Our Creator Interviews for Creator Appreciation Month welcomes Opal Lines, an illustrator and shojosei mangaka from New York City. A rising star in the indie manga space, Opal's newest one-shot Frambuesa Soda was recently published with Euromanga Academy's Chronicles Manga Magazine.
Far from just manga, Opal Lines has worked on numerous western comic titles, such as Monster High: New Scaremester, My Little Pony: Endless Summer, and done webinars and demonstrations for industry powerhouses like Wacom and Graphixly, a distributor for Clip Studio Paint (Celsys).
GlobalComix: Thank you for joining us today! Tell us a little bit about your work, yourself, and how you got into making comics!
Opal Lines: Thanks for having me! My name is Lucy, but I go by Opal Lines online on most platforms. I am a Dominican American Illustrator and more recently shojo mangaka from New York City. Latin America has a longer history with anime than most people realize dating back to the 80’s, which is how my parents were able to watch it as kids. When I was young, I always had a predilection for drawing and would make my own comic strips on printer paper. However, it was my mom and my cousin showing me anime (Candy Candy and Full Moon Wo Sagashite) and manga that made me work towards making manga and comics in general into adulthood. I’m a chronic day dreamer, so making comics was the perfect fit to get those ideas out onto paper.
Cover: Frambuesa Soda
GlobalComix: What inspired the characters and story of Frambuesa Soda, your newest one-shot?
Opal Lines: Frambuesa Soda is a oneshot that takes place mere months into the main timeline of my manga series that I’m currently working on titled Heroes Circle.
Reineldis and Danny have many sources of inspiration informing who they are. They’re frankensteins of characters I liked aspects of such as the cheery, but ominous Yato from Noragami and the fierce dedication to her morals displayed by Yona from Yona of the Dawn. However, what was most important to me while crafting their characters individually was coming up with a duo that would unravel the misguided ideals of the other by offering a completely opposite perspective or life experience. Basically, a sheltered girl with a pessimistic streak meets an unrestricted boy who seeks order and purpose.
GlobalComix: Frambuesa Soda was recently published in a new manga magazine from a European manga school. How did that come to be, and what was the process like?
Opal Lines: I was told by a good friend and fellow mangaka that a European manga school was looking for one-shots to publish in their magazine. I was really intrigued and excited to hear that such a thing even existed, so I set up a call with them. They’re based in Italy, but I found that we shared a lot of the same attitudes and opinions on making manga outside of Japan. Considering my one-shot was close to complete at that point, I didn’t need any background or lettering assistance that they offered. Although, I think it's really cool and extremely rare that it was even an option since American companies usually prefer people to be one man shows.
They even got the magazine printed in time to be distributed at Anime Expo and San Diego Comic Con! It was a really humbling and exciting experience to have people tag me while holding the magazine in support of me and my work. I’m super grateful to Chronicles Manga Magazine for giving me this opportunity and believing in my story.
Frambuesa Soda Page 3
GlobalComix: What is your dream project, and would it be self-published or with a publisher?
Opal Lines: Right now, my dream project would be to have Heroes Circle published at any capacity, but in a manner where the financials aren’t such an issue. I would really love assistants so I can produce my chapters quicker and have a dedicated editor who can give my story the look over it deserves. Shojo manga is criminally undersupported since its peak when titles like Fruits Basket and Nana were here in the US, but I would love for that to change and to be part of said change. I affectionately call my story a “battle shojo” and would like to expand people’s perception of what shojo is and can be while also promoting my Dominican heritage and my neighborhood of Inwood in a new way.
I would also be overjoyed to be able to participate in the lovely culture of making standees, charms, magazine appendixes, clear files, etc that are so fiercely collected and sought after for my own characters. An anime adaptation wouldn’t be so bad either!
GlobalComix: How has being in a large place like New York City helped or hindered your career?
Opal Lines: I’d say it's only helped my perspective on the endless stories there are to tell. Millions of people live in NYC, and you could go out every day and not see the same person more than once. There's no shortage of things to experience and people to meet, and I feel like that's a great asset to have as a writer since it can be hard to step outside of yourself when you’re creating.
I think the only hindrance is that I want every story I write to take place here, haha.
Frambuesa Soda Page 7
GlobalComix: You’ve done work for a variety of publishers and companies, like IDW, Mattel, and Hasbro, but do you have a particular project you’ve worked on that made a greater impact on you as a creator?
Opal Lines: Working with IDW for Monster High was an extremely challenging, but enlightening experience. I got to really learn about the process of making things for such large clients since I was used to working for people on a commission basis. I found myself much quicker than prior to getting that gig due to the fact that the turnarounds were so tight it forced me to get creative on how to solve time sensitive solutions quickly while not compromising the quality of the final product.
It was also the first project I had worked on that had so many moving parts and people involved in it. I made a lot of good friends through collaborating on the project and many funny late nights!
Frambuesa Soda Page 20-21
GlobalComix: Lastly, what advice would you have for creators who are on their own journeys? We all start somewhere, after all!
Opal Lines: Have confidence in your tastes and the things you love. I struggle with authenticity a lot and I find it's the biggest weakness a lot of new artists emerging in our current social media age have. They feel like the natural way they approach things needs to be curated to be palatable to the largest number of people, but I find that only flattens who you are and can cause you to struggle in the long term to find what made you passionate in the first place. I find that when I’m having fun and enjoying myself while creating– not trying to be efficient– I do my best work and feel satisfied
It was also the first project I had worked on that had so many moving parts and people involved in it. I made a lot of good friends through collaborating on the project and many funny late nights!
Many thanks to Opal Lines for taking time from your busy schedule to sit down with us and answer these questions. If you'd like to support Opal Lines, you can find her at Anime NYC, where she'll be tabling at artist alley table V09.
If you would like to keep up with Opal Lines online, here's a list of links:
- Start Reading Frambuesa Soda here
- Follow Opal Lines on GlobalComix here
- Start Reading Monster High: New Scaremester here
- Find her Carrd and socials here
- Follow her on Twitter here
- Keep up with her on Bluesky here
- Follow her on Instagram here
- Keep up with the Massive-Verse Instagram feed here
- Support her on Etsy here