[REV-SHARE] Artists and Writers Needed for A Manga - Streaming Avatar Creation

[ViredonTM]

The title of this Manga is
A Spirit Panda Bear Made Me An Overpowered Legend

First off, thank you everyone for taking the time to read through this and for providing me with any input or suggestions as to how to proceed or in offering your support in writing or drawing. My inspiration for this production comes from mangas such as Black Clover and most OP protagonist based mangas including those that introduce genres such as action, fantasy, and horror.

What is this Manga About?

This manga introduces two protagonists. One is a mentor and guide and the other is a vessel. The story begins with the mentor, who is later named Ikigai. Ikigai is, originally, brought into existence by the Ark of the Celestial Temple. He is given the image of an orange panda bear and tasked with guarding and protecting the gates that lead into infinite realms which are found inside the Eye of Hashi. However, after dangerous rumors become reality, he finds himself cut off from the spiritual realm. This is the result of the Ravager of Worlds, who was locked away in its own prison inside the Void, beginning to break free releasing its poisonous soul upon both the spiritual and physical realms as its sons and daughters of chaos.

Ikigai knows he is no match for most of the Ravager’s spawns, at least on his own. So, he seeks out a human host in the physical realm who bears a soul, similar to his own, that he can then bind to through an ancient ritual that has been prohibited for thousands of years because of the destructive effect it has on both the bonder and the bonded. This is, later, realized to be the very act that created the Ravager of Worlds.

Audrin, the vessel protagonist willingly joins his soul with Ikigai and gains powers rivaling the deities themselves. However, Audrin is warned by Ikigai about the potency of his new powers and that it can have an adverse effect on himself if he uses his abilities at full strength. He promises to limit his abilities to only what is necessary against whatever threat they may encounter but he will soon realize that it is easier said than done.

Unfortunately, not knowing where to start on their new journey, they decide to travel to Pride Kingdom to join up as a Legend in order to gain all of the intel they need to stop the Ravager from breaking out of its prison. Surprisingly, however, Audrin is deemed a Class F Legend which is the lowest class out of 6 classes. This meant that they were not filled in on high-tier threat intel and instead stuck with fighting bandits and thieves and the sort.

Now, in order to carry out their mission they must obey the rules set by the Legend Society Association (LSA) and work their way up the ranks. They will have a long way to go but once they reach Class C they will gain access to high-tier threat information. Then, when that day comes, they can finally do what needs to be done to stop the Ravager of Worlds from causing the total extinction of their realms and all of the others.

What type of leading characters are expected in this manga?

IKIGAI

A mystical creature, created by the Ark of the Celestial Temple and tasked with guarding the gates inside the Eye of Hashi including the sealed gate that holds the Ravager of Worlds.

Ikigai is a friendly mystic who, surprisingly, enjoys trying out the many splendid culinary dishes that the different cities have to offer. Because of his strong love for the physical realm's food, Ikigai tends to get a little overly excited by dishes he eats.

Since the physical realm has spiritual animals that can be obtained by strong-minded adventurers, Ikigai is forced to play the role of Audrin’s pet. He is not thrilled about lowering himself but tends to forget all about it and many other things when someone pets him or is given his favorite foods.

AUDRIN

Audrin is a 15 year old orphan boy who lost his parents to a surprise wolf attack at only 3 years old while they were traveling at night. Discovered by one of the staff employees of the O'doyle Orphanage for the Less Fortunate, Audrin was taken in and cared for.

Audrin is a very friendly and respectful person and seems to always show care and concern for others. Sadly, he doesn’t know how to handle conversations with women who show an interest in him yet and though he can sense as much, he tends to try and change the subject to escape the topic of their fascination with him.

What Audrin wants most in life is to grow strong enough to gain the favor of the Deities and be their instrument against all forms of evil. Audrin doesn’t fight to achieve glory, receive money, gain recognition, or live out atonement for something he did. He fights to give hope to every living being. Hope that they may live another day, laugh another day, and love another day.

Hope that even in the midst of darkness, the stars will still shine in the night. And the hope that no matter what happens there will always be a hero who will bow not only to the King but to the people as well, humbly offering his life on the battlefield in exchange for the lives of everyone else. It is this very essence of his soul that makes him compatible with Ikigai.

What type of supporting characters are expected in this manga?

