MH Interviews: Meep-Scans

For our next interview we have one with MacKnight from Meep-Scans (although he is registered as Dark-Knights here). Meep scanlates manhwa (which is manga written and drawn by Koreans for those who aren't aware). Some Koreans even get their work published in Japanese magazines, such as the upcoming Defense Devil in Shonen Sunday so it would be really good if that series gets its raws scanned wink wink. Black God, published in Young GanGan is even getting an anime.

If you haven't read any manhwa yet then I suggest you give them a shot. They need more love. So with that we have an interview with someone from group that scanlated several manhwa. (Thanks again to bax for scanning the internet to find a good image from a manhwa for a banner. More Korean colourings please!)

1. Please give a short introduction of yourself and your manga scanlation groups.
What kinds of manga/manhwa did/does your group scanlate, how did it get started etc.

Well, my name is MacKnight, I am a Editor. When I worked for Meep, I was main editor for Immortal Regis, but I helped out on Aflame Inferno and Jack Frost as well. But I do
other mangas as well, such as 07 Ghost. The group i work for the most and been in the longest, was Meep-Scans. Their main focus of manga was mystic and supernautral and fighting manga. How did we get started? Well, we just wanna give the people a little fun in life and some enjoyment, that's why we scan manga.

2. How did you get into scanlating, and how hard did you find it at first?
Has it gotten any easier with more practice? Why did you get into it in the first place?

How I got into scanlating? Well, there where manga that i loved, but they had a slow if any releases at all, so I wanted to help, and the main problem most of the groups had was that they lacked editors to do it faster. When I started as a editor, it was not easy... Took time to learn how to use Photoshop, and it has sooo many options on how to do things, so yes, it's hard when you are new at it. But don't worry, it get easier with practice people.

3. What types of manga are your personal favourite? Which titles do you like in particularly? Any genres you don't like?

Well, most manga I ready are either fighting on a inhuman level, or some really good mystic, I like horror as well, and sports manga like Eyeshield 21. I have many types I like right now, such as Immortal Regis, but that manga is finished and will be followed in Cavalier of the Abyss, Aflame Inferno, Jack Frost, Psyren, Kurozakuro, Bloody Monday, 07 Ghost, Alive, .Hack//G.u., Highschool of the Dead, Psycho Busters, Saijou no Meii, and Karin. I have more but I think i have said enough. xD

4. How do you feel the amount of fan feedback and thanks is for the work that you have done? How do you feel overall seeing people read and discussing the manga that you have scanlated?

I feel greatful for the feedback, if it's reasonble, people whining like this '' RELEASE FASTER!!'' Isn't really speeding it up you know! If people want faster releases, HELP instead. As for thanks from fans, it makes me feel like that I succeeded in what i wanted to have done, make people happy. And see people discussing manga that
me / my group has scanned, makes me feel that.. well, can't really describe it, but it makes me happy as well. :)

5. Are there any other hobbies or things that you like to work on in your spare time?

Well, i play my games of course, trying new games, watch movies and such, like most people do. I take walks at night. Other then that I don't do much more, (I do my school of course :P)

6. What do you feel about multiple groups scanlating the same manga? E.g 5 seperate releases of Bleach and Naruto each week while other series go unscanlated.

Totally unnecessary, why can't people just make 1, large group and release it in good quality instead? If you see on ex Japflap and M7, on their credit pages, they have A LOT of editors there, minimum 6 of them what i have seen. And see the
quality of their work? It's great. And that some series go unscanlated is also a pain, but i can't really force people to do them can I?

7. What do you feel are the differences between manhwa (Korean manga) and manga (Japanese manga)? Any cliches or character archtypes that are different between the two? Do you think there should be a greater presence of manhwa
in the online mangacommunity?

Well, manga was created in Japan, so of course they have more manga there, but Korea has good manga as well, but people don't put all of them up for some reason. The manga Meep-Scans worked on was all Korean. For me, I don't see a lot of diffrences between Korean and Japanese manga. I do think people should have a look at some Korean manga, they do great manga people!

8. The reason given for Meep-Scans disbandment was a Cease and Desist letter from the publisher of the manga that you were scanlating. What do you think of that considering that many of series you were scanlating may never get
officially published in english?

First off, it was not the publisher of the manga, it was more like a copyright enforce that sent a message to make us stop. The message he gave us was more or less ''Stop scanning those manga or I report you to the Korean Copyright council.''
But in of course a ''nicer'' politic way.. (Ass.) I agree with you, that many of the manga we scanned might never get out in English officially, which is a royal pain for
everyone and me. For me it's because they don't sell much manga here where I live, and the shiping cost ass. In my eyes, the owners of a manga are too busy thinking ''Make money, kill everyone that stand in the way'' to see that we make FREE publicity for their manga. Many people who read manga do buy the books later, and because we scan and put them on the internet, we make more people read it, and thus more people to buy it. IF they were smart enough to put the official english version on the market FASTER.

That's all I have to say :)

For those of you who haven't checked out their work, you can download it here:

Immortal Regis

Witch Hunter

Aflame Inferno