CATDOLL: A cartoonist reveals a weird reason for rejecting a manuscript: The editor-in-chief doesn’t like me

As a cartoonist, it is very common to have your manuscript rejected. The reason may be that the editorial department thinks the story is not attractive enough or does not fit the style of the magazine. Generally speaking, the editor of the magazine will choose an appropriate excuse to reject the cartoonist's manuscript. However, recently, Japanese cartoonist "すたひろ" revealed on Twitter the strange reason why his manuscript was rejected in the past. The reason turned out to be that the editor did not like him?

The representative work of the manga artist "Sutahiro" is "My Dad is an Otaku". The work tells the story of 9-year-old Yukimura Ye who came to the Higanso Apartment to live with his father whom he had never met, but he did not expect that his father was actually an out-and-out otaku. Against the backdrop of other funny tenants in the apartment, Ye and his otaku father started a wonderful parent-child life. Due to the novel and funny subject matter, this work has also been released in a CD version, and well-known voice actors such as Asumi Kana and Toriumi Hirosuke have participated in the dubbing.

"Sutahiro" teacher's masterpiece "My Dad is an Otaku"

Recently, "すたひろ" teacher mentioned an incident on Twitter. Someone once asked him to draw a comic about the earthquake, and the teacher said that he had to go to the scene to collect materials before deciding whether to draw it. This was reasonable, but the editorial department said that it was impossible to provide funds for works that had not yet been confirmed whether they would be published.

“We are unable to provide material fees for unpublished works”

So Mr. Sutahiro worried for a long time whether he should draw a story about the earthquake. Although he was confident that he could draw an interesting work, he was worried that it might not be careful enough. After all, the earthquake is a very sensitive topic and it could cause resentment if he was not careful. After seven months of hard work, the teacher handed over his storyboard to the editor.

The work that condensed my efforts is finally out!

Unexpectedly, the editor replied: "Because the editor-in-chief hates Sutahiro-sensei, we can't publish the series!"

"Ah, because our editor hates you, so we can't publish it."

After hearing such a straightforward reason, even the teacher said that "this is the most shocking thing he has ever experienced since he started serialization." I wonder if such a domineering editorial department is still surviving in the industry?