Rising Stars of Manga 3

No, I didn't reach the TOKYOPOP RSoM finals.

Having compared my manga to those of the finalists, I'm not too surprised. My guess is that my submission was let down by the art, which looks almost unfinished compared to the heavily screentoned finalists. Being a minimalist, I don't like screentone, as I feel it detracts from the simple beauty of line. Shonen, my favourite manga genre, usually employs only one or two greys.

To suit the story, I experimented with hatching and inking in a sketchy style, thinking that this would be enough. In retrospect, however, I should have used at least one shade of grey.

Yes, I'm disappointed but, on the plus side, at least now I can add some finishing touches! As well as putting some grey here and there, I'll also have the opportunity to re-do a few faces and speech bubbles. I consider the experience to have been practise for my next manga.

RSoM is a great way to showcase emerging talent, and TOKYOPOP should be commended for continuing to run this competition. The post-selection process, however, needs some work.

First and foremost, fix the website. Labelling something "beta" is not an excuse for broken hyperlinks and a disorganised layout, it only highlights a fundamental misunderstanding of web standards. Web 2.0 is not about fancy effects. Following on from this point, ditch the "manga player". Not only is it an unnecessary plug-in, it's also badly implemented. Imitation page-turning slows loading times and diminishes the user experience. Worse, a manga-sized book only works when printed. At screen resolution, text is too difficult to read.

Winners and runners-up should be revealed before enabling voting for "Peoples' Choice". The aim is clearly to prolong the excitement and mystery, but the title is misleading, as judges have already picked 7/16 finalists to go in the book. Theoretically, if popular opinion matches the judges' picks, the "choice" could be only the 8th most voted-for entry.

Nevertheless, register with TOKYOPOP to vote for one of the 16 finalists, just in case you and the judges have wildly different tastes! Overall, in my opinion, although most entries were well drawn, few had a compelling story or a truly satisfying ending. Due to my personal preferences, I can't imagine buying a whole volume based on any one story. The following three aren't my prediction for the winners, just those that I particularly like...

Parasites by Rachel Saunders was by far my favourite in terms of artistic style. Especially scary fact: the artist is only 18 years old. Until Death Do Us Party by Laura Watton was the only story that made me laugh more than once. Laura's bold lines have given her manga a distinctive (1980s/1990s) retro look, something that I've always been fond of. Two for Joy by Dock had the most believable dialogue and character interaction.

It'll probably take much coaxing, but maybe I'll enter RSoM again next year... we'll see!