Aimee Major Steinberger is an animator who has worked on such television shows as The Simpsons and Futurama. She's also worked on feature length animated films such as Looney Tunes: Back in Action. Her comics and manga-influenced travel journal, Japan Ai: A Tall Girl's Adventure in Japan, uses drawings, comics and journal-like entries to recount a trip she took to Japan along with two friends. The book is published by Go! Comi. She was a featured guest at the recent New York Animation Festival and PW Comics Week talked with Steinberger about her adventures in Japan and how they translate in her book.
PW Comics Week : You work primarily in animation. What types of challenges (unexpected or otherwise) arose while creating this book?
Aimee Major Steinberger : I would say that working in animation made my work both strong and loose. I wanted Japan Ai to have a free and spontaneous feeling to it, and I definitely think my animation work prepared me to do this. Also, it was important that the drawings in Japan Ai show a definite emotion, which is something I do regularly in my day job. Rather than a hardship, it was actually a joy to finish my animation work for the day and then do a couple cute drawings for Japan Ai.
PWCW : Japan Ai has been referred to as "Megatokyo for girls." [Megatokyo is an original manga-influenced Web comic/book series in which two American videogamers end up stranded in Tokyo]. What about it appeals to the female audience?
AMS : Besides the cuteness of the drawings themselves, Japan Ai is an autobiographical tale about three girlfriends on a trip to Japan—it's a girls' point of view. But the truth is that anyone can relate to the desire to take a dream trip to Japan, not just girls.
PWCW : Japan Ai is a hybrid graphic novel/picture book with diagrams. While the book occasionally uses traditional comics panels, you often use full-page drawings along with your commentary to carry the story forward. How did you decide to lay out your visual narrative in this way? What made you decide to depict your adventures in book form rather than as an animated short that you could broadcast on YouTube or somewhere like that?
AMS : There would be no way for me to spend the amount of time necessary to animate this whole book. By doing it in book form, I was able to tell the whole story instead of just a couple scenes. Animation is a very time-consuming process, and without a crew to help me, it would have taken way more time than I could give it. I think parts of the book would work well animated, but in another way, the static drawings have a certain charm of their own and a particular humor.
Regarding the layout, this is just the way it naturally came out while I was drawing it. Certain subjects seemed suited for a kind of comic book-type narrative, while others worked well as a few scattered sketchbook drawings across a page. I chose based on the subject.
PWCW : Visual narratives are as much about what isn't depicted as what is. How did you decide what scenes to include from your trip, and which to cut?
AMS : It was very hard to cut parts of it! Actually, a good 50 pages or so were cut before the book went to print. The final choice, though, was based on which ones really told the personal part of the story best or added something unique to the book. There are plenty of books with diagrams of things in Japan, after all. What we discovered was that the most fun parts of the book were the parts that were personal. So we tried to have a nice balance between cultural exploration and story.
PWCW : What kind of editorial guidance did you receive from Go! Comi?
AMS: I was originally going to self-publish, but when Go! Comi saw a couple of my drawings, they offered to publish it for me. By that time, I already had a good 120 or so pages done. I sat down with Go! Comi's staff, and we went through the whole thing trying to pick out the feel of the book and how to make the story work better. I also gave them my original diaries from Japan (mostly in text form). So they actually had a large influence on the final form of the book. They would suggest that I flesh out certain areas more or add in a section from my diary that was missing. The great thing was that, pretty much every time, it was an idea I totally agreed with. I feel like the finished book is so much more charming because of their influence. [In addition, more than 60 pages of drawings not included in Japan Ai have been posted on the Go! Comi Web site in addition to Steinberger’s photos and journal entries.]
PWCW : The predominant sentiment in Japan Ai is one of romance with the country and with the culture. Despite small frustrations that come part and parcel with traveling, was there ever a time during your trip or after, when the romance simply evaporated?
AMS : I was always very excited to be there. My dad always said when we went on vacations as a child, that we were going to have fun “no matter what” because we were together. When you go on a trip like this, I feel like it's almost your duty to have a good attitude. Who knows when you'll get to have this same experience again? Why waste it on a mopey attitude?
That being said, the one time I felt very discouraged was when I took the wrong bullet train and subsequently missed a very special meeting. While I was sitting in between the cars on that train, I felt pretty awful. But you know, when I finally made my meeting (on another day), it made a funny story to tell. And now, with Japan Ai, I can tell stories like that and you can laugh with me at my pants not fitting or taking the wrong train.
