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
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.
The news is out, but since it’s a pretty big piece of news, I thought I’d post it here anyway. I have been chosen to be the Comics Illustrator in Residence at the V&A museum, as part of their residency programme. They are hosting a series of six month resicencies at the Sackler Centre for a range of different design disciplines. Mine will begin in July, alongside contemporary basket maker, Mary Butcher. I’m really excited about working with the V&A! Should be a great six months.
Awesome ITCH have released “Leek & Sushi’s Manga Show”, a collection of short manga stories from UK-based creators. It features stories by Donna Pesani, John Blake and Michael Reid, Gwen Kortsen and Angela Wraight, Pamela Lokhun and many others. There are 17 stories in all, gleaned from the entrants to the Manga Jiman ‘150′ competition. They include several winners and runners-up stories including B+ by Susan Golton and Steve Cook which placed 2nd. The stories are punctuated by comical intermissions hosted by Leek and Sushi, written and drawn by Itch editor-supreme Willie Hewes.
At only £6 it’s a total bargain. Buy one online here.
The Japanese Embassy are currently exhibiting the winners and finalists from last year’s Manga Jiman competition. The theme this year was ‘150′, to be interpreted in whatever way the entrants wished, the theme reflecting 150 years of Japan-UK friendship.
My comic “Tales by Ghost Light”, written by Andy Smith and drawn by myself came joint seventh in the competition. All the winners and finalists’ comics are shown in their entirity. The exhibition runs until the 3rd April, so there’s plenty of time to get down there to see it.
The Embassy of Japan advises all visitors to bring photo ID.
