3rd Morning International Manga Competition - Winners Announced

Before I start, it’s disclosure time~~ Once again I am the translator for the MIMC. All commentary on this site about the MIMC and the coming MICC is my own, and is not that of Kodansha Ltd or the MICC participants and judges. I will quite likely have another short essay about judging process, as I did last year, where I will also discuss the renaming and some of Shimada Eijiro’s (the Chief Judge and Editor-in-Chief of Morning 2) comments.

Results can be found here at this link.

Revised (and re-translated) rules for entering the 4th Morning International Comic Competition are here.

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Today Kodansha’s Morning magazine announced the winners of the 3rd Morning International Manga Competition (MIMC) and once again winners hail from Taiwan. The Grand prize goes to Huang Chun-chan’s hilarious convenience store robbery gone bad Poor Knight; while the runnier-up entry Shinigami by 林 (who I call “Lin” in the write-up) is a little more somber in its tone, but is a stunning looking title full of heart. Both titles will be available at the MICC website in the coming months for free in English and Japanese.

Poor Knight by Huang Chun-chan; Shinigami by Lin
(All rights reserved Huang Chun-chan/MICC 2009; 林/MICC 2009)

Ah, it makes me very proud to be able to share this with you all, as I have had a chance to look over both winners while translated them for publication. The two come from slightly different schools of comic style but their similarities is what made both very good “manga.” It’s hard for me to fully explain that, but just by looking at the art above you can possibly get a good feel for what I mean.

Poor Knight is traditional manga. The cast is very comical in its caricatured designs. Legs are long, and the facial expressions are exagerated. Details in the simple line work used allows the reader to quickly understand the casts roles in life and within the comic itself; defining social status and whether the character is good, bad or inhuman. Even the action in this one panel is very manga; featuring references to classic J-pop culture like tokusatsu and sports manga.

In contrast Shinigami could be an indie comic. Black dominates this comic and lines lack definition. Because of this use of ink, it is really hard to see the emotion on the characters faces, but we can definitely feel emotion by looking each individual character as a whole. Focusing on character development, in what are almost always character-based stories (as opposed to plot-based narratives), is what made this a winner.

So design-wise the two seem very different on the surface. And that’s exactly what the MIMC has wanted and that’s exactly what the MICC is looking for its future competitions. You don’t have to draw a “manga” and manga do not have to have ninja and magical girls. Poor Knight is a superhero comic. Yup the main character has an Asian version of cape and tights (in his case a tight briefs and an extra-long bandana) and he’s got super-powers. You can draw a comic like Shinigami. However, it would help to draw a comic that is easy to read. And while the Chief Judge prefers character stories, he actually made a call out for plot-based narratives in the last edition of the MIMC. Morning wants to see the best comics around. That means bringing the total package - art, presentation and story.

And as you’ll possibly see in the coming months these two comics have all three to offer.

(oh and don’t distribute the images without crediting the artists and the MICC)