The Make Mine Manga exhibition curated by Paul Gravett for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival has been to plenty of UK libraries, including, most recently, Macclesfield Library in time for last weekend’s Macc-Pow! Comic Festival, continuing there until 30th July.
It featured at the Comicdom Festival in Athens, Greece, two years ago, but it’s never been on display outside, on a city’s main thoroughfare – until now, that is!
Make Mine Manga hit the streets in Leskovac, Serbia, outside the city’s prestigious Cultural Centre, in time for the 28th Balkans Comics Festival last month (26th – 28th June 2026).
“At night, this street is closed to traffic and becomes a promenade for all the population, young and old, a kind of Balkans Ramblas!” Paul notes.
“So nice to see people interacting with the show, spotting their favourite manga characters. Huge thanks to all the Balkans Comics Festival team led by Marko Stojanovic for bringing this together this weekend.”
Make Mine Manga: Background
Make Mine Manga is a free touring exhibition for anyone curious about manga, as well as the avid fan. It offers the opportunity to explore the origins of manga in Japan, the creative techniques behind the art and discover the wonder of manga and anime.
The exhibition features artwork from incredible creators from Japan and discover today’s generation of award-winning British talents making manga in their own way as part of a truly global comic language.
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”).
With thanks to Paul Gravett for the news tip
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: Comic Art, Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Events, Exhibitions, International Comic News
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