History
While living in Queens, New York, Jennifer Lee Quick began drawing up ideas for Off Beat. A BFA in animation, she approached Tokyopop when the company was doing portfolio reviews for students and graduates at the School of Visual Arts. Originally, she had intended for the manga to be a joint project with her best friend, Becky Cloonan, but Quick was forced to fly solo due to conflicts with Cloonan's schedule.
"They liked what they saw, and asked me to send them a pitch sometime. At the time, I was working on Once in a Blue Moon so I didn't have time to send a pitch. When I finished that project, my long time best friend, Becky Cloonan was contacted by Tokyopop to send a pitch proposal. I remembered that I had been asked to send one as well, so we briefly considered sending a joint proposal for Off Beat (at the time she had talked about possibly working on the project with me). Her schedule got booked though, so I wasn't sure about submitting the pitch on my own. She encouraged me to go ahead though, so I went for it."
It was during September 2004 that Quick officially began working with Tokyopop on bringing Off Beat to shelves, having decided that there would only be three books in her series, making it the shortest story she has ever conceived. On the subject of her work, she has stated:
"I thought I would like to write a story that takes place in the city but without trying to be gritty/edgy, or overly glamorized...Something kind of everyday but a bit quirky and fun."
In an early conception of the story, all characters wore school uniforms. The names of the protagonists were selected arbitrarily, but their birthdates were meant to be somewhat methodical.
The first chapter of Volume 1 was previewed in a 2005 edition of Tokyopop's quarterly Manga magazine (then known as Takuhai). A live presentation of the same chapter is also available through Tokyopop's Manga Online feature, Mangapods, though Quick herself denies being part of the project due to lack of communication.
Read more about this topic: Off Beat (comics)
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