As one can imagine, being a self-published author is hard. Many people who write and draw simply want to do just that, write and draw. It isn’t common knowledge to know about publishing, marketing, manufacturing and distributing your own work and when it comes to novels, this is far easier to do as publishing companies have been around for ages, assisting writers in getting their works to the masses. Comic book companies such as Marvel and publishing companies in Japan like Shounen Jump have also taken the task off their artist hands by opting to market and distribute the products for artists.
However, in the US, no such system exists currently that effectively markets weekly or monthly releases series created by BIPOC authors and artists. This is why we at Hubtaku created “Behind the Pen”, a series dedicated to highlighting popular and actively growing webcomics and manga being released to help increase their awareness and following. Today, we’re introducing The Bride of the Fox!
The Bride of the Fox, is a fantasy/romance series written by Mmyoi. It follows the life of a Black princess named Nubia who has low confidence in her looks and abilities. After agreeing to be married off to a handsome prince from another country Nubia meets a man with fox ears and so begins their tale of love. “I always loved yokai stories and I wanted to write somewhat of a fairytale in which a princess falls in love with a creature from a ghostly world.” Mmyoi explained when asked about how she came up with the series. “I think I draw a lot of inspiration from Japanese manga such as Kamisaka Hajimemashita and Akatsuki no Yona, but I also enjoy a lot of Disney movies such as Mulan and Beauty and the Beast”.
Who is Mmyoi?
Mmyoi is an Afro-Latina comic artist living in Japan. She is very passionate about recreating the stories she grew up with as a kid of black women just like her and has a deep love for romance and fantasy as a whole. “Since I never really got any black princess in my childhood I made sure that my female lead was a cute princess from a loving family that would grow with the story, learning about self esteem, respect, and how to pursue her own dreams. That’s how the story came to life.” As it pertained to creating that representation she found like in Hollywood, she stated “We are taking the matter on our hands and making so many beautiful things!”
One of the most rewarding aspects about the creation process for her has been the opportunity to meet and engage with so many other black women who love her work. Many times, writers only interact with their audience when on book tours or at book signings. Nowadays conventions are the most popular thing, but now the advances in streaming, and social media have made engaging so much simpler. “I’m so shy, you have no idea, so every comment I get is really important for me, the feedback is essential because I don’t show my work to many people I know irl I’ve made great friends because of my comics, we have even hang out together and have zoom meetings as well, so it’s really rewarding.”
Overcoming Challenges
It cannot be understated the difficulties that come with making a project such as this though. The Bride and the Fox has been released consistently for over two years, and is not a webtoon original. Because of this, Mmyoi has faced many challenges when producing and developing her series on her own, but has found ways to overcome it. At the time of writing this article, Mmyoi has over 113 supporters on her patreon and all the money earned from it was used to purchase her drawing equipment “Without patreon I’m sure my comic wouldn’t have lasted this far.” Not only is she in charge of supporting herself on her own, but outside of the grammatical help she receives from her husband, The Bride of the Fox is completely created by her. “Yes, it’s all by myself! I occasionally ask my husband to check my grammar before I upload 🤣 but all the work from the creation till the final piece is done by myself.”
You can read the entire series on Webtoons and Tapas. If you enjoyed the series, please be sure to visit her patreon, Mmyoi’s lowest tiers are only $1 and if you are willing to support you get content such as monthly NSFW illustrations, merchandise from her reduble store, extra chapters, and so much more. Please click the link here to see them and support Mmyoi.
Thank you so much for reading about The Bride of the Fox and Mmyoi, and for continuing to choose us to be your Otaku hub.