Shopping Guide
On Sept. 30, Shonen Sunday and Big Comic Spirits publisher Shogakukan opened Comic Soon, a new manga-themed website.
The site is committed to "providing readers information straight from the manga production scene." It was made according to ideas proposed by manga editors. The site will continuously release announcements from manga producers, featured works by aspiring manga artists, collections of phrases from popular manga series, and unique articles and projects by editors. It's a site that lets manga fans learn even more about their favorite series and enjoy them in a different way.
Currently the most popular article on the site is a report about an event called "Thanks! Shogakukan Building Graffiti Convention" held at the former Shogakukan headquarters in August. Over 100 manga artists attended the event in which manga artists associated with Shogakukan drew sketches all over the lobby, entrance, and stairwell of the building, which was demolished in September. Naoki Urasawa, Fujio A. Fujiko, Rumiko Takahashi, and many other big names in Japanese manga attended, leaving rare paintings on the walls. The site is featuring many articles about the graffiti event, so if be sure to check it out if you're interested.
Another article that is getting a lot of attention is about the "Spirits' Serious Short Gag Fest," a special feature of short manga that will be published in the Oct. 7 and Nov. 11 issues of Big Comic Spirits magazine. This is a project by Spirits' editors who asked their favorite manga artists to create a short story for them. There's Yasunobu Yamauchi, author of Daily Lives of High School Boys, and Rensuke Oshikiri, author of High Score Girl. Popular artists from other magazines also created works for the project. The article on the site features messages from manga artists to the editors and rough sketches for each work.
From now on, Tokyo Otaku Mode will begin featuring Comic Soon articles on our news page. You can expect to find all the fresh manga info right here!
