Episode 14
Manga Artist Ryan McCarthy
Hey Everyone! This episode is a little different. We're interviewing manga artist, Ryan McCarthy at Little Lions Collections! Enjoy!
Transcript
Howdy!
anouncer:It's the Southern Senpais Show, where small town southerners explore big
anouncer:time Japanese entertainment, anime, manga, and everything in between.
anouncer:Here's your hosts, Nicholas and DJ.
anouncer:Hey
DJ:you guys, welcome to Southern Senpais, I'm DJ.
DJ:I'm Nicholas, and today we have a very special episode for you.
DJ:We are interviewing a manga artist.
DJ:His name is Ryan McCarthy.
DJ:Yes.
DJ:Ryan McCarthy.
DJ:Now, Ryan McCarthy.
DJ:He is the creator of a manga called Tamashii.
DJ:Yes.
DJ:Tamashii.
DJ:Me and Nicholas have had the privilege of not only meeting him, but also at
DJ:interviewing him, but also we got to read
nick:some.
nick:Yes, we got to read some of
DJ:his manga.
DJ:Tamashii and you know what, Tamashii, not only is it a manga, but he also
DJ:has a playing card game, and he has plushies and stuff like that.
DJ:Nicholas, what do you think about the because I don't want to spoil
DJ:anything, because we're about to have the interview, really.
DJ:But after reading Tamashii, though, what is your opinion?
DJ:What would you say it's
nick:what's, it's the...
nick:The animation style is like shaolin showdown.
DJ:The art style is drawn not the it's not animated It's manga, but the manga
nick:yet.
nick:Anyway, we'll do that a little later.
nick:But the art style was definitely like we like we say in the interview, It's
nick:reminiscent of Shaolin Showdown, Jackie Chan adventures kind of art style.
nick:But I definitely thought that the manga was It seemed like an action
nick:comedy type of manga type of thing.
nick:Yeah,
DJ:I definitely would suggest it for if someone is like on the younger
DJ:side and they want to get into manga.
DJ:Definitely something I could like, Give to like my younger cousins for them to enjoy.
DJ:It's very family friendly.
DJ:It's made for all ages.
DJ:So like the humor in it is pretty clean, but it's actually funny.
DJ:Yeah.
nick:And then this book, I think this book would be perfect
nick:for the scholastic book fair.
DJ:Yeah.
DJ:Yeah.
DJ:Something that I can totally see this being in, we're about to get into the
DJ:interview, but if you want to check out more of Ryan's stuff, just go to www.
DJ:ryanmccarthyproductions.
DJ:com.
DJ:That's R Y A N M C C A R T H Y N M C C A R T H Y.
DJ:P R O D U C T I O N S dot com.
DJ:RyanMcCarthyProductions.
DJ:com to check out all his latest stuff.
DJ:He does have more things going on than just this Tamashii manga,
DJ:but this is the main part of
ryan:the interview.
nick:Yeah, this is the main course.
nick:This is what he dedicates most of his time to.
DJ:And without further ado, let's get into this interview.
nick:What's going on, y'all?
nick:This is Nicholas from Southern Senpais.
nick:And this
DJ:is DJ from Southern
ryan:Senpais.
nick:Two southern guys exploring Japanese culture.
nick:We have a special feature today.
nick:Yes, a
DJ:special interviewee.
DJ:We're interviewing Ryan.
DJ:That is
ryan:me.
ryan:Yes.
nick:Ryan McCarthy.
nick:Ryan McCarthy, you say you're
ryan:a cartoonist.
ryan:Yes, I that's the fun word.
ryan:That's the fun word.
ryan:There's probably fancy words, but those are boring.
nick:Also, this is a really great place.
nick:We're here at the Little
ryan:Lions event.
ryan:Little
nick:Lions collectibles event.
ryan:I believe it's called BYO Games.
ryan:This is it's a little gaming thing.
ryan:This is a new thing the guy's done.
ryan:I've, I did one other event with this guy.
ryan:This one's...
ryan:Is this your first time here at this building?
ryan:Yes, he used to have a different thing where you have to walk up
ryan:steps, but I don't know this one's nicer It was also closer and it
DJ:has less steps that hey, i'm down
ryan:with that Although this heat today isn't doing this building any favors
nick:also, But anyway, so how did you get into being a cartoonist?
nick:What would you say is your
ryan:inspirations?
ryan:Yeah, I've I've been drawing for as long as I can remember.
ryan:It's like that one Simpsons episode with the cartoonist that comes in class.
ryan:Oh, what did you do?
ryan:Did you listen to your, did you listen to your teachers and inspired?
ryan:No, I just sat in my, sat there, sat at my desk and drew cartoons all day.
ryan:What would you
nick:say you, you draw inspirations from the most as
DJ:a cartoonist?
