Arcadia Ronin will be at the MCM which is this weekend already, squeee! She is the lord and master of a webcomic called Totem Chronicles, with a kicking girl protagonist and magic and stuff. It’s cool.

Her story in Leek and Sushi is a modern fairytale with trolls and pretty things and a pot of gold. Good fun and with a sweet message. Check out the previews!

And catch her this weekend. Who’s going?

Preview under the fold

You know Kate Holden, right? Also known as Darth Mongoose, she hands
out helpful advice to her fellow comic creators from her sage’s cave
in Cumbria. Well, she probably has some kind of house, but the sage on
a mountain image is cooler when there’s a cave.

Anyway. You can read her webcomic Fan Dan Go every week at
www.fandangocomic.com you should do so, it’s pretty great. She
also has some comics in print as one of the members of Indie Manga, the senshi team masquerading as a UK manga circle. Indie Manga will be represented at the MCM Expo, of course.

Her manga cupcake is about climbing. Two girls live in a dark world
where the cloud cover blocks the sun from view, and one of them
decided to climb an indomitable black tower to get above the cloud
layer and see the sun. Her friend is worried it will give her cancer,
but she goes anyway! Good fun, have a look at the preview under the
fold.

Hey, and, don’t forget you can still pre-order Leek & Sushi, Manga
Cupcakes and get it very soon indeed!

New book coming up!

The Pariah’s Urn is a fantasy adventure with arcane magic and scoundrellous thieves. It’s currently in production, and it’s hard to tell you anything about when it might be out, but I didn’t think it was too early to let you have a peek at YdAo’s great-looking art and solid fantasy world.

Check it out: The Pariah’s Urn.

ITCH is extremely proud to present: Super Jax, a stand-alone super hero comic by Karen Yumi Lusted (famous for Final Blossom, Leek and Sushi and the art book Secret Colours).

Super Jax was available at the MCM Expo, and has prompted people to say nice things like:

“I got Super Jax – really enjoyed it, it was really funny and had a good ending My only issue is that there won’t be any more ;_;” – Morag Lewis

“I got Super Jax :3 I thought it was really good! I enjoyed it a lot and it’s definitely one to re-read!” – Cowgirl Em

Read all about it: click here.

ITCH’s biggest success, Leek & Sushi’s Manga Show, is getting a sequel. You can be part of it, even if you don’t (or don’t want to) enter the Manga Jiman competition. All the details are on here: Leek & Sushi 2.

Arrangements are finalised for the mini Leek & Sushi party at the MCM Expo this weekend! (You’re coming, right? It’ll be excellent!)
You can pester the artists for signatures and sketches, learn how to get into next year’s book and eat delicious cake.

It will be in the signing area on Saturday only at 2 pm. Come hang out, it’ll be fun.

In all likelihood, you’ve never thought about that question. But that’s OK, because I have thought about it for you, along with many of my artistically and comically inclined friends, and we have an answer for you.

The answer comes in book form and involves evil bunnies, giant robots, monocles, world-wide conspiracies and secret agents. It’s an epic piece of stupid nonsense that will make you laugh, and possibly cry, and simply possessing it will increase your level of awesome. The cover will come in 6 colours*, like this:

Inside, there are comics and drawings by: Willie Hewes, Lucy Edwards (Kiri), James Gammell, Amanda Elanor Tribble, Yakumo, Chris Bottoms (Ushio), Quarklette, Fei Huang (Kaiki), Laura Watton, Shuhel Ahmed, Fukuto Kaiser, Pinax, Gwen Kortsen and Carmel Ward, Samuel Barker (Volker) and many more! Wait, no, actually, that’s it. Isn’t it enough?!

The book will be printed as a limited edition of 50 copies only, numbered and everything. There will be no reprints: you want one, you got to tell me. The book might (given a fair wind) be available at the MCM Expo in London next week. If you’re not there, or the books aren’t there, I’ll mail it to you at no extra cost.

Fill in the order form and pick  a colour and I’ll make you one special.

[form 1 "Contact form 1"]

The book will be £ 5. It is square, has 68 pages, hand-finished covers, and is basically a piece of biblio-candy. Yush. I will contact you about payment and delivery when the book comes out, which will be before the end of the month.

If there’s any problems with the form (although it seems to test pretty well) you can always mail me: willie@itchpublishing.com or even leave a comment or something. Don’t panic, I’m right here.

* I’m making the covers by stencilling the rabbit onto them in paint. It may turn out one or more of the colours don’t come out well. In that case I will contact you to ask which substitute you would prefer. The “black” cover in particular could be really cool, or not work at all. I’ll let you know how it goes. With pictures.

Finally, maybe you’d like some previews? They’re under the fold.

Pretty good, huh? I’m not joking about the limited edition thing. If you want one, tell me.

You have no idea how excited you should be.

ITCH is working on the first part of a brand new story by Daniel Hartwell, Anna Rubins and Karen Rubins. Karen Rubins you may know from her work in The Witch, Leek and Sushi as well as Best New Manga 2 and many other places. Together with Anna Rubins, she also published Dark, the acclaimed and haunting series about a world where times are places.

Daniel Hartwell, who is involved with this new thing you should be excited about as a writer is best known for writing Hire the Terrible Vampire Samurai, and having some strange ideas about pirate dinosaurs.

We hope to unveil part one of this two part series at the Small Press Expo Bristol, this Saturday! Tickets for the Small Press event are still available, so you have no excuse to miss it!

Oh, and, psst… it’s called Urban Beasts. Hush!

Leek and Sushi's Manga show

Itch has a new book out, already?

Yes!

And it’s 204 pages?

Uh-huh!

Yours truly, editor/publisher Willie Hewes is proud Leek & Sushi’s Manga Show: 150 Years of Friendship! It’s a nice fat anthology collecting short manga by some most excellent artists.

Please visit the book’s page for full details and information on how to get your own copy.

The manga in this collection were drawn around the theme of “150″, to celebrate the 150 years of peace and friendly relations between the UK and Japan.

Special note: these manga were drawn to enter into a contest held by the Japanese Embassy in London, the Manga Jiman contest. However, for diplomatic reasons, the Embassy has not been in any way involved in the production or publication of the book.

Full details here.

Buy it in the Shop.

ITCH is proud to present its second graphic novel this November. Final Blossom is a story about a sacred forest in danger, and a hunter looking for a monster. It was written and drawn by Karen Yumi Lusted, who is also sometimes known as Kairi-Moon.

To celebrate the launch of her first book she will be on hand in the Reading based Red Garden Manga Shop to sign the book, chat to fellow manga enthusiasts and eat pocky.

Date: 29 November 2008
Time: Noon
Be there: or be square. ^_^

Preview of Final Blossom pages