Posted by Dave

This news from Paul Gravett:

Manga Exhibition:

The London Institute Gallery at 65 Davies Street, right next to Bond Street tube, is hosting the touirng Manga: Short Comics from Modern Japan exhibition (recently seen down in Brighton), from Jan 9th to Feb 8th. It's free and open Mon-Fri 10-8.

Adapted from the exhibition that toured France, including 2000's Angouleme, this exhibition reveals a less well known aspect of manga, the complete short story of around 20 pages, as opposed to the sprawling epics of thousands of pages and the big mass-market characters like Dragonball, etc.

Some of the work should be familiar: there's a Tezuka SF tale, an episode of Gon, a story by Tsuge (as seen in Raw), an episode of Taniguchi's Walking Man (published by Casterman). But there are several other really interesting and experimental creators featured, some with links to underground and alternative comics. The exhibition shows no original artwork at all, but presents large repros of complete stories, to be read right to left, with accompanying translations. The main idea is to give people a chance to read a complete manga and get some sense of the diversity, pacing and content of their stories.

This is a significant exhibit to further interest and understanding of comics here in the UK. There will also be displays of mamga books and magazines and other items. I was amazed to see in Brighton some of the ready-made, drawn interiors, skies, cityscapes, manufactured as letraset-style sheets, ready to be rubbed down and inserted into the more mainstream, mass-produced manga.

Manga Academic Conference:

Friday February 1st: 10am to 5pm, at the London School of Fashion, encouragingly most of the speakers are Japanese or Japan-based including the show's curator, and manga artist Makoto Aida, and Professor Jacqueline Berndt from Yokohama University, with our own Roger Sabin providing a British perspective. The conference costs a rather pricey £35, or £20 for concessions and could be on the heavy side, but for more info contact: dali@chelsea.linst.ac.uk

Manga Comics Happening:

Saturday February 2nd: 11am to 4pm. I have negotiated the use of the gallery and conference room for an extra day, on the last Saturday February 2nd, just after the conference, to hold a public event or 'Manga Comics Happening'. I'm securing the support of Gosh and Red Route too. I see this as a way to bring the exhibition to life by bringing in 'live' comics creators to meet the public. It's also a way of linking good non-mainstream and small press comics here with their spiritual equivalents in Japan. This is definitely not aimed solely at manga/anime fans, but at rallying anyone interested in creating and buying great alternative artists' comics - from the UK small press and independent scenes to names like Steven Appelby or Nick Abadzis or Woodrow Phoenix or Lorna Miller or Chris Webster. I'm also hoping that some of the Japan-based conference speakers will attend in an informal way.

To keep numbers in check (the space cannot accommodate hundreds of people at a time, but around 100-150 max), there will be a small admission charge of just £1, accompanied kids free, with 50p going to the London Institute, the balance to cover costs. There will be some tables where a big range of comics will be on sale (I hope to involve the UK small press manga guys Pause and Japanise), a wall for everyone to join in and draw on, and talks, signings, workshops in the conference room and within each of the little thematic bays in the gallery.

3:43 AM |

Wednesday, January 02, 2002