Hey Everyone! This episode is a little different. We're interviewing manga artist, Ryan McCarthy at Little Lions Collections! Enjoy!

Howdy!

It's the Southern Senpais Show, where small town southerners explore big

time Japanese entertainment, anime, manga, and everything in between.

Here's your hosts, Nicholas and DJ.

Hey

you guys, welcome to Southern Senpais, I'm DJ.

I'm Nicholas, and today we have a very special episode for you.

We are interviewing a manga artist.

His name is Ryan McCarthy.

Yes.

Ryan McCarthy.

Now, Ryan McCarthy.

He is the creator of a manga called Tamashii.

Yes.

Tamashii.

Me and Nicholas have had the privilege of not only meeting him, but also at

interviewing him, but also we got to read

some.

Yes, we got to read some of

his manga.

Tamashii and you know what, Tamashii, not only is it a manga, but he also

has a playing card game, and he has plushies and stuff like that.

Nicholas, what do you think about the because I don't want to spoil

anything, because we're about to have the interview, really.

But after reading Tamashii, though, what is your opinion?

What would you say it's

what's, it's the...

The animation style is like shaolin showdown.

The art style is drawn not the it's not animated It's manga, but the manga

yet.

Anyway, we'll do that a little later.

But the art style was definitely like we like we say in the interview, It's

reminiscent of Shaolin Showdown, Jackie Chan adventures kind of art style.

But I definitely thought that the manga was It seemed like an action

comedy type of manga type of thing.

Yeah,

I definitely would suggest it for if someone is like on the younger

side and they want to get into manga.

Definitely something I could like, Give to like my younger cousins for them to enjoy.

It's very family friendly.

It's made for all ages.

So like the humor in it is pretty clean, but it's actually funny.

Yeah.

And then this book, I think this book would be perfect

for the scholastic book fair.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Something that I can totally see this being in, we're about to get into the

interview, but if you want to check out more of Ryan's stuff, just go to www.

ryanmccarthyproductions.

com.

That's R Y A N M C C A R T H Y N M C C A R T H Y.

P R O D U C T I O N S dot com.

RyanMcCarthyProductions.

com to check out all his latest stuff.

He does have more things going on than just this Tamashii manga,

but this is the main part of

the interview.

Yeah, this is the main course.

This is what he dedicates most of his time to.

And without further ado, let's get into this interview.

What's going on, y'all?

This is Nicholas from Southern Senpais.

And this

is DJ from Southern

Senpais.

Two southern guys exploring Japanese culture.

We have a special feature today.

Yes, a

special interviewee.

We're interviewing Ryan.

That is

me.

Yes.

Ryan McCarthy.

Ryan McCarthy, you say you're

a cartoonist.

Yes, I that's the fun word.

That's the fun word.

There's probably fancy words, but those are boring.

Also, this is a really great place.

We're here at the Little

Lions event.

Little

Lions collectibles event.

I believe it's called BYO Games.

This is it's a little gaming thing.

This is a new thing the guy's done.

I've, I did one other event with this guy.

This one's...

Is this your first time here at this building?

Yes, he used to have a different thing where you have to walk up

steps, but I don't know this one's nicer It was also closer and it

has less steps that hey, i'm down

with that Although this heat today isn't doing this building any favors

also, But anyway, so how did you get into being a cartoonist?

What would you say is your

inspirations?

Yeah, I've I've been drawing for as long as I can remember.

It's like that one Simpsons episode with the cartoonist that comes in class.

Oh, what did you do?

Did you listen to your, did you listen to your teachers and inspired?

No, I just sat in my, sat there, sat at my desk and drew cartoons all day.

What would you

say you, you draw inspirations from the most as

a cartoonist?

You have a manga.

Yes, and it's a very unique style.

So that's what we're

like, where are these inspirations?

I would say my biggest inspirations is Ed, Edd n Eddy One Piece, Zatch

Bell Almost anything of around that Cartoon Network Nickelodeon era like

there's some but Ed, Edd n Eddy is that's like number one favorite cartoon

the Simpsons What makes you like Ed,

Edd n Eddy so much?

