Release #2 - Props & Mayhem

The Road to Mangaka is much more than meets the eye. It’s an ambitious reflection on what it means to be an artist, and what it means to grow up in a generation where comics, cinema, and music are not just cultural references, but a dominant iconography. It’s a love letter to art, poetry, theater, painting, music, cinematography, and the nostalgia of someone born in the ’90s—condensed into a comic that moves step by step through pain, sadness, and love, finding catharsis along the way. The goal of this story is simple: to tell a good story through images, dialogue, and experience—with a touch of Grace—offering readers something intimate and personal, something they can identify with, something that might help heal broken hearts. Turning these pages even once is enough to understand that comics can have a beautiful, painful, and unique impact on people’s lives. It is a comic influenced to a greater extent by Scott Pilgrim and Seconds, Bryan Lee O'Malley’s works, as well as films such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), 500 Days of Summer (2009), Tim Burton’s Big Fish (2003), Across the Universe (2007), Yesterday (2019), and Back to the Future (1985). The story follows Eddie, a frustrated comic book artist on the verge of quitting after the worst day of his life, thinks it’s all over. Then Lucy shows up—charming, idealistic… and carrying a secret as dark as it is irresistible. What begins as a random encounter spirals into a journey of art, friendship, and rivalry—where dreams, lies, and love collide with sarcastic humor and unexpected bursts of action. A story about what it means to lose yourself, to find yourself, and to decide who you want to be—even when the world, and your own demons, demand otherwise.

Seconds Studios