Popular Japanese manga Bakuman tells the tale of two 15-year-old aspiring mangaka, one the artist, the other the writer. Their goal is to not only be published in popular comic magazine Weekly Shonen Jump, but to also be the most popular comic in the magazine. The tale of their trials and tribulations, though, is far from being a fantasy for Taiwanese artist Ponjea and general manager of Friendly Land Debut Wang.

When news of the Friendly Land duo's successful debut in Jump, with a weekly circulation of 3 million, got back to Taiwan in July 2010, fans and insiders alike were curious where this previously unknown upstart of a company had come from and how they'd managed to break into the insular world of Japanese comics.

In fact, Friendly Land is the work of one man, Debut Wang, who founded the agency single-handedly. Now 34, Wang has had a 13-year career in animation and video gaming magazines, through which he developed strong ties to the Japanese publishing industry. His goal when starting the company was to use those ties to help Taiwanese comics break into the Japanese market.

Ponjea, 28, has always dreamed of a career in comics, but being a pragmatic person-and out of consideration for his parents-he pursued undergraduate and graduate study of architecture, even getting his architect's license. His parents satisfied, he could then devote himself wholly to pursuing his career as a comic artist.

When the business-minded Wang met the artistic and passionate Ponjea, the two clicked right away, and they immediately set about planning for their five-year goal-getting published in Weekly Sho-nen Jump. For three years before they made their spectacular breakout, the two worked to hone their talents, Wang using his experience as an agent to evaluate the quality and the professional potential of Ponjea and his works, while also planning a tailored development strategy for Ponjea's career as an artist.

Meanwhile, Ponjea continued to hone his artistic skills, developing new stories, and getting better at storytelling and scene crafting in order to reach the industry standard of drafting 30 pages per month for monthly publications or 80 for weeklies.

All that time, neither of them could have expected that after just two years the opportunity they'd been waiting for would knock on their door. While on a trip to Japan to test the waters with various Japanese publishers, Wang met with the editorial team at another magazine under the same company as Weekly Shonen Jump, Shueisha. Even though he had thought the time still wasn't right, Wang decided to take a shot and ask at the front desk if he could possibly talk with an editor from Weekly Shonen Jump.

Having not made an appointment ahead of time, Wang never ex-pected he'd actually have the chance to meet Mr. Uchida, editor-in-chief of popular comic series Na-ruto. While most of the aspiring newcomers who came to see Uchida, pitches in hand, would be visibly nervous and fidgety, Wang was used to the supposed pressure, and was not only able to chat and make small talk with Uchida, but also managed to get him interested in Ponjea's work.

Ponjea, his work rate as high as his ideas were numerous, sent off a new work to Japan, getting professional criticism and suggestions from Uchida regarding his artistic technique, scenarios, dialog, and even the relative freshness of his ideas. This continued for a year, until Uchida, satisfied that Ponjea had made sufficient progress, invited him to submit a draft for a short script by Riichiro Inagaki entitled Kiba & Kiba. For Ponjea, this promised to be his big break.

Four artists competed to complete full character concepts and settings for Inagaki's scenario, and to do so within a week. Ponjea, the only non-Japanese, was accustomed to working at a high pace, and even turning work in early, so he found the challenge less than challenging. Driven by ambition, he submitted a full set of concepts for not only a medieval setting, but also futuristic and contemporary versions, as well as providing additional story ideas. Inagaki and the Japanese editing team were gobsmacked.

Ponjea's efficiency and technique, along with Wang's professionalism and fluent Japanese, led the editors to brush aside any concerns they had about hiring a non-Japanese, and they decided to break with the past and take on Ponjea. In two weeks, Ponjea completed 49 pages of black-and-white artwork and one full-color page, and Weekly Shonen Jump even set aside an additional page to introduce Ponjea to their readers, something even the brightest rising stars of the Japanese comic industry can largely only dream about.

Although it may seem like everything was smooth sailing, Debut Wang jokes that "only those with a permanently sunny disposition can make it as mangaka." Ponjea himself went through three years of rejections and accumulated piles of unused drafts, but he never once gave up, instead tenaciously remaining passionate and confident, and working for as long as 10 hours a day.

In the early days of Wang's company, he had to spend his days up to his head in worries about geographical distance and communication concerns, and the fact that many Japanese editorial teams would turn down submissions outright the moment they knew the artist wasn't Japanese.

Nonetheless, the two persevered, never giving up hope. Wang says that he considers comics to be part of both the entertainment and service industries, and believes that if one is to make one's way as a professional mangaka, one must be able to face the endless challenges of the market with a belief that those with the talent and dedication will succeed in the industry.

Since his debut in Jump, debate about Ponjea has raged on the Internet, with one side proclaiming him the pride of Taiwan's comics industry and the other saying that since he doesn't write his own stories, he's little more than a glorified "contract manufacturer."

When asked about this, Wang responds that whether it's a one-man effort or a team one is less important than whether the work is good and received well by the fans.

And in fact, Ponjea's self-written works have also received a warm welcome from readers. His book Tales of the Taipei Kingdom, inspired by his own experiences, tells the story of a scooter commuter and his battles against the chaotic traffic of Taipei. With anthropomorphized versions of roadways from Nan-yang Street to the Xinsheng flyover serving as "opponents," and marked by occasional comedic elements, the story is brimming with Ponjea's own inimitable style. His ultimate goal is for a story like this to become an ongoing series in the pages of Jump.

Wang notes that there are many different approaches to comic work, offering the example of Death Note and Bakuman creators Takeshi Obata and Ohba Tsugumi, who, with one drawing and one writing, have become the golden boys of Japanese comics.

"We're just working our way toward making our names at the moment," says Wang, "and we've barely made it past the foothills so far. There's certainly no way we're giving up until we get to the top though!" His eyes sparkling as he speaks, Wang resembles nothing so much as the driven protagonist of his own comic-book tale.

A self-portrait of Ponjea (above) and his latest work, Tales of the Taipei Kingdom (below), the tale of a southern Taiwanese scooter rider's battles with Taipei trafffic.

Ponjea works fast and produces a massive amount of work. He has already finished four -complete titles.

A self-portrait of Ponjea (above) and his latest work, Tales of the Taipei Kingdom (below), the tale of a southern Taiwanese scooter rider's battles with Taipei trafffic.

Kiba & Kiba (below), published in the July 2010 issue of Jump, along with a brief introduction to Ponjea (left).

Kiba & Kiba (below), published in the July 2010 issue of Jump, along with a brief introduction to Ponjea (left).