The additional characters that the main protagonists will be spending a lot of time with through the first handful of issues in this manga series are the Class F Legends. For these legends, the soulstare test has assessed that they have souls with the least amount of potent spiritual energy which means they were given a very small or absolutely no otherworldly ability from the spiritual realm. Thus, they are not given jobs that would require them to fight any type of inhuman beings and are often stuck with being called up to deal with basic non-tier thieves, ruffians,  murderers, etc

COPYCAT

Copycat is a level 1 Legend, as well as a Kemonomimi (cat girl), who is able to watch and immediately learn and remember any hand-to-hand combat moves that are used in front of her. She, then, recreates them in her own cat-like fighting style. However, due to the fact that she can not copy the strength or speed of these moves she has to rely on her own personal training to increase them.

Aside from that, she has a very bubbly and hyperactive personality and can easily grow attached to anyone who shows even the slightest bit of positive attention which she seems to crave quite often but can never seem to fully get.

IKUMI

Ikumi is a middle-aged woman who is also the Captain of the Level 1 Legends. She has no fighting skills nor magic abilities of any kind so she doesn’t assist in tasks given by the Legend Corp Council. However, what she does have is experience as an ex-mother of 3 and an ex-caregiver of a closed down orphanage.

She sees all of the level 1 legends as her very own kids and she makes a habit of ensuring that all of them are properly cared for in a way that sparks continuous strength of effort from them all knowing that if they continue to fight for the safety of the people they will return home to a happy, caring, mother and a warm meal to end a hard days work.

Ikumi has a dark past having lost her 3 children to an organization called the Tree Branch Association that she had loaned money from in order to keep paying on her house and providing for her children. Men who were known as collectors were constantly coming to her house demanding payment and one day upon returning from the market while her husband and kids were at home she stumbled upon her house in flames.

This misery has stuck with her all of her life but she has learned to make a difference by being a nurturing mother, fun sister, or understanding friend to the Legends of Level 1 so that they can stop the pain that she had to endure from ever happening to anyone else.

HANAKO

Hanako is a young teenage female mage who is also ex-royalty. Though she has been training for most of her life and knows almost everything there is to know about offensive and defensive magic attacks from deep study she has always been fearful of using her god-given abilities in a way that would harm others no matter who or what they are, even indirectly.

She vowed to only use her abilities to cast passive magic spells. Those spells consist of, but are not limited to, things like the ability to reveal human or creature locations within a 50 meter radius, cast a spirit owl that can pass on messages to others long distances away, create a directional anchor that guides her toward or away from a target point, cast a ball of light or a ball of darkness, though that one she never uses if she is forced to be in the same area that it is cast.

This compassionate and love-filled concern for all living things is the type of personality that truly defines who she is and can share this easily with her mother, father, and two little sisters.

SLING

Sling is skilled in both basic hand combat and gunplay. Using weapons of his own design, he is able to assist in the rear as well as the frontlines when it comes to missions. However, he is still an engineer-in-training so his weapons tend to backfire from time to time which could be dangerous for anyone in his line of sight.

Sling may be an innovator always thinking of new weapons designs but he is often never in a good mood and doesn’t really get along with the other level 1 legends. The only thing that really gives him peace and makes him happy is tinkering with old equipment and producing new weapons. His weapons are fused with magic components that help make them stronger and he is provided with these components from his younger sister who is a skilled mystics enchanter.

Sling is the only level 1 legend who doesn’t seem to show the same gratitude at the beginning for what Ikumi does for everyone as all the others do. This often causes a divide between him and the team. Later on, he learns something about Ikumi that causes him to change his perspective of her and they, eventually, fall in love.

MEIJI

Meiji is a surprisingly mature young boy who spends an extensive amount of time solving different types of puzzles when he’s not out fighting. He is gifted with the ability to tame non tier-to-tier 1 threat level animals by simply being close enough to them and releasing a mystical pheromone. It calms the animals and makes them forever subservient to him if he chooses to become their master.

He is not at all thrilled with the ability he has, however, and oftentimes wishes he had been given a more useful god-gifted skill. Especially since, more often than not, Copycat tends to walk right into the trail of fumes from his ability which temporarily causes her to feel a romantic connection with Meiji.

