Anyone else going along to the International Manga and Anime Festival 2005? It runs from 21st - 25th October, held at the County Hall on London's South Bank (just by the London Eye), and is entirely FREE to enter. There's going to be various talks, events and screenings, including a rare UK showing of Samurai Champloo, which has got to be worth the (non-existant) entrance fee alone.
Oh, and I'll be on a panel and various other bits and bobs to do with publishing UK Manga, so it'd be nice to see any familar (or even unfamiliar) faces that manage to make it along.
SCHEDULE OF MANGA EVENTS FOR IMAF 2005 AT COUNTY HALL
Friday Oct 21 2-3pm : Manga for Beginners: Are you new to Japanese comics? Puzzled by their big eyes and reading them backwards? Discover the secrets of manga with this illustrated introduction by Paul Gravett, author of Manga: 60 Years of Japanese Comics (Laurence King).
Saturday Oct 22 4-5pm : Make Mine Manga! : Join a panel discussion with artists and writers making manga in the UK and Ireland, including Ilya-san, author of the Manga Drawing Kit (Thunder Bay Press), and Edward Berridge and others from new anthology MangaQuake.
Sunday Oct 23 12-1pm : Massive Wall-Sized Manga Happening! : You can suggest ideas, twists and turns as Ilya-san, Craig Conlan, Edward Berridge and other writers and artists create a giant manga story before your very eyes.
Sunday Oct 23 2-3pm : The Best Manga and Graphic Novels: Are comics becoming 21st century graphic literature? Discover some of the modern masterpieces of comics, from Japan and around the world, with Paul Gravett, author of Graphic Novels: Stories To Change Your Life (Aurum Press).
Monday Oct 24 2-3pm : Manga for Everyone: Shonen, shojo, seinen, hentai, yaoi, redikomi, gurume, golfu and more mean there really is something for everyone. Sample some of the wild varieties of Japanese comics with Paul Gravett, author of Manga: 60 Years of Japanese Comics (Laurence King).
Tuesday Oct 25 12-1pm : The Next Big Thing: What are the big hit series on the horizon and coming here soon? Who are Japan's hot new creators of the future? And how are Japanese comics changing now you can read them online and on your mobile phone? A look ahead with Paul Gravett and guests at the shape of manga to come.
Tuesday Oct 25 5-6pm : MEET JUNKO MIZUNO - IMAF's Very Special Guest Mangaka from Tokyo is Junko Mizuno, Japan's Queen of the Cute and Creepy, the original 'Hell Baby', whose fractured fairytales Cinderalla [sic], Hansel & Gretel and Princess Mermaid are translated into English by Viz Comics and whose dark debut graphic novel Pure Trance has just been published by Jap Press/Last Gasp. She will be in conversation, demonstrating her stunning artistry and signing her books.
D'oh!
Forgot to include the link...
Link: IMAF 2005
Sounds really good...wish it was in Cardiff as I can't get my papers to allow me entry to the big smoke...but then again, that might of made it a bit 'too Welsh' (...ggrrrrrr...)
Might pop along if I have time, probably on the Friday.
I'll be there Saturday/Sunday, meeting people, picking up artwork and generally pimping MangaQuake for all that it's worth (if anyone fancies pitching a strip, buy me a drink and you're a shoe-in).
I'll also (all things being well) have copies of the FQ/MQ Ashcan to give away to people as well, and we should be projecting some previews of the strip at the event too.
Can I be on the Manga Quake panel based on: Did work fer em. No Bugger told me. Done panel talks before. In London the weekend for my birthday.
Yay? Nay?
Alright, then...
Still wish I could make it....
WoD, relax man. I'm gonna tell as many people as I can that you wrote MQ's Konckdown, that it's awesome and that they should work with you!
...Or I'll forget and play pinball in the nearby arcade till closing time.
Finn
You'd lie like that for him? Man, that's sweat (and probably also quite homoerotic)!
Pot.
Kettle.
Etcetera.
Grrrr...
So you're saying that I'm not a better writer than Mark?
Thanks, man...
Hey...I cann right big words two...
By liking his stuff and promoting it I never said WoD was a clever man.
I just like a writer who can give me a script where two shuffling mild dementia suffering steroid pushers smack each other shitless and DON'T wear stupid costume and speak shakespearian dialogue while ramming each others heads through walls.
Seriously, ask an artist if they want to draw a talking heads scene about summit artsy fartsy or draw a no dialogue violence fest.