DJ:You have a manga.
DJ:Yes, and it's a very unique style.
DJ:So that's what we're
ryan:like, where are these inspirations?
ryan:I would say my biggest inspirations is Ed, Edd n Eddy One Piece, Zatch
ryan:Bell Almost anything of around that Cartoon Network Nickelodeon era like
ryan:there's some but Ed, Edd n Eddy is that's like number one favorite cartoon
ryan:the Simpsons What makes you like Ed,
nick:Edd n Eddy so much?
nick:What was the inspiration coming from with
ryan:Ed, Edd n Eddy?
ryan:Ed, Edd, and Eddie looks like Ed, Edd, and Eddie.
ryan:That's the first thing.
ryan:Nothing else looks like it.
ryan:Although, personally, on a more personal note, I remember I had that
ryan:conversation with someone once that they would always make fun of the
ryan:show until eventually it was like...
ryan:Listen, do you know why I liked Ed, Edd, and Eddie?
ryan:Because it was the only show about a bunch of kids with no friends.
ryan:That no one else liked or could get along with.
ryan:It's just, it meant the coldest thing.
ryan:Until eventually, they just found each other, and it's Oh, we all have the
ryan:same name, let's be friends, and Oh, we can't be weirdos with everyone else.
ryan:Let's be weirdos with each other and it gave this idea that hey Cuz with other
ryan:past things from my life, it's Can I
nick:let's devise funny schemes to try and get these
ryan:job breakers pretty much But it's just the idea that even if you
ryan:have a small group of friends that doesn't make it not valuable in a way
nick:it's Some people say it's better to have four quarters than a hundred pennies.
DJ:Yeah.
DJ:Oh
ryan:yeah.
ryan:I just nodded my head.
ryan:I forgot we're recording.
ryan:We're on radio.
ryan:People can't see me nodding my head.
DJ:One thing I always love about NNN is that I always They always,
DJ:all their schemes are very unique.
DJ:And I'm not gonna lie, as watching them when I was younger, I was like,
DJ:I should do some of this stuff.
DJ:This is
ryan:actually really creative.
ryan:They made a, they make a pool in the middle of the cul de sac out of jello.
ryan:I was like, why aren't I doing that?
ryan:I can do that?
ryan:Yeah!
ryan:And the
nick:jawbreakers are really
ryan:huge.
ryan:They're huge!
ryan:Just cause it looks, just cause it looks funny.
ryan:Apparently they picked jawbreakers cause I was just like, no other cartoon has
ryan:ever picked jawbreakers as the thing.
ryan:Sonic the Hedgehog eats chili dogs, all the...
ryan:What I forget other ones, but it's just like
DJ:it's not a hedgehog.
DJ:He likes chili dogs for some reason.
DJ:Yeah, dude a lot of speedsters like hot dogs.
DJ:The Flash eats a lot of hot
nick:dogs, too?
nick:Yeah, he's like exclusively on hot dogs, right?
nick:What is up with this?
DJ:What is
ryan:up with being fast hot dogs?
ryan:Scooby Snacks.
ryan:It was just straight up no one likes jawbreakers.
ryan:The ads will like jawbreakers.
ryan:That's
nick:what we'll do.
nick:We'll put in jawbreakers.
nick:Alright.
nick:And then...
nick:You said for you guys that don't know, Ryan is from Massachusetts.
ryan:Yes, Western Massachusetts, specifically.
ryan:Woah, the definition, you gotta get the stink.
ryan:When you say it, people think Boston.
ryan:Boston's an entirely different world.
nick:What's the difference between Boston,
ryan:Massachusetts, and...
ryan:Boston is Boston, it's a big city, and everything going on that
ryan:matters is going on over there.
