JUDGES
The American Manga Award judges are diverse experts in their fields. The Best Translation, Best Lettering, and Best Publication Design categories will each have two nominating judges recognized for their professional expertise in these categories. The nominees for Best New Manga, Best Continuing Manga Series, and Best New Edition of Classic Manga will be selected by a committee of five subject-matter experts (journalists, librarians, and reviewers).
MANGA JUDGES
FREDERICO ANZALONE
Frederico Anzalone
Frederico Anzalone is a seasoned manga specialist working across Brussels, Paris and Tokyo. Having conducted nearly one hundred interviews with manga artists, he contributes to prominent French-language publications such as ATOM and TEMPURA. Beyond writing, he curates exhibitions for museums and festivals, hosts panels (e.g. at the Tokyo BD Festival) and manages the Asia Prize for the ACBD, France’s association of comics critics and journalists. He also serves as a regular contributor on RTBF, Belgium’s national French-speaking radio.
Judge’s Statement
“I am a manga enthusiast to a near-obsessive degree. Born in Brussels in the late eighties, in a country with a deep love for comics, I grew up at the perfect moment to witness the rise of manga in the French-speaking world. For over thirty years, I have immersed myself in it almost daily. I approach manga as a devoted and discerning reader: I look for narrative and graphic excellence, as well as that spark of innovation that pushes the medium forward. For the American Manga Awards, I aim to put this experience and sensibility to work with a clear mission: to identify, support, and promote works that stand out for their quality and singularity. Works that enrich the medium and may, in time, become benchmarks for future generations. It is a privilege to help bring these titles to wider recognition, hoping they will touch as many readers as those that shaped me over the past three decades.”
HELEN CHAZAN
Helen Chazan is an archivist, comics critic, and zinemaker based in Toronto. She is the publisher of the micropress Gynoid Distribution. Her comics and illustrations have appeared in Pulping, This One’s For Us: An All Butch Pin-Up Zine, Comics Blogger, and the forthcoming anthology, FEELER. Her column “Manga Lending Library” debuted in The Comics Journal Issue 311, and her writing can be found in publications such as tcj.com, Solrad, Comics Blogger, and Cleaver Magazine. Her essay “Untold Stories of Women and Earth: Daisuke Igarashi’s Witches” was published in the second volume of Viscere (Strega Sporca, 2025). She wrote the afterword “A Bitchy Life, or, Midge’s Happy Place” for the collection Bitchy! The Exasperating Existence of Midge McCracken by Roberta Gregory (Fantagraphics, 2026).
Judge’s Statement
“Japanese manga in English translation is an incredibly interesting and artistically diverse arena of North American comics readership. In few other comics scenes do I find small press darlings rubbing shoulders with best sellers, literary labyrinths sharing shelf space with action epics, tender queer love stories holding hands with tawdry smut, fantasy epics sitting alongside mundane reflections of the everyday – at times within the same book! – and readers persuing the avant garde and the entertaining alike with zeal and curiosity about an entire world of stories and styles. Girls flock to stories for boys and boys swoon at stories for girls. I began my comics readership as a super hero reader and began to peer at the alternative scene in my adolescence, but manga made me a true comics omnivore. I am thrilled to be a judge for this year’s American Manga Awards because manga readers make space for comics to be for everyone and about everything.
As a first time judge in four categories this year – Best New Manga, Best Continuing Series, Best New Edition of Classic Manga, and Best One-Shot (Single Volume) Manga – I will be looking at works on a few highly subjective rubrics. Most subjective is of course quality – what did I enjoy reading? Which stories compelled me? What artists’ cartooning swept me away? Writing and illustration are inseparable in comics, and the significance of one element may weigh more or less over another depending on the work, so I will consider them holistically. I will also consider cultural importance – historical significance (especially for classics), representation of diverse experiences (such as stories about queer and trans people), and reception – not to be conflated with popularity, I am considering this more as a contextual element to my choices. I will also be considering the presentation of localized works — production values of books such as design, localization decisions such as lettering and adaptation, and meaning-making elements such as supplementary essays and author interviews. Essentially, I will be engaging with the manga up for consideration in the same way I would in my work as a critic, but with a heightened awareness that my opinions now play a role in recognizing publications in a way which may shape our international manga canon for years to come. I expect to find myself making difficult, imperfect decisions, but most of all I intend to champion the many wonderful reads which populate this lovely corner of the sequential arts.”
GIGI MURAKAMI
ジジ村上
Gigi Murakami is an award-winning manga artist & illustrator, and content creator at the intersection of horror media, Japanese manga and anime, and alternative and nerd culture. Her work blends Japanese manga art, vintage grind house poster art, and pulp comic aesthetics, while thematically focusing on the dark, dramatic, fantastical, and often introspective. Colloquially known as “Queen of Horror Manga”, she has a handful of both traditionally published and self-published works, but is most recognized for her supernatural horror manga, RESENTER, which had a one-shot published with Viz Manga.
