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Q: How often did you update the story?

Nina Matsumoto: I put up three pages a week for a while, but since I was in high school, keeping it up was tough.

Q: Saturnalia is on hiatus now, but are you hoping to return to it someday?

Nina Matsumoto: I doubt I'll ever continue it. If I do Saturnalia again, it will be redone from scratch, and for publishing purposes.

Q: You have a little feature on the Saturnalia page titled, "see how my art has improved over the years." What do you think is the biggest difference between your earlier work and your current style of drawing?


Nina Matsumoto: I don't think it's an improvement in style so much as it is a technical improvement. Saturnalia served as excellent drawing practice, and my skills became significantly better thanks to it. Better anatomy, better perspective, better structure, better expressions... I doubt I'd have advanced so far without the comic.

Q: Do you have any advice you'd like to share with aspiring manga artists?

Nina Matsumoto: "If you can read this, you should be drawing."

Q: Are you working on other projects besides Yokaiden now?

Nina Matsumoto: I still do some pencils for Bongo Comics from time to time, and I've also been doing character designs for a cartoon pitch a UK animation studio is working on. There are other (exciting) things in the future, possibly, but I can't say what they are for now!

Q: Do you have any plans to meet your fans at any of the comic conventions coming up this year?

Nina Matsumoto: I might! I attend conventions on a regular basis, but I've never done Artist's Alley and don't plan to.

I did a panel at Anime North last year, but really, I prefer to go to cons just to chill.

Q: Finally, do you have any thing you'd like to add, any final thoughts to share with readers who have enjoyed Yokaiden, and for readers who haven't yet checked it out?

Nina Matsumoto: Thanks to everyone who got a copy of Yokaiden. If you haven't read it, see some review excerpts at yokaiden.com -- they might convince you to!

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Look for Yokaiden Volume 1 in stores now, and Yokaiden Volume 2, which is due out from Del Rey Manga in November 2009.