ryan:I'm from Western, in fact, I'm from...
ryan:Southwick, Massachusetts.
ryan:If you ever look at Massachusetts, shout out
nick:Southwood, Massachusetts.
nick:Yeah.
nick:South Southwick.
nick:Southwick.
nick:Southwick.
ryan:Southwick.
ryan:If you let just pull up a map of Massachusetts, you'll see at the bottom
ryan:left, like bottom West area, there's a little jet going into Connecticut.
ryan:That's Southwick.
ryan:That's
nick:Southwick and that, that's where the cartoonist vibes and
ryan:the Oh no.
ryan:I'm like the only cartoonist around that.
ryan:So I think the only one we have is like a woman's basketball player.
ryan:I forget what her name was.
DJ:So what about your upbringing made you say, oh, this is what I wanna do.
ryan:'cause everything else just seems oh no, you gotta go to a job
ryan:and sit at a thing and wish, like it, kinda like basically wish you
ryan:were, and like everything about your life feels is outta your control.
ryan:But if you have a piece of paper.
ryan:A blank piece of paper?
ryan:It's entirely, it's nothing's limited aside from whatever your hand can do.
ryan:And your imagination.
ryan:You
nick:have total and complete control to create whatever it is that you
ryan:want to create.
ryan:Can you tell us
nick:a little
DJ:bit more about this manga?
DJ:Because you we spoke a little bit before.
DJ:This is already, God, I don't know if you noticed, but...
DJ:We have conversations with our guests prior and afterwards
DJ:because they're people.
DJ:When I was talking to him before, he was telling me that you were working on this
DJ:for six, the idea came six years earlier.
ryan:Oh no, it actually, I've been working on the books.
ryan:I don't know.
ryan:He's seen these, but this is an art print.
ryan:It's a lenticular print.
ryan:It shows off, it cycles through the first drawing of the
ryan:character back in around 2005.
ryan:2005?
DJ:Wow, so you've been, this has been like a very long
ryan:time coming.
ryan:Yeah, I have legions of characters.
ryan:Tamashii's only one of 20 things, which I made, I recently made
ryan:this trading card game as a way to advertise all my characters.
DJ:That's awesome, man.
DJ:Wow.
DJ:For those of you listening, we'll be posting a lot of images online.
DJ:Yeah, we'll be
nick:posting a lot of, we'll be posting a lot of these pictures so
nick:you guys can see the inspiration.
nick:These
DJ:are some interesting characters.
DJ:What's going, what is this story about?
DJ:I have to know.
ryan:It's about a girl named Tamashi.
ryan:That's her name.
ryan:You got the Tamashii card that I drew right there.
ryan:Yeah.
ryan:She basically wakes up suddenly in a world called the Ancient Land.
ryan:She doesn't know how she got there.
ryan:Now she needs to go on a big journey through the Ancient Land
ryan:and maybe find her way back home.
ryan:So this is like an isekai.
ryan:Yeah, isekai before that was even a word.
ryan:Clone High was like barely a couple years old when I came up with this.
ryan:Wow!
nick:That's absolute, yeah man, that's incredible.
nick:And the drawing style...
nick:It's very unique.
nick:Very unique.
nick:It reminds me of a lot of of
DJ:of Shaolin Shaolin Showdown.
DJ:Yeah, that's what I was about to
ryan:say.
ryan:Oh, everyone, oh, I appreciate that one.
ryan:So many people say, is that Avatar?
ryan:Because we have Suimo, he's a monk boy.
ryan:I was
nick:going to say Shaolin Showdown.
nick:That's Shaolin, I
DJ:do it.
DJ:What?
nick:There's so
ryan:many other people who a
DJ:lot of love in this art that had, that comes from that American,
DJ:early American cartoon style.
ryan:There we go.
nick:Yeah.
nick:You can tell you, you poured a lot of passion and love into
nick:whatever, into what you were
DJ:doing.
DJ:So let me ask you a question.
DJ:Huh.
DJ:When it comes to every...
DJ:Every creator has their favorite character.
DJ:Is your main and it's usually not their main character that they've made.
DJ:Who is your favorite character?
DJ:If you instead of choosing the main person.
