Mangaka Interview: Josh Tierney
A candid conversation about creative process with the co-creator of World Piece.
A brief introduction, before we get into the interview!
I’ve mentioned this before, but as a late bloomer in manga, I was an even later bloomer in original English language manga. Then I happened upon the Viz one-shot selections and found a trove of incredible standalone stories, and plenty of creators that were a heck of a lot easier to follow than Yuji Kaku, my elusive hero.
That’s where I first found Josh Tierney’s writing, from the Viz one-shot Skin & Bone (well worth the read). As a writer myself, I am always, always looking for visual storytelling teams, where the writer isn’t also the artist. What I found in Josh’s work was exactly what I was looking for—superior writing. World Piece, now complete at four volumes, is an absolute joy, it gave me serious Delicious in Dungeon in Space vibes.
Josh is the co-creator of World Piece (VIZ Originals) with Agroshka, and the writer of Iris Complex, Warm Blood and Spera.
Best of all, he was kind enough to agree to an interview, which I will now get to without further ado.
What is your history with manga? What are some of your favorites?
JT: I started with Akira, reading back issues of the color releases put out by Marvel (through their Epic imprint). It was clearly on another level from the superhero comics I read at the time, and even as a kid I could tell it was a tremendous storytelling achievement.
It was when I became a teenager that I pretty much fully shifted to reading manga, and would read pretty much anything I could get my hands on. As a teen my favorite was the original Ghost in the Shell.
When I hit my twenties Beck by Harold Sakuishi became my favorite, and I started reading Yotsuba to help me cope with the crippling depression I experienced while working my first full-time minimum wage job.
My current favorite series I’m reading is Tokyo These Days by Taiyo Matsumoto. I’ve always enjoyed stories about older characters who have their passions reignited and try to give it their all, perhaps for one last time.
What made you want to start writing in this medium?
JT: For manga, specifically, it’s because it’s my favorite medium. Nothing else is as immersive to me, not movies, videogames, or even other types of comics. I feel like I was able to make World Piece more immersive than my previous work thanks to this format and opportunity.
The storytelling benefited from not having to worry about restrictive page counts, and the black-and-white art allows readers to project onto the story with their own imaginations.
What was the initial inspiration for World Piece, and what inspired you along the way?
JT: I’ve always had this idea of a character taking care of an orb that is extremely important. Sometimes I imagined the orb as representing hope itself, and sometimes the entire universe. When I was asked to come up with a series, I decided to take this idea and make it the Earth.
Lucas was inspired by an illustration I really liked of a group of young basketball players. So, Lucas became a high school basketball player tasked with trying to restore a shrunken Earth – and, in some totally absurd moments, uses it as a weapon.
I started watching Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water for the very first time while writing the second volume, and Nadia became one of the biggest influences on the series from that point on.
Can you talk about forming the trifecta of Lucas, Lully, and Mitton? Who came to you first, and how did you fill out their personalities as you got to know them? Were you building them as a individuals, or were they influencing each other?
JT: Lucas came first, then Lully and Mitton.
Lucas has a bright, hopeful and optimistic personality, which was totally new for me to write, especially as a protagonist. I was asked to write World Piece at the end of the darkest year of my life, and in a way it saved me. Lucas represents the value in holding on and having hope.
I had written stories about princesses before, and wanted Lully to continue the trend but with a twist, so she became a pretend princess, someone who dresses like one as a reaction to her sheltered upbringing. This sheltered upbringing, which had her mainly interacting with robots, animals and plants, also contributes to her odd personality.
Her naiveté and over-eager friendliness are acts that she puts on in order to try to make herself seem more likeable. Lucas is her first real human friend, and, especially early on, she’s desperate to hold onto him. Maybe she thinks of him as the potential cure for her depression.
Mitton is probably the closest to me, inspired by a period when I did nothing but find places to sit and read classic literature. He lacks my absurd sense of humor, though, which instead comes out in the universe of World Piece itself. This general lack of humor makes him the “straight man” character, who questions the strange choices Lucas and Lully make.
When the three of them are put together, their banter becomes one of the most fun things to write in World Piece.
I feel like the setting of World Piece is equal parts complex and simple, it’s never confusing, but it also doesn’t feel overly easy. What went into creating the stage for the story, from the planets to the look of the space ships?
JT: When I write, I imagine that everything already exists, and that I’m there with the characters, looking around with them. It’s like how I can write a slice-of-life story set in a city on Earth without having to explain everything about Earth.
The complexity then comes from the visual design and the rules that the worlds and technology adhere to. These aspects were most fully fleshed out by Agroshka, working from ref I’d send her along with prompts (for example, me saying a planet is made up of black sand and experiencing constant electrical storms). She also contributed a lot of her own ideas at this level.
What was the collaborative process like in working with an artist? Do you script and send it over, work together, what goes into being one half of the creative output? How much are the small visual details up to you?
JT: I would show Agroshka everything I was working on, from the story bible to the scripts, and see if she had any input. For the most part, her changes to the story would be added during the thumbnail stage, and I agreed to everything she wanted to put in.
My scripts include everything I want to put in on my end, leaving room for artists to add their own personal touches. If I have a very specific idea for something, like an alien creature, then I would send ref of a deep-sea creature I like.
The worlds, aliens and technology were all developed largely by Agroshka. She put explanations for how things work in her design sketches, so that the universe of World Piece is able to stay true to its unique set of rules.
What’s next for World Piece, for your writing in general? Where can people find you online and where can they find more of your work?
JT: World Piece is now complete as a four-volume series.
I have three new books coming out over the next couple years, as well as some smaller projects. The first book being released is Black Plastic, a karaoke cyber-thriller drawn by Nicci Busse and published by WildStar Press, inspired by late ’90s-early 2000s cyber-thrillers like Serial Experiments Lain.
I can be found on Instagram at joshwtierney and am most other places as well. Agroshka can be found on Instagram as Agroshka.
Thank you for the interview!
Glad I found this interview! Very cool!