For a future personal project, I am interested in creating a comic, which is why I decided to attend this exhibition. Emmanuel Knight is the creator and artist behind “Magna AX.” He drew inspiration from his childhood experiences, including PS2 video games, shows from Adult Swim, and SEGA. The manga series aims to explore the themes of self-discovery through combat and romance. The exhibition began with a tour led by Emmanuel himself.
I really like how Emmanuel laid out the compositions for each volume of the series. Each volume cover features characters in grayscale with a splash of color. However, I was most drawn to the cover that had a pink blue and yellow color palette. I really liked the front girl being portrayed in the center in almost full color, surrounded by characters that were in gray scale with slight color to them.
During the artist talk, Emmanuel talked more in depth about Magna AX, as well as gave the audience insight into his career journey. He is a self taught artist. Could you believe that he started Magna AX in his sophomore year of high school? I felt inspired by his passion and dedication to his craft. A piece of that he gave is this : “Look at things that inspire you and work from it. It is your story, you get to tell it the way you want to.” The quote stemmed from an experience where he got sent a contract from Tokyo Pop, which basically said that the work he would do, he wouldn’t receive the credit (he almost went through with the offer but declined after reading the fine print).