! PoodPoopsie’s 39-page entry for COAMIX’s 10th Kyushu International Manga Award, “Portrait of the Devil” marks her first award in a Comic ZENON manga contest. She is also the third MasterClass participant to be recognized with a Kyushu International Manga Award, along with monotone_ink and Enewald!

The following is a comment from the special judge of COAMIX’s 10th Kyushu International Manga Award, Kei Koga-sensei (“Trace: Recollections of a Forensic Researcher”) about PoodPoopsie’s entry:

“Portrait of the Devil” is a one-shot manga that tells the story of a clumsy, but good-hearted painter named Faust, who can’t seem to live up to the ideals of  his renowned master, Silas. When a grave illness leaves his master bedridden, Faust takes it upon himself to create Silas’ paintings, which are scheduled to be exhibited at the Crystal Palace. However, there is more to his master’s immense success than talent alone, and, unknown to young Faust, dark forces lurk behind his success…

A special illustration, an interview, and a comment from PoodPoopsie were featured in the March 2024 issue of Monthly Comic ZENON, which we have translated below.

1. How do you feel after receiving this award?

I am very grateful to have received an award this round! I am very thankful to my editors and SMA for making this possible. However, I have high expectations for myself, so I will  aim for an even higher quality manga next time.

2. What was your creative process behind this entry?

The original concept for this story came from a storyboard class I was taking. I was inspired by the film, The Picture of Dorian Gray, as well as by my own artistic journey. The original concept is very different compared to what we have now, as I went through many iterations. 

3. In your opinion, what is the best part of this entry?

I enjoy the twist of using Baal’s demonic powers to trap Silas in the painting. Whether I executed that well is a different story. However, the idea of using Baal’s powers to trap someone in a painting is the main thing I did not change from the original story. I typically think about the twist first and the characters second. I think that is both a strength and a weakness of mine, as my characters are not as strong as I would like, and I often change them to suit the twist.

4. What was the hardest part in drawing this entry?

I think I struggled the most with understanding the strengths and flaws of my original concept, such as what I needed to  keep and what I needed to take out. The original story and the current story are very different from each other, but both have their strengths and weaknesses. It was definitely a good learning experience. I will try to do better next time to understand the core strength of my story.

5. What aspect of character creation did you put the most effort into?

I focused on a dark academia and Victorian aesthetic for this manga. Some of the outfits are not historically accurate, though. For Silas’ outfit, I took inspiration from Reginald Hargreaves’ outfit from The Umbrella Academy. For both Baal and Faust, I tried to incorporate a lot of moving patterns. This is something I like to lean into for monster designs. Faust’s hair is his main design point, and it involves spirals to create a sense of movement.

6. What manga have you been reading recently?

There are a ton of manga I enjoy reading. A few of them are Kaiji, Detective Conan, and Inuyasha.

7. What kind of manga do you want to create next?

I want to write more fantasy manga in the future which have monsters as the protagonists or deuteragonists. Writing a one-shot with a bittersweet ending would be interesting as well!

8. What are you most interested in lately?

Recently, I’ve been reading “The Legend of the Condor Heroes” and watching adaptations of Jin Yong’s works. In the future, I think I would like to try making a wuxia (Chinese: 武俠) manga as well.

9. Can you give a message to our readers?

I want to thank my editors for sticking with me for so long just to create this piece! Next time, I will do my best to make something that will be even more satisfying to read!

PoodPoopsie’s work is just one of the manga created by the SMA MasterClass that has won an award in Monthly Comic ZENON’s manga contests! With the support of the SMA Editorial Department, the MasterClass members show their potential to Japanese readers each year.

Learn more about the MasterClass and other SMA projects!

READ “PORTRAIT OF THE DEVIL” IN ENGLISH HERE!

PoodPoopsie’s work has also been published IN JAPANESE on the ZENON Editorial Department’s website!

Take a look and leave a comment to support her by clicking the banner below! ❤️