With two series under way in Germany and another in France, New Jersey-based artists David Boller and Mary Hildebrandt, put the “global” in “global manga.”
The husband-and-wife team, who do business as Lime Manga, have self-published several works in the U.S. and are currently negotiating a rights deal with Tokyopop. Tokyopop Germany has published the first volumes of two Lime series, Evergrey and Yaru, but the couple say they will take over publication and distribution of their books in Germany next year. Boller also illustrates a French manga, Executrices Women, which runs in the French global manga magazine Shogun.
Prior to Lime, Boller worked as a penciler and inker at DC and Marvel before striking out on his own. Hildebrandt is the daughter of fantasy artist Greg Hildebrandt, who is known for his work on the Lord of the Rings calendars and the Star Wars posters. She grew up drawing comics and has several children’s books to her credit. Boller and Hildebrandt made their debut as Lime Studios at New York Comic-Con in 2006.
They submitted their work to Tokyopop Germany at the request of managing director Joachim Kaps, an old friend of Boller’s, and signed on in early 2005. “We had an opportunity to go with a smaller branch of Tokyopop, which was nice because we were able to work directly with Jo,” Hildebrandt said. “It was like a tight family.”
Within a month, the couple had to stop working because Hildebrandt suffered kidney failure and had to go on dialysis. In a twist worthy of manga, Boller donated a kidney to her. “That strained the deadlines,” she said. “There was not much that could be done, but the first series of books was a long time in the making.”
Hildebrandt said that her brush with ill health has affected her work. “We really touch base with things that are universal, spiritual,” she said. “Who am I? What is my purpose? We mix these things with fantasy, dragons, ghosts—those apparitions are global as well. So if you work with themes like that, I guess you can hit any audience.”
For instance, she drew on her experience with diabetes to write the vampire romance Evergrey; just as her diabetes does not define her, she said, the vampire is more than someone who drinks blood. In Evergrey, he struggles against the darker parts of his nature. Yaru, which is set in the Egyptian afterlife, was inspired by some children who were playing with a Ouija board. “I said, wouldn’t it be cool to do a story about an Egyptian Ouija board, about a prince who finds his princess reincarnated,” she said. Hildebrandt does the writing, and Boller, who is Swiss, translated the two series into German. They share the art duties. “He’s doing the vampire Gothic,” she said, “and I’m more of an all-ages kind.”
Their parting with Tokyopop Germany was amicable, and they will wait until the end of next year to bring out remastered editions of Evergrey and Yaru, Boller said.
Meanwhile, the talks with Tokyopop continue—because the two series in question, Evergrey and Yaru, are already partially finished, it may make more sense for Tokyopop to license the work from Lime rather than sign a traditional deal—and Boller and Hildebrandt hope to have an agreement on English-language publication by mid-January, so they can bring their series to American readers by the end of 2008.