Of course, she is completely aware of this but seeing as she loves attention she hopes he will give in and take her as his own. Unfortunately for her, it usually results in him yelling or scolding her, simply rejecting her, or sicking his animal companion on her every time.

Meiji is an orphan child who ran away from home because his parents refused to see him as a mature individual. Being only 10 years old, he wasn’t really taken seriously and the constant babying from his parents drove him away. He stumbled into Syouma one day and he was very respectful and supportive of Meiji’s mature personality. Because of this, Syouma became the only person for a long time who he could have a true genuine conversation with.

Meiji and Sling constantly butt heads which usually leads to either Sling getting attacked by one of Meiji’s animal companions or Sling putting Meiji in a type of “disciplinary timeout”. This type of behavior continues after they become closer but at that point it just becomes a sign of their strong brotherly bond.

KITAYUME

Kitayume’s ability is hidden behind a single kiss. Her strange but highly effective gift allows her to place an individual under temporary mind control for 60 seconds. She is about the same age as Ikumi but with widely different personalities.

Unfortunately, her Soulstare placement test gave her an extremely low score due to a partially tainted soul from her extreme hatred for her mothers life choices and the King’s Courtmen who locked her away for life.

Her ability stems from who her mother was before she was captured and thrown in prison. Being the daughter of a black widow who was out almost every night and rarely ever home during the daytime, she was often cared for by her maid. However, after a criminal mission gone bad took the life of her beloved father, the mother was taken in and locked up for life. Kitayume was, then, taken in by her Aunt and Uncle where she lived out the rest of her childhood until she up and left at 17. From there, she soon realized her gift and did everything she could to take advantage of this power.

She joined the Legend Corp. out of a curiosity for the different legends and what she could possibly get out of using them for her own wants and needs. However, when she discovered that she had been ranked at the very bottom she knew it wasn’t going to be easy. She stayed, however, mainly because she sort of missed being in a family setting. Besides, hanging out with her new family and doing missions didn’t really disrupt her chances at continuing to do what she did best. Which was spending an excessive amount of time in the city at bars and other community joints looking for fresh targets to use to get what she wanted.

TITAN

Titan is a remotely operated sentinel knight but this fact is unbeknownst to pretty much everyone anywhere. The operator does not realize that a soul bond needs to be made during the Soulstare for the test to prove effective. When the soulstare does not detect a soul the ones in charge simply cough it up to a man with strong armor but a weak soul.

Unfortunately for Titan, according to the test specifications, he needed a strong enough soul to even be considered for a Level 2 Legend placement or higher. Thus, he was registered as a Level 1 Legend. This did leave Titan bitter for a little while but then he simply decided later to show his worth by proving to the Legend Corp. and the other ranks above him that he didn’t need a soul to have enough strength to defeat any enemy.

In reality, the operator has a significantly powerful soul allowing him to combine elements in the physical realm and create anything he desires. He also has full control over anything he creates.

Titan is, by far, the strongest level 1 legend in the group as there is absolutely no real harm to his physical body. He is exceedingly strong in hand combat, can fly, has incredible speed, and even has access to a large shield and sword that he can use, if needed. All of these skills and more would normally make him a huge favorable catch for the Level 1 Legends.

However, Titan’s focus tends to be on proving his worth to the Legend Corp. as an impenetrable legend most, if not all of the time and, therefore, he is rarely ever seen at the level 1 legends headquarters and doesn’t join in on missions tasked to them. In the rare event that he does appear it is usually during near death circumstances that involve his team and in order to stay a Legend he must be a part of at least 1 assignment per month so he really has no choice but to show up once a month.

In that moment, and that moment only, he will step in and, ultimately, save the day only to take off once again as soon as the fighting ends without stopping to catch up with his team.

What are you offering artists who agree to collaborate with your project?

Everything that comes from the continued success of this project. This is what to expect:

• I am creating this manga based off of a kick streamer's avatar and will be promoting it in my streams as well as him doing the same in his streams. He also has a lot of big streamer friends who can help with publicizing this project to bring in more viewers.
• I plan on creating an account on one of the many project backing sites to use as well once we have a cover made for the manga. The money we gain through that will be used as well to provide the artists and writers with payment for continued work effort.
• I work near a comic store that takes in indie comics and I plan to publish the manga and profit through them and some other comic book stores. The proceeds will then go straight to the artists and writers I bring on board.
• A legal contract that either the employed or the employer can write up that provides appropriate benefits for the employed and a direct path out of the contract with all of their created assets if they so choose to terminate their team collaboration with me.
• I am friends with a 3D print designer and plan on placing the characters into many different interesting sellable products which will further spread the word of this project across social media and streaming sites. The profits made, after he takes his cut, will be given to the artists who enhanced and redesigned the characters for 3D printing use.

