Between 16th till 17th October 2014 I was
invited and participated 24 hour comic strip marathon as a part of this year’s LakesInternational Comic Art Festival (LICAF) in Kendal, Cumbria.
It was led and organaised by ever more magnificent Dan Berry
and other notable names who joined in were Kristyna Baczynski ,Sarah McIntyre, Jack Teagle, Joe Decie, and Warwick Johnson-Cadwell. I was very thrilled and
honoured to get involved in this, being recoganised among the establishment.
Here is me with Warwick and Joe working away,
Borrowed from Sara's twitter feed.Probably my only chance standing next to the famous author of Understanding comics and the 24hour comic marathon creator Scott Mccloud
The support by the festival organizer and the castle green hotel where
we stayed and worked were absolutely amazing and it is worth pointing out that comparing
to the most famous lot such as the one by Angouleme 24h BD session every
January, The LICAF tried to make a difference by giving us sufficient time to
prepare ourselves in favour of good quality story-lines. The result was a spectacular
bunch of differences in styles and stories.
Here is my tale: Anywhere Road
What I underachieved and achieved
I have to say, when I compare myself among all those
lots, I did many things wrong and a little wasted the opportunity to create a beautiful
little book. I was also the very last one to finish the work too…stressing Dan
and making the printers wait for my pages.Very embarrassed at the end.
However this was a tale which takes place in the UK
rather than my usual setting in Japan. Although I’ve lived in the UK for 22
years in total I still feel at ease talking about the issues and themes based
in Japan but I find it very limiting creatively.
In short I don’t like to be regarded as an author who
only talks about his country of origin and never shows an interest in the
country he has adapted.
I need to start something different.
I’m always interested in various social issues in the UK,
and it was my first attempt to talk about it. Of course I’ve failed many things
in here including story, but I’m happy with this challenge and I feel the
result here shows me the future direction I could take on.
To boost my confidence, certain people bought copies and my peers didn’t see the story too strange or too incorrect. I thought ‘huh! Maybe I could do this?’
Great?
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