About the Author
Hello and thank you for your interest in Faith in the West (FITW)!
To those of you who have been with me for a while, thank you so much for your support! <3
To those of you who have discovered FITW recently, welcome!
I’m Sage and I’m the writer and illustrator of FITW. I’m American but I’ve been living in Hiroshima, Japan since 2018. I’m a teacher at a local university and I’m a tour guide. I live with my partner, who is also American, and our cat, Loki. This webcomic is something I work on in my spare time. It has been a serious hobby of mine for years.
I have no formal education in art or storytelling. My background is in social science. In undergrad I studied Chinese and Japanese history, language, and literature. Then in graduate school I focused on “escalating conflict”, basically, why countries go to war. My focus was on the former Yugoslavia. I have always had a fascination with history, different cultures, and how people get themselves in and out of difficult times. Thanks to my schools and my family, I have had the privilege of traveling and living abroad quite a bit throughout my life. My travels, as well as what I studied in school, have been a big inspiration for Faith in the West (FITW). Perhaps the most notable influence is the epic Chinese story, Journey to the West, by Wu Cheng En which has become the backbone of my plot and my title.
Art-wise, I have had many inspirations. My mother has been a big inspiration, of course. She is an artist herself but in a completely different medium. She paints and makes earrings. I grew up watching her experiment with different projects and she has always been very supportive of my art. You can check out her work here, annmbeckart.com. I also grew up watching animated movies and TV shows. Life long loves of mine have been Disney’s The Lion King and Mulan, DreamWorks’ The Prince of Egypt and How to Train Your Dragon, Ghibili’s Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke, and Nickelodeon’s Avatar the Last Air Bender. I also love epic adventure, fantasy stories in any medium, like JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings (the books and Peter Jackson’s trilogy, and even the old, weird animated movies).
Of course, I have also been inspired by other comics, specifically manga (comics from Japan). In Jr. High and High School, my favorites were Takahashi Rumiko’s Ranma 1/2 and Inuyasha, and Takaya Natsuki's Fruits Basket, and Arakawa Hiromu's Full Metal Alchemist. I have loved to draw since before I can remember and so, not long after I first discovered manga, I started trying to draw my own stories. In those early days I drew on computer paper with number 2 pencils and eventually leveled up to what I’m doing now.
Arguably, I started working on FITW as far back as 2006 in one of those early attempts at drawing my own manga. However, it would be almost unrecognizable compared to today’s version except for one theme which I have to keep a secret for now. I attempted to work on it again in 2014 with traditional manga equipment. I had a lot of the tools professional manga artists use; the paper, ink, stencils, all of it. It was a lot of work, it was expensive and I needed so much space for all the stuff so it just wasn’t sustainable. However, that version would be more recognizable because that was after I read Journey to the West. In 2017 I got a tablet and started working on FITW digitally for the first time using illustration software. Then in 2020 I made this website and published that first digital version. This was my first attempt to share FITW with the world. This version would be very recognizable because many of the character designs and events that take place in the story are very similar. However, that version was very rough because I wasn’t used to working digitally. Finally, in 2022, I decided to start over one more time and republish. I had gotten better at drawing on a tablet and I upgraded to a better tablet, a Wacom and a better illustration software, Clip Studio Paint. The version I started in 2022 is the version you are reading now and hopefully the final version. I would like to finish this story before I die.
The whole story of FITW has been laid out but I write a detailed script one chapter at a time as I go along. From the detailed script, I do a rough sketch with dialogue so I can see how the chapter is going to play out visually. My editor takes a look at it after that and suggests changes. When we’re happy with the flow of the chain of events and the dialogue, I go in and ink and color it. Inking and coloring takes the most time. A page can take me anywhere from 30 minutes to over an hour depending. These days, I do everything digitally from the sketches to the final draft. It is all done on a Wacom tablet with the Clip Studio Paint software. Doing this work digitally enables me to do things that would be very difficult or impossible to do physically however it is still very labor intensive. I do draw everything myself. I don’t use any digital models or premade backgrounds (I’m not judging people who do this by the way, I just don’t) and I certainly don’t use any AI for any of my drawing or storytelling. For those of you who don’t understand how it works to “draw” on a digital tablet; you draw directly on the tablet’s screen, just like you would on paper.
I publish FITW here on the website, of course, but also on the webcomic platform, Webtoon. Webtoon is designed to work well with smartphones. I redesign my pages to work well with the Webtoon style. If you prefer to read webcomics on your smartphone you can read my comic on Webtoon instead of here on the website. However, if you prefer to read webcomics on a computer, you should stick with this website. Webtoon sponsors webcomics under their Webtoon Originals but I am not sponsored by Webtoon. I publish under their Webtoon Canvas which is a platform they provide for anyone to publish on. Read FITW on Webtoon here, https://www.webtoons.com/en/canvas/faith-in-the-west/list?title_no=992812
I also have a Patreon. I wait to publish chapters on my website and on Webtoon until the chapter is completely done but I publish pages on Patreon as I finish them. I also share information and updates long before I share them on social media (if I ever share them on social media). Becoming a member on Patreon helps me pay for this website and other life things that make working on and sharing this webcomic possible. Here is the link to my Patreon, patreon.com/faithinthewest
You can also follow me for free on social media. I announce news there periodically. I am on Facebook and Instagram. https://www.facebook.com/faithinthewest https://www.instagram.com/faithinthewest/.
It's looking like FITW will have 6 parts and about 8-10 chapters per part and about 30-60 pages per chapter. It’s a lot but it is really fun and I am so grateful for all of the support I’ve received from both friends and strangers.
Thank you so much! 😊