#august featured creator

What is a Featured Creator?

Write Way Studio’s “Featured Creator” segment is my way of showing appreciation for the creators of the world.  Creative outlets are limitless, because there is no end to human imagination.  Every month shows the succeeding featured creator.  If you would like to be a part of this collaborative project, contact me at [email protected]!

My eleventh guest is a pair of masterminds behind the web-comic Revelations of Eros:  AkumaYoru and E.A.!

Introduction

This is a first for Featured Creator!  Usually, there is only one mysterious person behind the curtain.  Instead, we have two individuals to share with you this month.

AkumaYoru is the artist while E.A. is the author.  AkumaYoru had been born April 19th while residing under the ram Aries.  He was a supervisor at Starbucks in his final year of school, now a completely different job after his graduation.  His degree is a Psychology major with a Sociology minor.

Under the sign of Leo the lion, EA’s birth is August 10th.  E.A. helps to educate the next generation as a second-grade teacher.  He holds a bachelor’s in Education.

What Sparked the Creator Passion?

How It All Started

For AkumaYoru, he had watched anime since forever.  He even recalls how he started by trancing from various Dragon Ball coloring books his father bought for him and how happy and calm drawing was.  When entering high school, however, only one friend watched anime and became the only person he could show his silly comics.  An accidental discovery of DeviantArt helped push him forward with his art.  As he uploaded some drawings, he received many critiques and compliments as a result.  As AkumaYoru recalled the moment, he stated, “This new-found feeling of finally being among people who liked the same things I did created my passion to show more and more of my work.  This is what drives me still, to be able to share stories and pictures of shows and manga that I enjoy.”

For EA, things were a bit different.  He did not have television growing up, seeing as food as bit more important in comparison.  He became homeless and struggled to survive.  There was no passion in anything creative, such as stories and videos games – only survival was on his mind.  Once he entered the United States, he still had no interest.  Only after meeting his boyfriend, who was very into anime, did he actually stop to sit down and watch it.  There was no interest in storytelling at the time.  Yet, he read numerous BL (boy love) stories.  As he read more, they had similar struggles that he had.  Only later did he realize that the main struggle of most of the BL stories was an ex-boyfriend appearing or two boys like the same guy.  Only after this recognition did he notice that he could not relate to the characters very well.  He thought in response to the BL problem, “My life was nothing like this.”  He then became motivated to write something based on his own life, knowing others with similar upbringings wanted to read about a character with similar struggles.  As the comic continued, he read the comments.  He noticed that more people than he anticipated had experienced or seen what he had, and it motivated him more to make the story even more unique and personal.

All about Revelations of Eros

AkumaYoru and EA eventually began to work on the comic together.  EA had opened up about his past and asked AkumaYoru if he was interested in drawing it.  He is good at drawing cute boys so he didn’t see a problem there; it was with EA’s push for NSFW material that would accompany the story’s progression that made him second-guess himself.  EA personally believes that “intimate moments between the characters, just like in real life, speak volumes about them both internally and physically.”  He mostly followed EA’s storyline and panel layout.

EA restated how lots of BL stories don’t talk about the unpleasantness that is poverty, abuse, isolation, or the internal and external scars left from those experiences.  They hope to change that with Revelations of Eros.  He hopes to show others what children are going through in their countries, the struggles and its ugliness, how hard the hurdles can be, until the happy ending you can be achieved as you continue walking forward instead of giving up.  His final statement in all this is as follows:  “I want to reach those who are struggling right now, and bring them a more realistic story where the main protagonist doesn’t get swept off their feet by a prince, or find their long-lost family, or fall in love one day and married the next.”

To give you an idea of the comic, the summary on Line Webtoons is as follows: “Eros doesn’t want friends, and he doesn’t someone special.  He wants to be left alone.  Starting university in the United States after living in the slums in Mexico his entire life, he must traverse an entirely new world while keeping everyone at a distance.  But, no matter how hard he pushes everyone away, there's one boy who keeps getting closer.”    

EA sees the comic as a tribute to his friends as well as how they helped him overcome personal struggles.  The characters are based on real-life people, trying to stay close to their actual characteristics, personality and appearance as possible.  There are, however, some aspects that needed artistic liberty, better phrased as fiction.

