Lakes International Comic Art Festival Takes Manga to the Max!

This year’s Lakes International Comics Art Festival will drop you into the fascinating world of Japanese manga and anime, bringing Akiko Hatsu – one of the acclaimed creators of Shojo (girl’s manga) – to Britain, in partnership with the Brewery Arts Centre, the Daiwa Foundation, the GB Sasakawa Foundation and the Kyoto International Manga Museum.

In the 1960s, Shojo was seen as a low form of manga, but as a result of the pioneering work of creators in the 1970s such as Akiko Hatsu, making her first-ever British comics festival appearance, it is now a cultural genre to rival literature.

Joining Akiko Hatsu at the Festival will be two Brighton-based artists: Inko, who work appears in anthologies such as Manga Quake, War, Howl!, Tempo Lush Tales, and more, and whose first illustration book, Uniform Girls will be published this month; and Chie Kutsuwada, a popular manga artist and who is well-known for her workshops and who drew SelfMadeHero’s Manga Shakespeare title As You Like It and The Book of Five Rings by Musashi Miyamoto, adapted by Sean Michael Wilson in 2012 for Shambhala.

Between them, Inko and Chie created the Go Go Metro web comic project, described as “a personification of tube stations in London”, which includes the work of guest artists such as Richy K. Chandler, the creative force behind Tempo Lush.

They will be at the heart of a special Japanese café for the weekend which will be a transformation of the Brewery Arts Centre’s popular Warehouse Café, led by students from Kendal College working with the Brewery’s own youth arts group.

The appearances of these renowned creators at the Festival – joining a host of already- announced international and British guests including Darwyn Cooke, Steve Bell, Dave McKean and Kieron Gillen – will be accompanied by an exhibition in the Brewery Arts Centre, Shojo: The World of Girls’ Manga, and several workshops, offering aspiring creators an opportunity to find out more about the secrets of creating manga comics.

This will be the first exhibition of its kind in the UK featuring 30 pieces by Akiko Hatsu; and 17 giving an overview of the Shojo genre, featuring 17 of its most influential artists, men and women. The exhibition is set to tour to the Atkinson Gallery in Southport and to a London venue in Spring 2016.

Anime film screenings also form part of the weekend’s line-up, including Studio Ghibli’s latest film The Tale of Princess Kaguya and one of their all-time favourites, Kiki’s Delivery Service, alongside Katsuhiro Ôtomo’s Akira (in Japanese with subtitles).

The Festival will also offer a rare chance to find out more about the Kyoto International Manga Museum, which is crammed full of manga of all shapes and forms. The insight will come courtesy of two of its curators, Sookyung Yoo and Kayoko Kuramochi, offering a whirlwind introduction to manga culture and to the wonderful world of the museum.

Plus, for fans of The Simpsons, there’s the opportunity to find out more about the Bartkira project, a mind-bending web comics crossover, the brainchild of British artist Ryan Humphrey, bringing together Matt Groening’s The Simpsons and Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira to dazzling effect!

GUEST PROFILES

AKIKO HATSU

Born in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, Akiko Hatsu worked as assistant to her older sister, the manga artist Yukiko Kai, and after Kai’s death in 1981 debuted in the magazine ALLAN (published by Minori Shoten) with her own story “Nami no Banka (Elegy of the Waves)”.

She has published many other works in different magazines, and is currently contributing the serials “Nemuki +” (Asahi Shinbun Shuppan) and “flowers” (Shogakukan), among others, to magazines on a regular basis.

Her most famous work is Uryudo Dream Tales, a series of short stories about strange items that are brought into an antique shop called Uryudo, with the grandson of the owner, Ren, being the main character, and a series of short stories set among the upper classes in Victorian England, entitled Beautiful England Series.

Her stories cover a wide range of themes from traditional Japanese settings to those set overseas, and involve a mixture of Japanese and western elements. This, along with her ability to create upright, noble characters drawn in beautiful colours, has won her many fans.

Official Site (in Japanese): www003.upp.so-net.ne.jp/namibanpa

INKO AI TAKITA

Inko is Brighton-based Japanese manga artist actively producing manga cartoons, illustrations, and picture books.

She grew up in Kyoto, a very traditional and arty area of Japan loving reading tons of manga, graduating at Kyoto Zokei university of Art and Design in Japan and the Central Saint Martin’s college of Art and Design in England.

Her manga appears on “Manga Quake”, “War”, “Howl!”, “Tempo Lush Tales”, and more comic anthologies.

“Ketsueki” story by Richmond Clements, “Rachel Moves To Brighton” story by Morag Ramsay, and “Rosie and Jacinda” story by Richy K. Chandler are also available at websites or conventions. Her artwork is heavily influenced by both Japanese traditional and pop art, yet pursuing her original style, which often have a feeling of dark or mystique.

Inko teaches how to draw, gives a talk about manga for both children and adults at schools, museums, galleries and libraries all across UK including British Museum and V&A Museum. She is also actively joining art projects such as short film animations, comic strip posters for Art On The Underground, and collaborated with a contemporary artist David Blandy, and the Inktober online project. Her first illustration book Uniform Girls will be published in May 2015, with more publications and projects to come.

CHIE KUTSUWADA

Chie Kutsuwada is a popular manga artist based in Brighton who was born and brought up in Japan. After graduating Royal College of Art, London, now she is based in Brighton, working as a professional manga artist. She creates story as well as illustration by herself like King Of A Miniature Garden (2007), her first manga, and Moonlight (2008), which was shortlisted in Manga Jiman competition organised by UK Japan Embassy.

Working with others, Chie has drawn a manga adaptation of William Shakespeare’s As You Like It (published in 2008 by SelfMadeHero), The Book of Five Rings by Musashi Miyamoto (adapted by Sean Michael Wilson, 2012, Shambhala) and Two Sons by Richy K. Chandler (included in Tempo Lush Tales in 2014).

Chie recently started to provide her illustrations for children’s books, such as Warrior Kids by Mark Robson (Caboodle Books, 2014). Her books are available at the most of English speaking countries and Japan. Some of them have also been translated into French, Spanish and Turkish. Besides creating manga comics, she also attends many manga-related events in and out of UK and runs manga workshops at schools, libraries, and museums, such as British Libraries and Victoria and Albert Museum.

Official Site: http://chitangarden.wix.com/chiekutsuwada / Facebook: www.facebook.com/chitangarden

Tickets for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival go on sale from 3rd June 2015. For the latest news on the 2015 Lakes International Comic Art Festival, visit: www.comicartfestival.com

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