I recently came across something that has me completely intrigued. I was at the Cleveland Wizard World Con in the Manga/Anime area. I normally am not a manga kinda guy, but I wandered in. Looking at the one table, a young lady started to tell me what they were about and I must say, I loved it.
The table was for Saturday AM. In a nutshell, these guys and girls are doing a western manga and they are focusing on new creators. They use writers and artists from all over the world, not people that are known and already in the industry. They are open to new ideas for stories. If you have a good story and good art, you could get into their monthly magazine.
The monthly magazine is how they get their comics published, similar to Shonen Jump. The magazine is distributed digitally and is very reasonable – about $2.50 per month. They have a slew of stories already and seem to keep adding more.
I have started at the beginning with issue #1, because you know, it only makes sense, right? Anyway, the characters and stories are fun and very Manga. I don’t normally read this type of comic, but I love to support people when they are trying to do something with a good purpose.
One of the other things they do is a yearly contest. This is to get their name out, but also to get artists and writers interested in submitting their stories. Last year, the prize was an iPad pro! Along with that, they have a comic drawing app called Comic Draw, so it made sense to give away the iPad and show off this app.
I love this and am in support completely. They showed us a comic that was created and made by a 16 year old! This is fantastic! I encourage kids to look into this, don’t wait until you are out of school, do it now.
Head over to Saturday AM, read some of the online comics, maybe get an issue or two. They even have some physical books for really good prices.