Manga Artist – Exhibition

I’m not going to miss this one!

ZOMG! The One Academy is organizing the International CG and Digital Art Exhibition and Art Convention from the 8^th-11^th of May!

They’ve got a huge exhibiton showcasing multimedia, interactive and digitally drawn works. They also invited Benjamin Zhang Bin for a talk – this guy has won the highest award for commercial artists in China, which the Original Animation and Comic Competition in 2004.

Apart from that, they also have seminars and workshops during the 4 days.

They’ve also arranged to have a Cosplay contest and a Digital Manga Illustration competition with this event, think I’ll try my luck with the competition – it might be just what I need to get started with a career in local Manga scene.

After all, magazines like Gempak and Comic Fiesta are involved in this event too. Who knows, I might bump into someone who can help me along my way ;)

Manga Artist – Competition

Malaysia’s starting to open up more and more opportunities for local Manga Artists.

Unfortunately, I only noticed this one too late:

(Image - Putrajaya Arts Fest Original Manga Poster...)

Putrajaya Arts Festival - the Original Manga Competition.

I just had to stumble on this poster nearly 2 weeks too late...

(image - the bunting. argh...)

(image - the bunting closeup. bloody hell, why did they leave it outside the shop when it already ENDED?!)

The festival council teamed up with Komik Factory, another local comic magazine, to hold this competition. There also seemed to be a Manga workshop on the 22^nd of March, during the prize giving ceremony.

There wasn’t much details on the website apart from this poster, even the rules and regulation did not state the reason for such an event.

Apart for local mangaka to win a big wad of cash and potentially build some connections with some local industry players… Argh. TT_____TT

But I’m hopeful this will turn into an annual event – there was a huge turn out on the Prize Giving/Manga Workshop day

Manga Artist – Community

Here’s a place to go for the love! (unfortunately, it's going through some maintainence right now... check back later k? click here to head to the site in the future.)

Anyways, this forum is pretty big in the local Manga/Anime circles – the main committee is responsible for arranging some of the biggest Doujin markets and Cosplay events in the Klang Valley.

Over the years, this event forum has gone from strength to strength, even attracting big name corporations like Wacom and Anime to sponsor their events.

Anyone can join this forum, and the community here is pretty tight-knit.

If there’s anywhere to gain a foothold in the Manga/Doujin (Home-created Manga) community in Malaysia, this would be it.

Manga Artist / Mangaka

Hehe, I’ve kept my interest for Anime and Manga well and alive all these years through university.

I was introduced to this sort of comic during high school, and I’ve always been amazed at the details and the emotions that the Manga style can bring out. I’ve always been drawing some of my own doujins since then.

This job would require me to tell powerful stories through my art. I would need to design visual storyboards fluid and strong enough to inspire my readers, or at least, to entertain them.

I’m pretty confident that career prospects as a Manga-ka (Manga Artist) are looking up in Malaysia - there are many magazines that showcase local artists nowadays. One of my favorites would be Gempak! (Click on title to go to the website)

Gempak

I still remember a time where this magazine looked just like the other Bahasa Melayu mags out there – not that I’ve something against it, but it just isn’t my cup of tea.

This mag was one of the pioneers that pushed the Manga style; hence one of the first few tastes of Malaysian – geared Manga. It has, alongside some great comics, news on the latest movies, animation, comics and gossip out there.

It has been growing from strength to strength, providing a platform for local artists to produce and distribute their own graphic novels.

One of them, Ben, even received international acclaim for his graphic novel, Le Gardenie.

And now, Ben, has struck out on his own and is publishing his own Magazine, called Powder

I’m anxious to see how this all develops over the next few years. One day, we young Malaysian Mangakas might even be good enough that anyone would recognize our work at first look! Ganbatte! (Let’s keep it up!)