| Cartoonist |
August 28, 2017
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| The other day, when I was walking in the downtown area, I met a classmate from junior high school. It was the first time in 2 decades since we graduated from school. We went to a coffee shop nearby and talked about our lives since we graduated. My life's story is not so complicated. I graduated from college and entered a mid-sized pharmaceutical company and have been working there since. I am married and have two kids. I told him about my job, family things, and other trifling things, like I've started golf in order to lose weight. Then, he started his life's story. Different from mine, his story was extraordinary. When he was in his school, he liked to draw cartoons. I can remember that he sometimes showed us his works and we enjoyed his stories. He continued to make cartoons in high school. After graduating from school, he entered a cartoonist training school. Learning at school, he got a part-time job at an animation movie company. He drew animations there. After graduation, he entered this company as an animation artist. After several years, he became an assistant director. One day, he was asked to supervise the creation of a new animation office of the company in another country. As he felt a great importance for the task to train young animators in another country, he accepted. It was challenging. After several years of effort,  the workers' skills had improved and became an intricate part of making animations in the company. His job was finished. Before returning, he traveled to several local islands throughout the country, where he was kidnapped by pirates. The pirates demanded a ransom from his company, and his company secretly paid it. He was released. While he was confined in a shack, the pirates' boss's wife took care of him. The wife revealed that she was kidnapped, too. They came to love each other. After being released, he organized a private mercenary militia and rescued the wife. Now she is his wife.I was speechless. I was amazed how different our two lives were. I envied him very much. But, he looked away from me, and said, "I'm very sorry. I've made up a story. The Pirates' thing is totally a lie." I was speechless. "B... but why? You were not a person who made fun of others." He said, "No, I didn't, and, no, I don't. When I saw you in a nice suit, I felt inferior to you, and without thinking, I told this ridiculous story. Sorry, indeed." Then, he started to explain about his real life: He graduated from cartoonist training school. After graduation, he became an apprentice at a cartoonist office. The salary was cheap but the life was fulfilling. There were other apprentices in the office and they swore to each other to be independent in the future. And after several years, he became an independent cartoonist. But it was harder than what he had expected. Hard work and cheap. And, the worst thing was, that his life was unstable. His stories had a chance to be stopped anytime, if the readers' responses were bad. "I've always dreamed to be a cartoonist since I was a kid, but I might not have the ability to be a cartoonist. It might be a good chance to quit." he weakly said. I couldn't find words. I asked him if he had his cartoons with him. He nodded and showed me a set of cartoons which he was going to give to a publishing company. It was one episode of a 20 page serialized story. The smell of ink was peculiar. It was the first time to see real cartoons. His technique was high. His touch of lines were skillful. The structures and angles of the pictures were elaborate. I was amazed. But, the story seemed plain. It was a futuristic story. Invaders came and caught human children and put a chip into their brain and operated them. Through the children, the invaders started to manipulate the children's parents c The idea seemed easy, like most recent comic stories. "What do you think?" he asked. I said, "Not bad. But..." He asked, "But what?" I said, "But somehow this story lacks a sense of reality. Of course, science fiction is not real, but, some good science fiction stories make us feel like it's real." He said, "I know. My editor sometimes tells me the same thing. But, I have no idea how to make it real. I took a lot of time to make this story." I got an idea, and went to the cafe's shelves and took out a weekly cartoon magazine and started to flip through it. He was watching. After a certain period, I closed the magazine and said, "I sometimes read this type of magazine while at the barber shop or at a ramen shop, but every time I stop reading it soon. They are not interesting. Now, I'd like to try to figure the reason out." He was just looking at my mouth. I opened the contents list page of the magazine, and said, "There are about 20 stories in this magazine, and they can be categorized into two patterns: sports, like soccer, baseball, basketball, tennis, martial arts, as in this book. The other is science fiction, like yours. Usually they're about witches, invaders, monsters, talking animals, and psychic powers holders, who time-travel, leap long distances, destroy something without touching, etc. In the sports stories, almost all of the scenes are game or match scenes. It reminds me of my old days. I was a big fan of a boxing cartoon. In the story, fighting scenes were limited and because of this, we could know how important the match was. About science fiction. In our modern society, there are many futuristic technologies like robots, AI, auto-driving system, etc. Because of this, authors might think too much to differentiate their stories from this world. But, to come to think of it, we can't fly, we can't time-travel, we can't talk with animals. We are not so different from ancient people. I have to think that many authors are escaping from connecting things about the real world with the imaginal world. That's why recent stories lack reality. Look at your pirate story, that was realistic!" He didn't say anything. His face was hard. We separated with just a good-bye. I thought I said too much. I didn't know his real situation. His publishing companies might interfere with his stories. The competitiveness of cartoonists should be beyond our imagination. I regretted my remarks. A couple of months passed. One day a parcel was delivered. It was from him. There was a cartoon magazine in it. The first colored pages were his, the first episode of his new story. The title was 'Salaried Pirate'. It was an adventurous love story. The protagonist was a plain, salaried worker for a pharmaceutical company. One day he went on a business trip and was captured by pirates. He met the wife of the pirates' boss c It was a good story and I had a gut feeling that the following stories would become more interesting. There was a letter in the box from him. It read, "I borrowed your character. If this story becomes a hit, let me buy you a drink! Thank you, indeed." I smiled and said to myself, "Why not?" |
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*pharmaceutical :»ς
*trifling :±ΧΘ
*intricate :έόΑ½
*ransom :gγΰ
*mercenary :bΊ
*militia :s―R
*manipulate :ι
*gut feeling :ΌΟ