Sara E. Mayhew, creator of Secrets of Sorcerers and Love Pet, has a new manga series titled Legend of the Ztarr. “Legend of the Ztarr has been in the works for a long time” said Sara, “even before I began work on Secrets of Sorcerers, I had sketches and pieces of writing for Legend of the Ztarr”. The first chapter in the series is available online on the series’ official website www.legendoftheztarr.com.
The series centers around a young violet-eyed forest girl named Adora Ztarr, who lives peacefully with her adopted family on a planet called Teri. Adora is the daughter of the great Kalen Ztarr who died in the battle to overthrow the Emperor of the Known Universe. There are those still loyal to the House of Ztarr who have chosen Adora to replace her father in a prophecy which foretells the demise of the Emperor.
Sara explained, “My plans are to put together a proposal for Legend of the Ztarr and pitch it to manga publishers, rather than go the indy route”. When it comes to Secrets of Sorcerers, which was printed as a 160pg graphic novel, Sara mentioned she felt that independently publishing it was the best choice at the time; “Back in 2005, I didn’t have a lot of confidence in the way manga not produced in Japan was being marketed here in North America” she explains, “But things have changed and there are options open that weren’t before in the industry. There are publishers that seem to be staying away from the ‘OEL’ label and presenting a business model for manga that more closely resembles the one used in Japan”.
The 24 year old mangaka also explained that she’s still working on Secrets of Sorcerers Vol. 2. New SoS chapters will be posted online, however, plans for a second printed volume are being held until a better distribution method for the series can be worked out, or until the series can be picked up by a publisher.
