Is Alpha Shade Manga?

Well yes and no..I would defanitly say that manga and Anime have strong influences on my style. I was never all that interested in Superhero type comics, the muscle bound hero in tights formula seemed just that.. a formula. But I enjoyed many western style graphic stories as a kid: Elfquest, the short stories in Heavy Metal, some collections of SciFi comics, and a bunch more that I can't really remember the names of right now. It's true that most of the comics Chris and I collected were Manga: Area 88, Naussica, Akira, Crying Freeman, Mai the Psychic Girl, Grey, Outlanders etc. The point I'm trying to make is that I've had plently of exposure to all sorts of comics.

But is Alpha Shade Manga? If you mean did I find a Manga Artist I liked and copy their style exactly, then no. If you mean I live in Japan and I'm Japanese ( which I don't, and I'm not ) so any comic I produce is Manga, then no. If you mean that my style has Manga influences, then I guess so. Personally, I think that it's not really the right question, my style is my own style, it's got influences from all over the place, but it's all mine. When I first started the comic I was swayed by the idea that I should try to conform to some sort of Mangaish style, but as time goes on I've abandoned that altogether and gone for drawing the way I want to. Things have gone much better art wise since then, it was too limiting and lets face it, what's the point of drawing exactly like someone else, or in a particular style? It's not going to make you famous, it's going to make you a follower.