Jazz and Kat from Girl That's Scary sit down with horror manga artist Gigi Murakami to discuss her latest book, the lasting trauma of Final Destination, and why she loves horror so much.
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CreativityTranscript
00:30Oh
01:00Hidey-ho friends, it's cat daddy and jazz 40 else connoisseur. Whoo
01:12Just to wake it up y'all
01:16Inject the energy
01:20It's okay, but welcome back to another episode of dread talks
01:23It's black 360 366 around these motherfucking parts and y'all already knew that
01:28We are here to highlight the wonderful and amazing Gigi Murakami and Gigi tell the people all about yourself
01:34Just a little bit about you
01:36And where they could find your work and support you
01:40Hello, thank you for having me. My name is Gigi Murakami. I'm a horror manga artist
01:45Isn't that nominated for among artists? I keep forgetting to throw that in there
01:51Best known for my supernatural horror manga resent her and I also
01:56Released a book with Abrams books for the are you afraid of the dark IP called sinister sisters?
02:04And yeah, I'm
02:05Everywhere online as Gigi Murakami on Instagram. I am Gigi underscore Murakami
02:12I also have an online shop and website Gigi Murakami art website Gigi Murakami dot store
02:20Online store, so I'm everywhere. Yes open your purse
02:24Open your purse 360 is not just on Black History Month. Okay, you need to support the people. Okay, we out here
02:34Yeah, exactly right now
02:37Okay, I'm looking at y'all my eyes not laser yet because I'm still waking up. Okay, I'm doing my best but
02:45What was one of your first horror movie experiences in the movie theater? And how was that experience? Oh
02:51In the movie theater, mm-hmm. Oh gosh, I
02:57grew up
02:59So I grew up Catholic but my family grew up Jehovah's Witness and Jehovah's Witness do not play about like
03:06horror and like
03:08Halloween and certain things so
03:12Oh
03:13gosh, I can't I
03:16Honestly cannot remember the first time I saw a horror movie in the theaters. I would always catch stuff like on cable
03:21I have to like sneak it at my family's house. Um, oh my gosh when
03:28This is blowing my mind right now. When was the first? Oh, you know what?
03:32The one that I can think of off rip is probably Final Destination 2
03:37That's probably it
03:39Offer it and you said what was the experience like? Yeah
03:43Terrifying when they was on the highway. I know everybody talks about that part behind the the
03:51The wood logs the the truck the log truck
03:55But that joint had me terrified to drive. I could not it took me so long to drive and like get on the highway
04:01I was like
04:04Like how often do you find log trucks have like passing through in New York City, it's not often but you know
04:11Who knows it could have been that day and yeah, it's it's been uh, that's probably the scariest time
04:19Watching a movie
04:24That's he ruined everybody's life
04:27Yeah
04:29Cuz cars are all around us. That's what I'm saying. We're never we'll never heal. We'll never recover
04:34At all at all. I refuse to this day
04:38Get behind a log truck. There's no way
04:41Any truck? I'll be damned
04:44Cuz anything's liable to happen outside of these streets
04:48What uh, what horror sci-fi works are you currently into it could be like literature or anything audio or visual? Oh
05:01Interesting there's um, I
05:04Might need to grab the book for this. But there is this manga that I recently read that is called. Um
05:10Ultra heaven, let me actually grab it from my desk. It's right here. Sorry. I
05:17Just discovered this I was actually on a panel last year at a
05:21Comic-con and we were talking about new horror works and stuff like that. And this was something that
05:28was available for pre-order at the time and one of my colleagues on my on the panel was
05:33Recommending this manga and I was like, I never heard of this and I was interested so I picked it up and it's called ultra
05:38heaven
05:39Hashtag not sponsored
05:41But it's called ultra heaven and it's a dystopian future where?