What was the inspiration coming from with

Ed, Edd n Eddy?

Ed, Edd, and Eddie looks like Ed, Edd, and Eddie.

That's the first thing.

Nothing else looks like it.

Although, personally, on a more personal note, I remember I had that

conversation with someone once that they would always make fun of the

show until eventually it was like...

Listen, do you know why I liked Ed, Edd, and Eddie?

Because it was the only show about a bunch of kids with no friends.

That no one else liked or could get along with.

It's just, it meant the coldest thing.

Until eventually, they just found each other, and it's Oh, we all have the

same name, let's be friends, and Oh, we can't be weirdos with everyone else.

Let's be weirdos with each other and it gave this idea that hey Cuz with other

past things from my life, it's Can I

let's devise funny schemes to try and get these

job breakers pretty much But it's just the idea that even if you

have a small group of friends that doesn't make it not valuable in a way

it's Some people say it's better to have four quarters than a hundred pennies.

Yeah.

Oh

yeah.

I just nodded my head.

I forgot we're recording.

We're on radio.

People can't see me nodding my head.

One thing I always love about NNN is that I always They always,

all their schemes are very unique.

And I'm not gonna lie, as watching them when I was younger, I was like,

I should do some of this stuff.

This is

actually really creative.

They made a, they make a pool in the middle of the cul de sac out of jello.

I was like, why aren't I doing that?

I can do that?

Yeah!

And the

jawbreakers are really

huge.

They're huge!

Just cause it looks, just cause it looks funny.

Apparently they picked jawbreakers cause I was just like, no other cartoon has

ever picked jawbreakers as the thing.

Sonic the Hedgehog eats chili dogs, all the...

What I forget other ones, but it's just like

it's not a hedgehog.

He likes chili dogs for some reason.

Yeah, dude a lot of speedsters like hot dogs.

The Flash eats a lot of hot

dogs, too?

Yeah, he's like exclusively on hot dogs, right?

What is up with this?

What is

up with being fast hot dogs?

Scooby Snacks.

It was just straight up no one likes jawbreakers.

The ads will like jawbreakers.

That's

what we'll do.

We'll put in jawbreakers.

Alright.

And then...

You said for you guys that don't know, Ryan is from Massachusetts.

Yes, Western Massachusetts, specifically.

Woah, the definition, you gotta get the stink.

When you say it, people think Boston.

Boston's an entirely different world.

What's the difference between Boston,

Massachusetts, and...

Boston is Boston, it's a big city, and everything going on that

matters is going on over there.

I'm from Western, in fact, I'm from...

Southwick, Massachusetts.

If you ever look at Massachusetts, shout out

Southwood, Massachusetts.

Yeah.

South Southwick.

Southwick.

Southwick.

Southwick.

If you let just pull up a map of Massachusetts, you'll see at the bottom

left, like bottom West area, there's a little jet going into Connecticut.

That's Southwick.

That's

Southwick and that, that's where the cartoonist vibes and

the Oh no.

I'm like the only cartoonist around that.

So I think the only one we have is like a woman's basketball player.

I forget what her name was.

So what about your upbringing made you say, oh, this is what I wanna do.

'cause everything else just seems oh no, you gotta go to a job

and sit at a thing and wish, like it, kinda like basically wish you

were, and like everything about your life feels is outta your control.

But if you have a piece of paper.

A blank piece of paper?

It's entirely, it's nothing's limited aside from whatever your hand can do.

And your imagination.

You

have total and complete control to create whatever it is that you

want to create.

Can you tell us

a little

bit more about this manga?

Because you we spoke a little bit before.

This is already, God, I don't know if you noticed, but...

We have conversations with our guests prior and afterwards

because they're people.

When I was talking to him before, he was telling me that you were working on this

for six, the idea came six years earlier.

Oh no, it actually, I've been working on the books.

I don't know.

He's seen these, but this is an art print.

It's a lenticular print.

