Erich Owen Interview (Mail Order Ninja)

By David Rasmussen
20th Apr 05

Rasmussen - Tell us abit more about yourself, if you please.
Mr. Erich Owen - I'm a self taught freelance illustrator. I grew up in the small town of Hastings, MI until I was 19. I'm married to my dream girl, blonde hair and blue eyes with high cheekbones. We have two beautiful children, boy (7) and girl (5). I currently live in Nashville, TN after a couple years stint in California as a Flash animator.

Rasmussen - What kind of work did you do in California as a Flash animator?
Mr. Owen - I was a Flash character animator for an entertainment website. I actually did all aspects of the production. I directed and animated each cartoon short which ranged from 30 to 90 seconds. I would do everything except the sound. We had a sound guy who recorded sounds and voices, then I would tell him what worked and what didn't, so I guess I did work on the sound part too. I even acted as creative director most of the time as well. I was there until their funding was pulled just like all the other dot coms at the time.

Rasmussen - How did you first get into Anime/Manga, and what titles are you presently into right now?
Mr. Owen - I first got into Anime when I was a kid. I used to watch Speed Racer and Starblazers on TV. Manga titles that I currently enjoy are Blade of the Immortal and Gunsmith Cats. Anime titles would be Starblazers (still), Pokemon, Cardcaptors, Ninja Scroll, Vampire Hunter D, Bubblegum Crisis, and Ghost in the Shell.

Rasmussen - Have you seen the original uncut Card Captor Sakura episodes, and how would you compare the original against the no so well done (and way too heavily edited) dubbed "Cardcaptors"?
Mr. Owen - No, I haven't. I actually haven't had much free time in the past couple of years.
I'm a full time dad and a full time freelance illustrator. I take care of and homeschool our kids, not to mention all the housework and cooking, while my wife is at work. I know "full time dad" may sound quite simple and fun, but its hard work, so I have a new found respect for my mother and all other stay-at-home moms out there. Then when my wife gets home I work the rest of the night until about 12 am (1 or 2 am if a deadline is coming up soon). When I do get a chance to watch some animation, it's with my kids and since they are 7 and 5, we watch a small amount of kid friendly stuff.

Rasmussen - Have you had a chance to see the second GITS movie Ghost in the Shell - Innocence yet? How about the recent Stand Alone Complex TV Series (from BANDAI)? Any thoughts on either of these you’d like to share with us?
Mr. Owen - Again, no I haven't yet. Not enough time in the day. If I do get some free time away from work and the kids, I spend it watching movies with my wife and she's not a fan of anime.

Rasmussen - As a Poke’mon fan what is your opinion on the state of the Poke’mon movies? Have they gone too far? Is there anything left in the "tank" of the Poke’mon movies, creativity wise, or are the movies running on empty as the third trilogy begins with the seventh Poke’mon movie now out on DVD?
Mr. Owen - There are eight now, right? With the newest being Destiny Deoxys.

Rasmussen - No, it’s seven movies. Destiny Deoxys is Poke’mon 7. Mewtwo Returns doesn’t count since it’s not a theatrical release movie, it’s an OAV.
Mr. Owen - My opinion is that these movies are written for kids, not me. And my kids love them, so that's what really matters. I enjoy the movies and the TV series too because they're fun and they often have some good moral lessons. As an artist, I'm mainly looking at the visually storytelling (character animation, the "camera" angles, and the BG artwork) rather than the story itself.

Rasmussen - But that doesn’t make sense! Look, yes the Poke’mon movies ARE written for kids but then again that doesn’t mean they have to be dumbed down either! The first Poke’mon movie was for kids, but it was also something I could recommend to anyone because it was good enough to be recommended. Ditto with Poke’mon 2000, the movie was for kids but it was also something I could recommend because it was decently done. But after Poke’mon the Third Movie the Poke’mon movies became dumber, and dumber, and dumber. It abandoned the quality writing from the first two movies and became uninspired. So, then, in that context would you say the movies could be better? That if they went back to the writing style of the first two movies that they can’t "capture lightning" again and make movies worth telling people about? They were good when they started, so why accept less than good when they had such promise at the beginning?
Mr. Owen - What doesn't make sense? My kids love all the movies. And that's the target audience, so that makes it a success in my opinion. It doesn't matter what I think or what any other adult thinks, cuz they're not the target. As I said before, most of the time that I do watch is for the artwork and just tuning out the sound.

