We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Lee Fountain a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Lee, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you walk us through some of the key steps that allowed you move beyond an idea and actually launch?

It was always my dream to become an anime character if I’m being honest. A power fantasy I’ve had since I was 12 years old watching Dragon Ball Z and Tenchi Universe on Toonami. I’ve always been a student of the arts and was obsessed with every medium of it. Music, dance, movies, illustrations, all of it. Anime literally made me want to leave this world behind and learning how to draw was my ticket there. I started out making comic books with my siblings, iterations of Spider-Man, Dragon Ball, and few of our original creations. After I studied Filmmaking in college I felt my skills and ability to tell stories was at a point where I could create a Manga, a real Japanese styled comic book, hence the creation of “Meta Kaizoku”. My skills at drawing weren’t expert level but good enough to communicate my ideas and my vision. All I needed was a professional Illustrator, so I scoured the internet and found a site called “Upwork” which allows you to hire freelance artist of any style you’d like. Truly a game changer for me. The artist I ended up hiring and still working with to this day “Nicoy Guevarra” had the skills I was looking for. The manga took us 4 years to make and several months to print physically. Releasing it digitally was easy with Comixology but printing it took some research which led me to working with the folks at “Ka-Blam”.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Lee Fountain Aka “Lee The Myth” and I am a multifaceted artist based in Dallas Texas. Before I began this journey into the arts there was quote I read from one of my favorite Philosophers Alan Watts which went “The tragedy of evolution is that it created a limited animal with unlimited horizon. Men have to artificially and arbitrarily restrict their intake of experiences and focus all their output on decisive action. The most any of us can do is fashion something-an object or ourselves-and drop it in the confusion, make an offering of it. So to speak to the life force.’ I read that and did my version of that. The first art form I wanted a career in was music. My other dreams were there but that was first one I wanted to make money off of and be famous for. My albums were always conceptual and had an anime theme to them which allowed me to combine both art forms. This attracted both people in the anime industry and the music industry from the likes of Godswill Ugwa at Viz Media to DJ Charlee Brown of The VibesHTX in Houston. Charlee ended becoming a business partner, brother, collaborator, and character in my manga series. We unified our camps and created “Vibe Haus” a musical, anime, manga experience where we show chapters of Meta Kaizoku in “Motion Manga” form and have live DJ sets. We also sell physical copies of the book there as well. When it comes to my discipline I’m a strong believer in working ahead and minimal distractions. I cut out 4 hours a day to my craft and always work my creative muscles by challenging myself. Always challenge yourself and live life. Life has the best stuff when it comes to inspiration. Meta Kaizoku, my manga series is easily one of my proudest creations being that its a legit manga and offers an opportunity for people of color to be represented authentically in the medium. The story and the characters are all based off my real life. Experiences I’ve had, feelings I’ve felt, and things I’ve done. This is what I believe sets it apart from other works. It’s the first manga based on true events. I want it to encourage people to be able to look at their own lives and see the beauty in it, the art in it.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Is there! My ultimate goal with Meta Kaizoku is for it to become an anime. I want it produced by either MAAPA, D’art Shtajio, Ufotable, or Studio Trigger. As far as the platform it will be shown on I would love to work with Netflix, Crunchyroll, Max, Adult Swim, and especially Toonami. That has been my dream since I was 12 years old. With the Vibe Haus I would love to have it at all the popular anime/comic conventions and tour the world with it! I’m very proud of the work I’ve done with DJ Charlee Brown and seeing how people really enjoy the experience is truly a dream come true.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

This is going to be funny to say but the initial capital to fund this vision came from my times working at the University Of Phoenix. I was only making fifteen dollars an hour and only working 30 hours a week. I would get my paycheck and take out whatever I could to pay Nicoy to illustrate the manga. Page by page, panel by panel. I was staying with my parents at the time. I had lived with them for 30 years before finally leaving the nest in 2021. I’m grateful to say that I had some really supportive parents when it pertains to my dreams. If more parents actually trusted the vision of their children and provided them the chance to find and love themselves, the outcome is spiritually fulfilling for all parties.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leethemyth/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/leethemyth
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/LEETHEMYTH
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbglMqtmQgNJoYjd-BGb9kw
• Other: https://www.youtube.com/@MetaKaizoku

Image Credits
Terese Corrales and ZAE