DJ:Let's see, alright.
DJ:Is it Is it his name is Suimo?
DJ:Suimo
ryan:is the second main character.
ryan:If you want a personal character that I always I wanna know your favorite, man.
ryan:I wanna know the personal favorite.
ryan:Let's see if I hopefully his card Alright, I love this little guy.
ryan:His name is Flance.
ryan:Flance.
ryan:Tell
nick:us a little bit about
ryan:Flance.
ryan:Flance is a mole demon.
ryan:He loves to hunt.
ryan:He's the child of speed.
ryan:Child of speed?
ryan:In Tamashi, in the Ancient Land, there's these children called
ryan:the Children of the Ancient Land.
ryan:They're children just born with special powers.
ryan:Huh.
ryan:Like, where they came from, we don't know.
ryan:They don't know, they just have always been.
ryan:Is that a secret in the story?
ryan:Tamashi suddenly finds out she's gained the ability of the Child
ryan:of the Moon somehow, even though she's not from the Ancient Land.
ryan:Oh!
ryan:But in their journey, they meet other Children of the Ancient Land, and one of
ryan:them they meet is Flance, a little mole demon kid who is the Child of Speed.
nick:This reminds me of Flance reminds me of what's his name from Demon Slayer the
ryan:animal.
ryan:Oh, yeah, with the boar head?
ryan:Yeah.
ryan:Yeah.
ryan:Oh, Flance existed way before he did.
ryan:Yeah, so actually,
DJ:This is just the OG.
DJ:So actually,
nick:you owe some money from Demon Slayer.
nick:You created the mole man, the pig man first.
nick:He More man.
DJ:He, he has these claws.
DJ:But he also has this flame hair design.
ryan:It's just it's crazy, kooky, yeah, hair, yeah, he has the claw.
ryan:He's he's just a self proclaimed mold.
ryan:He doesn't even realize he's a child of the ancient land.
ryan:He just thinks, I, Flance is fast.
ryan:Because Flance, Flance knows what he, Flance wants to do.
ryan:And Flance wants to go fast, because
DJ:he helps him hunt prey.
DJ:If you had this idea for so long, what made you say Okay, you
DJ:know what, I'm going to start.
DJ:Taking it to book and start really pouring more into it compared to it
DJ:because you seem like a guy who has a lot of ideas Yeah, oh, yes, so
DJ:what made you say this is the one I'm dabbling down on to this extent
ryan:I think it was just at some point I think I did and I was like if I don't do
ryan:it now, it might not ever happen, right?
ryan:I need to get it out there.
ryan:I need to have it be made and That's just it.
ryan:But what
DJ:made you choose this one over your other ideas?
DJ:I'm looking around, you have a ton of stuff.
DJ:Oh yeah.
nick:You said you had 25 ideas.
nick:What made Thomas Shee the one that I'm going to invest most
DJ:of my time in?
DJ:It's just the one you thought about?
DJ:The oldest?
ryan:Or what's going on?
ryan:Because it's the one that has an overarching, constant story that the more
ryan:I work on it, and the more I might grow up in some way, it will grow with me.
ryan:It's like a bunch of my other ones, like there's this one
ryan:called School of the Underworld.
ryan:It's about a kid who goes to school in hell.
ryan:It's basically just like a, a, Every episode is separate.
ryan:It's what are they doing at the school of the underworld?
ryan:It's Everything is separate.
ryan:Tamashii, however, is a thing that When you start reading it, you can
ryan:keep Going with it and follow through.
ryan:Cause, that's what One Piece and Zatch Bell, those are my
ryan:major Inspirations for mine.
ryan:Will you grow with
nick:it?
nick:And with the what was the one that, that's in hell?
nick:What
ryan:was that?
ryan:School of the Underworld.
nick:School of the Underworld.
nick:Is that any at all representative of your own life and being in school?
ryan:In a way, yes.
ryan:That was a really good observation.
ryan:I like that one.
nick:Because I would say the same thing.
nick:But also if you guys didn't know that Ryan is has special needs, right?
nick:Yes.
ryan:And so apparently it's called high functioning autism.
ryan:It used to be called Asperger's, right?
ryan:Not burgers.
ryan:It's burgers.
ryan:Burgers.
