Seven Seas Debuts New Weekly Manga in MetroMix L.A.

There were lots of new manga announced at San Diego Comic-Con 2008, but a different kind of manga story also debuted that week in the pages of MetroMix Los Angeles. The Ninja Diaries by Nunzio DeFilippis, Christina Weir and Elmer Damaso is a new serialized comics feature about the misadventures of a struggling actor and a comely female ninja. The series kicked off with a cover story and a four-page introduction to the series, with weekly one-page installments to follow.

What most folks don't know is that that this comics feature came together with ninja-like speed. According to Seven Seas Entertainment Publisher Jason DeAngelis, this project was just an idea six weeks ago.

"MetroMix wanted to do a weekly comics series, so Editor in Chief Deborah Vankin helped us put this together," he said. "The only mandate they gave us was that the story should appeal to Southern California hipsters and be set in Los Angeles."

"MetroMix wanted its debut to coincide with Comic-Con and gave us the cover story for that issue. So we had to spin on a dime and make it happen," said DeAngelis. "We developed the story, came up with a treatment, story arcs, got approvals and had it ready for the July 23 issue. It's a unique opportunity, and it's closer to the Japanese system of publishing, where it's serialized weekly instead of coming out as a complete graphic novel."

To make it happen quickly, DeAngelis called on talent he already knew and trusted from prior Seven Seas projects. For the story, he called upon Angelenos Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir, the husband and wife writing team behind Amazing Agent Luna and Destiny's Hand.

"They live in Los Angeles and are very L.A.-savvy. We thought they'd be perfect team for this project," said DeAngelis.

DeFilippis added, "Jason brought us on because he knew we could count on us to get it done."

While DeFilippis and Weir had a lot of experience writing both original English language (OEL) manga and American comics stories (including New X-Men and Adventures of Superman), creating a weekly serialized comics feature was a whole new ball o' wax.

"This is our first time doing a weekly one-page feature," said Weir. "The challenge is that it has to stand on its own as a single page, as well as a part of a complete story. We have to be brief, but each page has to have a beginning, a middle and an end. It's also tricky to appeal to both the L.A. crowd and manga readers," she said.

For the artwork, DeAngelis recruited Elmer Damaso, the Phillipines-based artist who worked with Seven Seas on Speed Racer andUnearthly. "He's also working on our webcomic, 10 Beautiful Assassins," added DeAngelis.

"It's really collaborative," said DeFilippis. "This project has been an equal partnership with Jason, Christina, Elmer and myself and it's been really fun."

MetroMix Los Angeles has already committed to a six-month run for The Ninja Diaries, but if it's successful, its run may be extended. "We hope it continues for a long time," said Weir. "We hope to see it going for years!"

Check out the first and latest episodes of The Ninja Diaries at MetroMix Los Angeles' website and see their other Ninja Diaries features, including an interview with Damaso.

Image credit: © Seven Seas Entertainment / Los Angeles Times Media Group; © Deb Aoki