Brigid has the details on Tokyopop’s seventh Rising Stars of Manga Competition, and there are some aspects of this year’s event that really jumped out at me.
“Eight winners will share equal prizes, taking the top spot in one of eight different genre-based categories: Action, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, Romance or Sci-Fi.”
This strikes me as a terrific idea. All of these genres require different skill sets and showcase talents in unique ways, and it seems like it will give Tokyopop a chance to compare apples to apples. (And even among apples, there’s still tremendous variety. Pink Ladies! Grannies Smith! Golden Delicious!) It still must have been kind of mind-bending to categorize them, What if somebody submits a comedy-fantasy-romance? Or a horror-sci-fi-mystery? Maybe they should add an “Uncategorizable Fusion” genre next year.
It’s pretty amazing that the competition has grown to the point that they have enough submissions to present eight different $1,000 awards, plus $500 for the People’s Choice. Twenty-four finalists are vying for the People’s Choice prize, and you can view them and vote here.
Now I just have to overcome my archaic resistance to reading comics online to sample the contestants’ work.