Clone Manga

"Dan Kim" redirects here. For the Vietnamese instrument which shares the name, see Đàn nguyệt.

Clone Manga is the homepage of webcomic artist Daniel Kim. During the course of this page's life, Kim has thus far completed four of his webcomics: "Nana's Everyday Life", "Paper Eleven", "April and May" and "H.H.". April and May appear alongside their daughter in a new strip "June In (...)" He has begun three new webcomics as well, "Penny Tribute", "Kanami" and "Momoka Corner". Kim is believed to be beginning a new webcomic in the future called "Maria's Sea," which he describes as bloody at the very least.

Clone Manga has released several published graphic novels, including one that comprises "Paper Eleven," a comic Megatokyo co-creator Fred Gallagher specifically praised, calling it "remarkable" as well as lauding Dan Kim's story plotting skills as he prepared to write "Kanami".^[1]

Daniel Kim

Daniel Kim (born 1983 , in Toronto) is the artist and writer behind the Clone Manga collection of webcomics, which include April & May & June, Kanami, Nana's Everyday Life, Paper Eleven, Penny Tribute, H.H. and Tomoyo42's Room. Much of the content of these comics is geared towards a mature audience and, as the website's name suggests, are influenced by and sometimes directly refer to (even featuring characters from) manga and anime. A few examples of these include Elfen Lied, Cardcaptor Sakura and Gunslinger Girl.

Some of these webcomics are ongoing projects; others run for a period of time and are then concluded.

Because of his success and notability online, Dan was invited as a special guest to Connecticon 2006.^[2]

In 2007 he won two Joe Shuster Awards in the categories Outstanding Canadian Web Comic Creator and International Voters Choice - Favourite Canadian Comic Book Creator (English Language) for the webcomics April & May & June, Kanami and Penny Tribute.

Visual style

Daniel Kim has a distinctive visual style and technique. He begins painting in black and alternates between black and white, layering his image. Typically he "flattens" the shadows into a matte black and avoids painting cast shadows, giving his images a stark and unsettling quality much like the dramatic lighting in certain black-and-white film-noir films. It would be difficult to produce similar effects quickly and easily using traditional media—which is, he has said, one of the reasons why he paints digitally. (That is not to say it cannot be done—the Tracer Bullet noir subseries in Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson is very similar to Kim's work artistically, and Watterson made it with ink and paper).

Daniel Kim also works in color (and always has, as attested by an old tutorial.) This has become much more common-place in his recent postings (2008.) He began using it in "Nana's Everyday Life" and "April and May" and continued using it in "Momoka Corner" and "H.H." Many of his side pics are colored. Other recent posts aren't drawn in the same style as "Paper Eleven". They're more likely to contain straightforward line-drawing, filters, tones, textures, and other effects. Kim began using filters later in "Paper Eleven", and adapted them further to draw the heavily textured meadow and forest backgrounds in "Kanami". He considered the work on "Kanami" a sharp departure from past works where he didn't have to do such full landscapes.

Characteristics

• Dan Kim's method of drawing webcomics is regularly done in shadow. That is, he will take a white piece of paper, and draw around what he wishes to draw, defining details with lighter and darker shades. Using this technique the eye can be fooled into seeing varying depths and levels of detail in the artwork simply by using the same color over again: black. The majority of panels are monochromatic, though there can be some variation (such as the addition of red to a scene, or the scene itself being done in red and black).
• The list of webcomics done in shadow so far are Penny Tribute, Kanami, and Paper Eleven. Likewise, Tomoyo42's Room is done in a black and white method, but utilizes occasional color, and up until this current iteration did not consistently have the level of detail as the aforementioned.

Webcomics

April & May & June

April & May & June
Author(s)	Dan Kim
Website	http://manga.clone-army.org/anm.php
Current status / schedule	Concluded
Launch date	2003
End date	29 June 2006

A webcomic by Dan Kim, April & May & June is a constituent of Clone Manga. Originally titled April & May, it was about two students at the University of Waterloo. However, the comic has gone through frequent plot diversions and resets, some of them not featuring the main characters at all. In the third series, which began January 2006, April and May became a couple with a foster child named June.

