Manga Artists Show Support with "Smile" Art in Kumamoto International Manga Festival

Get a chance to see the various creative and unique art styles of different popular manga artists with the upcoming Kumamoto International Manga Festival. Set to occur on the 15th and 16th of April at the Tsuruya department store in Kumamoto, it is an event wherein works from all over the world will be placed for display under a certain theme.

For this year, around 178 works from 32 with the requirement of having no serifs (a slight projection finishing off a stroke of a letter in certain typefaces) and following this year’s theme of “smile” have been chosen for the exhibition.

On the first day of the exhibition, there will be a talk show featuring the appearances of Hojo Tsuji and Ryoji Maehara along with editor Nobuhiko Horie for the opening event. Tsuji and Maehara will also be making their appearance for another talk show set to happen on the second day of the exhibition.

More than the manga pieces that will be put on display, there are also other features to enjoy such as the large mosaic art of Kumamoto Castle containing over 551 illustrations sent along with the pieces. To show their support as guest artists, Oda Ei Eiichiro, artist of the shounen series “One Piece”, Inoue Takehiko artist of sports series “Slam Dunk”, and Fukumoto Nobuyuki, an artist recognized for his unique art style and recurring themes of yakuza and gambling along with other artists created their own “smiling” art pieces to add.

Another feature to look out for will be a video that will be released which will contain the production work behind the key visual of the exhibition and more can be found on the official website for the Kumamoto International Manga Festival.

For any other details or clarification, you can find them at the source here.