Hey all. This will be the start of a series of posts about the history of The Mannamong comic and what were the original ideas I had before the final release. I came up with The Mannamong comic when I was twelve years old. Around the time, I was finishing elementary school and starting middle school. So it’s been with me for a long time. It was inspired by many fictional works I loved. So pretty early on in my life, I had an idea of what I wanted to do and was passionate about — this story. And here we are, building a comic series and a career.
I figured that I’d give insight into some of my old ideas cut from the final draft for my paying subscribers. This can also show you that if you have your own dream project. Things will adapt and change as you mature, which can be fascinating to see how you thought of ideas you once thought were great compared to now.
So to start, what was the initial inspiration that led to creating The Mannamong? Believe it or not, Lilo and Stitch.
What I loved about that movie at the time (and still now) was how different it felt from Disney’s other works and other animated films. It was purely about a bond between a girl and an alien, whom she believed was a dog. A rather eccentric dog, but one that tickled her fancy because she too was seen as different from her peers. Plus, they’re both a handful for a stressed caretaker trying her best to rebuild a broken family. You know the saying: Ohana means family. Family means no one gets left behind. Simple. But eloquent in its message. It was cute, funny, wholesome, culturally rich, and came with a unique art style that was pleasing to watch.
One day, I came up with two characters similar to Lilo and Stitch’s story. Kali and Tontorus. I had always played pretend when I was younger, based on characters I grew up loving, to act out made-up scenarios. But this was the first time I attempted original ideas. Kali and Tonto were different in the sense of what kind of story I was coming up with for them. A story of a girl meeting magical creatures from another world visiting her own. That was the bare bone very first draft of what I ended up writing out in my free time that became The Mannamong. But I’ll save the details for that in another post.
Bottom line: It’s a classic tale of a “child befriending a creature from another world” kind of story that I was inspired to create. Stories like E.T, Iron Giant, and yes, Lilo and Stitch. Because what started out being a fun idea to play with, in my head, ended up becoming an entire fictional universe I wanted to explore. And pretty soon, it was a project I seriously wanted to polish and create for my future. This kind of genre for storytelling has the bond between two characters from different worlds as the heart of its message. Something I personally find to be the most fascinating element. Because it opens up many opportunities for other kinds of scenarios to play with while keeping the human touch. And that’s something I want to expand upon going forward with The Mannamong.
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