PROFILE Name/Pen Name: Rizqiaf Age: 21 Country: Indonesia Favorite manga: Dragon Ball Z Favorite series: Game of Thrones Favorite Quote: “I don’t know how to achieve peace yet. But, some day, I’ll break this curse. If there is such a thing as peace, I’ll seize it!” – Uzumaki Nagato Entry title: “The Precious One” Round: SMA17 “Moments of HASTE, RAGE, or SMILES” Award: Excellence Award Runner-Up

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“Don’t be afraid to start making manga, and start from the things closest to you, yourself, friends, family, or your pets.”

  About SMA

• How does it feel to receive a SILENT MANGA AUDITION® award? Honestly I didn’t expect to get an award, but when I saw my manga was on the nomination list I was so happy!

• What was the inspiration behind your awarded work? For my story, I was inspired by many films that I have watched, especially in the drama genre. The films that make me the most sad are the ones that tell the story of family, so I tried to bring the idea about family themes into my manga. For the artwork, I really like Takeshi Obata-sensei’s and Yusuke Murata-sensei’s works. My artwork is inspired by them a lot, and I try to combine their style with my own.

• What challenges did you face while making your manga? How did you overcome them? When I was working on the manga for SILENT MANGA AUDITION®, the most challenging problem for me was how to make the paneling fit with my story. Actually, there are some small parts and transition scenes that I shortened because of the panels.

READ Rizqiaf’s SMA17 ENTRY HERE!

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  About your Manga

• How and when did you start making manga? Any advice for beginners? I first made a manga when I was in 6th grade. At that time I made an adventure-themed manga with the main characters as myself and my friend. At first, it was very difficult and I needed a lot of patience, but after a few pages the story took its own shape, and it started to feel fun and satisfying. My advice for beginners would be “Don’t be afraid to start making manga, and start from the things closest to you, yourself, friends, family, or your pets.”

• Do you draw your manga digitally or by hand? What are your go-to digital or analogue tools? Both! Sometimes I draw the “Name” by hand, and then I create the manuscript digitally.

 

• What was the first manga you picked up? Naruto is the first manga I read. My friend brought it to school when I was in 5th grade of elementary school.

• Which manga changed your life? Dragon Ball. I remember drawing Gohan SSJ2 when I was in 3rd grade of elementary school, and after I got praised by my older brother, it kept me making artwork until now.

• Which manga character do you most identify with? Why? Goku! Mainly because of his hairstyle, hahaha….

• What kind of manga do you want to make next? If I join SMA once again, I want to make a musical manga, but if I have a chance to submit long stories or a one-shot, I’ll go with an action psychological genre like Tokyo Ghoul, Evangelion, Psycho Pass, and those kinds of stories.

 

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  About You

• What do you do when you’re not making manga? How do you relax? When I’m not making manga or work, I usually play video games. I like to play FPS games like Valorant and CS GO, or hang out with my friends, fishing, and catching crabs at the beach.

• What industry do you work in (if manga making isn’t your primary job)? Manga isn’t my primary job; I’m working in the game industry doing VFX animation frame by frame, and sometimes I take illustration jobs.

• Where do you see your manga career in 5 years time? I don’t really have a goal related to manga in a few years because in my country publishing manga is not too popular and isn’t too financially stable. Maybe if I continue to make manga, I’ll go with a webcomic; for now that’s maybe the best choice that I can do.

• What manga making advice would you give to your younger self if you could? To my younger self I would say, I know you’ve tried hard, but I want you to try even harder! It also applies to the present me, so maybe my future self will also say the same thing.

• What advice would you give to people entering the SILENT MANGA AUDITION®? Listen more carefully to the rules, requirements, and themes of SMA! My last mistake was to mistake “or” with “and” in the theme, and that made my story full of too many elements (hahaha that was so stupid). And in the previous audition as well, I actually already made a “Name” but I didn’t finish it because I just realized that the regulations prohibit killing characters, while my rough story requires my character to die. I’ve tried to make another “Name” but I think the deadline was too close to finish it.

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Thank you, Rizqiaf! We’re eagerly expecting your next manga masterpiece!

Get some inspiration by checking out the other AMAZING awarded works from SMA17!