The costs and benefits of changing career paths
Many mangaka start out in their early twenties, if not in their late teens. It’s easier to manage crazy things when you’re young, like pulling off a few all-nighters a week, which may be necessary for a mangaka who’s just beginning his career. And that doesn’t take into account the time constraints you’ll have to balance with if you have a family.
I’m definitely not typical. I was already 27 by the time I finished school and started working on my first significant work. There are mangaka who started later than this, but I’m definitely on the older side. So I like to remind myself that Van Gogh decided to become a painter at the age of 27, and Beethoven’s music only got better as he got older (and that's despite his loss of hearing).
But this raises a question that people sometimes ask: Did my education go to waste?
Well, for starters, I can think a lot more clearly about things than I could before. Physics trains you to think in ways that help you cut through problems in many disciplines, and it’s certainly been helping me as I bumble along my manga path. As I explained in a previous posting, authoring manga requires so many different skills that it’s really helpful if you can do a lot of the learning on your own.
Learning on your own is just like doing scientific research. You have to figure out what people have done in the past, develop your own vision, and invent any necessary skills or techniques you need to accomplish those goals. On a lighter note, I also enjoy the common aspect of buying equipment like faster computers, but the CFO (my wife) reminds me that she’d like to see some returns on our investments for a change. “Ouch!”
One of the questions that people often asked of the great mangaka, Shotaro Ishinomori, was “How much education should a mangaka get?” He would reply, “As much as possible. Having more knowledge will provide you with many more interesting perspectives when looking at things, which will give you a big edge.”
But for me, finishing up my education probably had more personal than practical relevance. Successfully pushing through grad school gave me the confidence to take on tougher challenges and stick with them. Also, if I hadn’t finished, at some point I’d probably start wondering if going into academics was the thing to do. Then instead of just being that physicist doodling in class to the frustration of his professors, I’d also be the mangaka scribbling equations while his editors get annoyed. But now I know that the “road not taken” was deliberately not taken, so I can whole-heartedly commit myself to my new goals.
I’m definitely not typical. I was already 27 by the time I finished school and started working on my first significant work. There are mangaka who started later than this, but I’m definitely on the older side. So I like to remind myself that Van Gogh decided to become a painter at the age of 27, and Beethoven’s music only got better as he got older (and that's despite his loss of hearing).
But this raises a question that people sometimes ask: Did my education go to waste?
Well, for starters, I can think a lot more clearly about things than I could before. Physics trains you to think in ways that help you cut through problems in many disciplines, and it’s certainly been helping me as I bumble along my manga path. As I explained in a previous posting, authoring manga requires so many different skills that it’s really helpful if you can do a lot of the learning on your own.
Learning on your own is just like doing scientific research. You have to figure out what people have done in the past, develop your own vision, and invent any necessary skills or techniques you need to accomplish those goals. On a lighter note, I also enjoy the common aspect of buying equipment like faster computers, but the CFO (my wife) reminds me that she’d like to see some returns on our investments for a change. “Ouch!”
One of the questions that people often asked of the great mangaka, Shotaro Ishinomori, was “How much education should a mangaka get?” He would reply, “As much as possible. Having more knowledge will provide you with many more interesting perspectives when looking at things, which will give you a big edge.”
But for me, finishing up my education probably had more personal than practical relevance. Successfully pushing through grad school gave me the confidence to take on tougher challenges and stick with them. Also, if I hadn’t finished, at some point I’d probably start wondering if going into academics was the thing to do. Then instead of just being that physicist doodling in class to the frustration of his professors, I’d also be the mangaka scribbling equations while his editors get annoyed. But now I know that the “road not taken” was deliberately not taken, so I can whole-heartedly commit myself to my new goals.
posted by Kaz at 12:00 AM
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