So, the blog is still in hibernation mode, but I came across this cool thing and I just thought it worth mentioning quickly. Spike is the writer and artist for “Templar: Arizona”, one of the top webcomics out there (I likes it). She’s writing a book on how to live well on a cartoonists salary (or on Jobseekers or a freelancer’s income, for instance) and it looks like it’s going to be great.
This Kickstarter thing allows you to gather funds for a project before you start, so you know there’s demand for the thing you’re doing, and you don’t have to lump up all the money yourself. I’m pretty interested in the possibilities of this, and I think some of you will be, too. So check it out. And support Poorcraft, it’ll be awesome. 
Some cool news about one of Leek & Sushi’s friends: Donna Pesani, who wrote and drew the beautiful story “Stars” is getting some international recognition.
A while ago, I got an online order for Leek & Sushi from one Davide Castellazzi in Italy. I thought it was pretty cool that people in Italy were interested in my books, but other than that, I didn’t give it any thought. A couple of weeks later, however, I got an e-mail from Davide, asking for contact details for Donna Pesani.
It turned out he is an editor for a new magazine starting up in Italy called “Mangaka”. It will feature European manga, and he was interested in buying “Stars” for the magazine. Much excitement ensued!
So Davide and Donna got in touch, and Donna tells me things are working out well. She sold “Stars” as well as the one page comic “The Wish”, and they’ve asked for a full colour splash page to go with the story. Hurray!
I don’t have any links for the Manga magazine, but you can visit the publisher’s website: Coniglio Editore. It is, as you would expect, in Italian. I also recommend you visit Donna’s new site: Pie in the Sky. You’ll see that the Italians made the right call in getting her to do some colour work; her elite marker skills deserve to be seen.
Update: Mangaka #2 is now available to buy! Click here if you can read Italian and want a look, or if you’re just interested in the pretty pictures.
This post will make no sense if you’re unfamiliar with the Manga Alliance/Anime League/Dimensional Entertainment Drama, so you may want to skip it. It’s too long a story to catch you up (although I’ve sprinkled some links throughout the thing to remind us all of the history), but my involvement started here: Manga Alliance: Buyer Beware
Well, knock me down with a feather, will you look at that:
Mike Towers apologises
I’m going to be a bit more cynical below, but first I want to acknowledge what happened here: Mike Towers apologised. And it’s a real apology, no “I’m sorry but this is really your fault“, no “Why must you be so sensitive”, no “I’m sorry but I didn’t do anything wrong”, no, an actual apology.
“I messed up, I understand what I did wrong, I apologise.”
Holy shit. I honestly did not think he was capable of that. In fact, this is so out of keeping with what I thought Mike was like that I’m willing to entertain the possibility that maybe I had him wrong. So, therefore, thank you for your apology Mike, please consider your unofficial ban lifted. And no, I’m not being sarcastic. I’m honestly surprised and impressed.
I hope others will join me in taking this as the death-knell for Manga Alliance. (Though maybe someone can write to Thoughtbubble, BICS and the J-Culture Con to fill them in?) I would like to point out that Mike Towers and his friends have as much right to run anime events and set up clubs as anyone else does. We have a right to decline taking part, and even criticise what they are doing, but not to the point of bullying and harassment. There’s no honour in being a sore winner.
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Karen Rubins has started her stint as Resident Evil Comic Artist at the Victoria and Albert museum of art and design. She’s doing some workshops and some open studio stuff and it’s all very exciting.
Karen has been with ITCH from the start, her work is in our first book The Witch, and also in Leek and Sushi. Her latest book is Urban Beasts, also published by ITCH. It’s a sweet tale about our animal natures, and incidentally got a rather nice mention from Nixnight recently.
I think you should check out some of Karen’s work and visit her at the V&A, before she becomes too famous to talk to us all. Or at least you should check out her website at Kazmantra, and have a look at the animation in the gallery section. It has giant robots. You know, just saying.
