Bettina Kurkoski, a runner-up in Tokyopop's Rising Stars of Manga competition in 2003, has used the contest to launch her career as a cartoonist. Her entry, "Axis Lumen," appeared in the RSOM 2 compilation volume and Tokyopop will publish her three-book series, My Cat Loki. In the funny and moving first volume, Ameya, an artist paralyzed by grief after the death of his cat, recovers his inspiration for art after rescuing another animal, Loki, from the street. Kurkoski will not be at the San Diego Comic-Con this week, but Tokyopop will promote the book at the show. PW Comics Week talked with Kurkoski about working with Tokyopop and the story of Ameya and his cats.
PW Comics Week: What drew you to create a work in the manga style?
Bettina Kurkoski: I just found it more pleasing to the eye than American comic book art, although I really didn't know much about it until Tokyopop started publishing manga. I have been drawing my whole life. As a teenager, I picked up on the anime style, then discovered [superhero comics artist] Jim Lee. After my Lee phase, I went to a more simplistic style, and knocked out all the cross-hatching. Things really changed when I got very sick and had surgery and didn't draw for many months. When I started again, after so much time away, I couldn't draw the same way. I had to reinvent myself as an artist. At the same time, manga had gotten more popular and I thought, "I want to draw like that." The way I draw now is not exactly how I drew after I recovered. I think my style today incorporates elements of my Jim Lee phase and the influence of manga.
PWCW: What is your background and training as an artist?
BK: I did go to college for art. I went to University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, and graduated with a bachelor's degree in illustration and just continued on. I think I honestly learned more on my own. College did give me the basics, but I took that and expanded on it. I was always, always working on something of my own.
PWCW: How did your success in the Rising Stars of Manga competition influence your career?
BK: It was a major steppingstone for me in terms of getting my foot in the door with a major company. After college, I sent out submissions to all the big companies, to wherever I could, for American-style comics. I received a lot of replies along the lines of, "we like your work but we don't have anything for you." Then a friend of mine entered the first Rising Stars competition. She didn't win, but she encouraged me to enter the next year. I did and my submission, "Axis Lumen," was one of the runners-up and was published in the book. Even before I knew I was a runner-up, Tokyopop editor Mark Paniccia, who is now at Marvel, called me and asked me questions about how many pages I could do a week, [looking to find] out how I would fare in the industry.
PWCW: How did the story of My Cat Loki come about?
BK: It took me some time to get my book deal. I knew Tokyopop wanted me as an artist, but I kept being put on projects that fell through. After a year or so, the company asked me to pitch my own work, because they wanted to keep me on as an artist, even though they thought my writing might be a little weak. So I pitched a simple story, basically My Cat Loki, and it was an instant hit. Luckily I have a lot in common with my editor, Lillian Diaz-Przybyl, who also grew up in New England and also had a cat she loved. So that basically sealed the deal as far as what I would be working on and what Tokyopop would be interested in.
PWCW: Can you tell us what is was like to write and draw your first full-length project?
BK: It was great. It was fun to have the freedom to do what I wanted with the book, although it was stressful to have deadlines at times. But the deadlines have not been as grueling for me as they have been for some people. I have been told I work fast, which is definitely an asset in this field. Working with a company really whips you into shape. I often have different pieces of stories lying around that I never flesh out. Working on a deadline really makes me think things through—here is my beginning, my middle and my end.
PWCW: Tell us about Tokyopop's editorial process and working closely with an editor.
BK: I think it has been relatively positive. Lillian is one of the best editors ever, very nice and understanding. I haven't had any problems with major changes to my work or anything like that, unlike some other artists perhaps have had. I have had a lot of leeway and I seemed to have hit the nail on the head every time. There have been minor changes, but everything has been very smooth. They have been very, very nice to me, maybe because of what I went through with the failed projects earlier.
PWCW:My Cat Loki deals with the complicated, intense relationships some people have with animals in a humorous and touching way. What inspired the plot and how did you manage to portray the strong emotions Ameya has toward his pets without making the story too saccharine?
BK: What inspired the plot is my own experience of dealing with the death of my cat Morris, whom I had for over 20 years. I wanted to portray that deep relationship with an animal. But I didn't want to make Ameya too angsty or depressed. I didn't want that angst-ridden, shojo manga style. Humor is the best way to remember someone or something you have lost—a pet or a person—and try to get on with your life. It is just a healing process.
PWCW: An important part of the story centers on Ameya losing and rediscovering his artistic inspiration. Does the story relate to your personal experience as an artist?
BK: No, I never really lost my inspiration. In order to make it into a more intense story, which you have to do in comics, I needed to exaggerate everything. Losing his inspiration—a major thing for an artist—represents how deep Ameya's loss is.
PWCW: What other things are you working on?
BK: I am working on the beginning stages of book 2 of the series. That should be out in the spring of 2007. I honestly don't know what is going to happen after My Cat Loki. I have been told that if the three-book series does well, it could become a regular series or there could at least be a fourth book. I am leaving little plot points open that could be explored later on, just in case. I have a lot of people telling me they love the book, but it hasn't hit the streets yet, so I don't know what that means. But I have shown Loki to people who are 70 and 80 years old, people who don't know anything about manga, who really love it. So hopefully it will reach out beyond the typical manga audience, as it really is a universal story about mourning and recovering.
PWCW: Is there anything else you want people to know about My Cat Loki?
BK: Well, some people are a little confused and think Loki is actually morphing into a person in a few scenes. I want to explain that those scenes are Ameya's psychological projection, illustrating his connection to his cats. Some people have actually wondered if Loki is going to turn it into a boy and then [it will become] a boys' love manga, a yaoi manga. But I will leave that to the fan fiction.
