You thought I was fooling?? I told you we had more heat coming out of this year’s Summer of Manga! Fresh out of Saturday AM Issue 166 we have the one and only Metikk, ready to shed some light on her mech one-shot. Check out what she had to say:
“Hi there! I’m Maddy but I go by Metikk mostly online and in the art space. I’m from New York USA and my story is called ENFALION.”
How’d you get into manga/comic making and storytelling?
How’d you get into manga/comic making and storytelling?“I had always been drawing characters or making up storylines inspired by pop culture around me my whole life, but it wasn’t until around 2017 that I wanted to fully commit my skills to making things like comics.
I was very new to anime and even reading manga, but I picked up a little story known as Berserk. Which by the way, was a SUCH a jump from Soul Eater haha! Something just clicked in my brain after I read only one chapter. The incredible detail, the cool mysterious protagonist, the life and preexisting lore of the world that I was just tapping into, the hard work you can see bleeding through the pages with each stroke of the pen. I had said to myself “This. This is what I want to do with my life.”. And I wouldn’t be here making manga today I it wasn’t for that.”
What advice would you give aspiring artists who want to create a manga one-shot or enter events like Summer of Manga? What should they be prepared for in terms of challenges and opportunities?
“Make lots of one shots! Even the greats made lots of prototypes before they committed to their main bodies of work. And it’s easier to find what kind of audience you’re looking for. When it comes to events or contests like this don’t be afraid failure either, because one door closed can mean another one opened!”
What do you want people to take away from your story?
“I honestly just hope people will have fun reading it, and that their time is well spent.”
The mech designs in your story are very unique! How did you approach the design process to ensure the mechs looked cool and reflected the story’s themes and the characters’ personalities? Were there any particular influences or inspirations that guided your vision?
“Studio Trigger is where I get my design philosophy from, especially Gurren Lagann on the mecha aspect. I make the characters and mechs simple but unique, not super bound by classic mecha geometry but looser yet still grounded so I can easily draw them repeatedly. Almost as if
I were animating them to bring them to life. I make sure to give every character and mech at least one easily distinguishable feature , whether it be their hairstyle or facial features because, they pilot these things, their personalities reign throughout them.
To give an example: our MC Rutie, with her red bow having the stripes, her mech also being red sporting the same stripes, and what ties them together is this whole bunny theme: the bow being the ears and the mech having bunny ears, hopping around the battlefield quickly. The red color of her design showing boldness or as if to say “Here I am”, but there’s also a small chip in her bow, showing that she’s human, we’re not perfect and we have flaws no matter how bold we are. A simple design with little things like that to show there’s more under the surface that make less say more. Subtle but iconic! I guess that’s more or less my thought process going into this one.”
It was a pleasure to hear more about Metikk’s process. Thank you for sharing your time with us! You can check out her one-shot ENFALION RIGHT HERE.
We have more creators to share with you from This year’s class! Keep you eyes posted right here.