It shows off, it cycles through the first drawing of the

character back in around 2005.

2005?

Wow, so you've been, this has been like a very long

time coming.

Yeah, I have legions of characters.

Tamashii's only one of 20 things, which I made, I recently made

this trading card game as a way to advertise all my characters.

That's awesome, man.

Wow.

For those of you listening, we'll be posting a lot of images online.

Yeah, we'll be

posting a lot of, we'll be posting a lot of these pictures so

you guys can see the inspiration.

These

are some interesting characters.

What's going, what is this story about?

I have to know.

It's about a girl named Tamashi.

That's her name.

You got the Tamashii card that I drew right there.

Yeah.

She basically wakes up suddenly in a world called the Ancient Land.

She doesn't know how she got there.

Now she needs to go on a big journey through the Ancient Land

and maybe find her way back home.

So this is like an isekai.

Yeah, isekai before that was even a word.

Clone High was like barely a couple years old when I came up with this.

Wow!

That's absolute, yeah man, that's incredible.

And the drawing style...

It's very unique.

Very unique.

It reminds me of a lot of of

of Shaolin Shaolin Showdown.

Yeah, that's what I was about to

say.

Oh, everyone, oh, I appreciate that one.

So many people say, is that Avatar?

Because we have Suimo, he's a monk boy.

I was

going to say Shaolin Showdown.

That's Shaolin, I

do it.

What?

There's so

many other people who a

lot of love in this art that had, that comes from that American,

early American cartoon style.

There we go.

Yeah.

You can tell you, you poured a lot of passion and love into

whatever, into what you were

doing.

So let me ask you a question.

Huh.

When it comes to every...

Every creator has their favorite character.

Is your main and it's usually not their main character that they've made.

Who is your favorite character?

If you instead of choosing the main person.

Let's see, alright.

Is it Is it his name is Suimo?

Suimo

is the second main character.

If you want a personal character that I always I wanna know your favorite, man.

I wanna know the personal favorite.

Let's see if I hopefully his card Alright, I love this little guy.

His name is Flance.

Flance.

Tell

us a little bit about

Flance.

Flance is a mole demon.

He loves to hunt.

He's the child of speed.

Child of speed?

In Tamashi, in the Ancient Land, there's these children called

the Children of the Ancient Land.

They're children just born with special powers.

Huh.

Like, where they came from, we don't know.

They don't know, they just have always been.

Is that a secret in the story?

Tamashi suddenly finds out she's gained the ability of the Child

of the Moon somehow, even though she's not from the Ancient Land.

Oh!

But in their journey, they meet other Children of the Ancient Land, and one of

them they meet is Flance, a little mole demon kid who is the Child of Speed.

This reminds me of Flance reminds me of what's his name from Demon Slayer the

animal.

Oh, yeah, with the boar head?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Oh, Flance existed way before he did.

Yeah, so actually,

This is just the OG.

So actually,

you owe some money from Demon Slayer.

You created the mole man, the pig man first.

He More man.

He, he has these claws.

But he also has this flame hair design.

It's just it's crazy, kooky, yeah, hair, yeah, he has the claw.

He's he's just a self proclaimed mold.

He doesn't even realize he's a child of the ancient land.

He just thinks, I, Flance is fast.

Because Flance, Flance knows what he, Flance wants to do.

And Flance wants to go fast, because

he helps him hunt prey.

If you had this idea for so long, what made you say Okay, you

know what, I'm going to start.

Taking it to book and start really pouring more into it compared to it

because you seem like a guy who has a lot of ideas Yeah, oh, yes, so

what made you say this is the one I'm dabbling down on to this extent

I think it was just at some point I think I did and I was like if I don't do

it now, it might not ever happen, right?

I need to get it out there.

I need to have it be made and That's just it.

But what

made you choose this one over your other ideas?

I'm looking around, you have a ton of stuff.

Oh yeah.

You said you had 25 ideas.

What made Thomas Shee the one that I'm going to invest most

of my time in?

It's just the one you thought about?