The webcomic has developed from super deformed drawings to drawings that portray the characters in a realistic persona. At one point, April and May became separated by a strange wolf, and thus began a quest for April to recover May. Over time, the battle was done and May was returned, thus resuming the typical format of strangeness. The author then decided to go in a different direction, continuing a new story where April flunks out of university and May comes with her to help with the confrontation of April's parents.

The webcomic was about to develop in a new light, with a possibility of April and May's relationship no longer being questionable, except that Dan had decided that this format was overly drawn out. So instead, he reset the universe, and changed the variables with April and May's relationship being quite obviously defined, and with new daughter June. In the end, all three characters died while at the World Trade Center on 9/11, along with the cast of Tomoyo42's Room.

H.H.

H.H.
Author(s)	Dan Kim
Website	http://www.jastusa.com/webcomic/index.php
Current status / schedule	Concluded
Launch date	2006
End date	11/30/08

H.H. is a webcomic by Dan Kim, produced in co-operation with JAST USA. It parodies the conventions of bishōjo games in general, and (as of November 2008) has featured characters from Hitomi My Stepsister, Tokimeki Check-In!, Yume Miru Kusuri, Lightning Warrior Raidy, and Kana Little Sister.

Kanami

Kanami
Author(s)	Dan Kim
Website	http://manga.clone-army.org/kanami.php
Current status / schedule	Concluded
Launch date	July 24, 2005
End date	October 16, 2007

Kanami is currently the most difficult of the Clone Manga projects, following the story of a Japanese girl by the name of Kanami. She lives her life in the hospital, because she is too weak to live without being cared for day and night. Because her brother and her mother don't have the ability or the energy to care for her at all times, she is committed to the hospital to recover.

However, Kanami loves her brother so much that she acts before thinking sometimes, even running (despite her poor health) to go meet him on visitation day, in which case, she exhausted herself and became confined to a chair for the rest of the day.

Kanami feels resentment toward her mother, and does not believe she even cares that she exists. This is best shown in the first several webcomics, where she calls her brother a liar because he told her that their mother was asking about her. Kanami has strange dreams and memories of people dying, or herself being left alone where she is left to possibly die on her own.

Format

Kanami is done in shadow, which is the use of a heavy amount of black on white. To date, there has been no use of color. The detail involved with Kanami is great, with even the slightest of shading allowing the comic to increase in several levels of detail.

While Paper Eleven had well-defined characters with overly simple backdrops, every panel of Kanami has a varying degree of overhead, which makes the comic difficult to update, especially on a regular basis. Research, both for the comic's culture and Kanami's illness, further prolong updates. Originally Dan had a plan to release Kanami in chapters, possibly doing once-a-month updates. However, he seems to have come to terms with the fact that, simply put, Kanami is incredibly complex and difficult to update. As such, he does not usually set expectations of chapters of Kanami, and instead releases several pages at a time, or sometimes merely one page at a time.

The comic is highly influenced by Kana Imōto, a shoujo game.

On January 15, Dan Kim announced in his home page that further updates of Kanami will be in the Kinetic novel format. From his blog:

"Three arcs, three episodes each, with full professional Japanese voice overs. English and Japanese language versions will be released, with marketing and distribution support from overseas. Rough release schedule: one episode a month. First release slated for Spring 2007. Preview site and demo available Jan 30th."

Momoka Corner

Momoka Corner
Author(s)	Daniel Kim
Website	http://manga.clone-army.org/momoka.php
Current status / schedule	Concluded
Launch date	??
End date	4/15/07

Momoka Corner is the latest of Dan Kim's works. The story tells about Midori, a young shrine maiden and her older sister. The elder one blames their mother's death on Midori and wishes for her death. Midori asks her sister for a way to redeem herself, and they end on a weird ritual that summons Snax, a wacky ruler of the dark realm who is obsessed with The Hoff. This story is featured in full color and is a mix of the classic fantasy and horror with otaku culture.