05:48Drugs are legal
05:50and it's called
05:52The areas where you can actually receive these drugs. They're called pumps
05:56They call them pump bars where you can get a mat
05:58So think of like alcohol like a regular bar that you would go drink at it's the same premise, but the main character is like
06:06An addict like he's like a legitimate drug addict and he ends up
06:14He ends up getting this one pump that he's never experienced before and
06:21It's a little the story meanders a little bit but the artwork is fantastic it meanders in a way that like
06:28you know when you
06:31have
06:32I've never personally had this kind of relationship
06:34but I have had friends who have been like deep in the drugs and like
06:38it's just a lot of meandering happening the book kind of does that and
06:43It's the imagery is crazy, let me see if I can show you
06:48But it's set in the future and it's like
06:52Insane so here's one instance where this guy and his friend are like, sorry
06:57This guy and his friend are like on some drugs and they're just like going through their day
07:03Like they're in their room. Well in the guy's apartment the main characters apartment
07:08And that's probably like at the peak and they're like coming down in that page
07:12And like the artwork is just constantly like this
07:16and
07:17Police and like, you know different things like that
07:20But how they interact with people who are out and about on drugs and in the pump bars
07:25But also very scary because it's like
07:29It seems regulated but it like this guy gets into some really
07:35Weird stuff. So it's like how regulated is it? It just it does give like a an interesting
07:44Dystopian perspective on like drug use in the future and
07:50I grew up in a place where like
07:52You know, that's that's where I'm at but
07:55You know, I feel like to each his own, you know, I like CBD. That's about it for me to each his own. Um,
08:03But that story was like it's crazy. So it's a good it's a good like perspective, you know, the palate cleanser
08:11so a little horror, but mostly like
08:14dystopian sci-fi stuff happening there
08:16I'm definitely going to watch that
08:18Dystopian sci-fi stuff happening there
08:21I'm definitely gonna write that down and i'm gonna check that out because I think that's like
08:25first of all
08:26I was
08:28Thank you, because i'm just trying to process
08:31how
08:32One is like actively depicting
08:35What like using looks like like just like the whole like how they're they're they're illustrating that experience
08:42Especially a come down because you know, every human body is not the same people experience different things
08:48So I I am very interested and i'm tuned in
08:51So this this manga artist really quick. Um
08:55I this is the first time i'm reading his work
08:57but apparently he a lot of his work is like this talking about like psychedelic experiences and drugs and apparently he's
09:04Done a crazy amount of drugs in his life. And so like that's just the themes that's in his work
09:10um
09:12And
09:14I don't have a ton of experience with drugs. I have friends who do drugs but like
09:20This just felt a little too real it was like
09:24It just felt a little too real. So
09:27Yeah, the way that he depicts
09:30These things and my in my very limited experience. It was it felt like
09:36Yeah, okay
09:38This guy knows what he's doing. He's he's been on the other side of the mountain and has
09:43It had his pen and paper out like describing the things so
09:48It's an interesting read. It's interesting read
09:51Thank you. I love walking away with a new recommendation
09:55Yes. Yes
09:57um
09:58So I want to ask if you had like endless resources
10:03Okay, all the monies
10:06What what would you make? What would you what would you look into doing?
10:08Oh
10:12Can I tell y'all like my 20-year goal then yeah, yes i'm leaving don't wait, let me share that okay
10:19So if I had all the resources and all the monies
10:23I would immediately
10:27Partner up with uh
10:29japan society
10:31so that I can
10:33have artists
10:35That i'm trying to pipeline into japan
10:37Learn japanese subsidize or like for free. I would have um
10:43a flagship studio in
10:46Japan and in the u.s. Maybe in brooklyn, maybe in the bronx. I don't know but in new york city for sure
10:52um
10:54Where i'd be able to pipeline
10:56Aspiring manga artists to work with me in japan and get published in japan
11:02Like having that exchange happening
11:05Um while I can
11:07Pay for their japanese education or at least like
11:11Down payment on their japanese education where you know to have some sort of like situation worked out where I can do that
11:18And then bring them over into japan have them dormed out where they have like a stipend set up
11:25So they can get on their feet
11:26Either work with me or like get training from me and like my team in japan
11:30So that they can work on their own stuff or continue to work with me if that's what they want to do
11:36um and expand the
11:38collaboration of like uh
11:41japanese and american
11:43monica
11:45If I had all the money in the world, that is that is what I would do a hundred percent
11:52So if there's any investors listening to the show, you know come call out your girl, you know
11:57You know
11:59Be fantastic. I think we can make it work, you know, this ain't no non-profit either
12:04We have a little manga cafe, you know what i'm saying in new york city
12:07people can study and read and chill
12:10I hope the people are taking notes because I hope so too
12:15I hope so too. We need we need a little less crypto a little more artists. Uh
12:21You know artists funded programs, you know for entertainment sake
12:25A lot more let's come on now entertainment sake peace of mind state all of this is looped together
12:32agreed
12:34100 better humans. Um, okay. Let's talk presenter. What inspired you?
12:40To make this manga. I know that I know manga's your bag. Um,
12:45And you are inspiring anyways, because i'm gonna be honest with you. I don't know many black manga creatives
12:51Um and because of you like i've been like on a hunt to like find more people in branch
12:55I know there's not that many of folks. Um
12:58But like talk to us a little bit about resent her like what was your journey creating that?
13:02Um, how was it like building that world?