As you can tell, I did not mention any benefits for myself. That is because I don’t want any. My dream is to do something that people will remember me for and I am trying to do just that through this manga. The reason I don’t need the money is because I am living comfortably and do not wish for anything more. All of the money that is made from this will go directly to those deserving of it which are the artists and additional writers who join this project.

What is the overall scope of this project?

This project, as a whole, will probably take a while but the first volume should take, at most, 6-8 months. 12-15 months if everyone prefers to take their time or has other projects they are also working on. I am a very patient guy when it comes to creating a dream. As long as you are serious about this project and want to see it to the end I don’t mind waiting.


There is so much more I could offer if I could think of it. However, what I really hope and pray for is that at least one of you will see enough potential in this project that you will jump in on the opportunity for a great manga creation. Again, I appreciate you all for taking the time to read through this lengthy post and I hope to hear from you really soon!

[Suuper-san]

Sounds like a great project! You've obviously put a lot of thought into the characters and story so far.
While I can't help myself, I noticed that's it's not entirely clear what you actually want
Like are you after just one artist or a team, do you want writers as well? does the work involve character design or worldbuilding, or just drawing pages of comic from references you already have? Is the story fixed already or still open to discussions about scenes and shots etc? Is the entire story written already?
It's good to be clear about expectations, especially as your project is technically unpaid, pending funding. So I think anyone joining would want to know what's expected of them so there's no surprises "I thought you had character references already!" sort of thing.
I think it's also good to be clear about how the revenue will be split so there's no money problems either. i.e. will it be split evenly between all project members? or based on the amount of work they do?
I also think that your estimation for producing a volume (assuming we're talking about a ~150 page book) might be a little optimistic as well, especially since revenue won't come straight away (probably), artists still have to pay their bills in the meantime and so can't invest a lot of time without getting something back in the short term as well.
All the best

[ViredonTM]

Sounds like a great project! You've obviously put a lot of thought into the characters and story so far.
While I can't help myself, I noticed that's it's not entirely clear what you actually want
Like are you after just one artist or a team, do you want writers as well? does the work involve character design or worldbuilding, or just drawing pages of comic from references you already have? Is the story fixed already or still open to discussions about scenes and shots etc? Is the entire story written already?
It's good to be clear about expectations, especially as your project is technically unpaid, pending funding. So I think anyone joining would want to know what's expected of them so there's no surprises "I thought you had character references already!" sort of thing.
I think it's also good to be clear about how the revenue will be split so there's no money problems either. i.e. will it be split evenly between all project members? or based on the amount of work they do?
I also think that your estimation for producing a volume (assuming we're talking about a ~150 page book) might be a little optimistic as well, especially since revenue won't come straight away (probably), artists still have to pay their bills in the meantime and so can't invest a lot of time without getting something back in the short term as well.
All the best

All excellent questions and thank you for the input.

As far as building a team I am just looking for individuals who are inspired to help in this project. Whether it is just one person or ends up being multiple I would want to bind the collaboration with a solid contract that would 100% ensure they get in return what they are dishing out for my sake. Character design and worldbuilding will be essential in this project. However, seeing as I already have a written illustration for the characters, creatures, and locations we won't need to spend too much time trying to figure much out.

The story for the first volume is already planned out but I do want those who are willing to sacrifice upfront payment for a rev-share opportunity to feel as if they were duly credited for all of their work. So, I would want to hear from every one of my team members how we can make this manga the best it can be and I plan to take everyone's thoughts and ideas into discussion and confirm which ones work best for everyone. Although, I only plan on releasing the first chapter of volume one out to the public as a way of introducing the manga and possibly receiving revenue from the sources I mentioned above.

If the manga fails in positive statistics that would prove a favorite to many then any proceeds we did make will go directly to the team involved in the development of the first chapter. From there, I will take time to perform a reanalysis of the statistics of the first chapter and research the reason behind the failure. Since I am only expecting one chapter be completed in collaboration with artists and writers it won't be as much of a wasted effort and time as it would be if we released an entire volume and the whole thing bombed.

