If you're interested in the process, manga writing is tough to be honest.
Sometime during May last year (2023), I was bored. Very bored.
I started thinking a lot about HunterxHunter, nothing new to anyone that knows me personally- it's one of my favorite stories.
I gravitated towards Tonpa in particular, I always thought he would have interesting stories to tell. It's likely he's taken the exam with Ging, Morrel, Knov, Pariston even, a couple of the troupe members, Kite, and almost every other hunter we see in the story- including Hisoka's first attempt at the exam. They were rookies once, and I imagine Tonpa attempted his usual rookie crushing tendencies.
So why is Tonpa the way he is? I'm working on figuring that out myself.
The world of HunterxHunter is complex, modelled after our own world in many ways. That all being said, with a goal of writing something that will match the world and do it justice- I started brainstorming.
It was during November last year that I felt that I had given things enough thought. I had some vague plots planned out, but a strong vision for the story from start to finish.
Where to start though? First I needed a timeline.
I understand how this looks… and I'm not willing to comment further. I'd like to reiterate that I was bored, so I had time to work out some quirks for accuracy.
I'm accounting for Tonpa taking his first exam at 10 years old, followed by an eventual streak of 30, 31? consecutive exams, and to have taken the exam 37 times by the current point in the story. Crazy enough, things lined up to theoretically have Tonpa participate in the 250th Hunter Exam for his first attempt.
I'm getting ahead of myself- I'm worried about spoiling things. Trust my binder full of sketches, notes, and pages that I've both put thought into this and am willing to keep things accurate as far as I'm able to.
Was originally supposed to be a part of Chapter 1, which ended up being longer than anticipated so I cut things up into chapters 0, 1, and 2.
The famous journalist, Kaori Shoji, referred to the work of a manga artist as "voluntary enslavement". I never doubted it for a second, but making an active attempt put things into perspective instantly.
Before I could even begin the story, I need solid character designs, a dynamic artistic skillset, time (lots of it), deadlines (if it wasn't for a friend making a bet of $250 over the finishing of Chapter 1 by a specific date, I doubt I'd have made it this far), and even then just the patience through multiple iterations of storyboards, paneling, drawings, dialogue, and the list goes on.
I was shocked to find the final iteration of Chapter 0- though it captured the soul of the first storyboard, was tangibly different in many ways.
To be fair, these pages were all envisioned while I was on board a flight. Cut me some slack. I'd like to reiterate that this was in November.
I couldn't just jump in and start inking five blocks on a single page in my journal. It was a start though.
Over the upcoming months since, I storyboarded a couple chapters ahead, built a stronger idea of the story's trajectory and took plenty of notes. That didn't stop me from starting to sketch out the pages I did have centered in mind.
I'm doing this for transparency (and because it allows me to give y'all more content in between chapters).
As you can see though, these pages are uhh, a bit different from the final product? I'm not mad about it, but this is to show the process can be dynamic and I have to make constant compromises with my past self on how I want to depict a page. I figured the story would build more intrigue if I wasn't vague about the letter from the birdy.
Admittedly, I feel like I can confidently say any art skills I have are more or less self taught (thank you Youtube and the occasional Tiktok), that isn't to understate that I've been drawing for over a decade although it's only recently where I've felt that I have a product I'm happily sharing. Backgrounds and drawing in perspective is hard :(
I'm still learning, but now it's more of an as needed basis- I do imagine my art will get better over time so I'm personally excited to see how my later chapters will look when I get there.
Yes I drew this one below about eight years ago, if anything, it just means I'm consistent…in some way.
Check out some of my other past works.