Summer of Manga 2019 interview: SaigamiProject

The last article in our #summerofmanga2019 series is an interview with Andrea Otilias Doney, aka SaigamiProject, who worked as an editor for the Summer of Manga.

Andrea Otilias Doney, aka SaigamiProject, also creates the comic Saigami for Saturday AM. Saigami follows Hanasaki Ayumi, who is transported to a magical realm after receiving a mysterious letter from her deceased father.

Q: Who are you? Introduce yourself!

My name is Andrea Otilia Doney, I’m Hungarian and online I go under the creator name “SaigamiProject.” Aside from my duties as a leader in Saturday AM and doing art as a freelance gig, I work full time as a hotel receptionist. Frederick tasked me with mentoring a number of creators for this year’s #summerofmanga.

Q: What’s something you learned while working on #summerofmanga2019?

For me this year’s Summer of Manga was very special, as I got the chance to work together with a handful of creators as my interns to teach and guide them as they developed their short stories for SOM. Even though I was in the role of the mentor, I learned a lot from these talented artists myself seeing how the same tasks could be executed in so many different ways.

Q: What are the challenges of making a one shot story compared to a continuous manga comic series with multiple chapters?

I think the hardest part is to stay focused and extract just the right amount of story and exposition from all of the ideas that one has. Everyone is influenced and inspired by long running manga series, so for many artists it seems borderline impossible to only think in terms of short, complete stories. Many creators immediately jump into long backstories, time skips, flashbacks, and so on, even though you don’t need those in order to tell a compelling short story.

Q: Now that SOM has ended, what’s next? Are you planning to edit more works?

Now that SOM and the comic artist internship I mentored is over, I’m focusing on other tasks, but I’m still working together with Ricky [Duron] and his editor to oversee the production and launch of Atlas Article. I hope that in the future I get the chance to work together with other new talents as well and bring in many diverse talents into upcoming SOM events or our magazines.

The first chapter of Saigami is free to read here.

Keep an eye on our Saturday AM tag–more announcements coming soon!

Author: C. Smith

C. Smith is a lifelong fan of comics and manga whose primary interest is in webcomics.

Twitter

Help support independent journalism. Subscribe to our Patreon.

Copyright © The Geekiary