

Good news for comic lovers, mischief makers, and zine worshippers: Hana Doki Kira, the shoujo-inspired comic anthology I contributed to earlier this year, is finally available through Kickstarter! I have a short story comic in this one, and it’s inspired by my favorite themes in shoujo manga I read growing up.

I don’t want to give away much of the plot of the story since it’s so short, but I will say I took some inspiration from Margaret comics. I remember reading issues of Nakayosi and Ribon until the bindings went ragged. One day my aunt sent me some random volumes of Hana Yori Dango and various other series for older girls. It changed how I viewed the shoujo genre, and I wanted to incorporate that into my story. Not sure if I totally accomplished it, but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. (Another random tidbit: I went to hunting and fishing superstore Cabela’s for inspiration.)
I’m pretty stoked to see this Kickstarter do well. It’s also been a great learning process seeing how things are run behind-the-scenes. One pitfall of being a creative is that it is very hard to to learn the skills needed to turn your work into a sustainable business. Kickstarter has made it so much easier for creatives to keep doing their own thing and get compensated for it through their fanbase.
Anyway, I’ll hope you’ll consider donating for the cause! You’ll get some kickass stories that are pretty much only available through this Kickstarter. If you don’t have the funds to contribute, you could also help by spreading the word to anyone who’d be interested. Go go go!
These comics have always been the thing to draw my attention all the time while I am working. It was really good experience to know about such things all the time through this website.