Comics / Manga

The Rising Stars of Manga Vol. 2 (Black and white; anthology)

By Leroy Douresseau
January 18, 2004 - 14:55

I'm not sure what I expected from THE RISING STARS OF MANGA, VOL. 2. After all, The Rising Stars of Manga is a TOKYOPOP sponsored contest for aspiring manga artists (manga-ka) who have to submit fully written and illustrated 22-page stories as entries. This anthology collects the 10 winning entries, and naturally we'd expect a collection of uneven works from these rookies. Right?

Not even close. As writers, some need a little improvement in story structure, but in terms of imagination and creativity, they're so far ahead of the mainstream curve. As artists, they're all surprisingly quite skilled and understand page layout and design as if they were born to make comics.

They are the future of comics, and TOKYOPOP has upped the ante for new talent. A budding cartoonist now has to want to be more than just a hack looking to service corporate trademarks. Manga-ka have to tell stories that capture the imaginations of a body of book buyers with varied tastes, and these winners have done that with stunning and pleasing results.

The work here is inventive, inspired, imaginative, and (most importantly) fun to read. To some, manga means a style of art. In America, TOKYOPOP is using the Rising Stars contest to declare that manga is a medium, not a genre, and when it comes to telling stories, anything goes.

From the bad boy manga of "Possessions" to the teen dramedy of "Lovesketch"; from the high fantasy of "Whisper" and "Axis Lumen" to the child-like wonder of "The Calling Grounds," imagination runs rampant in this book and, indeed, every turn of the page is an adventure in reading comics.
[DRECK, DULL, READABLE, PRETTY GOOD, EXCELLENT]

Last Updated: November 29, 2025 - 16:51