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Morag Lewis is another of that growing band of UK Manga creators and you can check out her “for sale” list at Sweatdrop’s website.  But you are dying to learn more,right?  Well,CBO is the “home” of UK Manga so….

Terry:Morag,the usual starter question which you may either answer truthfully or in a manner you think befitting:where and when were you born?

 

 

Morag:Dundee, 1979. Um, I only just read the last bit, but now I can’t think of anything more interesting than that, I’m afraid!

 

 

Terry:Did you draw a lot as a youngster and did you get a lot of encouragement?

 

 

Morag:Yes, and not really, but no discouragement as such. I used to doodle in school when I was bored - I’d illustrate stories I made up in the back of my notebooks. I was very into horses when I was 8, and later on I sailed a  lot, so horses and boats featured prominently in my school books. I was always scared I’d get told off, but I never did, although my physics teacher used to mark in the lines of force on all my heeling sailboats, which clearly spoilt the drawing. I never did art at school beyond the age of 14, mainly because I enjoyed other things more at the time.

 

 

 

Terry:Was drawing something you just began naturally or did you see something and just think “I can draw like that!”

 

 

 

 

Morag:It was natural, I think, in that I was bored, there was a pen and a piece of paper, and I had a story or a setting in my head that was more interesting than what I was supposed to be listening to. It’s a very bad habit.

 

 

Terry:And what was the first book or comic you saw that made you want to become a comic book artist?

 

 

Morag:Um. I don’t remember ever specifically wanting to be a comic book artist, to be honest.

 

 

 I started drawing in the manga style when I tried to do fan art of the anime Vision Of Escaflowne (which style I still can’t reproduce). I thought about illustrating stories later, after seeing the webcomic Megatokyo and thinking that it looked like fun (!) So then I wanted a webcomic, and I started one, and only later when I joined Sweatdrop Studios did I think about actually printing anything.

 

 

Terry:So you wanted to become a comic book artist,did it take a while to decide what genre you wanted to draw and develop a style?

 

 

Morag:For the style, drawing comics came second to the art. Before I started trying the manga style, the only things I’d ever put detail into were the horses and the boats; my horsemen and sailors were always stickmen.

For the story genre, I’ve always been a  science fiction/fantasy reader, and those were the stories I used to make up in school and on my paper round and so on, so I suppose that was fixed long before I started thinking about comics. 

Terry:I’m guessing you are a pencil and ink artist…or a digital artist?

 

 

Morag:Yes, pencil and ink - purple pencil and dip pen ink. I love the feel of it, and it’s more portable that way. I do digitally ink for computer coloured pieces, though, and I love the way that looks.

 

 

Terry:What type of pens/tools do you use?

 

 

Morag:Purple Pilot Eno pencil leads in a mechanical pencil - they’re erasable, which is lovely. I use Deleter nibs and ink; the nibs are very tough and the ink is very black, and I also colour some comics using Deleter Neopiko markers.

 

 

On my computer, I use Paintshop Pro 7 for most things, and ComicWorks if I need to ink or tone something, with a Wacom Intuos tablet.

 

 

Terry:Is there a creator who has influenced you?

 

 

Morag:Ashinano Hitoshi, who is responsible for the manga ‘Quiet Country Cafe’ - his pen and ink work is beautiful, the backgrounds in particular. Fred Gallagher from Megatokyo; without reading his comic, I’d not have thought I could do one.

 

 

Terry:There comes a point in most creators careers,unless they are very lucky,when they really think about giving up after trying to get a break.  Have you ever hit that wall and if not –how did you avoid it?

 

 

Morag:I don’t think I’ve hit that - perhaps I haven’t got there yet! When I’m not feeling so good about my comics, I normally try to remind myself of the lovely, lovely people who’ve emailed, or posted on the Sweatdrop forum or on my wiki, who are waiting to see what happens. Especially those people who have drawn me fanart or written fanfiction. Knowing that my characters and story have come alive in someone else’s head is an incredible boost to morale.

 

 

Terry:What was your first full strip and was it ever published?  

 

 

 

Morag:My first full story was written by my husband and a friend of ours, and it was called Concerning Research. It never saw print in its form at the time; another friend was supposed to do the editing, and that never happened. Eventually, I redrew it (which is a good thing. It was very old) and that was self-published as a single, one shot comic through Sweatdrop Studios.

 

 

Terry:How did you get the break and see your first piece of work published –and what was the strip called and where was it published?