13:04And what's it like, you know being on the viz platform girl and your book is out here on the streets
13:11Um, okay, so
13:14Resent her I got her in front of me miss jackie. Um
13:19Um, here we go, so resent her
13:23I actually started planning with enter and
13:27I want to say 20 in late 2020
13:29And in 2021 is when I actually started getting the workout. So I think that's when the first uh
13:36I you know
13:37I was still new to manga and I was really slow so I had to release the first chapter in parts
13:41So the first part I believe came out in 2021
13:45um
13:47And then after that I was able to produce the full chapter in like 2022 or so
13:51um
13:53But yeah resent her came about. Um
13:58Because of some feelings some unresolved issues the feelings of unresolved issues
14:03That uh, I was thinking about during the pandemic. We had a lot of time to think and um
14:08I had came to the conclusion that there was a lot of
14:12Situations and experiences that I had been through in life. Um that
14:17Didn't get resolved and I didn't feel any sort of closure from and I was actually sitting with like a little bit of resentment on
14:24um, unfortunately those type of those specific experiences were
14:30uh
14:30already old
14:33So
14:35They were already old. Um
14:38So there wasn't really anything that I could like
14:41That I could do about it. Um
14:44and I had to kind of like just
14:46I had to kind of just deal because it was already too late
14:49so, um
14:52I wanted to be able to deal with those
14:56Feelings in a productive way, um, and I started thinking about
15:04Revenge
15:06Um, I started thinking about revenge and I started thinking about like what
15:12What would
15:13You know the kind of like ultimate revenge look like
15:16I guess and then it started like
15:19Resentment started spiraling from there
15:25Um and then
15:30Yeah, how do I feel with it being on viz I
15:36Am still a little shocked about it, honestly, um
15:41I feel like
15:44I don't know. It's so crazy to say that I have a thing
15:48On viz like I don't know that just feels like so really weird. Um
15:54It it I think because it's it's digital it just it doesn't feel like super real
15:59but um
16:01It is real. Um
16:03And it's really exciting. I'm really grateful for the experience. Um
16:08but yeah
16:09and then for sinister sisters, which
16:13That's right here
16:15Just bringing out all the books
16:18Sinister sisters
16:20Seeing that in bookstores was insane. Um
16:25Insane, um, I think it won't really
16:29I won't really feel a sense of pride with sinister sisters until I see it in my local library
16:33because I am I grew up in the libraries, so
16:36My local library just opened back up when I see it there. That's when i'll be like
16:41I did it, but I am very happy. Um and excited that this came about especially because it's with uh, are you afraid of dark?
16:48which is
16:50The main reason why I took the job because of how that uh ip affected me as a kid
16:58All right
17:02Okay, so
17:04We know you enjoy listening to horror soundtracks cool music. Okay while you create
17:09Yep. Yep. I'm bringing it. What are some of your favorite like horror soundtracks that like you go off to you come back to often?
17:18Oh
17:20Favorite horror soundtracks
17:23Um
17:25I do like the soundtrack to sysperia
17:29Like I don't know all of goblin stuff
17:32But I there are like a few tracks that I do like. Um
17:35um
17:37The um
17:39Also the song from the the theme song from tenebrae
17:42Is really good
17:44Um, the first time I actually heard that song was through the band justice because they sampled it for their song phantom
17:52You know what? I'm talking about that
17:56I was like, oh
17:58This is good. And then I heard I saw tenebrae
18:02Yeah, and then I saw tenebrae for the first time and I was like
18:07That was a sample that's cool
18:09um
18:11and then
18:12I think I was mentioning this the other day. Colin. I think i'm saying I hope i'm saying his name wrong stetson
18:17uh, he
18:19does the music for um
18:21Hereditary i'm not sure if he did the music for midsummer either, but he did uh, the music for hereditary
18:28That's been um on my rotation
18:31The music that he did for hereditary and the uzumaki, uh anime
18:35That's been on rotation. Um
18:38i'm also a big rob zombie fan. I know he only does like music for his stuff, but
18:43um
18:44the house of a thousand corpses soundtrack is always like
18:48A bop it's always good to listen to
18:51so
18:52There's a few of them. There's a few
18:55I am trying to get my mic together. I'm so sorry. Oh, that's fine
19:01Y'all can still hear me, right? Yeah, we've been hearing you the whole time. It's fine. You're totally fine
19:06um, okay, so I know you talked a bit about
19:10Your work with recenter and your most recent work with uh, sinister sisters from the art of reading you a dark
19:16series
19:17Can you tell us a bit about your creative process? Like if there are some things like is there like a one set thing that you do
19:24Um, does it differ from what different projects you might have your hands in at the time?
