For the second consecutive time, our grand prize winner comes from Taiwan. The winner of the Third Morning International Manga Competition is Huang Chun-chan "Poor Knight". In this gem, a funky tone and a great tempo set up a wonderful sense of youth often found in "standard manga" style.
The runner-up, 林, is also from Taiwan. 林's "Shinigami" has much to offer on each page, in part due to innovative use of color and inking as well as Lin's deft artistic hand. With humorous flavor and a charming design and plot, the brilliance of "Shinigami" touched our hearts.
Outside of the top two--which we intensely debated over--we found a gap in quality for the other entries. Furthermore, despite the number of submissions, the judges struggled to collectively find intriguing elements we could all agree upon; resulting in a splintered vote where we could only award a single second prize winner. The factor common to the two winners is fascinating characters. Undoubtedly also critical to a comic's success, we believe a character's charm is one of the greatest ways to truly inspire readers.
The Grand Prize winner's comments--"It's difficult to earn a living drawing manga in Taiwan"--are timely given the current worldwide recession. The current economic climate has affected all corners of the globe, and in many countries has had a negative impact on manga markets. Obviously, Japan is also suffering from the recession, yet in spite of the current economic climate the Japanese manga market remains healthy as we continue to release new hit titles. With many other countries suffering from the financial crisis, we understand that it may be difficult to support new artistic talent. Therefore, we intend to pour more of our energy into this endeavour. Because our editorial department is based entirely in Japan, working with international talent based overseas is not a simple feat. Nevertheless, we want to announce that the Grand Prize winner for the Second M.I.M.C, YOVOVA, will have a 50-page short-story in the March 21st edition of Morning Two magazine; furthermore, there will be a full-color chapter header and an article accompanying the comic. We worked closely with YOVOVA, asking him to revive the story two or three times over a series of editorial sessions, but his efforts have paid off resulting in a great new story. Also, the runner-up of the same edition of the M.I.M.C., Kinono (creator of "Joe's Teeth"), is currently appearing in Morning Two, with chapter #4 coming soon. We want to apologize to our international readers as they cannot read these titles firsthand, but they can be confident that this will be resolved soon.
Finally, as has been the case in each of these contests, many of the current entries have focused on bishojo, giant robots, ninja and the like, leaving a very narrow impression of "manga" style. As the judges are Japanese, we are biased toward a more creative association for the word that foreigners have come to know as "MANGA." We cannot define exactly what manga is, but our version of manga is much broader in context and content. Nowadays Japan uses labels like "the United Statesn Comics," "Bande Dessinée," and "Cartoons." Ten years ago, however, the Japanese language would apply the word "manga" to encompass all sequential art. With that in mind we originally called this contest the Morning International Manga Competion, but that name is no longer adequate. So, from the Fourth Edition on, we call for a greater variety of genres in your submissions as we rename the contest the MORNING INTERNATIONAL COMIC COMPETITION.
≪Judge’s Comment≫ This story should be familiar to most readers, as it lacks originality. However, thanks to a skilled layout, this comic is very readable. We also felt that facial expressions in general were well-designed; the wily look on many characters' faces is exceptional. Regretfully, this submission's most important scene--where Maria tries to shoot and her gun misfires--is poorly executed.
