Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Students have the opportunity to win $2,500 and a contract to illustrate and design a graphic novel targeted at middle-school aged children through a competition sponsored by the Center for East Asian Studies.
The contract is for “The Fastest Pig Goes to China,” a book written by Randi Hacker, outreach coordinator for the center. Students interested in manga illustration, a traditional Japanese style of print drawing, can submit work for the competition throughout the month of February. A panel that includes the book’s author and the program director will choose the winner in March.
Attention all artists, anime lovers and illustrators . . . Randi Hacker needs you! Hacker, the Outreach Coordinator of the Center for East Asian Studies has written her second book. She is looking for a student to design the artwork.
Bill Tsutsi, associate dean for international studies and director of the project, said he opened the illustration and design contest for students to “get any and all students as involved as possible” in the study of East Asian culture. He described the competition as a “great opportunity” for a student interested in getting his or her artwork published.
Manga is a hobby for Maylene Morgan, Wichita senior, and she said she was interested in submitting for the competition. She said that the task of illustrating and designing an entire book was “a little daunting,” but that it would be an exciting opportunity.
Michiko Ito, Japanese studies librarian and manga enthusiast, said she wasn’t sure many American students would have the skills to illustrate and design a full manga graphic novel. She said that American illustrators often copied the manga style, but that the illustrations lacked detail.
“When I see American illustration, I can just tell somehow,” Ito said.
“The Fastest Pig Goes to China” is a sequel to 2007’s “The Fastest Pig in the West.” Hacker said the goal of writing and distributing the books was to get Kansas students interested in other cultures, especially those of China. She said the interest would help students in college and beyond.
“Nobody works in an isolated world anymore,” Hacker said. “Students who understand a different language — especially Chinese — have a leg up.”
The two books feature a Kansas-born character inspired by Hacker’s 13-year-old daughter. Hacker said she decided to make the second book a manga graphic novel rather than a chapter book because she thought manga would appeal to her target audience.
Dee Hogan, Leavenworth junior and president of the KU Anime Club, said manga appealed to many different audiences because it was about telling stories.
“It’s a different medium to American movies or books, but it does the same thing — tells good stories,” Hogan said.
Charlotte Anderson, librarian at Central Junior High School in Lawrence, said manga was immensely popular with seventh- to-ninth-grade students.
“Sometimes it flies off the shelves,” Anderson said. “It gets them thinking that they’re not reading.”
Anderson and Hacker said interest in the animation and East Asian pop culture was very high with the general public as well.
Hacker said the book would be published in both English and Chinese sometime late this summer.
Interested students can e-mail Hacker at rhacker@ku.edu for details.
— — Edited by Brandy Entsminger
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