Nana's Everyday Life

Nana's Everyday Life
Author(s)	Daniel Kim
Website	http://manga.clone-army.org/nana.php
Current status / schedule	Concluded
End date	08/27/05

Nana's Everyday Life is a webcomic by Daniel Kim based on Elfen Lied and, to a lesser degree, Gunslinger Girl. It combines tragedy with Kim's obscene sense of humor to produce a unique mix, which might be why it is one of his more popular comics.

Disclaimer on website: Weirdness; cuteness. 13+ suggested. Note: The 13+ age rating is that suggested by Dan Kim. Given the frequent depictions of bloody violence, nudity, rape and child abuse, and a general depressing tone, it would almost certainly warrant a more restrictive rating if published.

Synopsis

Nana is a diclonius, a special being with horns who lives at a laboratory. After her arms and legs are blown off in a twisted turn of events, her Papa tosses her into the garbage. (The laboratory, loss of limbs, and Mayu's past are the only similarities to the plot of Elfen Lied.) Eventually, she is found by Mayu, a young girl who ran away from her sexually abusive father. They then move in with the girls from Gunslinger Girl. However, after a few days, the girls steal Nana's sole possessions, tell her that her father is never going to come back to get her, and kick her down a flight of stairs. This crushes Nana's spirit, and she jumps off a bridge.

Thirteen months later, Nana is naked on the auction block. After not being sold, she is taken to the docks to be "disposed of" by Marcelo, but after an attack of conscience he takes her home. At his home, she is taken care of by the maid and lives a relatively happy life at first, but after a while Nana begins to be treated more like a pet than a daughter. It becomes apparent that the cold treatment of Nana by her new parents is an effort on their part to avoid becoming attached to the girl as they search for her real parents. Marcelo's maid-cum-mother-figure, Minami, begins to realize that Nana needs more love, but before long, Nana's "real father" is found, and he takes Nana back, apparently killing Marcelo and Minami.

Back at the lab, Nana's Papa has her organs harvested and various painful experiments done on her. After her body finally becomes too weak to be of use to "Papa," she is thrown into a "biohazard waste disposal unit". She somehow manages to escape to the ocean, where she finally loses her misguided faith in her Papa. Nana pulls herself up to an alley and discovers a tiny kitten—the first being since Minami and Marcelo that has been willing to show her affection. The kitten is dead the next morning, and after making a grave for the kitten, Nana dies as well. At her grave, many flowers grow. The kitten is resurrected and found by her owner who is amazed by the garden that grew. Mysteriously, in comic 77, the shadows of two people resembling Marcelo and Minami can be seen to the right of Nana's dying body. Whether they are alive or not is presumably left open to speculation.

Paper Eleven

Paper Eleven
Author(s)	Dan Kim
Website	http://manga.clone-army.org/pxi.php
Current status / schedule	Concluded
Launch date	??
End date	July 4, 2005
Genre(s)	Suspense, Horror, Psychological Thriller

Paper Eleven is a manga-styled webcomic created by Dan Kim. It tells the story of a 14-year-old girl called Maya as she traverses a dark and surreal world. The narrative is divided into chapters, each representing a single day, starting with day 0 and continuing to day 11. The comic ended on July 4, 2005.

The comic is the first Clone Manga title to be published in book form. It has also been praised by fellow webcomic artists such as Fred Gallagher for its style and artistry.^[3]

Penny Tribute

Penny Tribute
Author(s)	Dan Kim
Website	http://manga.clone-army.org/penny.php
Current status / schedule	Concluded
Launch date	November 12, 2005
End date	November 30, 2008

Penny Tribute is one of the more upbeat webcomics of Clone Manga, featuring a young Gothic Lolita by the name of Penny in an apparently science-fantasy setting.

Summary

When young Penny is given as a tribute to the local lady of the land, the young woman repeals a tax and has Penny put to work as a maid. It's up to Penny to cope with her new duties and her newfound prison without locks. The castle is populated by interesting and bizarre creatures, some of whom are more friendly than others. Penny has befriended one of these, who she hides from her masters.

