Girl Manga

Tony Irwin needed a cover for his new game Shoujo Story.

I don't actually know Tony, but the weird thing is I thought I did. About a year ago I sent Tony an email about something or other thinking he was someone else. We've shared a few emails since then. I see Tony as a potential ally, since both his game Shoujo Story and my game Panty Explosion both have their roots in Japanese manga and animation. I figured if I kept tabs on Tony that when it came time to release Panty Explosion (I know I haven't actually talked about PE here yet, but I will soon) that Tony would be a good person to know.

So anyway, a few weeks ago Tony started a topic on The Forge asking for feedback and suggestions concerning the cover he had made for his game. you can see the topic here http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=19455.msg204332. Tonys not an artist, but he had decided that he wanted to do all the art for his game himself. This is, to me, pretty admirable and says a lot about the kind of guy Tony is. He got a lot of flak (and a fair amount of constructive criticism) from the guys on The Forge over his cover (which you can see by going to the above link). I felt kinda bad, because I did (and do) admire Tony for doing all the art on his project himself, and while his cover kinda sucked (I'm sorry Tony) it was still better then several I'd seen. And as Tony himself said "For my little hobby game I think what I've done is adequate."

I decided to offer Tony my services. i sent him an email reintroducing myself and offering to do the cover for free or cheap. Tony's response was quick and sensible: "I should have emphasised in my thread I'm not looking at this as a commercial endeavour, more a hobbyist thing, but I do want to make a print version available through Lulu. Part of the fun of this has been learning how to draw in order to illustrate my own game". So how could I argue with that, right? I wouldn't want someone else horning in on my game either.

 A few days later I decided to bug Tony again. I restated my offer and made the argument that it would be a shame if anyone passed up his game because they didn't like the cover. Yes, it was a completely ass-hole thing to say. I said it anyway. At this point I had kind of sold myself on the idea of doing the cover, and I was disappointed when Tony turned me down. i figured I'd take one more shot at it, even if it meant being a complete ass. Tony didn't respond, and I figured that was that.

 A few days ago I got another email from Tony. He had changed his mind. Didn't say why, and I didn't ask. He gave me the job description and asked how much I would charge. That was nice. I had made the offer to do the job for free and Tony could have easily taken me up on that but being the kind of guy he is Tony insisted on paying for my services. I really appreciate that, and I think that also really says a lot about the kind of guy Tony is.

I had Tony's description, and I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do, but I figured I should spend a day doing research. Shoujo Manga are Japanese comics for girls. That's probably an over-simplification, but there you go. Anyway, I luckily had a nice thick 800+ page volume of Shoujo Manga that my Japanese instructor had loaned me (and I had never returned). I also pulled out my Clamp books and my housemate Barry's Ranma and Sailor Moon books and spent the afternoon making notes and sketches. I had figured I'd use a style similar to the one I use on my Pokemon parody comic Perfect Drug (yeah, that's something else I'll talk about later) but a quick look thru the available material made it obvious that the Perfect Drug style was not a good fit. I settled on  a mix between a few different artists and went to work sketching.

Now the only change (so far) that Tony requested was the rear girls hand. In the sketch and finished version you'll notice she has a closed fist, while in the inked version she's making a peace or victory or whatever sign. I thought that would be more playful and cute, but Tony asked me to change it back and I think he was absolutely right. The raised fist gives the 3rd girl a lot more energy.

Anyway, the illustrations you see here represent the process of creating the cover. I ended up with 4 different versions of the finished cover, with  white, green, pink and blue backgrounds. It'll be up to Tony to choose, but I think I prefer the pink.

The neat thing about doing a project like this, and the reason I wanted to do it in the first place is the chance to draw something I never get to draw. After a year of dragons and zombies and cowboys and fantasy warrior shit doing a trio of Shoujo school girls is like a vacation.

And the other half of that is getting to work with someone who you respect. Tony has a great game here, and I think it's going to do real well. And I'm really glad I could be a part of that.