Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
I remember the first Shojo Manga
I liked was ‘Crest of the Royal Family’
I’ve let slip my age by saying that
They put out a really small book
so I read it
I hadn’t really thought so much about it
I mean
because you can’t earn a living with Manga
but later, after
I finished studying in Britain
My graduation project was Manga that looked like an art book
The book was called
‘The Sheep Murders’
because
after I’d been to Britan,
I started to have certain questions
about religion
I wasn’t brought up in any faith
but there would be some things
I would go along to worship at temples with others
but I wasn’t really clear on which god was which
I would just worship whoever
It’s something peculiar to Taiwan
It’s like pantheism
We respect lots of different cultures
But after I went to Britain
The big religions there are Protestantism and Catholicism
and I would wonder why people believed
but there were also some who didn’t believe it
so it’s unclear who is right
and what religion does
for people
I was most attracted to
the ‘peace and love’ cults
of the 1960s and 70s
so I found a lot of information on them
and did some research about them
so I came up with this book
because I like drawing animals
There are no national boundaries with animals
It really started because when I was in Britain
and I drew in a Japanese-style
This proved somewhat of a cultural barrier for them
just like, when I read foreign comics
Like when I read ‘Watchmen’
I thought all the ‘pretty’ girls were really ugly
I didn’t know why they looked so weird
and they had the same problem with us
Regardless of how good the content was
At first you would think
this isn’t the style I’m into
and you’d put it to one side
Then later
I thought I could be fairer using animals
Whatever was said
seemed boring when people were saying it
but it was funny when animals said it
There are some that don’t have a fixed topic
from weird dreams I’ve had
and this came of it
but dreams can be a psychological reaction
So maybe there’s something to them
It’s hard to express
but drawing them gives them expression
it’s a tool for story-telling
Life is like that anyway, trying your
best to find interesting things to play with