Introduce Yourself : Hello from Banafsheh~ by Banafsheh Esmailzadeh

Happy Introduce Yourself Weekend, Banafsheh Esmailzadeh! How's your comic book coming along? The black & white comic.

Thanks Maurice Vaughan! It's still kind of on break but little by little I'm doing more screentones for it :) will be sure to upload more pictures for you to see and in due time add the dialogue and other written effects :)

Mike Childress aww! I personally lean most towards manga style, and even then I prefer shoujo manga style (though I've learned of course that different time periods have "thumbprints" if you will--older stuff from the 1970s like Rose of Versailles or Princess Knight has less screentones and more dramatic flavour while newer stuff like Sailor Moon or Cardcaptor Sakura uses more screentones and sometimes a more minimalistic background, also tend to be more cartoony and light-hearted), and since I've also been drawing about as long as I've been telling stories but am not as good as I'd want to be, drawing my comic is a great way to learn on the job, if you will. I really like CLAMP's manga designs and recently have rediscovered Rumiko Takahashi's art. I definitely need to read more comic books, though, I did enjoy 1990s X-Men :D

Mike Childress yes, I did watch Cowboy Bebop and actually want to watch it again. Naturally I loved the "Ballad of Fallen Angels" episode and did an homage to it in my comic :) I never actually watched Ninja Scroll in its entirety but my brother loves it and I might give it a proper watch one of these days, and I enjoyed the Fist of the North Star video game, haven't watched the anime or read the manga but I want to. Same with Akira haha. I'll be sure to give "Love, Death & Robots" and "Secret Level" a watch, too. Have you watched any of Satoshi Kon's anime? I watched "Memories" which was produced by Katsuhiro Otomo and Satoshi Kon wrote the screenplay for "Magnetic Rose" for it, and I really like his surrealist touch. Probably my favourite one of his was "Millennium Actress."

You're welcome, Banafsheh Esmailzadeh. Ok, looking forward to seeing the pictures! Do you know where you're gonna sell your comic book at?

Mike Childress Oh yes, I really liked Blue Eye Samurai :) despite being crazy bleak and dark, it was a good time and also a breath of fresh air with Mizu not being a Mary Sue. Excited for the second season! As for Satoshi Kon, if you like psychological thrillers, you'll like Perfect Blue. It was a heavy watch for me but I'm glad I did and it's just masterfully done.

Maurice Vaughan I'm not sure yet, if I can I'd like very much for it to be a physical book like all my eventual books haha. But I'll keep researching and find out the best way to go about it :)

I've seen Stage 32 members talk about publishing comic books, Banafsheh Esmailzadeh. You might want to make a post in the Authoring & Playwriting Lounge sometime asking for advice and insight.

Thank you Maurice Vaughan, will do :) I'm definitely gonna hit it up when I'm ready to query my novel Petal :)

You're welcome, Banafsheh Esmailzadeh. Great. I like that title!

Thanks Maurice Vaughan! I like that title too :) was a fun challenge coming up with appropriate single word titles in the series (the comic is itself called Conviction and is kind of a foil piece to Petal). The comic series I tried to give them multiple meaning single-word titles (Conviction, Link, Contact, Induction, Paradox)

You're welcome, Banafsheh Esmailzadeh. Great idea. Single-word titles can be really easy to remember, and I'm thinking it's cheaper to market a comic with a single-word title since there's less graphic design work and fewer letters to print.

I'm so glad that you're introducing yourself during IYW for the first time, Banafsheh Esmailzadeh! It's been lovely getting to know you in the community over the last few months. =)

Welcome to a great community.

Welcome, Bana! It’s great to have you here :) your creative journey sounds amazing, and I’m sure there’s so much to learn from your unique projects. I love that you make art as well! Keep up the good energy and creativity as well! As a new writer, you’ll find we have wonderful resources here at Stage 32, I’d be happy to send you recommendations—feel free to email me at edu@stage32.com! Looking forward to seeing how your work evolves and hopefully connecting with you in the future! Wishing you a wonderful 2025.

Likewise Ashley Renee Smith, can't wait to interact more :)

Thank you Asmaa Jamil :)

Thank you Sydney S! I will do my best, and I'll definitely reach out with any and all questions and I hope you have a great 2025 as well :)

It's great to meet you here in the community, Banafsheh Esmailzadeh! You're in a great place here for someone with so much positive creative energy! Can you share what Finding Elpis 3: The Elysian Rhapsodies is about?

Thank you Sam Sokolow, indeed I am :) and I'll try without spoilers for Rondo of Pandora haha: The Elysian Rhapsodies follows Starman's own personal journey apart from the rest of Elpis, which coincides with that of Phi, who says she is on a quest to ask God himself who she is meant to be in life. Meanwhile the rest of the band seeks their own dreams in the shadows of an evolving galaxy. I'll admit that since it's still quite fresh it'll develop more but that's the gist of it :)

Banafsheh Esmailzadeh Hi Bana, it’s great to see you here on the IYW. Thanks for sharing your passion with us. Who are the artists that inspired you to take this creative journey?

Thank you so much Geoff Hall! Growing up of course I watched a lot of anime and read a lot of manga, CLAMP’s being the main ones (I still love Cardcaptor Sakura to absolute pieces). I always thought it was cool how they never stuck to just one genre or demographic, they could genuinely make something for everyone and I didn’t see that very often in the media available to me. Most creators just stuck to one area and hardly ever branched out.

It’s the same with Osamu Tezuka, though he’s a bit of an extreme example being the godfather of manga who also was a trained surgeon and created over 700 different mangas. I’m slowly building up my own collection of his works, I really enjoyed the anime for Phoenix and it still sucks that he passed away before he finished it :(

Another one of my absolute favourites is Kunihiko Ikuhara. I still rewatch Revolutionary Girl Utena every now and then just to see what other meanings I can divulge from it that I missed before, since it’s so unbelievably rich with symbolism and references and themes that he even said “all interpretations [of it] are true.” I don’t know if I’ll ever reach his level but I will certainly try lol

Banafsheh Esmailzadeh Bana, that’s great, thank you for sharing your thoughts and inspirations with me. At present, my friend every year for the last three has bought me a Junji Ito manga. His work is really intense and visceral.

Geoff Hall no worries~ and nice! I’m not really into Junji Ito’s work but I hear he’s quite good.

Welcome Banafsheh Esmailzadeh! You're coming in with the right attitude! Keep posting and interacting and contributing on the platform and you'll make some amazing connections!

Thank you Nick Phillips, will do! :) I’m really enjoying this platform :D