYKER GIRL and ROCK n ROLL LOVE books.

CORPSE RIDER

First page from the story CORPSE RIDER in the LAFCADIO HEARN'S JAPANESE GHOST STORIES book, which is at last out:
It can be seen and ordered at:
http://www.amazon.com/Lafcadio-Hearns-Japanese-Ghost-Stories/dp/0978880439
Where a reviewer notes: "This book is amazing! The artist is a real Japanese mangaka! The stories are ome of the most popular classic ghost stories from old Japan - I liked the Screen Maiden one best."

Or the publishers website:
www.dementeddragon.com/

IRAQ INCORPORATED page 8

Page 8 from the upcoming IRAQ: Operation Corporate Takeover book. Launching Nov 6th at the COMICA event, London - and in the DECEMBER PREVIEWS catalogue of Diamond Distributors under the listing for 'Boychild Books/WoW'.

A page from the new book LAFCADIO HEARN'S JAPANESE GHOST STORIES. (NB - created in Japanese reading style, go from right to left side of the page for the panel order). This is a 140 page manga book mixing illustrated versions of ten classic Japanese ghosts stories with a biography of the writer LAFCADIO HEARN. He originally collected together these stories between 1890 and 1904, and was one of the main people to introduce Japan to 'the West'. Written by Sean Michael Wilson and illustrated by Japanese artist Haruka Miyabi. Will be published in the USA by new company, Demented Dragon Books. www.dementeddragon.com/
More info and pages can be seen at:
http://www.webcomicsnation.com/boychildproductions/hearnsjapaneseghosts/series.php