Feature: Aim for Jump!

Episode 1: Pre-planning

I lay in a pile of crumpled screentone, empty beer cans, and newsprint.
The faint sounds of a midi version of "The Final Countdown" cuts through the balmy late-spring night.
"I only have a week to get this name and shitagaki together..."

I'm just your average 20-something experiencing a quarter-life crisis. I wake up early, go to work, come back home and drink a lonelybeer while wondering what happened to my childhood hopes and dreams. /heavydrama

I've been an avid reader of Jump series since childhood. Rurouni Kenshin taught me everything I need to know about early modern Japanese history, Death Note made me over think my fast food choices, and for some reason I just can't quit Bleach no matter how stupid it gets. Recently, I (and the entire internet) have been eagerly waiting for each new edition of Jump to find out if Saiko will ever get laid and if Shujin will ever be able to support his wife above the poverty line. With Bakuman's popularity, Jump has started a whole new campaign to get new manga artists to submit their manuscripts. I figured I can at least draw better than the worst gag manga artist (I kid, I <3 u, Masuda Kosuke) and my story is at the very least better than the worst thing Jump editors have read. Maybe.

So, I rolled around on my couch, had several concept meetings with my co-artist, and managed to cobble together script for a 45-page yomikiri. I resisted the temptation of Gyakuten Kenji 2 and Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 4 to get character designs hammered out and preliminary manuscripts done.

And yet, here I am still, with barely half of the preliminary manuscript done (none of the actual manuscript, of course) and less than a week to go until I'm on a plane to Japan. Will I ever stop watching bad reality tv shows and get drawing? Will I put out something that doesn't look like a middle schooler drew it? Will the editors take one look at it and politely tell me to gtfo? Stay tuned until the next edition of AIM FOR JUMP!

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