No one said applying to college was easy. That's why I took a year off when I graduated high school. After many thoughts and opinions I'm finally hopping on the college bandwagon. I was skeptic of college at first, seeing how for many people it didn't help and it ended up being a big waste of money. But I've realized that if I want to improve my art, I would have to go to an environment suited for that. An Art college. Right now I'm hoping to apply to SVA, the school of visual arts, mainly for one major in particular. Cartooning. They have a whole major, with set of classes, geared towards comic book/graphic novel making. *sniff* It sounds so beautiful...;__;
Besides working on my art style, as said in my previous blog, I'm building up my portfolio. Don't get me wrong, I have plenty of work from my high school portfolio, but I've been away from school for a year, so they'll probably be wondering what have I been doing for a year. I'm nervous and excited. I'm going to a comic making class in an art college, I'll be among my comic making peers! I'll finally be able get decent advice on my work from my friends than just "It looks cool!". I did appreciate my friends opinions in school. But then again they each did a different thing like photography or sculpture. They weren't super focused on comic book making like I was.
I want comic book making to be my career. When I discovered Manga and comic books, I discovered my purpose in life. I feel that If you love doing something so much, why can't you do it for a living? So when I asked my manga-loving friends if they wanted to be comic book artists, most of them said no. Some even said they'll get a regular job first and continue comics as a "hobby". I can't do that. I don't see myself as an office worker. I want to make comics for a living (animation will be a side job). I won't settle for a cubicle job, that's not me.
MANGA REVIEW: Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei
(or "Goodbye Mr. Despair)
STORY AND ART BY: Koji Kumeta
There's one thing I gotta say about this manga artist. He has some real balls. This is a manga artist that makes fun of japan's society problems in a dark comedy. The story is about a teacher who has the worst name in the world, Itoshiki Nozomu. This is because when the characters are written closely together they create the word "Zetsubou" or "Despair". It's more Ironic when his catchphrase is "I'm in Despair!!". The teacher is also suicidal, Often finding ridiculous reasons to commit suicide, like "I saw the "E" logo with wings on the bald, baseball player's hat, and all I could think out is the kanji for "hair"!". Besides numerous suicide attempts, he also teachers a junior High school class of misfits. One's a super positive girl named after Franz Kafka, another is a social recluse, one has a tail fetish, one's a stalker, one's an illegal immigrant, one has major OCD, one is a doujinshi artist, one is super ordinary and the list goes on. Through out the story the teacher and the class learn about the many wrongs in japan's society. This is a comedy by the way.
It's not depressing as it is ridiculous. The whole story is meant to make fun of Japan's many problems like the high rate of suicide, the high rate of stress put upon students, and the increased rate of commercialism. I think it's funny and bold how Kumeta shows Japan's problems (usually those topics are a no-no in Japan). It's kind of like a comedic version of "intervention". I gotta give Kumeta kudos for having the guts to create this. It's even more suprising that it's SUPER popular in Japan. Strange world.
