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NEW YORK COMIC CON
April, 2008
nycomiccon.com

Being of Asian descent, reading Manga is very much a part of my upbringing.  Mangas are graphic novels/comic books from Japan.  I remember reading Chinese translated mangas from Japan when I was a child in Hong Kong.  I arrived in the U.S. when I was eight years old to find there weren’t any mangas for kids to read, only comic books for boys.  “This really sucks!” I thought to myself.  Nothing for girls at all, as if we don’t exist in the eyes of comic book publishers.

It would take almost 25 more years for America to finally get an idea on what mangas are all about.  American publishers such as the Los Angeles based company TOKYOPOP started licensing and translating Japanese mangas over 15 years ago.  With millions of books sold, TOKYOPOP is a major player in the field, publishing not only Japanese mangas but also Korean Manwhas (graphic novels) as well. 

TOKYOPOP decided to create Original English Language Mangas. This was a gamble, since some fans of anime/manga are notorious for only praising works from Japan. Well, the gamble paid off.  Their "Rising Stars of Manga" contest is a talent search of Manga artists (or Manga-kas) creating original artwork and stories in English. There is an audience out there who are ardent fans of OEL Mangas.

Jeremy Ross, Director of New Product Development at TOKYOPOP, wants artists to be able to make a living as professional manga artists.  I visited their offices in Decemer of 2007.  During my meeting with Ross, he was in the midst of signing a new artist who had just arrived in Los Angeles from Minnesota one-week prior. The company encourages artists and writers to enter the "Rising Stars of Manga" contests. Here are two artists and a writer to tell their stories:

M. Alice LeGrow is the creator of the OEL manga Bizenghast.  She graduated from Savannah College of Art and Design. Bizenghast is a Gothic tale about an orphaned girl named, Dinah.  Many locations within the manga were taken from actual places LeGrow visited and grew up around in New England.  Her manga is translated into various languages worldwide and is also available as an eManga, which you can download and view on your mobile phone.  When she’s not drawing, LeGrow designs costumes and competes in international cosplay competitions. You can visit her site at http://www.bizenghast.com/index.html

Who knew there would so much drama at an Anime Convention? Svetlana Chmakova will tell you that these conventions are not always fun and games as they involve people looking for love, aching for acceptance and to escape from their everyday, humdrum lives.  Dramacon has all that. Svetlana Chmakova was born in Russia but grew up in Ontario, Canada.  She graduated from Sheridan College with a degree in Animation. Her work has been serialized in ComsoGIRL magazine.  Chmakova sat down with TimesSquare.com to talk about how she came up with the scenario for Dramacon, how she went form being an animator to manga-ka, and how to pick up cute cosplayers at anime conventions. You can visit her site at http://www.svetlania.com/

Richard A. Knaak has been a prolific fantasy writer for more than 20 years. His series of novels such as Dragonrealm and Diablo has earned him a solid reputation for his imagination and writing style.  The "World of Warcraft" series is the one that really propelled his career to heights unimaginable; it spawned an online multi-user role-playing game community, a trading card game, a comic book, and now an OEL manga adaptation.  Knaak spoke with us about his ever expanding empire of fantasy and what his plans are for the future. You can visit his site at http://www.sff.net/people/knaak/blog/blog.html

"Our sincerest thanks to all at TOKYOPOP for making
this interview possible"
 

 Check them out at:

http://www.tokyopop.com

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