Rasmussen - One more question, hypothetically. If, hypothetically, you were given the job of revisioning the Poke’mon movies to breath new life into them how would you approach this task, and what would be your priroities in the writing and crafting of a revitalized Poke’mon move franchise?
Mr. Owen - As I said, I enjoyed movies like Destiny Deoxys and Jirachi Wishmaker. I didn't know there was anything wrong with them. My kids sure don't think so. I thought Deoxys was a cool new pokemon, not to mention it was from space. I know my limits and writing is one of them, so I'm not sure how I'd approach the task of revisioning the movies. I mainly watch anime for the wonderful animation which is second to none. A lot of times I'll watch anime muted, because the story isn't really that important to me, then I can consentrate more on the animation techniques. I guess the only thing that I would change is to make me the director and character designer.

Rasmussen - How did you first come to collaborate with Mr. Elder, and what kind of working relationship do you two share in terms of collaborations?
Mr. Owen - Like Josh said, he posted on a forum that he was looking for an artist, I didn't have much going at the time so I thought I'd give it a shot. I liked the idea and did some character designs and he obviously liked them. Our working relationship is: he writes it, I draw it. It's actually quite that simple. He writes a good story so I have no problems with that and he seems to trust my storytelling ability. We had just a few discussions about doing things different with the artwork, which is acceptable in a collaboration because I can't see what's in his mind's eye while he was writing the story. But we easily came to agreements in these discussions.

Rasmussen - Tell us abit more about Mail Order Ninja and your contributions to the work.
Mr. Owen - What else can I say, it's a very fun story, to read and to draw. The comic book industry is lacking in all-out fun stories. There are more popping up, but still not enough. That's what drew me to this story (no pun intended). As for my contributions, I provided all the visuals that you see on the pages. I don't think that I made any suggestions to the writing of the story, because it was good enough already.

Rasmussen - When it came to the entry into the Rising Stars of Manga competition what did you know about it, also what were your feelings concerning Mail Order Ninja's odds of winning? Also when you did learn that the title won what was your first reaction?
Mr. Owen - I knew that Tokyopop had an annual competition that anyone could enter, but never gave it much thought because I don't really see myself as a manga artist even though I get inspiration from manga and anime. Honestly, I didn't think Mail Order Ninja had a shot at all, not because of the story, but because I didn't think the artwork was manga style. I thought the editors would just pass right over it. When Josh told me that he was going to enter it in the RSoM competition, I thought he was crazy. I even tried to get Josh to let me pitch it to other publishers. He finally gave in, after much persuasion, and let me send it to a couple of people I know and they showed interest, but Josh wanted to wait for Tokyopop's decision before he went with another publisher. He was right, I was wrong. When I first heard that we won, I thought, well it's about time. I've been illustrating professionally for eight years now, but have never won anything. No, really, I was shocked of course, but also excited because it could open up more opportunities to visually tell stories and hopefully with a great publisher like Tokyopop.

Rasmussen - The next step for you two is, of course, the upcoming pitch to TOKYOPOP to make Mail Order Ninja a larger series. For your part what would you say is the important things that need to be in the pitch to TOKYOPOP to impress them? What aspects of Mail Order Ninja do you see as the selling points that’ll convince TOKYOPOP to expand the series into it’s own run of graphic novels?
Mr. Owen - We actually created MON as a stand alone story only for the purposes of the competition. We're developing an all new series to pitch. I read the outline to book 1 and a rough outline of the series a few days ago and its awesome! It will have all the elements that made MON great plus much much more. I think to impress TOKYOPOP we need the story and artwork of the series to be very fun and original which is what MON had and that story seemed to impress them.

Rasmussen - Wasn’t the whole point of winning the Rising Stars of Manga competition to pitch the series that won, I.e. Mail Order Ninja? Do you think there’ll be any difficulties in pitching a new series in place of
Mail Order Ninja, and will any of the characters from Mail Order Ninja play any role in this new series?
Mr. Owen - No. TOKYOPOP doesn't require us to pitch a series based on our entry and I think, but not sure, that there was mention of that in the competition rules.

Rasmussen - What about you? Do you have any ambitions of your own to create a title all your own, and if so what kind of title are you thinking of creating?
Mr. Owen - Of course I want to create my own title, I'm a storyteller. But right now I'm booked for a while working with other writers on other projects. I'm just happy to be drawing as a career, creating my own title would be a bonus. I have all sorts of ideas for titles and I enjoy a full variety of genres, so I have ideas for historical fact and fiction, westerns, scifi, war, fantasy, crime drama, action/adventure. I'm not really into the superhero thing, although if I was offered a shot at Spider-man, Superman, or Batman I wouldn't say, "No".

Rasmussen - Any final words for our readers?
Mr. Owen - Yeah, thank you for taking the time out of your schedules to read my ramblings.
Thank you for wanting to interview us.

-- David Rasmussen 20th Apr 05