As far as payment goes, once we do start bringing in revenue, it will all be based off of the artists/writers usual payment expectations. What I would normally pay you in full for your work will determine the percentage break-up between you and the others. So, if a sketch artist would normally charge $100 per page and an inking artist would charge $75 per page then the revenue from merch sales, donations, etc would be divided out so that the sketch artist would receive a fraction more than the inking artist since their base cost is, ultimately, higher. However, this is all up for discussion if enough artists/writers who join have concerns or dislike that compromise.

In concern to the amount of time set for completion of this project, it is for the first chapter alone and not the entire volume. I see where you may have assumed that and I apologize for the lack of details on my part in my post.

Any other questions?

[Robin Rain]

Hello, I was snooping and caught the tail end of your stream last night.

Suuper had some good questions. I have some questions/concerns that could be addressed as well (apologies if anything seems blunt).

On the points of number of members and how the payment is divided, in my opinion, the work and pay should be decided ahead of time. If I were you I would look into the different roles/stages/tasks and then figure roughly the differences between what the typical rates are for each. Then turn this into a percent. That way any artist or writer can see clearly what is expected for the roles they take up, and won't feel as jipped out of a bigger share of the profits by adding more members.

The discussion that remains is who will take the role(s) rather than both than and a war between going rates which will be an absolute nightmare to figure out as team members come and go and take on different shoes as time goes on. And yes. On a free project (I say free because even a legal document doesn't mean much in the way of guaranteeing an unknown amount of payment that could be a grand total of $0 if no revenue is gained) like this it's more than likely that you won't have a consistent team the entire chapter let alone a volume or series. How do you plan to deal with this?

Other questions that come to mind at this moment... Colored pages or black and white? What format/panel style? What skill level/art style are you hoping for? What could you live with if you can't find that? What programs do you expect the artists to use? Some are compatible and some are not. Do you require the team to meet and discuss the project at the same time regularly or is it casual?

Hrm... That's all I can think of for the moment. Though I do caution you against waving the AI generated images around to potential team members and readers. If you're not aware it's a very heated and volatile topic in the art world at the moment.

[ViredonTM]

Hello, I was snooping and caught the tail end of your stream last night.

Suuper had some good questions. I have some questions/concerns that could be addressed as well (apologies if anything seems blunt).

On the points of number of members and how the payment is divided, in my opinion, the work and pay should be decided ahead of time. If I were you I would look into the different roles/stages/tasks and then figure roughly the differences between what the typical rates are for each. Then turn this into a percent. That way any artist or writer can see clearly what is expected for the roles they take up, and won't feel as jipped out of a bigger share of the profits by adding more members.

The discussion that remains is who will take the role(s) rather than both than and a war between going rates which will be an absolute nightmare to figure out as team members come and go and take on different shoes as time goes on. And yes. On a free project (I say free because even a legal document doesn't mean much in the way of guaranteeing an unknown amount of payment that could be a grand total of $0 if no revenue is gained) like this it's more than likely that you won't have a consistent team the entire chapter let alone a volume or series. How do you plan to deal with this?

Other questions that come to mind at this moment... Colored pages or black and white? What format/panel style? What skill level/art style are you hoping for? What could you live with if you can't find that? What programs do you expect the artists to use? Some are compatible and some are not. Do you require the team to meet and discuss the project at the same time regularly or is it casual?

Hrm... That's all I can think of for the moment. Though I do caution you against waving the AI generated images around to potential team members and readers. If you're not aware it's a very heated and volatile topic in the art world at the moment.

I understand what you are saying and definitely about the AI artwork. Unfortunately, since I can't afford to pay anyone I had no choice but to rely on AI art generators to at least create the exact base image I was looking for, for each character. If I hadn't done that then I would have had NOTHING to visually offer those who MIGHT be interested in signing on with me. I do have some questions I would like to ask you directly so I will send you a DM and if you dont like talking here we can do Discord or something.

[Robin Rain]

I figured that was the case on the AI thing and I personally don't find fault with that as that should be its intended purpose in the end. Rapid prototyping. Just wished to warn you of the current climate of the topic in case you were unaware.