ComicBitsOnline.com

 For someone of my age I’m getting too excited.  November sees the Bristol International Manga Festival.  Yes,and the line-up looks brilliant!   You can see all the details and get booking details from the site at:

 http://www.comicexpo.net/mangaexpo

 And just to summarise what will be going on…

 CosPlay Competitions Hosted by Twofar. 

The Masquerade is to be held on Saturday afternoon and the Gothic Lolita Tea Party on Sunday Afternoon. You can check the site’s Cosplay page for more details!  

Plus there are the interactive games -Wii & Yu-Gi-Oh Tournament in association with AREA 51 

Anime Expo Cinema hosted by MVM Expo Exclusive screenings throughout the whole weekend! 

Friday night (AKA Sci-fi & Fantasy Friday)  

MVM Trailers. (33 minutes) Battle Vixens (first 2 episodes 50 minutes) Gantz (first 2 episodes 50 minutes) GunGrave (first 2 episodes 50 minutes) Burst Angel (first 2 episodes 50 minutes) Besererk (first 2 episodes 50minutes)  

Saturday daytime (AKA Family Viewing )  

MVM Trailers (33 minutes) Elemental Gelade (100minutes) Love Hina (first 2 episodes 50minutes) Ah my Goddess movie (106 minutes)  

Saturday night time (AKA Samurai Saturday)  

MVM trailers. (33 minutes) Samurai 7 (100 minutes) Samurai Champloo (100 minutes) Gun Sword (100 minutes) Basilisk (100 minutes)  

Sunday Daytime (AKA Sunday hangover Anime)  

MVM trailers (33 minutes) Trigun (vol 1first 2 episodes 50 minutes) Haibane Renmei (first 2 episodes 50minutes) Ranma ½: Nihao My Concubine (60 minutes)  

A further Read a Million Words Bristol Schools promotion is being planned across 145 primary Schools.  

Transformers artist ANDREW WILDMAN will be there for a special signing for the official Comic Expo Charity,Draw the World Together and will will be joined by artist MIKE COLLINS  

Plus Private café and Bar 

Exhibitors include SELF MADE HERO,DR MASTER,Tokyopop,Fanfare,Net Comics,Markosia and others. Forbidden Planet,MVM,Genki Gear and Krackers Game store will also be present.

Guest include MISAKO ROCKS,YISHAN LI,CHRIS DOWS [Star Trek Manga],Alex De Campi [Cat & Mouse] and SIKU –responsible for the Manga adaption of The Bible!!

There is the news that,as of 2008,the Manga and Comic Expo will run in conjunction in May.  I had to wonder whether this would be possible -the Comic Expo in May is a major international event on its own.  If anyone can pull this off it’s going to be Mike who has made the Bristol event what it is.

But,the 2006 expo with all its exhibitors would have taken a good three days to visit one-by-one.   How big an event would a combined Comic Expo-Manga Expo be?  Could the usual venues cope?

We’ll see but it’s going to be an exciting year!