Indie Edge April 2016: Mike Montesa

San Francisco-born, Mike went to the promised land of manga, living and working in Japan for 16 years. In 2006, he returned and started working as an editor at VIZ Media, working on bringing manga to the masses in the United States.

**********

What are your favorite manga you’ve worked on in your career?

Black Lagoon, Slam Dunk, Monster, Biomega and Blue Exorcist

What are you currently working on?

I have a lot of titles and I seem to always forget what they are when asked, if I’m not looking directly at them. I’m working on Blue Exorcist this morning, one of the chapters for Shonen Jump. Later today, I’ll be working on My Hero Academia and the color version of Dragon Ball.

What manga artists/creators have influenced you?

My influences are perhaps a bit old school, but I’ve always liked the work of Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira) and Shiro Masamune (Ghost in the Shell).

And way back in university, I used to read Rumiko Takahashi’s stuff a lot, like Urusei Yatsura and Ranma ½. Some of the work by Ryoichi Ikegami, like Mai the Psychic Girl and Crying Freeman was also on my shelf.

What is your favorite manga?

Not an easy question to answer. I’ll say it was the first series I worked on at VIZ, Black Lagoon. I was super-happy to edit that one and I’m proud of the work I did on the English edition.

What anime do you think should be made into a manga or vice-versa?

Most anime in Japan are produced as the result of a successful manga series. It’s not a VIZ series, but I would love to see Makoto Yukimura’s Vinland Saga as an anime.

What manga would you recommend to read?

Naoki Urasawa’s Monster. It’s hard to say enough good things about it. Great story, great characters, very well written. It builds suspense throughout each volume. It’s not just a good manga, it’s a great story, and even if you’re not into manga, I think you’d like it.

I understand the project is in development hell right now, but I’d love to see Guillermo del Toro produce it as an HBO series. It would be perfect in that medium.

MONSTER TP VOL 01 PERFECT ED URASAWA (MAY141671)
BLUE EXORCIST GN VOL 01 (JAN111364)
BLACK LAGOON GN VOL 01 (MR) (MAY084215)