From: wbarnes@sura.net (Bill Barnes)
Subject: Shirow's real name and the life of a manga artist
Organization: SURAnet, College Park, MD, USA, NA, Earth, Milky Way
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 22:10:51 GMT

In article <1992Aug30.045952.29861@usenet.ins.cwru.edu> bn981@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Ryan Mathews) writes:
>In a previous article, conty@cbnewsl.cb.att.com (Conty III) says:
>>Ever heard the terms "pseudonym" or "nom-de-plume".  That's what
>>"Masamune Shirow" is.  No, manga writing is not nearly as glamorous
>>or respectable a profession as some of us would think it is.
>Honestly, I had no idea that Shirow wasn't his real name!

Learn something new every day, eh, Ryan?  8-]

I believe this was brought up in one of the Appleseed reprint volumes.
What I remember:  "Masamune Shirow" is a pen name, he does manga-ing
in his spare time (hence the long delays!), and the reason he doesn't
use his real name is that his employer would frown upon his "moonlighting"
as a mangaka.  Whether this means he'd be fired or just reprimanded or
something, I don't know, but he deliberately doesn't use his real name.

BTW, I suppose this probably means he doesn't do con appearances, huh?  8-/

>But still, although I realize that the vast majority of manga artists
>have to work second jobs to survive, I had always thought that the
>"Big Ones", such as Takahashi, Manabe, Mikimoto, Sonoda, Otomo and the
>like, were able to make at a least a living at their trade, perhaps even
>a comfortable one.  And I certainly thought that Shirow qualified as a
>Big One if anyone did.

I don't think so.  If nothing else, he doesn't produce as much manga
as these people do.  Takahashi has Ranma every week plus the occasional
Rumic World, for instance, while Shirow can take a year or more to produce
one Appleseed volume - and I doubt he gets *that* much for one manga
volume!  Granted, Shirow has a real job so he can't afford to produce more
manga, but he'd definitely have to up his page count to make more money.
And since I would imagine he gets paid for quantity not quality (i.e. how
many pages he does, not how detailed they are), he'd either (A) need an
assistant, which I think causes his art to suffer (compare vols. 1 & 2 to
3 & 4), (B) do less detailed work, or (C) just learn to work faster 8-).

>You're telling me that the writer who created BLACK MAGIC, DOMINION,
>APPLESEED, and ORION, some of the best and most popular manga works
>ever, can't survive on his own work?  Yow.

Popular here, not necessarily as popular in Japan.  And that's where
it really counts, at least as far as Shirow's bank account is
concerned.  His work doesn't appear in any of the big manga weeklies,
his patterns are downright eclectic by Japanese manga standards, we're
probably lucky there's a publisher willing to take the chance on him!
("Sorry, boss, I can't finish the latest issue on time because the
electron microscope I've been using to lay down the 0.1 nm halftone
burned out..." 8-) And since when has quality had anything to do with
how much money your artwork earns?!  8-/

>The most popular comic artists over here don't need second jobs.  It's
>the capitalist system at it's best: fill a need and get rewarded.  (Note
>that I said "most popular" before you rebut.)

Yeah, but how many are there of those?  Maybe all the people who work
regularly for Marvel and DC, with a few actually well-off, as comic
artists go.  But most of the smaller/lesser-known ones have to
supplement their income somehow.  And the US doesn't (normally) have the
exorbitant cost of living Tokyo (where most manga artists - not including
Shirow, I know - are located), or Japan in general for that matter, does.

>Still, although I have, of course, heard of pseudonyms, what blew me
>away is the first post's connotation that a big-name manga artist like
>Shirow somehow lives in fear of his identity being discovered!

Manga artists don't seem to get the respect over there from the
general public they deserve, just like comic artists here don't,
certain preconceptions about them not withstanding...it seems to me
more likely that the Japanese would honor their Bill Wattersons,
Berkeley Breatheds, and Charles Schultzs before they pay homage to
their John Byrnes, Jack Kirbys, and Will Eisners...(Then again,
looking at a lot of our comics artists, maybe there's a reason why...)

Japan's manga industry may be a lot BIGGER than the US' comics industry,
but that doesn't mean they treat their artists any better than we do!
-- 
Bill "Whassamatter?!  Can't you take a joke?!" Barnes   wbarnes@sura.net
Disclaimer:  The author apologizes for any thought-provoking material he may
	     have accidentally included and promises not to do it again.
Datclaimer:  My employers wouldn't WANT to share some of my opinions.
Newsgroups: rec.arts.anime