Tsutomu Nihei

Tsutomu Nihei's latest manga is Knights of Sidonia. From his Q&A with Brigid Alverson for the B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy blog:

Everything is so big in Knights of Sidonia. The spaceship is huge. How did you get that feeling?

Before I actually started drawing Knights of Sidonia I designed the spaceship and then I [scaled] it to the size of Manhattan. If you roll Manhattan into a round shape, [that’s] how large it is going to be. Based on that size [I determined] the population size of the spaceship.

How does their society reflect Japanese society of today? Or does it?

The answer is kind of no and a little yes. The Knights of Sidonia setting is the far, far future. It can be separate from the current Japanese society. But as you know, I was born and I am Japanese, so when I draw something maybe it’s based on the way past society works, it’s not...[read on]

--Marshal Zeringue