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Lompoc artist and writer make their mark with manga

Two Lompoc residents with a gift of art and storytelling
have published a manga.


"Manga" is Japanese for comic book and artist Irene Flores
with writer Ashly Raiti - friends since attending Cabrillo
High School - have their first manga, "Mark of the Succubus,"
on shelves at comic and bookstores throughout the nation.

 Flores' art utilizes the Japanese comic book practice of
stylized proportions, clean lines, and the contrast between
black and white. Manga is usually published in black and white,
as opposed to the Western use of colored panels, Flores said.

The graphic novel, the first part of a trilogy, centers on a
teenage female demon named Maeve, a cute, awkward girl with
small, black bat-like wings, who is sent to Earth from the
demon world to kill a human. Instead, she falls in love with
a boy while undercover as a high school student "somewhere
on the East Coast" and, according to the creative pair,
"hijinks ensue."

"Maeve is from Erebus - the demon world," Raiti said. "Demons
interact with humans because of their need for power and magic.
One of the ways to get their power is to kill people and that's
what she ends up coming to Earth to do. But she decides she
doesn't really want to do that and she would rather just be a
normal teenage girl."

Flores said the fun with the book is inventing the camera
angles for the art panels and giving Maeve, who is not very
good at assimilating into American teenage culture, weird
clothes to wear.

"A lot of the clothes Maeve wears in the comic book are from my
own closet," she said.

Flores added that she and Raiti tried to not follow the path of
other manga heroines in creating the character of Maeve.

"She's not lame like other manga females, who are clumsy and
like to eat a lot," Flores said. "Boo for them."

Flores, 23, has lived in Lompoc since she was 12, but remembers
a childhood living in the Philippines, near Manila, watching
Japanese animation on television and getting interested in
comic books such as "The X-Men."

"I grew up watching ‘Astro Boy' and ‘Voltes 5,'" Flores said.
This is something I wanted to do since I was a little kid. When
I was a kid, I wanted to draw comic books. I played video games.
It was awesome when I realized I could do it professionally as a
job. It's what I've wanted to do. That's why I said I would do it
for free and getting paid for it is a fantastic bonus and so is
getting feedback from fans."

Raiti, 22, has been writing "since forever," she said. She added
she is inspired by all kinds of literature, including the work of
Stephen King ("The Shining") and Douglas Adams ("The Hitchhiker's
Guide to the Galaxy"). By age 10, Raiti said, she had settled into
"a steady diet of horror, fantasy and science-fiction."

"I just really like coming up with characters and seeing how they
change between being random personality traits, when they are actually
doing things and interacting with other characters," Raiti said.
"I think that just writing in general, not even ‘Mark of the Succubus'
but writing is something I like doing because I think it's fun to come
up with scenarios and watch them work out. If I didn't have the chance
to put it down on paper, the ideas would be just daydreams floating
around in my head and it's fun to see them be something real."

"Mark of the Succubus" is not the pair's first manga offering. Flores
and Raiti impressed editors at the manga publishing firm Tokyopop
with their art and storytelling in a Web manga the pair collaborated
on in 2002 and with story pitches.

The pair got to work with Tokyopop in 2003 on a manga anthology series
and when Flores brought story ideas and art to a Tokyopop editor
at a comic book convention in 2004, the pair were green-lighted with
a contract for "Mark of the Succubus."

The book, which was released nationwide Nov. 8, is now available at
Comix Plus, 1024 North H St., in Lompoc. Flores and Raiti will also
appear at a book signing at Printed Matter on Dec. 3 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Neil Nisperos can be reached at 737-1059 or nnisperos@lompocrecord.com.

November 14, 2005