nick:Never Every time I do have to say I'm a bit immature because
nick:whenever I hear Asperger's, I just think of the south Park episode.
nick:South Park episode,
ryan:yeah.
ryan:Oh, yeah.
ryan:Yeah.
ryan:But it's
DJ:very inspiring that, Someone like you could do someone who has
DJ:a disability is not letting it
ryan:stop him.
ryan:That's in fact, that was the other thing.
ryan:Tamashi is semi its story is, like, all a metaphor for that.
ryan:It the children of the ancient land, children born with special
ryan:powers that either impedes or enhances their life in some way.
ryan:It's something about them that is different, that
ryan:they can't put a finger on.
ryan:Like a kid born with special needs.
ryan:For some people, it's a hindrance, to some people it's somehow a superpower.
nick:I would say so.
nick:So that's really where this world comes from.
nick:And where would you say that, how would you say your autism
nick:provides you a superpower in making Tom Machine and your other
DJ:ideas?
DJ:There are so many details in this world, in this
ryan:story.
ryan:Let's repeat the last part.
nick:I said, in your autism, what would you say is a
nick:superpower with your cartoonist?
ryan:I guess the ability to put everything together in my own...
ryan:Terms, if that makes sense.
ryan:Because as
nick:DJ was saying, these are incredibly detailed.
ryan:To be fair, I did collab with a lot of artists.
ryan:Oh, yeah?
ryan:This one, so yeah, this one was done by someone named Retro Space Punk.
ryan:They did amazing on that, but there's still my kit.
ryan:So some cards are drawn, but because that's the thing.
ryan:It's, it was, it's a way of also showing off my characters and showing off,
ryan:hey, look at all the other artists.
ryan:People I have met throughout my journey.
DJ:There's the story itself is what book number you are right now.
DJ:10, 10,
ryan:this year I took a little mini hiatus on releasing like chapters
ryan:and making volumes to go to tons of shows, which it's been helping.
ryan:Can
DJ:you tell our audience where they can find your work?
ryan:I have my own personal website.
ryan:It's called Ryan McCarthy productions.
ryan:com.
ryan:And I have and there's tons of multimedia, there's plushies, there's
ryan:a trading card game that I have my own personal store on Storenvy,
ryan:it's just called rmprod at Storenvy, that's where you can support work
DJ:directly.
DJ:So on Storenvy, rmproducts, and then also ryanmatthewsproductions.
ryan:com.
ryan:Yep, and my handles are like, at ryanthederity.
ryan:Ryan D E R E D E.
ryan:That's Twitter and Instagram, and that's what I usually do, but
ryan:that's where you can find my stuff.
ryan:I take cu I take custom commissions.
ryan:Those are always open if people want to Oh, cool!
ryan:You like, want me to draw a picture of Boa Hancock?
ryan:Just I can do that.
ryan:That's awesome.
DJ:Awesome.
DJ:It's been really great talking to you.
DJ:Is there anything else, is there anything that you can tell our
DJ:audience out there, like any advice or someone who wants to be like you?
ryan:If people, my, my big, my first rule, if you have an idea, do it.
ryan:If you don't do it, it won't happen.
ryan:All the other technical, other skill stuff, all that's like...
ryan:Whatever.
ryan:You'll figure that stuff out as you go.
ryan:If you don't do it, though, it's never gonna happen.
ryan:If you don't do it, it won't happen.
ryan:And that really applies to everything in life.
ryan:But, and believe me, if you have people in your life that might doubt it,
ryan:use that as inspiration, because then you can later shove it in their face.
DJ:Awesome.
DJ:Ryan, thank you so much.
DJ:It's been great talking to you.
DJ:Yeah.
DJ:Thank you.
DJ:Yes.
DJ:And guys, this has been Southern Senpais.
DJ:I'm DJ.
DJ:I'm
ryan:Nicholas.
ryan:And I'm Ryan.
ryan:Yeah, and we'll
DJ:see you next time,
DJ:. anouncer: This has been Southern Send pies on Comic-Con Radio.
DJ:Check out our previous episodes, .At Southern Send
DJ:Pies on all major platforms.
DJ:Tune in next Wednesday for a fresh episode.
DJ:Y'all come back now.
DJ:You here.
