Though I spend less time on deviantART these days, it is still the place where I feel the most freedom to express myself.

I may have had a major breakthrough in "how I make comics" over this Thanksgiving weekend. It has nothing to do with technique or skills. It has to do with how I think. In my life, what I am thinking when I draw means everything.

What am I thinking?

When I create comics, the "who am I" must be evident. It must. So who am I? I am Taiwanese American.  I lived in Japan for a very very long time. In the study of "who is Ryuzo", this is more important than ever. The pop culture that supported me and nurtured my art for all these years means less and less to me (sorry Transformers, sorry Star Wars, sorry Mortal Kombat, sorry mainstream comics). I still wholly enjoy pop culture, but when it comes to creating, I have no interest in creating anything remotely similar. TFs, SW, MK, mainstream comics do their genres well and have cultivated their audiences over decades. Good for them. For us indie creators, it is an unprecedented time for self expression, with the means to do it. Where's my audience with the same sensibilities as me? It's up to me to find my audience. How long will mass accessibility to freedom of expression last? Nobody knows. The time is now.

I will make no promises about what I will create. You will see what I create when it gets created, the proverbial "it'll be released when it's done". But on this last day of November 2014, I was here shouting from the top of a mountain. I am Ryuzo. I am breaking out of my shell.