Saturday 14th June to Saturday 12th July 2008 -- The First UK International Manga Art Show

Fairfields is very pleased to organise the first event of its kind in the UK - 'The First UK International Manga Art Show.' There have, of course, been good exhibitions of manga in the UK in the past. But this show is not meant to be any kind of comprehensive overview of manga, it is the first one which is specifically about Manga as an Art form, and the first one which draws from such a wide ranging international range of artists.

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Death Note II – "The Last Word" Special Bank Holiday
Preview @ The ICA!

Date: 26th May 2008
Time: 3.30pm
Location: ICA : http://www.ica.org.uk

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The Beat reports that winners of the 2007 Eagle Awards has been announced. The winner in the Manga Category is Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata's Death Note.

From TH.Yu diary, online diary of artist TH (Tim) Yu, comes a gallery of photos taken at Manhua! China Comics Now, one of the UK's largest festival of Chinese culture launched by CHINA NOW, in order to "explore Manhua - the powerful narrative art form of comics and graphic novels in China."

CHINA NOW, the UK's largest ever festival of Chinese culture, launches the first ever exhibition in Britain to explore Manhua - the powerful narrative art form of comics and graphic novels in China.

Manhua are poised to become the next global cross-media phenomenon, spinning off into films, television, animation, games, toys and more. The exhibition will take place between 7 March - 11 April at the London College of Communication. The exhibition explores 19th Century Picture Story Traditions, the Modern Manhua Masters, Hong Kong's New Wave movement and China's Next Generation of artists.

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The big (and free) exhibition looming on the horizon is MANHUA! CHINA COMICS NOW, from March 7th to April 11th at the London College of Communication, SE1. It's been a fantastic opportunity for me as curator to research this culture and work with some excellent experts to source both major mainstream hits and cult and underground alternatives, from mainland China as well as from Hong Kong and Taiwan. Details are on the site and much more info and images will follow soon:

http://www.paulgravett.com/events/manhua/manhua.htm

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This week sees Sweatdrop Studios reach its sixth year as a manga collective! To celebrate this special occasion, they are giving a whopping 50% discount on their comics until 1st February 2008. Sweatdrop also offer free international shipping for orders over £15 (about US$30), so if you ever wanted to check out some UK-made manga, there couldn't be a better time.

Visit their online shop at: www.sweatdrop.com/shop

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Issue 27 of ImagineFX, an U.K. digital art magazine, was released as a special manga-themed edition subtitled "Manga mayhem!". Some of the special features included in the issue are:

Manga mayhem! The beautiful cover art is by Kyoung Hwan Kim – who we discovered after he sent in his art for FXPose.

Manga Artist Q&A
Everything you need to know about creating amazing manga art

Manga workshop
Michael Chang Ting Yu shows how you can tell your fantasy story though your cover or poster art, using Painter and Photoshop

Anime studios special
GONZO, Bee Train and Studio Ghibli open their doors in this anime special

Source: Anime UK News

From Tiamat's Anime and Manga Reviews comes an article titled "The Manga Gray Market," which looks at gray market manga in the U.K.:

In the UK over 90% of available manga is bought through the gray market, whether it's bought from your local book store or from amazon.co.uk, what your buying is a gray market item.

Source: MangaBlog

From BusinessWeek comes an article titled "Europe's Manga Mania," which looks at how European fans are favoring manga over traditional Western comics:

While Western comics such as Donald Duck, Tintin, and Asterix long dominated the European market, young readers like Malis are looking eastward. The Japan External Trade Organization says German and French sales of manga totaled $212.6 million last year, making Europe the largest consumer of manga outside Japan.