One point to draw from this is that oel artists have to produce immediately or they get dropped.  Japanese manga artists however,are mentored and enrolled in rigorous programs in order to see the full potential of their work.  Therefore, I've sought to do the same with UGE.  This is amateur of course, so most members come to relax and chat with each other, because they have the same passion.  I've noticed that many young artists, some just barely teenagers, come to UGE because they might be too shy to go anywhere else.  It's my goal to work with you as a team, rather than to critique you objectively and then send you on your way.  This is because young artists have limitless potential and a grand amount of time on their hands.  Criticism can either break a young artist and deter them, or you can carry them along, and be overjoyed by improvements they make down the road.  To me, that is why UGE is such a tight-knit community.  As I grow and improve with my own art, it brings me so much happiness to see my members do the same.

 

Anyway, a little about me.  Besides being the founder of UGE and COMIKKAZE, I am the creator of the comic series "Kaze."  Kaze is my attempt at flipping all perceptions, traditions, and portrayals in manga upside down.  I myself, am not the most knowledgeable comic fan.  I've only read two manga series, and one graphic novel series.  Therefore, I draw my inspiration from everything else. My favorite stories often include my favorite characters, and those characters are always easy to relate to.  They are like real people, no matter how unbelievable.  Therefore, with Kaze, I wanted to create characters that embodied things that have occurred to me in my life and made me who I am.  Things like Kaze's lack of identity, or Ayame's awareness of mortality, sin and repentance, or Frankie's lack of purpose or sense of worth.  Characters are not people, exactly, they personify the human experience.  I've been developing Kaze for almost ten years now, the characters have matured with me and never left me, even when I put them away because I dismissed making comics as a child's dream.  Now, in the autumn of my teenage years, they've become icons, worthy and able to vividly portray realistic adolescence and coming of age.

 

About UGE, it was a very lonely site.  I had no idea how to publicize it, and had no money for advertising.  So, I began the tedious process of informing people one-by-one, and convincing them that my site would help them develop a popular comic.  UGE is still a free site,  it won't show up on a google search, but I operate on word-of-mouth, and I've been lucky enough to gather some amazing talents, and even more amazing people, from around the world.  I received some criticism from a few artists (all older than me), that didn't believe that my site was worth their free membership because it wouldn't springboard them into fame and fortune.  That's valid, but it's those kinds of criticisms that characterize a reactionary society.  The big popular sites just got that way and you should join them because you'll never be able to create something of your own.  Don't listen to this.  Just think outside the box and realize that it will take work to get to where you want to go.  

 

I could write for hours about this, there's so much more to say, but since I can't make up an ending I'll just cut it off mid-sentence before

This is me, KJ.