Finn
Well, I'm glad that's sorted. I'll give up any thoughts of writing anything other than dialogue free pointless fist fights in the style of They Live.
Pandering to artists...that'll be the day...
They Live was awesome. As for pandering to artists... I actually like writers and see them as providing just as vital a role as an artist, hell I can't write so any writers involvement is good in my book. You'll never catch me doing a Todd McFarlane and essentially calling all writers wankers.
There's a reason they don't let artists write stories. Except when they do.
Todd McFarlane...why, Lord, why...?
Wish I could go, but it is in London and I'm not going there.
Bolt-01
will one have to read MangaQuake backwards to make sense of it ?
Very good question Conexus!
But no, in the end we went for a more Western style of printing.
When I say 'more western' I of course mean 'less pretentious'.
I deliberately set the question up so it could be answered in with self deprecciating punchline, and you didn't take the bait ?
*wanders off shaking head*
No, you see, my beloved Mangaquake is just soooooo good, it is impossible to make fun of it.
Hey....was my spiddy sense tingling...did someone diss They Live...isn't that the Rowdy Rowdy Piper film?
"I came here to kick ass and chew bubblegum.
An' I'm all outta bubblegum."
"I came here to kick ass and chew bubblegum.
An' I'm all outta bubblegum."
In which case, why don't you pop down to the newsagents and buy some, while I go find a donkey for you to hit your feet at?
Why would Rowdy Roddy Piper want a donkey to hit his feet? He's in the middle of uncovering a sinister alien invasion by shooting as many of them as he can with a shotgun before having an incredibly long and drawn out fight with Keith David. FOR NO REASON.
Get your priorities straight, man!
but you do agree that he should go get some bubblegum? as he clearly said he came to do that
No, he said he came to chew bubblegum.
Now the chewin's done, and it's ass kickin' time!
Hope everyone enjoys themselves at the event. Look out for VIRGO...and say hello.
I do have a real name, you know Mark - you haven't forgotten I'm me again, have you?
Off soon - look forward to seeing whoever manages to make it down there.
Last time I try to make Ed look enigmatic
As if I needed your help.
Heh...now..tell...are you having fun?
Not in the last five months...
but the last 5 minutes....?
In the last five minutes or the five minutes before you wrote that?
Bloody hell that was a laugh, starting with Byron using me a public whipping boy in respect to deadlines and artist speed which led to me muttering he was a bastard with the mic on in front of a panel audience before then daclaring that Manga Quake was all my fault anyway.
The comeuppence being that the panel managed to get him essentially admitting that MQ did'nt really need so many editors but nothing could stop them.
Sunday of course was great as me and Byron attempted to sabotage a giant wall manga project with audience participation. We wanted to turn what was a fun romp invented by visitors into an apocolyptic high school based story with a Grange Hill style "Just Say No!" campaign with doctor Who references and the ending being two characters fucked off their tits on speed, l.s.d and ketamin.
We haven't yet been invited back.
Finn.
"Byron using me a public whipping boy in respect to deadlines and artist speed which led to me muttering he was a bastard with the mic on in front of a panel audience before then daclaring that Manga Quake was all my fault anyway."
Well, if you're going to just pass the microphone in my direction and say "Over to you", what do you expect me to do...?
"the panel managed to get him essentially admitting that MQ did'nt really need so many editors but nothing could stop them."
I think what I actually said was that I didn't think we needed the editor that we have, and that he should be replaced with me, as should the other editors, and that the whole book should be written and drawn and lettered by me, with a picture of me on the cover pointing furiously at myself.
"We wanted to turn what was a fun romp invented by visitors into an apocolyptic high school based story with a Grange Hill style "Just Say No!" campaign with doctor Who references and the ending being two characters fucked off their tits on speed, l.s.d and ketamin."
Yeah, somehow Paul didn't seem overly enthused by that prospect. You draw good Wolf Puppies, though.
"MICHAEL SHEARD LIVES!"
"We haven't yet been invited back."
Actually, I have - I'll be on a panel at Brighton.
BUMP - Did anyone win any awards at this event?
God, you really aren't paying attention, are you?
MangaQuake's own Michiru Morikawa got 1st for the 'Open Adult Manga/Storyboard' section, Joanna Zhou won the 'Student Children?s Manga/ Storyboard' category and Julia Bax won in the 'Open Children?s Character Design' section.
Link: You can see the winners here
He's paying enough attention to feed you the right question.
And then you have to go and blow the deal.
Way to go Rich - do you want to tell me the ending to The Empire Strikes Back too, whilst you're here?