Characters

"Penny"	Though the protagonist is generally referred to as 'Penny' by the author and other commentary, she has as yet not been named in the comic itself. Penny's life was changed when she came to live with her new masters.
Yvv	A servant of the lady of the castle, who has directed Penny since she arrived. Yvv's left eye has a strange appearance. She used to have a daughter that died two years before the events in the comic. She can't have any more children, so she wants Penny.
The Mistress	The mistress is in charge of the castle to which Penny has been brought. She repealed a tax upon receiving Penny as a tribute, and put Penny to work as a maid.
Numunu	Numunu is a strange multi-limbed creature with six arms and no legs. Penny has befriended it and hidden it from her masters. It is possible that Numunu is the progenitor, for whom the house is currently searching.
Sv	Sv appears as a bird with a human face - an appearance reminiscent of a Harpy or Siren. Sv is subservient to the attendant, Yvv.
Guardians Nn and R	A near-identical pair of defenders with ornate bird-themed helms and robes, these sentinels intercept and neutralise an intruder to the castle. Their speech exhibits a pattern commonly associated with twins, of one repeating or finishing the other's sentences. Half of each twin's face appears to be cracked, as if coated; one on the right side and the other on the left.
The Unnamed Intruder	The intruder gives the series' first hints of high technology or magic, with a concealing cloak reminiscent of the thermoptic camouflage seen in Ghost in the Shell. She also touts a powerful pistol, but is quickly disabled by the castle's guardians. She was last seen accompanying the Mistress dressed in a manner similar to the rest of the residents of the castle. She now appears to be unaware of her surroundings and bears a scar similar to the one on Numunu's forehead at the place where the Guardians' beams pierced her skull.

Tomoyo42's Room

Tomoyo42's Room
Author(s)	Dan Kim
Website	http://manga.clone-army.org/t42r.php
Current status / schedule	Active
Launch date	March 17, 2001
Genre(s)	Parody

Centered on Sakura and her best friend Tomoyo from the manga/anime Cardcaptor Sakura, Tomoyo42's Room follows the duo in a world where they have the relationship only hinted at in the series. However, being an alternate universe, this does nothing to curb the craziness of the pair of lolitas who are involved with regular maiming and debauchery. Tomoyo is a lesbian whereas Sakura is a bisexual. Their roles are reversed from the series in that Tomoyo is very dominant and Sakura is submissive.

The webcomic touches on many different subjects in humorous parody and mockery, even touching on the subject of homosexuality being considered a disease, with the cure being torture and brainwashing until one no longer feels such desires. At one point, there is even a baby involved with Tomoyo and Sakura.

Often, the comic depicts several taboo subjects in a graphic manner. BDSM, rape, incest, and mutilation are unflinchingly depicted in ways that are humorous to some people, and offensive to many others. The author often seems to poke fun at his own fixation on the admittedly creepy subject matter, using lines like "Maybe I should kill myself."^[4]

The webcomic has no true direction, nor even a plot, simply being crazier and crazier from one update to the next. The comic began with Tomoyo finding an object of evil either floating in the air or sticking to the ceiling (it is unclear), with which she would 'take people's pictures' though Tomoyo has since given up said object (which is none other than a bloody crowbar, and taking someone's picture equates to a hefty dismembering strike). However, she comments, she feels much the same.

New readers of this webcomic or people who are thinking of reading it are strongly advised to read the original manga/anime first. It has been known to ruin the series with its inappropriate nature, although this is just a parody of Cardcaptor Sakura.

References

1. ^ http://www.megatokyo.com/index.php?strip_id=731 - MegaTokyo strip
2. ^ ConnectiCon 2006 - list of guests
3. ^ http://www.megatokyo.com/index.php?strip_id=731 - Fred Gallagher's praise of Dan Kim.
4. ^ http://manga.clone-army.org/t42r.php?page=169 - Tomoyo42's Room, strip 169

External links

• Clone Manga - The main site
• MegaTokyo Guest Strip - A guest strip Dan Kim did for MegaTokyo
• Akiba Angels interview with Dan Kim