Broken Frontier

In Blank, a less-than-smooth secret agent by the name of Blank goes undercover at a high school and befriends a female student by the name of Aki Clark. Unfortunately, he has a case of amnesia, and needs to remember his spy moves quickly before getting in too deep with terrorist organization Raizen. Looking to be a fantastic mix of Western and Eastern culture, experienced creator Pop Mhan hopes to ride the manga wave when with his latest project. BF got together with Pop for a little one-on-one session.

BROKEN FRONTIER: How did you get involved with Tokyopop?

POP MAHN: Well, I was in a rut of sorts a few years ago, where I was doing mainly American comics but I had aspirations to work on something that was more in the vein of what I was a huge fan of, namely manga. I loved how a story is told in that format and I wanted to try my hand at it. 

After some searching, I came across the Tokyopop website and found that they were accepting proposals to do a manga. I quickly submitted not knowing the full consequences of what I had just done. [Laughs] 

BF: First SpyBoy, now Blank—are you a fan of the spy genre?

PM: Not particularly.  In fact I really have a sense of dislike for James Bond. [Laughs]

My attachment to the spy genre is because I have the memory of a fruit fly and since SpyBoy was done a few years ago, I had actually forgotten about it already when I was putting together the proposal for Blank.  My approach to Blank was that it was supposed to be a teen romantic comedy centered around the characters Blank and Aki.  The spy part came about as I was trying to make sense of the plot and reasoning why Blank was so… whacky.

BF: Manga generally has adult-themed leanings; will that be the same with Blank?

PM: Blank will not be geared for kids.

BF: Being a manga title, how much of the story relies on Eastern culture versus Western culture?

PM: Being from the East but growing up in the West affects my view of stories if that makes any sense—Blank has that type of background.

BF: Manga seems like such a huge influence on your artwork style, so how come it took so long to create a manga-style book?

PM: Mainly because I started off as an American comic book artist.  It had never occurred to me to do a manga until I found out that Tokyopop was accepting proposals. 

BF: Who are your biggest influences?

PM: So many artists have helped to shape my art that it would be an injustice to not name them all, but currently, the artists that I am a huge fan of are:  Ito Ogure, Mizuki Kawashita and Tohru Fujisawa.

BF: How much have you evolved as an artist and a creator since you first got into comics?

PM: I have evolved, devolved and all sorts of crazy. I'm one of those guys that just follows my fancies, whatever it may be and wherever it takes me, regardless of the consequences.  I'll tell you, being that way has many ups and downs. 

I broke into comics waaaaay too early.  I had drawn all of two years before I broke in and that's not a good thing at all.  My learning process is open and bare for all to see in my body of work.  Every little thing I learned and all of the kinks I'm trying to work out, it’s all there.  [Laughs] It's pretty embarrassing actually.

BF: Your artwork really seems to have become more manga-like than from when you were drawing for Ghost Rider for Marvel so many years ago. Was this a conscious transformation?

PM: After the Ghost Rider stuff was where I fell in love with manga and it's been creeping into my art ever since.

BF: What do you think of the amazing popularity of manga in recent years?

PM: I think it's great!  It's made manga more accessible here in the States.  The variety to choose from is superb because of the popularity.  I hope to see it explode to even greater heights than where it is currently.

BF: Since you've worked with so many publishers, are there any characters that you didn't get a chance to work on that you would have?

PM: The characters that got me into comics were Jim Lee’s X-Men.  The X-Men have since gone through many transformations and that old team isn’t around anymore.  I think I'd still like a crack at the X-Men, since I still have not done them yet.

BF: A lot of your recent work is in black and white. Do you find an advantage of black and white over color?

PM: The black and white stuff is more me, in the sense that I'm doing more of the work.  In American comics, I am the penciler and there's still an inker and colorist that touches the work before it sees the light of day.  I'm not sure if it's an advantage, but the B&W work is more of a representation of my work.

BF: Do you see a difference between manga fans versus "traditional comics" fans?

PM: On the average, American comic book fans tend to be a little older.

BF: Any other upcoming projects you'd like to mention?

PM: I have a ton of ideas and stories that I'd like to tell.  Some are more fleshed out than others, but right now, I'd like to concentrate on Blank and really make an appealing product for readers.

Check out the high-school spy-jinks at a comic shop near you. And for more on Pop head to www.tokyopop.com and www.popmhan.com.