Saturday AM is a digital English-language magazine that publishes manga by artists around the world, with diversity as its main theme and mission. It is launching its first-ever print magazine, Super Saturday, which will feature a massive universe crossover title called Saturday WARS, bringing together dozens of diverse characters drawn by artists from all over the world together to create one huge, synchronized story worthy of Marvel and DC's shared universes.

This is an ambitious crossover that is exciting for both the artists and their fans; one which might spell change for international representation in the manga community. Let’s dive into what it's all about in an exclusive Q&A with their CEO and publisher, Frederick L. Jones. (Some of the questions have been edited for brevity and clarity.)

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CBR: What inspired you to create Saturday AM?

Frederick L. Jones: Ah! Well, Saturday AM is the flagship brand of our company, MyFutprint Entertainment. I'm a former executive in the video game industry and at the time, I was one of the few people of color and while I loved every moment of it -- seeing such a lack of diversity was heartbreaking at times. While I had the pleasure to help usher in major entertainment properties in gaming and anime circles, I was yearning for a chance to bring in more perspectives including racial, gender, [sexual] orientation, and even nationality. I truly believe that geek content that strives for more diverse characters and voices helps to expand the market. Stories should always come first! That said, I feel the question should always be asked: "if something can be equally or even more engaging if we have a character who is NOT the status quo?"

I had the connections with many companies from over a decade of work in the industry and when I had the chance to create my own company to address these issues I went for it. Manga seemed like a logical area as I loved it long before Viz officially started launching it in the American market courtesy of a Japanese family friend who let me have their Weekly Shonen Jump magazines! Fist of the North Star, Saint Seiya, Dragon Ball -- these were very big for me even though I couldn't understand a word of them! As I was coming out of the video game industry, manga and anime were exploding, and when that happened, I realized that the lack of diversity within the growing fanbase was both a problem culturally, [as well as] an opportunity from a business standpoint.

When did the magazine get started, and are there any interesting stories about its origin?

I launched it in 2013 and I was fortunate that social media kicked in and I was able to connect with amazingly talented young creators from around the world. When we launched our first issue in November of 2013, it consisted of articles, exclusive comics, and creators from Nigeria, Vietnam, the Philippines and the USA. Since then, we've launched two additional magazines such as Saturday PM (seinen) and Saturday BRUNCH (josei/LGBTQ) while Saturday AM (shonen) has over 100 issues! We've never looked back and our fanbase heralds from over 40 countries with fans and creators from the Middle East, Africa, North and South America and Europe.

As for the name... See, I'm a child of the late '70s and early '80s and the term 'Saturday AM' meant so much to me as a kid. That's where our ideas, inspirations and worlds were expanded (beyond comics, that is) thanks to Saturday morning cartoons. You never knew what you'd see, and so that 'anthology'-style presentation really stuck with me when I decided to create our diverse manga-style comics magazine, Saturday AM.

That said, one interesting thing is the foot icon in our AM logo and parent company logo for MyFutprint Entertainment. That's from my alma mater -- the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I'm a die-hard Tarheel, and the icon meant a lot to me, as I think the brand's belief in diversity is rooted in remembering your roots and being true to your own background. 

Do you have a favorite manga title, in or out of the magazine, and why?

It'll sound corny but I honestly love all the series we regularly publish. People may not know this, but our comics are all creator-owned, so I want to see our folks create legacies that they can pass on to their children. So, each of them is special to me because I know how special they are to the creators.

If I had to choose, however, I would choose the two series I created: Massively Multiplayer World of Ghost (with New Zealand artist, Oscar Fong) and Clock Striker (with French artist, Issaka Galadima) are my faves. They are both really cool concepts with heroic characters of color and I haven't seen anything like them.

Every year, we do a new creator short story showcase called #summerofmanga, and this 2020 class was exceptional. All of the issues (Saturday AM 121 - 125) are free to read in our mobile app, and fans loved Blood Stained Snow, Gunhild, Dream State and Benedict Nick the Phenomenal Brick. I thought all of them were insanely promising.

Outside of the magazine, I'm a sucker for Spy x Family in Shonen Jump from Viz. I think it's one of the smartest, legitimately funny series I've read in a while. I am jealous of all of the plot threads that this series is setting up! Masterful stuff!

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With regard to the "Saturday WARS" campaign, what are you most excited about? How did the idea come about?

As an American in his 40s, I grew up right when the massive company crossovers were happening. I remember to this day buying every one of the "Crisis on Infinite Earths" crossover from DC Comics. The impact of that series for me was so monumental that nothing has ever quite matched it in terms of scale, history and revolutionary changes to the characters. I'm a DC kid to this day because of the incredible genre-defining work that Perez and Wolfman did on that series. I wanted to be a part of a moment like that at some point in my career be it in video games, card games or manga. When I started Saturday AM in 2013, "Saturday WARS" was conceived simultaneously.

So, it was always going to happen for Saturday AM. The question was how? We actually tried to launch it twice in the first year! The first time was a gag-strip style crossover, but the second one was a failed Kickstarter. Our own immaturity as a brand and company made us step back and bide our time. For one thing, we needed to develop an editorial standard that would allow us to work with the creators to make their characters accessible and vulnerable. It took a while, but we did indeed begin fermenting a storytelling ethos for some of our more popular series.

Last year, I began laying out the groundwork for real. As we were finalizing work on the Saturday AM Global Comics app, I began to layout Super Saturday magazine to my team. Both the app and the physical print version of Saturday AM was something our fans had demanded for seven years. "Saturday WARS" was the ideal manga story to launch the magazine with and we're excited one of our artists, Rashad Milhouse, is suspending his popular series, Outland, and serving as the main artist on "WARS." As for the story -- it's about a group of powerful celestial beings who are trying to conquer every webcomic and physical comic reality. In the center is our set of universes, called Saturday AM. There will be cameos from all of our series and from outside of our publishing empire.

Saturday AM stands out for its promotion of diversity and I'm sure it will continue to grow. Where do you see publication going in 10 years?

10 years?! Hmm. With everything happening in the world right now, I'm just taking it one year -- hell, one month at a time [Laughs].

Saturday AM was started as a digital-first magazine, and our reach now extends to fans in over 40 countries. Our brand is becoming more and more popular with both major companies working with us like CELSYS (Clip Studio Paint) and Spectrum Noir, as well as licensed products debuting this year with our characters on official merchandise like toys (coming from Jabberwocky Toys), apparel and other companies. In the next three years (which will be 10 years for us), we expect to make announcements in action figures, video games and, of course, anime -- some of those will be announced very soon.

Beyond that, I'd hope that in 10 years from now, we'll have iconic characters (not just popular), renowned (not just successful) artists, and have inspired a new generation of amazingly talented young creators.

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