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Interview

Yumi Sakugawa p4

Comics artist Yumi Sakugawa talks about producing her comic Mundane Fortunes for the Next Ten Billion Years and other Stories, which was listed as a notable comic in Best American Comics 2012, and future projects...

READERSVOICE.COM: When you published Mundane Fortunes for the Next Ten Billion Years and other Stories, listed as a notable comic in Best American Comics 2012, how did you manufacture it and how many copies did you print?

YUMI SAKUGAWA: The very first print of Mundane Fortunes was printed through a chain copy print store, and I probably made about 8 copies since I was making them specifically for an art event in Los Angeles I was live-painting at. Afterwards, I printed the self-published zine through a local printer I go to for printing all of my self-published zines. It is still an open edition and I honestly have no idea how many copies I have printed since then.

RV: How did you get this comic to the market? Did you just rely on zine fests and internet?

YS: For all of my self-published comic zines, I have been promoting them through zine fests and the internet. Through the zine fests, I was lucky enough to find book store owners and retailers who wanted to carry the zines in their brick and mortar locations.

For my first published book I Think I am in Friend-Love With You, I was lucky enough to find my current literary agent who secured a book deal with Adams Media. If it weren’t for my literary agent who serendipitously reached out to me after seeing one of my Wonderhowto illustrated guides floating around on the internet, I probably would not have considered the possibility of publishing a book through a publisher for several more years.

RV: Have you a big collection of mini comics and other comics and what sorts of things do you have?

YS: I definitely do have a decent collection of mini comics and graphic novels I have acquired over the years. I’m more of a writer snob than a drawing snob, so mainly I like comics with a strong sense of narrative flow. I get bored when mini comics are just a collection of pictures.

RV: Are you still working on a graphic novel and what other things do you have planned?

YS: I am working on a short story collection. It is super-secret, and I consciously am making a point to not tell people (even my boyfriend) about what stories I am working on until they are done and I am ready to show them to people.

In addition to book signings at independent bookstores and comic book stores, I plan on exhibiting at more comic and zine conventions in 2014 to promote the book version of I Think I am in Friend-Love With You, which is officially released in December 18, 2013 in North America.

– Visit yumisakugawa.com
– I Think I Am In Friend-Love With You, released in December, can be pre-ordered on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
– copyright Simon Sandall.