What is graphic noiz?
graphic noiz is a yaoi novella series about 19 year old skateboarder and amateur manga artist, Noiz who went to ComicCon in New York city as an artist in Artist Alley and was discovered by the literary agent, Keita. Keita is bestselling author Shiro Ijima’s agent and he gets a peek at Noiz’ original manga Disaster Code at the con. After putting Noiz through an art test and stringing him along with words, dinners and few chance encounters with Shiro, he is hired by Keita to be the illustrator for the manga version of the bestselling scifi Fissue series Shiro’s latest work. Shiro used to be a mangaka and created the Dawn series which was first published in a serial magazine in Japan. Shiro graduated from being a mangaka when his Fissure series took off and sales landed him on multiple bestseller lists. Shiro does TV interviews and radio shows and was doing a book signing at the ComicCon when Keita happened upon Noiz. Shiro has agreed to adapt book 1 in the dystopia Fissure series into a screenplay and script with camera moves so that it can be used as the basis for the Fissure manga where Noiz is required by Keita to draw storyboards before starting on the actual manga drawing and illustrations.
Available now – graphic noiz: book 1 on Amazon Kindle and free on Kindle Unlimited.
graphic noiz: book 2 manuscript is completed, is formatted for ebook and is currently in edits.
graphic noiz: book 2 will be available for pre-order on February 1. Release date is February 15.
Tell me more about graphic noiz
The book series follows Noiz and Shiro from meeting at ComicCon in book 1, to starting the collaboration on the Fissure manga, through creation of the first few chapters in book 2. Later books in the series will cover finishing the manga and publishing the work, having the book get noticed by professional reviewers and manga fans, being invited as guests at ComicCon to showcase the Fissure manga, as well as leading an artist panel and finally the manga hitting the bestseller list after release.
But I thought graphic noiz was yaoi?
Well, it is, give me a minute and I will get to that. While all the creating is going on, there is an underlying light yaoi boy’s love sub-plot taking place in the story with Noiz dancing around Shiro’s advances as he tries to decide if Shiro is just using him to get the work on the manga done faster or is actually interested in him. Shiro is known as a womanizer and it is all over the Internet. Shiro picks up his female fans of his books and takes them out on one date then dumps them harshly before the second date or dumps them at the restaurant in the rudest way possible on the second date. His female fans love that about him and his male readers think he is cool but Shiro has never dated a guy before. Shiro who is 26 encounters a rich businesswoman named Ai Amena who he takes out on a first date but she doesn’t seem to get the hint when he dumps her before the second date. She demands another dinner and this ends up causing Shiro to lean on Noiz to try to distract the woman when she unknowingly comes to Shiro’s apartment and refuses to leave. Noiz who is gay is confused by Shiro’s advances but even after Shiro’s actions get Ai to leave, the teasing continues making Noiz wonder if Shiro likes him or not.
But wait, isn’t there a deeper reason for Shiro’s incessant womanizing and arrogant behavior?
In addition to the MM sub-plot, there is a backstory to why Shiro gave up being a mangaka. He published the first volume of his manga Dawn in a serial magazine in Japan in Japanese at age 19 which was then subsequently translated into French, English and German and the story ran a full volume in the serial magazine. Publishing more books after the serial ended, Shiro was mentored by an older mangaka named Katsuhiro. The backstory of Katsuhiro sponsoring the young Shiro and assisting him in his craft holds a deep meaning for the writer and former manga artist. The ties ran deep and Noiz’ inquiries one night seeing Shiro depressed when he brings over illustrations from chapter 1 of Fissure to show him the progress. Shiro reviews the work after Noiz questions him about Dawn and Shiro gets angry and throws Noiz out of his flat.
Shiro’s eccentric moods and the deep running depression he hides behind arrogance, extravagant spending, alcohol and womanizing all linked directly back to Katushiro’s mentorship when he was younger. When Noiz draws the opening full page spread for chapter 1 and Shiro sees it at Noiz’ studio in Manhattan which Keita got for him, it brings back memories for Shiro and he actually sits down and brushes off his artist skills rejecting Noiz’ image and drawing the scene he really wants. The interaction between Noiz and Shiro in book 2 regarding Katsuhiro changes the course of the story. Having to sort all this new information out, Noiz dedicates himself to the artwork for Fissure more seriously.
What about the manga? What story does it tell?
graphic noiz: the manga takes place between book 1 and book 2 and includes scenes not in either book. It is a whole new story. I wrote a blog post once that I would never write a romance or erotica book. That is true, I won’t. But boy’s love can be subtle and teasing. I don’t need to write the characters into a relationship to dance around them possibly having feelings for each other and Noiz is young and inexperienced when it comes to the womanizing and narcissistic flirting of Shiro towards him. I doubt I could write a love scene that would make any sense so I won’t try. Since I want this to be a YA story, anything that could be seen as racy will happen behind closed doors and all you will see is maybe some hand holding, light touching and a kiss here and there. There is one scene in book 2 where we kind of get into it but I don’t want to give any spoilers.
What is your manga making process?
The manga delves a bit more into Noiz’ feelings, talks about the process of making manga, and we interact with the secondary characters a little bit more. The manga is only limited by my ability to draw what is in my head. The image at the start of this post is chapter 6 opening art from the graphic noiz: manga featuring Noiz with his skateboard. The manga allows me to show off the character’s personalities, likes and dislikes a little bit more than in the novels through illustrations.
Since I did not do a script for the manga, I am just being a pantser and throwing myself into it drawing as it goes. At the moment I am done with chapter 1 and the full manga is planned to be about 50 pages. I block the panels on a page first and then think about the basic idea for each page of what I want to convey and then start drawing. I have put a few images of pages up on Instagram which have been received pretty well.
Recently I went to the art store to buy more manga paper but the store discontinued the manga paper that I was using for chapter 1 of graphic noiz. This will mean that I will have to draw the rest of the manga on larger paper. This is causing me a little angst. My process is to hand draw the illustrations at 11×17, then copy the pages down to 8.5×11, and then scan them into the computer. The original paper size was 10.5×14 so the copy down will need to change the process. This could be a little problematic but if I copy down pages as we go chapter by chapter instead of bringing the whole thing at once when done it might be more manageable.
Once all the page pencils are done, reduced and scanned then I change the levels which substitutes for inking. For this manga I may actually add tone by hand as I bought a set of neutral grey copic markers and blacks to use for that purpose. I think the toning will add to the artwork but I haven’t done that in a while so I will have to practice first before doing the final pages. Once scanned, the text and text bubbles and narration are added in the computer using Photoshop and Manga Studio. More work on the manga is in process as I am currently working on drawing chapter 2. My pantser mangaka angst and anxiety about new paper size are causing me to procrastinate a little. But I need to buckle down and just launch back into it.
So what’s next for graphic noiz?
Book 2 will be available for pre-order on February 1 on Amazon. I will post updates about the manga as we progress on the artwork and will have some individual pages on the natsuya uesugi Patreon and Instagram sites.
Check back for more in the coming weeks.
