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Leek and Sushi’s Manga show

Leek and Sushi have long been friends, and to celebrate, they’ve invited the UK’s most talented mangaka to show their stuff.

This is a collection of short manga by 21 artists and writers, created to celebrate 150 years of friendship between the UK and Japan.

These shorts were originally drawn for the Manga Jiman competition held by the Japanese Embassy. This publication has come about separately from the contest however, thanks to Itch and the collaborative spirit of UK manga. Artists from several major manga and comics groups share these pages, and that alone makes the book special, to say nothing of the outstanding quality of the manga!

Scroll down for a full list of the contributors and some lush sample pages.

Edited by Willie Hewes
204 Pages, £6.00

You can,of course,visit Willie Hewes’ web site which leads to the Itch! site or simply get there to order and see sample pages at:

 http://www.itchpublishing.com/news/shop/

The book itself is really great quality both in printing and look.  I’m not sure what I was expecting but this compares very favourably with any of the Manga type books put out by Dr Master and others. This is a top notch book.

“Dear Jessica” by Karen Yumi Lusted looks good and is very touching.  Erm,get your hankies ready for this.  Very touching. 

“Dilemma” by Pamela Lokhun is also pleasing to the eye.

And “Stars” by Donna Pestani is a wonder.  Possibly the best strip in the book? But I mustn’t go setting up favourites!

“Onehundredandfifty” by Olly Dead is also notable.  And,naturally,Ms Hewes is present!

I’ve re-read the book three times since it arrived on Friday and the one thing that strikes me is that it is near impossible to choose the “best” strip herein.  The scripts and art are of good enough standard to call them pro and if Itch continues to put together books like this I can’t see them failing!

I’d give this 10/10

Amaranth

Fantasy/Romance
176 pages
paperback, square bound
By Willie Hewes
£7.00

Amaranth is a dark fairytale about a young woman living in

There,you even get a bit of creator profile!

Now I have the Amaranth A5 zines and they look great.  In a high production value graphic novel format [both books reviewed here are 21cms x 15cms in size] it looks great. And what’s more I don’t need to keep thumbing through the zines!

Even now I still find things to take a closer look at and I’m still not sure why I like it –and,really,I don’t want to know!  This is a good read and the art can be quite atmospheric due to the use of different techniques.

Yes,predictably,10/10 and you can order via Itch or check them out at the May Bristol Expo!

Itch publishing is taking Independent comic books in a new and superb direction and I cannot wait to see what Willie comes up with next.