Interview: It's Always the Weekend with Quarto's Saturday AM Manga Imprint

PreviewsWorld: So, to kick things off, Saturday AM is an extension of The Quarto Group. What can you tell us about Saturday AM and why the need to make it a separate house?

Fredrick L Jones: Saturday AM is actually the publishing brand belonging to a separate company called MyFutprint Entertainment, LLC, and is now a strategic publishing partner of The Quarto Group. That said, we feel like part of the family at The Quarto Group, which is why we chose them to be our print publisher and distributor!

MyFutprint and Saturday AM were started by former videogame executive Frederick L. Jones and up-and-coming artists Whyt Manga (aka Odunze Oguguo from Nigeria) and Raymond Brown (from the U.S.) in 2013.

The partnership was a natural fit, as The Quarto Group had done a few books in the how to draw manga space and was eager to enter the manga graphic novel market, whereas Saturday AM had built a solid business and global fan base via digital distribution and social media.
 

PW: From an industry/market perspective, what made Saturday AM want to focus on manga but through a diverse lens?

FLJ: We believe that, just as Kirby’s Marvel Comics defined superhero comics for generations, manga is the visual language of many young people, from the early 2000s to today. For artists around the world, manga is their first and only preferred comic book entertainment. The medium’s growth worldwide has been incredible due to the proliferation of anime streaming services as well as licensed publishing deals. So today’s generation of young artists not only draw naturally manga-inspired artwork, but they’ve been developing their own IP to create their stories in this style.

Unfortunately, most of these talented young people do not speak Japanese, nor is moving to Japan an option for them. Likewise, these creators are more adamant about producing manga that features characters who actually look like them.

Saturday AM was designed to be a platform for every creator who loves manga but wants to put their own spin on it. We have artists from six out of seven continents, across various ethnicities, and with exclusive series like Clock Striker and Massively Multiplayer World of Ghosts, which feature shonen manga’s first black female lead hero and first Indian lead hero, respectively.

When you look at the success of manga as well as YA graphic novels (which feature many diverse heroes), we believe that Saturday AM is a perfect blend of both categories for today’s modern reader.

PW: And are the books your typical manga format or something else?

FLJ: Saturday AM is primarily a digital manga anthology magazine like Weekly Shonen Jump, and thus the individual stories have that same high tempo of storytelling with dynamic cliffhangers as traditional manga from Japan. We are collecting them in these new print editions, courtesy of The Quarto Group.
Here are a few of the differences:

• We operate in the Western orientation of left to right. As most of our artists are from countries where the majority of content is presented from left to right, it’s more of a natural fit to lay out pages in that orientation.
• Our books are not full color throughout but will have select color pages to better accent certain scenes.
• Finally, we have a post-credit scene in every book that offers a small story tidbit that possibly foreshadows the next volume and/or a larger storyline. 

PW: Let's talk about some of the debut titles. What can you tell us about Apple Black, Hammer, Saigami, and Oblivion Rouge?

FLJ: Ah, well, we’re launching nine graphic novels this year, plus Saturday AM’s first annual anthology and a how-to-draw diverse manga book—and the first four graphic novels are a great kick-off to the line!

Apple Black is our most popular series, and is a perfect blend of action, dynamic character designs, and gorgeous artwork. Created by Whyt Manga, a popular YouTuber with over 470K followers, Apple Black is about a young magic user destined to save his world or to destroy it.

Hammer is an epic fantasy adventure about a young boy named Stud who’s trying to retrace his father’s adventures via a magic journal. While he can go to incredible places across time and space, he’s also able to protect himself with the ability to turn his hands into hammers! This is a super-fun series by JeyOdin, an artist who will appeal to people who love Jeff Smith, Eiichiro Oda, or Walt Kelly.

Saigami is an isekai-style story where a troubled European teenage girl gets transported to a magical world with dragons, elemental users, and mysteries that may just doom both worlds. Created by Seny, a Hungarian artist with a strong fan base around the world, this series works on multiple levels and will appeal to girls and boys alike.

Oblivion Rouge is inspired by the Japanese cult film Battle Royale but intertwined with a healthy dose of Afro-futurism. Created by Senegalese artist Pap Souleye Fall, this work deals with a future Africa under siege from a threat that requires young soldiers to put aside their differences for the greater good. But there’s more to this threat than meets the eye.

PW: Looking forward, what can readers expect from Saturday AM?

FLJ: Saturday AM is going to offer exciting and unique visions from many creators around the world. New Zealand, France, Ghana, United Kingdom, Greece, and many other countries are represented on our publishing slate.

There’s truly something for everyone, but one of the things we want readers to look forward to is that all our stories are connected. We’re bringing the excitement of the connected universes that fans love in Marvel and DC to our diverse manga multiverse. Readers who check out more titles will get more ideas about the building blocks of our mythology.

PW: If there is one thing that you want people to know about you as a publisher, what would it be?

FLJ: That we are fans of comics around the world, and fans of the comic book and bookstores where people get their favorite titles. Our brand generates millions of impressions online and has over 700K followers across social platforms. We’re committed not just to creating fun stories, but also to working with retailers to hype those stores to our online fanbase.

We hope to grow with our retail partners to bring an exciting new opportunity for fans of this manga-inspired content.