Roald Munoz Interview (Baggage)

By David Rasmussen
26th Apr 05

Rasmussen - Tell us abit more about yourself, if you can?
Mr. Roald Munoz - Well, I guess I can go like this: I'm half mexican, half filipino and besides drawing, I go to school, play the piano for cash, b-boy, read, and generally am a big nerd.

Rasmussen - Play the piano for cash?
Mr. Munoz - Yesss I've been studying piano since age 5, and I've found some opportunities to put that long classical education to use to make extra money playing for church services, weddings, funerals, etc. It's possibly incongruous since I'm rather non-religious but it pays some of the bills ~aha.

Rasmussen - How did you first get into Anime/Manga, and what are the titles you are presently into now?
Mr. Munoz - Back in 4th or 5th grade, one of my friends introduced me to Ranma 1/2 comics, which I totally fell in love with; immediately afterwards we got our hands on some fansubs of Marmalade Boy and Otaku no Video. We also read some of the older Masakazu Katsura works like DNA^2 and Video Girl Ai using .txt scripts, looking off the tankouban and computer screen. God, those were the good ol' days I guess, when VHS tapes got copied and re-copied beyond recognition and I wanted to watch and read every thing that came out of Japan. Every weekend we headed out to the nearby Mitsuwa market to get comics and monthlies, dropping mad cash each time; that was seriously a holiday.

Nowadays with the availability of anime and manga on IRC, torrents, etc. it's hard to keep up with so much material. I've gotten specialized in what I go for I guess... I've loved and still love everything GAINAX has done, they're real innovators to me, and in general I like comics that aren't too cartoony in style but still over-the-top somehow. I've pretty much stopped watching anime, though. Most of it is just awful.

But some titles... hmm... i dunno can i name some monthly magazines?? I try to follow LaLa, Ace-A and UltraJump... I really like the monthlies to get a sample of everything goin on ~

Rasmussen - Tell us abit more about your title, Baggage, and the process that went into creating this title?
Mr. Munoz - Baggage was originally going to be a webcomic that I had started one day on a whim. Actually it wasn't even called "Baggage," it was just some sequentials that opened with a girl in bed and a guy sitting pensively on the edge of it. Then I tossed in a monster thing popping out of her left eye and things took off from there I suppose. Rimsy didn't fully form as a character until I had actually started the RSoM entry. He was just a guy holding a briefcase with teeth, but I had to sort of generate a back story for him to justify in my head his world and mindset.

I had this very clear plan for drawing the comic that consisted of thumbnailing, scripting, penciling, inking, toning, lettering. I got through to scripting and drawing 1/2 of it and then procrastinated until the week before it was due ;;;;;. Of course I was thinking about the story and redrawing things throughout, but I really wish I could go back, avoid the rush and fix everything. Then again it also showed what a solid 48 hours of work can really do for you <3

The idea of carrying personal demons that can come out in a physical form weighs heavily on me; I feel like I try to figure out why people do what they do and read into them (maybe too much;;). Yet I believe that such things are crucial to understanding an individual. Some days I wish I really could just rip out whatever's bothering me and get on with life.

Rasmussen - If you could go back, and redo “Baggage” again, what would you have done differently as opposed to what you did the first time around?
Mr. Munoz - I think I would have tried to do a more dynamic introduction, as well as reduce the amount of inner monologue by Rimsy. Also I'd try to get more in-depth into Nicole's personal demon and not gloss over it in one page. And also take a lot more time and care into cleaning up my tones, lines, word bubbles; more detailed backgrounds, watch for grammatical errors, tweak the panel layouts a bit more, try to add more black --- god just about everything ;;;

Rasmussen - How did you come about entering the Rising Stars of Manga competition, and how did you find out you placed 2nd in the competition?
Mr. Munoz - I was wandering the bookstore, gravitating to the comics section and noticed the RSoM 3 anthology and was like "hey what the hell is this?!" I was quite impressed by a couple of the entries in there and even more impressed that such a contest was going on. I looked around and found the 4th one and decided then that I'd enter; I really wanted to see if i could get some exposure and measure up to other artists in the country (and of course I always need the money;;).
As for actually finding out I got 2nd, I got a call one Monday afternoon and there were 3 guys from Tokyopop on the line. The exact words were "Not only did you make it into the book, but you placed 2nd." That totally exceeded my expectations and pretty much made my month (year?). I'm really happy about it and fired up lol~ BURNING YOUTH <3

Rasmussen - Now that you came in second place what plans do you have for Baggage? Are you going to expand the title? Perhaps pitch it again as a series to TOKYOPOP or someone else?
Mr. Munoz - Definitely I plan on expanding the story; it was written with the intent of continuation, with several other characters and fights in store for Rimsy. If TOKYOPOP gives me the chance to do this story and get published with them I'd love that.

Rasmussen - For those readers who might not be familiar with the stress of doing a 48 hour marathon session of work to complete a title, what was that like? And what advice would you give a fellow creator who might be faced with a similar deadline crunching marathon of work to complete their project in time for submission to their Editor (or to a contest like Rising Stars of Manga)?
Mr. Munoz - Two straight days of work is possible if you feel you absolutely have to get the damn thing done. Some kind of natural energy was at work, I didn't really get tired during that process...
I was lucky I had done JUST enough work to make it by the deadline; if I had procrastinated too much more I might have had let it go ~ but yeah; the biggest factor was having key things done already.
For example, I think having all my thumbnails and general scripting done far ahead of time made the process much easier; knowing what to aim for moved the work along very quickly. Keeping everything shut out of your mind for a little while and focusing on following the steps in ordermakes the workload manageable. In a way, once I had laid out all the pages, the creative (and most time-consuming) aspect was done; I just had to follow my own instructions.

Rasmussen - Besides "Baggage" do you have any other series ideas that you might consider making into a title, or will Baggage take up most of your time?
Mr. Munoz - I have a couple other ideas in the works, but I think Baggage has been planned and mulled over the most; if it take up most of my time then I'll let it hehe.

Rasmussen - Any final words for our readers?
Mr. Munoz - Thanks to anyone who read it and voted for it and even if you didn't vote for it thanks for even giving it a second glance. I appreciate it. And if you haven't even seen one bit of it, I hope you check it out in the upcoming RSoM 5 collection ! -- PEACE

-- David Rasmussen 26th Apr 05