The oldest?

Or what's going on?

Because it's the one that has an overarching, constant story that the more

I work on it, and the more I might grow up in some way, it will grow with me.

It's like a bunch of my other ones, like there's this one

called School of the Underworld.

It's about a kid who goes to school in hell.

It's basically just like a, a, Every episode is separate.

It's what are they doing at the school of the underworld?

It's Everything is separate.

Tamashii, however, is a thing that When you start reading it, you can

keep Going with it and follow through.

Cause, that's what One Piece and Zatch Bell, those are my

major Inspirations for mine.

Will you grow with

it?

And with the what was the one that, that's in hell?

What

was that?

School of the Underworld.

School of the Underworld.

Is that any at all representative of your own life and being in school?

In a way, yes.

That was a really good observation.

I like that one.

Because I would say the same thing.

But also if you guys didn't know that Ryan is has special needs, right?

Yes.

And so apparently it's called high functioning autism.

It used to be called Asperger's, right?

Not burgers.

It's burgers.

Burgers.

Never Every time I do have to say I'm a bit immature because

whenever I hear Asperger's, I just think of the south Park episode.

South Park episode,

yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

But it's

very inspiring that, Someone like you could do someone who has

a disability is not letting it

stop him.

That's in fact, that was the other thing.

Tamashi is semi its story is, like, all a metaphor for that.

It the children of the ancient land, children born with special

powers that either impedes or enhances their life in some way.

It's something about them that is different, that

they can't put a finger on.

Like a kid born with special needs.

For some people, it's a hindrance, to some people it's somehow a superpower.

I would say so.

So that's really where this world comes from.

And where would you say that, how would you say your autism

provides you a superpower in making Tom Machine and your other

ideas?

There are so many details in this world, in this

story.

Let's repeat the last part.

I said, in your autism, what would you say is a

superpower with your cartoonist?

I guess the ability to put everything together in my own...

Terms, if that makes sense.

Because as

DJ was saying, these are incredibly detailed.

To be fair, I did collab with a lot of artists.

Oh, yeah?

This one, so yeah, this one was done by someone named Retro Space Punk.

They did amazing on that, but there's still my kit.

So some cards are drawn, but because that's the thing.

It's, it was, it's a way of also showing off my characters and showing off,

hey, look at all the other artists.

People I have met throughout my journey.

There's the story itself is what book number you are right now.

10, 10,

this year I took a little mini hiatus on releasing like chapters

and making volumes to go to tons of shows, which it's been helping.

Can

you tell our audience where they can find your work?

I have my own personal website.

It's called Ryan McCarthy productions.

com.

And I have and there's tons of multimedia, there's plushies, there's

a trading card game that I have my own personal store on Storenvy,

it's just called rmprod at Storenvy, that's where you can support work

directly.

So on Storenvy, rmproducts, and then also ryanmatthewsproductions.

com.

Yep, and my handles are like, at ryanthederity.

Ryan D E R E D E.

That's Twitter and Instagram, and that's what I usually do, but

that's where you can find my stuff.

I take cu I take custom commissions.

Those are always open if people want to Oh, cool!

You like, want me to draw a picture of Boa Hancock?

Just I can do that.

That's awesome.

Awesome.

It's been really great talking to you.

Is there anything else, is there anything that you can tell our

audience out there, like any advice or someone who wants to be like you?

If people, my, my big, my first rule, if you have an idea, do it.

If you don't do it, it won't happen.

All the other technical, other skill stuff, all that's like...

Whatever.

You'll figure that stuff out as you go.

If you don't do it, though, it's never gonna happen.

If you don't do it, it won't happen.

And that really applies to everything in life.

But, and believe me, if you have people in your life that might doubt it,

use that as inspiration, because then you can later shove it in their face.

Awesome.

Ryan, thank you so much.

It's been great talking to you.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Yes.

And guys, this has been Southern Senpais.

I'm DJ.

I'm

Nicholas.

And I'm Ryan.

Yeah, and we'll

see you next time,

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