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.
The Manga Curmudgeon 
Yes, get over it, David! Lotsa free stuff out there, and it doesn’t take up any shelf space!
You should check out CPM’s Digi-Press interface—it’s eerily like reading a real book.
Oh, not to worry, I will! Just based on a quick scan of a few of the more eye-catching entry names, it looks like there’s some great, varied stuff in there.
[…] Welsh likes the new format of the Rising Stars of Manga […]
You’re completely allowed to enter fusions– you mark as many categories as you think your entry fits in. That way, when they’re picking winners, they can go “oh, we have two AWESOME comedies, but one is also a comedy-SCIFI, so they can BOTH WIN!!!”.
Basically.
Oh, that’s excellent! It wasn’t clear to me from the language at the Rising Stars site if the entrants picked the categories for their submissions or if the editors made the call.
Yeah, it’s definitely a nicer system.
Also, if they decide that, say, none of the mystery-submissions were as good as the top entries in the other categories, they don’t have to choose any winner for it at all.
[…] Brigid reminds me that today is the last day to vote in Tokyopop’s Rising Stars of Manga competition. You can find a handy guide to the nominees here. David Welsh offers his thoughts on this year’s event here. […]
[…] Changes at RSoM Rising Stars of Manga page David Welsh’s thoughts […]