The free Make Mine Manga exhibition, curated by comics expert Paul Gravett, a project led by the Lakes International Comic Art Festival, is back on the road in coming months.
On offer will be new opportunities to find out more Manga for anyone curious, as well as the avid fan. Explore the origins of manga in Japan, the creative techniques behind the art and discover the world of Manga-Anime. The exhibition not only features artwork from incredible creators from Japan, but you can also discover today’s generation of award-winning British talents, making manga in their own way, as part of a truly global comic language.
The next venue is Bath Central Library, opening on 10th May and continuing until 17th June 2025. Alongside the exhibition, the Library will also be running events, offering book lists, a local artist's exhibition and a look at some related items from its Collection. Their dedicated web page about the exhibition is here and you can find details of all the Library's wide range of upcoming events here.
The exhibition then heads to Bradford in time for the Bradford Literature Festival for a run from 27th June until 6th July 2025. Details of venue and associated workshops have yet to be announced.
Make Mine Manga was originally part of Manchester City of Literature’s Festival of Libraries, a county-wide celebration of Greater Manchester’s 133 libraries from 7 - 11th June 2023.
First touring in 2023 the Make Mine Manga exhibition and associated workshops, funded by Art Council England, was led by Bolton Library and Museum Services running in several North West libraries, including Barrow-in-Furness Central Library and Manchester Central Library and produced in partnership with the Lakes International Comic Art Festival and Manchester City of Literature.
The exhibition was curated by Paul Gravett (author of, among other titles, Mangasia: The Definitive Guide to Asian Comics) and designed by Steve Kerner of Curious Road and the project owes its existence to many artists and publishers for their support to make it exhibition possible: Junko Mizuno, Jiro Taniguchi, Eldo Yoshimizu, Takayo Akiyama, Fumio Obata, Kiriko Kubo, Ilya, Yukiko Kai, Hatsu Haru, Hideko Mizuno, Eiko Hanamura, Ueda Toshiko, Matsumoto Katsuji, Kyoto International Manga Museum, Titan, Fanfare and Aquira.
In addition, Ed Hillyer (aka ILYA) designed signature idents for the project, used within the basic exhibition materials, largely existing images culled from his MANGA DRAWING KIT: Techniques, Tools And Projects for Mastering the Art of Manga (2006, AmazonUK Affiliate Link)), which has also been published as MANGA ART: Toutes les techniques pour maîtriser l'art du manga (in France), and MANGA ZEICHNEN: Das komplette Set für Einsteiger (Germany) – and from a much earlier exhibit he curated for Whitechapel Ideas Store in 2010 - MANGA UK! MANGA JIMAN! (which means 'having pride in Manga').
