Leek and Sushi’s Manga Show has been nominated as Best Manga in the NEO awards. Please support British manga by voting for us!
I have a new blog which I am writing for the V&A website, which will most likely be updated more often than this one, though not by much. The problem is, the busier I get, the more things I have to write in my blog but the less time I have to do it! www.vam.ac.uk/karenrubins
Monsieur Alex Fitch of Panel Borders has interviewed me as part of the “Women in Comics” season, and it’s available online as a podcast from http://panelborders.wordpress.com/ It’s surprisingly non-ranty, as I confess to such things as using the word “generic” and being a procrastinator.
NEO, a UK magazine with an emphasis on anime, manga and other aspects of otaku culture (games, j-rock, film etc.) has given Leek and Sushi a fantastic review with 4.5 stars! It includes a mention for l’il ole me, too. Exciting! Page 1 of Tales by Ghost Light, by myself and Andy Smith was featured on the Reviews section title page, and we were mentioned as having “excellent mythological stylings”. Thanks, NEO!
Gwen Kortsen (my collaborator on Shinagami) was also given a mention with her story 150 years of Opreshun, and Willie Hewes got the kudos she deserves for the awesome Leek and Sushi interludes.
Review of Leek and Sushi
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eflyer for V&A residency
Come along to one of my Open Studio days, all from 13:00 – 16:00
I’m pretty damn excited about starting this next week!
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Finally, I have got my website up and running again. It took a while as I had to update my 20th century web skillz to something that while basic is at least modern. Now I feel that if I need to, I can change it fairly easily too, unlike that other monstrosity of tables.
I’ve added a new gallery, with quite a lot of full length stories available online. There’s no point hoarding them and hiding them away, let the world see! Obviously there are a lot of improvements that could be made to it, but it is alive and it is workable! Woot!
Idiot edit: Forgot the www. Link now works ^_^
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It’s great to hear that the Embassy of Japan have announced another Manga Jiman competition this year. They are looking to get a whole lot more entries than in previous years, so anyone thinking of entering really should. The competition is to make an original 6 – 8 page manga story, around the theme of the Sun.
Manga Jiman tends to have a pretty wide definition of “manga” and it is usually really receptive to unique and individual styles. There is no need to feel that your comic has to have any kind of generic manga style elements, in fact, probably the fewer the better.
Exerpts from last year’s winning entries (including mine!) are up here along with the rules and an entry form. You can see from the top 10 selection in previous years that diversity and originality really are the key.
It should also be noted that entrants get a prize just for entering, and that at least one good evening out at the embassy is pretty much guaranteed.
Yeah, don’t post for over a month and then start the multiball rolling. This is going to be the Shape of Things to Come, I can tell.
Bristol Comic Expo is the 9th – 10th May this year, and I will be there in two venues on two days, doing two different things.
Saturday: I will be at the Small Press Expo at the Mercure hotel, from around 11 am, at the ITCH stall. For those who haven’t yet picked up a copy of Leek and Sushi’s Manga Show, that will be on sale, as well as the new! shiny! Urban Beasts and my previous comic The Witch. Stop by and say hello, even if you aren’t buying… no pressure. NONE at ALL.
Sunday: I will be at the main Comic Expo at the Ramada hotel as a Guest. I’m not officially doing anything in particular, just looking around, talking to people, and promoting the V&A Comic Illustration Residency.
Lol, I really should get a Resident Evil t-shirt for that…
It all started when Anna suggested writing a story about spirit animals, knowing that I had a fascination for them, so that I could draw all manner of interesting beast-people. That was quite a while ago…
But now Urban Beasts is finally here! After being in development hell for around three years, we are finally publishing part 1 of the Urban Beasts story to be out for the Bristol Comic Expo. Urban Beasts is a story set in modern day Oxford, and follows the adventure of Caipora, a Brazilian shaman and Milo, a nerdy student, through various encounters with people’s animal selves. Milo can’t figure out why the Goth club Neil has dragged him to is suddenly filled with moths, and Caipora tracks down the source of trouble in the city to an animal rights demonstration.
Part one is 24 pages, 130×197mm, b&w interior with colour covers, and is published by ITCH.
Written by Daniel Hartwell and Anna Rubins, Art by Karen Rubins.
Yesterday was the annual “Thing” in Mile End, London. I was exhibiting on a stall with Willie Hewes of ITCH, and while she had most of the merchandise, I was also trying to flog some A1 size artwork that really needed a good home. We also made some badges the night before with my Super Badge-It (yeah yeah). Leek and Sushi’s Manga Show was the table’s newest and most exciting book, and was so popular we ran out in a couple of hours, with people actually being disappointed they couldn’t get hold of one! This must be a good thing. Other ITCH products seemed popular too. The badges went down well too. Like every “Thing” it was a good time to meet up with other comickers. I did wimp out of the pub at the end, though, I was feeling tired and kind of fragile. X-D
I bought a huge quanitity of comics, too. I was looking forward to Sarah Burgess’s “Far Out Mantic” having seen some of the pages up online, and was suitably impressed by the comic book. Her art style is really expressive, completely un-slick, with a very real and visceral quality, as well as having a bit of a retro look. The occasional colour pages added light and depth, working well amongst the mainly b&w art. The story looked like it was just getting going by the end, so I’ll be watching out for future releases.
