It's TIME AT LAST!

After a hiatus for far too long due to Judith and Janet being completely swamped, the lovely people at SciFi London have come up trumps and have put together an absolutely fantastic event.  Don't worry if you can't make this one as there will be another one in June on a Saturday.

Although there have been notable and successful female comic book creators on both sides of the Atlantic over the last half century, it is the translation of Japanese Manga in the West that has seen considerably more female comics creators join the medium in recent years. This is possibly a combination of Manga having a greater female appeal than traditional Western comics and original Japanese Manga being already created by women in Japan.

To discuss these issues we have a trio of up and coming UK Manga creators:

*Kate Brown* illustrated the Manga Shakespeare adaptation *A Midsummer Night's Dream* and was a contributor to *The Mammoth Book of Best New Manga volumes 1 and 2* before drawing a European comics inspired serial *The Spider Moon* for the short-lived British Kids comic *The DFC. The Spider Moon* has since been adapted for the stage, earned Kate the 2010 Arts Foundation Graphic Novel prize and has just being collected in hardback by Random House.

*Emma Vieceli* also illustrated Manga Shakespeare adaptations - '*Hamlet' *and *'Much Ado About Nothing’* – published by Self Made Hero, has contributed to the collection of comic strip adaptations of the songs of Tori Amos – *Comic Book Tattoo* – and continues to draw an online Manga story, *‘Dragon Heir’*. Emma is somewhat of a renaissance woman having also been a TV presenter on the Anime Network, a singer / songwriter and is one of the organizers of the comics village at the MCM Expos in the Docklands.

*Karen Rubins *found early acclaim for her self-published graphic novel *The Dark*, co-authored with her sister Anna, saw her Manga ‘*Tales by Ghost Light*’ nominated as a runner up and exhibited in the Embassy of Japan’s Manga Jiman competition and recently became the Victoria and Albert Museum’s first comic book artist in residence, providing a link between the V & A’s collection and her own comics for visitors of all ages.

Chair: *Helen McCarthy *– one of the UK’s leading experts on Manga and Anime, having written several books on the subject and introduced a variety of Japanese film screenings at The Barbican and The British Museum.

There will be a ticket offer for the GGDs for everything at the film festival as well. They will get a 10% discount on tickets and need to quote LGGD or geekgirls when booking tickets to films etc though the cinema.