Thursday, June 26, 2014

'Sonny Leads' the manga karate book is now for sale!

Thanks to Eric at American Sports Karate for sending a pic of the cover!

My book 'Sonny Leads' is for sale now!!! Yeah! 

自分のマンガ「Sonny Leads」がそろそろ発売されます‼︎ 興味のある方下記のリンクをご覧ください! 

 Worldwide available at the Manga University website.

日本と世界: http://www.howtodrawmanga.com/products/sonnyleads001 

US Amazon http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/ASIN/4921205345

Canada Amazon http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/4921205345

 www.sonnyleads.com 

I'm actually in transit on the beginning of the 3-week tour starting in Naples, Florida, eventually reaching California and Nevada. At the end of today's 24hrs of travel, there are a box of books in Florida already sent there by the printer waiting for me to see & hold for the first time!

Thanks to everyone who have already sent me messages that they have ordered their copies of the book, thanks so much!

Richard

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

15 days left!!!

Only 15 days left until the book is finished being printed!
Amazing!

As soon as the order information is ready, I'll post it here.

Richard

Friday, May 30, 2014

Author's manga portrait!

The one and only Johnny Tesoro illustrated this awesome chibi manga portrait of little ole me for the back book cover!

For sure he captures my desire to make sure we always approach karate as 'serious fun'.

Thanks so much Johnny, like always, your decades of support continues to truly help me carry on with this karate adventure!

Richard

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Cover art update!

The cover art has been updated and the title font looks amazing! It's only a month now until the book goes on sale, so hopefully I will be able to post some sample pages soon. The book's Twitter page is also active daily, so have a look! @sonnyleadsmanga
Richard

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Cover art has arrived!!!


The cover art has arrived! Kamobayashi Sensei has really done an amazing job!

I really love the retro feel of the piece, while also reflecting the modern kumite equipment used in competition.

The building in the background is the Nippon Budokan, and it says Budokan in kanji on the red banner, as that is what the actual entrance looks like.

The kanji on Sonny's uniform says Ogami Dojo, which of course a Japanese reader would understand so I just wanted to share that fact for non-Japanese readers.

Why Ogami dojo? Ah, that comes later.

Is Sonny leaping into the kick, falling from the kick, off balance in the kick, or at the moment to extend further with the kick, it all depends on the viewer.

And um, no, Sonny is not supposed to look like me. For sure similar, but he is a fictional character having some traits of some famous karate athletes.

Again, I love cover, I love how the color really comes off the page, and I can't wait to see how the publisher incorporates this artwork into the actual front cover of the book itself.

Next stage in production is the first few pages of the first chapter...

Thursday, February 20, 2014

A little longer...

First, thanks to all those people sending me messages of support!

Just like you, I can't wait to hold the book in my hands too.

For now, it seems this manga project is so big, Kamobayashi Sensei would like longer to work on it, therefore we're looking at having the book come out in June of this year.

Just a few more months to wait for even a better final product is fine with me.

On the book tour side of things, some of the tour dates are about to be confirmed in June & July.

Florida

California

Nevada

then back to Japan... to Okinawa!

Once the associated events for each location are booked, I'll be able to announce exactly what's happening.

If anyone has any questions, feel free to email me.

Richard

Sunday, February 9, 2014

Reviewing cover art...

It's now February and 2 samples of the cover art have arrived for review!

The final cover art should hopefully be ready to be announced within a week or two.

Thanks to everyone for the messages of interest in the book! As soon as the cover art is ready, we can begin to get samples of the first chapter too, which I'll put up here on the website.

I'll also keep posting updates on our Twitter feed.

@sonnyleadsmanga

Richard