Their favourite machine is the deadly “TERMINATOR”, but they were able to give a HEART to a robot! FROM ARGENTINA, the manga artists who want to say to their rivals “HASTA LA VISTA, BABY!” Will their manga give real emotions of the SILENT MANGA AUDITION®Community (SMAC! – Readers, Creators, Editors…)!? They are here to reply this question! The MANGA ARTIST Lea Caballero & SCRIPT WRITER Mariano Sciammarella! Hello!

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• ABOUT YOU

    “When I was 7, I used to make little magazines for fun!”    1) How did you begin creating Manga? Lea: I started at the age of 7. I used to make little magazines for fun. Dragon Ball inspired my very first manga. Since then, I’ve never stopped.   Mariano: I began writing during University. In fact, that’s how I met Lea on the first place! I read his comics, and  I liked them a lot! I decided to send him the first manga script I wrote. We won “Concurso Ymir 2015”, our first contest here in Argentina, with the manga called “Daemon”! 🙂   2) What is your working environment like? Are you an analogue or digital person? Any unique tools you use to draw?  Lea: My workspace consists of a desk, a lot of cases filled with brushes, pencils, markers and so on. My manga collection is a useful reference for my work too, of course. The wall is filled with posters of my favourite series, like “Dragon Ball” and “Saint Seiya”. There is another table on the printer on the top on it, which I use to print my doujinshis! Mariano: I’m kind of hybrid, I use both, analogue (a little notebook) and my laptop (computer). Is interesting having both, because you can come up with a great idea any time!  

• ABOUT YOUR PLACE

  “Argentina has a long tradition of comic book artists, since the beginning of the 20th century.”   3 ) Anything the world should know about where you live?  Lea: We are very passionate people. We love football, we have beautiful natural places like Iguazu’s waterfall, Perito Moreno’s glacier and the Moon Valley, just to name a few. We salute each other with kisses! Kisses for everybody, haha! 😙 Also, Argentina has a long tradition of comic book artists, since the beginning of the 20th century: Dante Quinterno (our Walt Disney), Hector Oesterheld (writer of “El eternauta”, the most famous graphic novel from Argentina) and Chingolo Casalla. Both Oesterheld and Casalla are from the 50’s. Most of our classic comic book artist are well known in Italy. I’ll dare to say some of the are better known in Italy than here!   4) Popular comics/manga in your country at this moment? Lea: Right now, “The Walking Dead” and “Sword Art Online”. Mariano: Regarding manga the most popular are “Saint Seiya”, “Dragon ball”, “Attack on Titan”, “Vagabond”, “Slam Dunk”… (the list is endless)!   5) Are locally created comics/manga popular in your town? Do you know any local creators? Lea: I’m friend with almost every comic book artist here. We are many! Comic books created by local artists aren’t very popular here, it is more like a niche market. The highest selling book, sells 2,000 copies.  

• ABOUT YOUR ENTRY 

  “The characters design are based on “The Iron Giant” and my girlfriend!”   6) Where does the story take place?  Lea: Essentially the place is based on my garage. My brother works as a carpenter, so I thought could be a good idea to use the garage where he works as a setting.   7) Is the girl building the robot alone? Lea: She’s been building the robot for a loooong time. I drew the story thinking that she’s building only the robot, like an obsession! Mariano: She is working alone, with not help, the robot is her most important project ever!   8) What’s the cap on robot’s head? Lea: That thing is based on the ink dispenser I have in my room. The robot is pretty much symmetrical in its design, so by adding the cap, I managed to break the symmetry a bit.   9) Your favourite robot?  Mariano: T-1000 from “Terminator”… the best Robot EVER! Lea: Mine’s T-1000 too. When I was a kid that character scared me so much! It scares me even today, he is unstoppable… That scares!   10) What is the robot’s “heart” made of? Lea: I don’t know. It is like a plastic bottle or something like that.   11) How long did it take to create the entry? Mariano: A lot of time! It was a challenge writing this entry. I wanted to write something original. Lea: Drawing the manga took a lot of time. A lot of thinking and gathering reference material (like photos of robots body and other machines – the robot’s body is based on my washing machine), months before starting the first drawing. I wanted to make something that a Japanese reader could like at first sight, and it’s enormously hard. We see ourselves like amateur compared to Japanese mangaka, so the challenge to raise my level of drawing was huge.   12) Where did you find the inspiration for the entry? Lea: I based the protagonist (Karin) on my girlfriend. The robot is like a chunk of old metallic pieces clumsy gathered together, like “The Iron Giant” from the animated movie. Mariano: At work. I had to finish all my daily duties and start writing (my boss didn’t like it, hahahah!).   13) Which SMA7 Award winning entries do you like? Lea: Our favourites are “Our Promised Land” and “Grandma’s Flavour”. I also liked “Pie” and “Like that Old Italian Wine”.  

• ABOUT THE FUTURE

  “We want to start our first manga in Japan!”   14) What do you want to do from now on?  Mariano: Travel to Japan, meet all the SMAC! staff and start our first manga there! Lea: I have the best partners and friends, a beautiful and sweet girlfriend and a supporting family. I love them all, so my expectations for the future are to keep living among these people that make me so happy. I don’t mind having a breakout as a manga artist in Japan too, haha! But also I want to make Argentinian readers happy with my manga!   15) What do you expect to achieve by taking part in SMACommunity – The fans, readers and the Japanese pros? Mariano: To the community and fans: You can do it too! You only need a good idea. To the Japanese manga pros: I hope you will like our futures manga! Lea: I’m expecting to be every time a bit better, until the readers will notice us and the pros will teach us their secrets.   16) Anything else you would like to share with the community? Lea: Please remember that comics are the best and most creative media of all!  

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Thank you Lea & Mariano! Your beloved robots have an home country… and it’s Japan! We are waiting for you to come here and pilot one MECHA along with us! Actually, the South American manga creators community is growing day by day and Argentina is one of the country with most potential! Why don’t you open your own SNS manga community page? We’d like to support your effort and giving you special tips! AND ANY COUNTRY IN THE WORLD CAN DO IT! Just contact us and tell us the address! We’ll do the rest! 😋 Do not forget to JOIN the SMA8 and be sure to get a high award!

Join today! ROCKET PUUUNCH!!! *SMAC!*