19:29And then um if you have any advice for other creatives who are first stepping into this kind of venture like
19:35You know, how can they get their foot in their door? How can they you know be set up for success?
19:44So with my process, um
19:48Honestly, I just be minding my business taking care of myself doing my own stuff
19:53And then a lot of people will reach out to me
19:56um
19:57But part of that is because I make myself available online
20:02um, and that's something that I try to tell a lot of um younger artists and like aspiring manga artists and comic artists to like
20:09Make sure that they do even though it's extra effort. It's not a part of the
20:14Creative medium that they're interested in pursuing. Um, but it does help. Uh
20:21and
20:23Yeah, I will just be doing my thing. I have yet to really
20:28reach out to a specific, uh company or
20:33A publisher that I really want to work with. Um
20:37Not because i'm not interested but just i'm having fun in my own world doing my own stuff
20:43um
20:44so that is
20:46typically what happens and when a project comes along where
20:50it's
20:52Something that i'm really interested in I like the story or I like what's happening
20:56Um, i'll jump into it
20:58um, not everybody's project, uh, I accept and the projects that I get pitched are coming from a wide range of
21:07backgrounds
21:09there are people who are um
21:11They're just doing their own thing like me just like just a person then you have publishers, you know
21:17Obviously there's a little bit more budget there
21:19So it's like, you know
21:21And i've i've rejected publishers for works too stuff that I felt like I don't think that's really me
21:26um
21:27I appreciate it, but I don't think that that's I think my audience would be confused if I jumped in on that project
21:33so like
21:34Everybody can get a no. Uh
21:37But if i'm really interested in the thing, it's it's obviously going to be a yes. Um
21:41So but I I that is like a privileged statement to say
21:45um, so I just want to acknowledge that that like
21:48you know
21:49that
21:50That kind of thing happens when you sort of put yourself
21:53Out there and do the work of like making sure that people know you online
21:57Um that you're being active in a way that people can kind of see even though they can't see everything
22:03um
22:04Like people will reach out
22:06Um, I think that also goes into part of my advice, uh on what I would tell
22:11younger artists or aspiring artists trying to do
22:14what i'm doing is
22:16Focus on what you're doing
22:19Um, unfortunately sometimes that what happens with social media is that we get
22:25uh
22:26We get distracted by what other people are doing
22:29And we think about like, you know
22:31I want to be where this person is or I want to be where that person is or like they're not that good like how
22:35Come i'm not there
22:37It's like kill all of that because it's irrelevant
22:40Um focus on you and what you're doing
22:42um and be very honest
22:45with yourself and those
22:47uh thoughts arise
22:49because
22:50Those are human thoughts. I've had those thoughts in the past too with like my friends and my peers
22:55And i'll have to check myself and be like well, did you produce the amount of work that they've produced? No
23:01Okay. Well, then let's take a breather
23:03You know that feeling and that like want that ambition is valid but take a breather and get back to work
23:10so
23:12That that is the advice that I would that I would give
23:15Thank you
23:17Yes, thank you. Thank you so much for sharing space with us now before we close this thing on out
23:22Uh, go ahead and tell the people where they can open their purse one more time
23:26Before we uh slide out of here
23:29So where you can open your purse that is ggmurakami.store. That's g-i-g-i
23:35m-u-r-a-k-a-m-i dot
23:39store
23:40Um, I have an online store where I sell prints
23:43stickers, uh keychains t-shirts, uh and manga
23:47both uh e-format and uh physical format
23:51and
23:53I want to say I have a patreon but I am closing that out soon
23:56I'm starting a membership on my own website because i'm tired of giving a man extra money
24:01Like I just I want to keep all my money. Um, I have I already told you the 20-year plan
24:06Like I gotta I gotta make sure i'm okay so we can get that done. Um,
24:10But yeah
24:12Stay stay in touch with me on socials. I have an email newsletter
24:16Also, I'm going to send out announcements for when the membership is available and you can jump in and get your things
24:22It'll work like patreon. So
24:24uh
24:25Nothing different there. But yeah for right now the stores is totally fine
24:30And I also take commissions which are also on my online store
24:33All right. Yes, but thanks for sharing space with us y'all. Thanks for listening
24:38Okay, we have more things planned for black history month, it's black history 366 so don't don't think we're about to stop
24:45After this, but I just need y'all to know the lasers will still be on my eyes
24:49Even if you cannot see them, okay, so be on the lookout for the panels interviews and articles
24:55Uh coming up and check out ggmer coming. Okay. All right, we're closing this thing out y'all and until next time. Bye
25:08You