The Artistic Approach to ROE

As previously stated, AkumaYoru is the artist behind the series.  During our interview, he described his creative process for the comic panels! The following is the textual explanation, but if you would rather see the WIPs (which I believe means work-in-progress) depict the transitions, click here to the Creator Gallery!

WIP 0

    “Every chapter is sketched out fully at first, with EA [giving AkumaYoru] a summary of what the chapter will contain and I sketch out carefully.” Before they proceed to the next step, the two of them repeatedly reviewed and edited the sketches until they were to EA’s approval.

WIP 1

To work on the comic panels, it also began with the sketch. AkumaYoru noted that they may be “more detailed or sillier.

WIP 2

Next, he “[adjusts] the base line-work.”

WIP 3

“The base color layers” are added soon after.

WIP 4

In the past, the artist “[shaded] every layer individually, which does gives [a] better overall look, but it slows [him] down tremendously.” Instead, he has “adopted a simple technique of just shading everything with the same color (pale reddish in this case). Every chapter has a different color used for shading to give it a different tone and it doesn’t become boring for me.”

WIP 5

Then, “the last thing [he works on] is add effects like the blushes, movement lines, and so on.”

WIP 6

This part is a little different, since it involves the dialogue. “Either [AkumaYoru], or EA, take turns doing this since it doesn’t require drawing or coloring.”

WIP 7

After the dialogue is completed, “The speech bubbles are added.”

WIP 8

This is the final result. AkumaYoru noted that the “average time from start to finish: 1.5 hours, [all done with mouse].”   

Future Projects

After the ROE project is complete, EA said that he would “feel satisfied with stopping my involvement.”  At the moment, it remains to be seen, since Revelations with Eros has a ways to go!  AkumaYoru is working on a separate comic series that focus on horoscopes (trying to be spoiler-free!), so be on the lookout!

Where to Find You? Support You?

EA does not own any accounts to mention. AkumaYoru, on the other hand, is available on most social media platforms.  For more details, read the information provided below!

•    All about the Art on Instagram with sketches and more!

•    Check out their comic series on Line Webtoons!

•    Support their art and writing with Patreon!

Last Tidbits

A signature of the writer EA’s in the comic is how his character is represented either wearing a wide arrange of masks or morphing into a chupacabra.  Despite his present usage of the creature, he revealed that he was actually terrified of the thing as a kid.  He also happens to be an awesome cook!

AkumaYoru previously mentioned numerous times throughout the series that he does his electronic artwork with a mouse, not a touch pad of any kind.  It is hard to imagine drawing with the mouse this well.  It’s all in the wrist, right?

Important Notice

Please understand that some information will not be shared by the creator’s request.  If you cannot understand that, there is not much more I can do to help you.  Safety is a top priority here, and I am here to help the creators, not instigate negative behavior. Collaboration Disclaimer

The information provided in my Featured Creator articles is, in fact, from the real people, not some random Internet bot.  I do not use random stock photos to fill an imaginary photo quota.  Any photos in the Featured Creator segment are provided by the creators with permission to use them in this manner.  I want to support the original person(s) behind the work, not a random online copycat creeping around

Final Regards

This part of the article is my ending letter to the creators themselves, meant to officially address the creator(s) and share all thoughts, concerns, and gratitude with them.  The “Featured Creator” segment would not exist without them.

To AkumaYoru and EA,

I know this collaboration has been a crazy roller-coaster ride, just trying to get everything done.  But, as I hope you will see, it is finally completed!  I truly appreciate the time and effort you both put into this group effort.  It was anything but easy, working on this.  We had troubles trying to connect and work on reasonable schedules and times.

But we still did it!

AkumaYoru, I admire and appreciate your art style very much.  It reminds me of a mixture of American comics with their hard lines and bright color use mixed with Akira Toriyama’s signature blocky yet iconic style!  I hope I can work with you again sometime, either on another article or even an comic collaboration.  After getting that Master’s, just make sure you enjoy your new job and home!

E.A., I know that you might not work on anything else creatively after Revelations of Eros is completed.  This is close to your heart and you have a personal need to work on this.  I get it.  I think it is more important for you to be happy with what you want to do, not what fans want you to do.  Do whatever makes you happy.

Finally, to the both of you:  I hope you have a great day and hope to see more of you in the future!