 

 

Morag:The first comic I’ve had published properly was a very short comic in the Sweatdrop book Sugardrops. Sugardrops is actually the first manga-style graphic novel to be published in the UK, to the best of my knowledge. The strip is called Fake Wings, and is possibly the oddest story I’ve ever drawn.

 

Terry:Can I ask if you ever get “creator’s block” and what you do to get out of it?

 

 

Morag:Yes, but not so much artists’ block, nor a block for an overarching story, only for page planning.

 

 

Having a webcomic is very useful, because it means I absolutely have to put something up twice a week. I normally plan ahead in bits and pieces, so when the crunch comes I’m not working with nothing, and I usually just make myself plan and draw the page. Page planning can be mechanically broken down into bits, so that’s what I fall back on when there’s nothing else.

 

 

Storytelling is something I do most of the time, so as long as I can get things written down before I forget them, I usually have something to go on, and if I can’t think of something, I normally just let it stew in the back of my head until it’s ready to come out.

If I get artists’ block, it’s the block where nothing I draw comes out right, which is very frustrating. But after a while, you just have to let it go and keep working, and come back to the page if it’s a total disaster. I can’t afford to let one panel stop me from finishing a comic or a webcomic update.

 

 

Terry:You have an ongoing web comic;can you tell us a bit about this and how we can see it?        

        

Morag:I’m afraid I’ve got two, just to be awkward! They’re both available on toothycat.net, my website.  Looking for the Sun updates irregularly but reasonably frequently, an entire issue at a time. It’s a fantasy story but the setting covers multiple worlds, which is great fun for me to play with. It follows two main characters through those worlds, as they look for a sun that has gone missing. I’ve just completed issue 25, and the climax is coming soon - I’m very much looking forward to telling it. The second webcomic, Artifaxis, has actually almost finished - it’s a science fiction story, although it has a distinctly fantasy feel, especially at the beginning. It’s set in a world consisting of many divided city-states, where research and progress is restricted and something is going wrong. The three main characters end up on the run between the city-states, and the story follows them as they come across the inconsistencies that make up their world and discover what the cause is. 

Terry:There was,obviously,a beginning to the web comic but do you have a definite end planned for it or could it run….forever?!

 

 

Morag:They both have an ending planned, and both will be soon - I can’t write stories with no end. It’s a skill I admire in other creators. Artifaxis is all but complete, but Looking for the Sun has three more issues to write. I’m hoping to have it finished by March next year.

 

 

Terry:And what books are currently available from you?

 

 

Morag:Looking for the Sun volumes 1, 2 and 3, which cover issues 1-21. I also have comics in some anthologies; Pink is for Girls, Stardust and Sugardrops, all from Sweatdrop, and the Tokyopop Rising Stars UK & Ireland book 2 (below).

 

 

Terry:I’m guessing that you must have project currently “under the pen” or planned –what can you tell us about them?

 

 

 

Morag:At the moment, I’m focussing on completing Looking for the Sun, which has been going on for the past three years. After that, I’d like to start work on another webcomic, because I like to keep something going all the time.

 

 

Websites work best when they’re updated regularly, and it’s surprising how quickly the pages accumulate; I intend for it to be printed as well as published online. The story for that is in progress at the moment, but is still quite hazy. Other than that, it’s all even more hypothetical, but there are other things planned. Or perhaps ‘hoped for’ is a better phrase

 

 

Terry:If my memory isn’t playing tricks on me,you won a Tokyo Pop award recently so what was it for and does it mean the “big time” is here?

 

 

Morag:I did - it was pretty much my first break. I entered Tokyopop’s Rising Stars of Manga UK & Ireland competition in 2006 with a short science fiction story called ‘The Homecoming’. I placed as a runner up, and the story was published in their compilation book in 2007. I’m not sure about the ‘big time’ - at the moment, I’m very happy creating in my spare time. However, that’s very much my choice, and should I change my mind, I think Tokyopop would be my first port of call.

Terry:Okay,any comments to potential readers out there and/or  long time buyers of your work?

 

 

Morag:Any long time buyers or readers - thank you very much! Your support is so very much appreciated. Any potential readers - well, most of what I do is available to read for free, so please do have a look. I hope you enjoy it

 

 

Terry:Thank you for your time,Morag.  And if anyone is looking for a link to Morag’s work…

 

 

Morag: http://www.toothycat.net is my home site. The books and comics can be bought from Sweatdrop Studios, which is

 

 http://www.sweatdrop.com

 

Thank you very much ^^