Interviews

Interview With Sarah Ferrick

By LJ Douresseau
November 9, 2004 - 10:26

Mr. Charlie #40 wants to get on the Sarah Ferrick bandwagon a little early. The 16-year old wunderkind was a finalist in TOKYOPOP's The Rising Stars of Manga #3 competition. Although teenage comic book artists are nothing new, Ms. Ferrick will stand out in a crowd. She participated in our ongoing RSOM Q&A:

Would you mind introducing yourself to the readers?

SARAH: My name's Sarah Ferrick, I'm a 16-year old junior in high school on lovely Long Island and a big Tolkien fan.

Would you mind also introducing the readers to the characters and concept of your winning entry?

SARAH: The story's called "A Little Rain." It's about a little angel named Okage who goes through a door that he's not supposed to even touch. He winds up in some unknown place and gets attacked. After waking up, he discovers an alarming fact and goes out to look for his attacker. He finds out that another boy named Enlil was the one who left him to die and tries to strangle him. Okage passes out because of his weakened state but is nursed back to health by Enlil and eventually develops a strange, distant sort of friendship with his attacker.
The story's kind of random and weak (no one gets it! I don't even think I get it.....). It's a spin-off of my story Okage+Enlil, which has been revised over and over again since the RSoM entry. Okage+Enlil is actually much longer and has a lot more characters. Even the story is completely different. The characters Okage, Enlil and Scallop (that's Enlil's dad) are basically the same in "A Little Rain" as they are in Okage+Enlil but that's really the only big similarity.

At what point were you first exposed to manga and anime, and what were your initial reactions to it?

SARAH: I think the first anime I ever saw was "Sailor Moon." When I was 10 or 11, I saw the commercials on TV for it, and I thought the characters were so pretty. I tried drawing and copying them a lot, and I just really loved the style.

What was it about the form that attracted you to manga, and what were the particular titles and creators who appealed to you?

SARAH: I like how in manga the panels and layouts can be so diverse and creative. It really makes it interesting to read through rather than having all the panels being somewhat uniformly shaped. There are also so many different subjects and genres done in manga, so there's something for everyone.
I particularly like [Hayao] Miyazaki's [film director of Princess Mononoke]work. It just has this great kind of old fairytale atmosphere to it. It can be cute and sweet and disturbing all at the same time. I also like Kozue Amano's work too (thought I've only gotten to read it recently). His settings are beautiful and he always varies the angles and perspective.

When did you first become aware that there were U.S. based publishers of manga (like Eclipse, Dark Horse, TOKYOPOP, etc.) and what titles did you like?

SARAH: I'm not sure....maybe when I started looking at the book spines more...
(...that's a terrible answer)

When did you become aware of TOKYOPOP and the Rising Stars of Manga contest and was this your first entry?

SARAH: One of my best friends told me about it after the first one. I tried entering for the second one but I didn't get in. I read through the second book and realized what I had been doing wrong and then tried again. I was so anxious too.

Was your entry something you'd been working on for a long time, or was it something new for RSOM? Did you have to rework the concept to make it fit the preconceived notions of what manga is?

SARAH: Like I said for the second question the entry was based on the longer story I had been working on for a while before. I had to think of how to make it work for 20 pages though.

How does your work fit in with the "manga style," and I'm asking this knowing that manga encompasses an incredibly broad base of genres and storytelling techniques?

SARAH: It fits with the "manga style" because I kind of want to try using the varied layouts and panels and unique story telling that is found in a lot of manga.

Is it your goal or dream to be a cartoonist, and how are you working towards that goal in terms of educating yourself about the history, form, and content of comics?

SARAH: Yes, I'd love being a cartoonist and that's definitely one of the things I want to do in life. I'm trying to pay closer attention now every time I pick up and read a comic/manga to try and see how different artists use different techniques and such.

Did winning change your long range plans in terms of your work and/or budding career as a cartoonist?

SARAH: Sort of. Before the contest I always had this idea that I was going to publish a giant full-length, best-selling series of manga at age 14 and be some sort of Mozart of the manga industry. (Doesn't everyone at one point?)
While working on the entry for the third contest I finally realized what hard work comics are. Since the deadline was in January, I was working on it during school and I was having a lot of trouble completing it. I didn't even have enough sense to actually plan out the pages or organize a script and it made things really difficult and messy. I was working right up to the deadline, and while waiting for the results I realized how badly prepared I was for comics. I had trouble doing only 20 pages so I can only imagine what doing three or more volumes of 150 pages would be like. Making the comic really helped put things in perspective for me.
It also made me realize that my story Okage+Enlil needed major work and revisions, since the shortened version of the story at that point didn't work out very well.

THANK YOU, Sarah! Interested readers can see more of Ms. Ferrick's art at http://elf-shojo.deviantart.com. Prepare to get your mind absolutely blown! You can also check out Sarah's contribution to RSOM3 in THE RISING STARS OF MANGA 3 graphic novel, which is available at your local comic book store, book chain (like Books-a-Million), or online at places like Amazon.com.

In the meantime, talk to me, comic book pros. Hit the clickable name link to holla at me, and visit my movie review website negromancer.com. Praise!

If you're a publisher or creator, contact me by hitting the clickable link. You can also read my movie reviews at www.negromancer.com. Holla!

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12