Here’s an offbeat and very entertaining interview from the Hampstead and Highgate Express with manga-ka Kiriko Kubo, who lives in England but continues to draw manga that is published in Japan. Self-taught and unassuming, Kubo has been drawing comics for 20 years, working nights part of the time so she could keep her day job.
“I didn’t tell anyone where I was working during the day that I was a cartoonist, I didn’t think they would think I was serious about my day job.” It’s a habit she still finds hard to break.
Kubo majored in English literature, not cartooning, when she went to college, but she was already a professional cartoonist while she was still a student. The article includes this rather droll explanation for the rise of the female manga-ka:
Drawing cartoons was traditionally a male job, but as women began to work and needed something to distract them from the subway journeys as much as their male counterparts, the women’s market expanded. And, besides, Japanese men have always read her stuff – there is no stigma in reading about pink fluffy talking pigs in Japan.
Kubo’s manga don’t seem to be translated much into English, but they are popular in Japan and one, Cynical Hysterie Hour, was made into an anime, with music by John Zorn.
More about Kubo:
Another interview is here.
Her website, mostly in Japanese, is here.
