Anime News Network picks up an interesting piece of news from the Kyodo News Service:
“Japan’s foreign minister, Taro Aso, has proposed the creation of a prize akin to the Nobel Prize to be awarded to the best up-and-coming foreign manga artists. Speaking at the University of Digital Content in Akihabara, Aso said that by giving non-Japanese artists such an award would increase their affinity with Japan.”
That sounds like a nice piece of outreach, and it would definitely be interesting to see which titles get recognized.
Speaking of titles being recognized, Bryan Lee O’Malley has won the Shuster Award for Outstanding Canadian Comic Book Cartoonist. There probably won’t be time to note this on the cover of the next volume of Scott Pilgrim (soon! yay!), and I’m certainly not suggesting delaying its release until they can, but I’m thrilled for him all the same.
I was delighted to see Scott (Northwest Passage) Chantler nominated in that category as well, and I’m sure he’ll win one in the future. (I wonder if Hope Larson is Canadian enough for a Shuster nomination? Will we see a husband-and-wife throw-down in this category at some point in the future?) Canadian comic awards are just cooler than American ones, y’know?
ICv2 covers the latest BookScan graphic novel numbers, noting that sales of Tokyopop’s Kingdom Hearts show no sign of waning. (Neither do sales of Naruto or Fruits Basket. Try and contain your shock.)
And, since it’s Monday, there’s a new Flipped up where I look at Tokyopop’s Loveless and Blu’s Shout Out Loud!