Thursday, December 26, 2013

TBC 2014 Book Tour

The book tour is still be confirmed, but possible cities to be visited in 2014 may include:

Las Vegas
San Francisco
Los Angeles
San Diego
Portland
Seattle
Vancouver
New York
Washington
Tokyo

Cover art expected early February!

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Rough artwork received!

The production of artwork has officially begun with most of the rough pages being received by Manga University from Kamobayashi Sensei just recently!

These drawings are mainly a simplified summary of the flow of the story from panel to panel - of which it is a little too early to share samples, sorry - but it allows myself and the editing staff to better understand how Sensei is imaging the story in line with how I am as well.

Also, quick thanks to all those people how have sent messages of support for the book, I really appreciate it!

Richard

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

News! Manga University is the official publisher!



I am proud to announce Japan-based Manga University is the publisher of Sonny Leads! The owners and I have been working on this project for years, slowly cultivating it, and now all their amazing support and expertise is finally resulting in the long-awaited release of the first volume of the story.

Who are Manga University?

Our company motto, "€œEducating With Art," reflects our commitment to creating products that are wholesome, informative and fun. We love manga, and believe it can —€” and should —€” be used for more than just great entertainment.

The educational aspect is very important for the Sonny Leads project because this story uniquely reveals the real world of Japanese karate as it is today.

My tie-up with this great boutique publishing company will make more sense when we release the official description of the Sonny Leads story in a few weeks.

For now,  I leave you with a production meeting photo from last Saturday with the owner's Glenn and Mari, Kamobayashi Sensei and myself. Manga U has a large Japanese 'washitsu' tatami meeting room beside their production offices so it's a great space to use when talking about projects. This is especially true for mine since I need lots of space for jumping around demonstrating how karate points are scored in competition, or even how spectators drop video cameras from being too excited when watching matches.

Much more news to come soon!

Richard

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Manga artist announcement! Genshi Kamobayashi Sensei!

I proud to announce that the famous Japanese manga artist, Genshi Kamobayashi Sensei, has been signed to bring to life my Japan karate story through his amazing talents!

Kamobayashi Sensei has had a long career in Japan, and he should be well recognized in the karate community since he creates a new 'Magic' karate manga short-story each month for JKFan karate magazine, which is published here in Tokyo.

The style he will use for Sonny Leads is not the same as what he has used before, but his deep background in karate & other manga productions, plus the fact he is a karate instructor himself with his own dojo, means 'Sonny' is in very talented, knowledge and capable hands.

Much more info coming soon...!