In 2025, Gigi received the Cartoon Crossroads Columbus Emerging Talent Award, presented by Bone creator Jeff Smith and partner Vijaya Iyer. In addition to developing original manga projects for traditional and independent publishing, Gigi is currently working as art lead and executive producer with the anime company, NLite, on their sophomore film “WEBE”, operating her membership program, Midnight Cult, online store, Gigimurakami.store, and creating content on her social media. She resides in Brooklyn, NY, with her husband Shinji and their Shiba Inu, Yuki.
Judge’s Statement
“I am very honored to have been invited as a judge for the 3rd annual American Manga Awards. I’ve been a longtime fan of manga since first reading Hideshi Hino’s Panorama of Hell as a child, and grew up during the manga boom in America, so participating in these awards is so meaningful and truly feels like a full circle moment. Additionally, as someone who creates manga, I’m hopeful that my experience and skillset can be useful in deliberation.
As a judge, I’m looking forward to nuanced characters with interesting and memorable dynamics, strong visual and narrative storytelling, and stories with strong hooks or atmosphere. Despite horror being my main niche/ genre, I have no specific expectations for genre and am looking forward to reading all kinds of stories.”
DANI KINGSTON
Dani is a British content creator and graphic designer behind the YouTube channel Lines in Motion. They focus on breaking down and analysing comics and animation, primarily through manga, anime, and western comics. With an audience of over 125,000 subscribers, their work explores the different techniques artists use to communicate ideas and emotions through composition, paneling, and more, while also helping introduce underrated manga to new audiences.
Alongside content creation, Dani has previously worked with 3dtotal Publishing as a graphic designer. They hold a First-Class degree in Graphic Design and Communication, and their work is particularly focused on the artistic craft behind manga and how visual decisions shape the reader experience.
Judge’s Statement
“I’m massively honoured to be part of this year’s American Manga Awards. Manga has only become more popular within mainstream audiences over the years, and as a result, many more works, from renowned series to indie and smaller publications, are now far more accessible to readers around the world. Due to this, I think it’s important to recognise not only great writing and artwork, but also the craftsmanship behind how stories are communicated on the page and what makes each one feel so unique, winning the hearts of so many.
Manga is such a uniquely visual medium, so I’m super excited to celebrate the creativity behind it. As I review submissions, I’ll be particularly interested in works that use the strengths of the medium effectively. I’m always drawn to stories that leave a lasting impression and fully embrace what makes manga special as a form of storytelling.”
KYLE CARDINE
カイル カーディン
Kyle Cardine is an award-winning journalist and currently the Global Editor-in-Chief of Crunchyroll News. As a lifelong anime, manga and Japanese pop culture fan, he has professionally worked in the space for more than 10 years, with bylines and credits in Anime News Network, BuzzFeed News and Waypoint. He also participated in the JET Program from 2013 to 2016.
https://www.crunchyroll.com/news/author/kyle-cardine
Judge’s Statement
“It is an exceptional privilege to be considered as a judge this year for the American Manga Awards and be in a position to help showcase and celebrate some of the best the art form has to offer. As a judge, I hope to see what works help expand my boundaries and imagination, and introduce me to concepts I would never have encountered otherwise. That is the magic of manga, and what has helped me stay in this community for so long.”
TRANSLATION JUDGES
ANDREA HORBINSKI
アンドレア ホービンスキー
Andrea Horbinski earned her PhD in history and new media at the University of California, Berkeley. As an independent scholar, she has discussed her research on anime, manga, fandom, and Japanese popular culture at conventions and conferences on five continents, and her articles have appeared in Transformative Works and Cultures, Convergence, Internet Histories, and Mechademia. She is the author of Manga’s First Century: How Creators and Fans Made Japanese Comics, 1905-1989 (2025, University of California Press), which was nominated for a 2026 Eisner Award.
Judge’s Statement
“My goals as a translation judge are the same as when I’m translating myself: looking for works where the translation doesn’t just transmit meaning accurately, but instead creatively communicates the nuance, tone, and mood of the original Japanese text.
I love reading manga in Japanese because creators thoughtfully use the wide variety of Japanese spoken language to convey nuances and meaning about characters’ personalities and relationships with each other, nuances which aren’t always fully brought across in translation. The best English translations do bring those meanings across and find ways to reflect the subtleties of the Japanese source in the English version, and I’m looking forward to diving into the submissions to see which works have accomplished that best this year.”
NICOLE COOLIDGE ROUSMANIERE
Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere is Deputy Director of the MOA Museum of Art; Professor emerita of Japanese Art and Culture at the University of East Anglia and member of the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures (SISJAC). She completed her doctoral studies at Harvard University in 1998. After teaching Japanese art history at the University of East Anglia and helped to create the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures and served as its first Director from 1999. Her major publications include Vessels of Influence: China and the Birth of Porcelain in Medieval and Modern Japan (Bloomsbury Academic, 2012) and the English translation of Tsuji Nobuo’s History of Art in Japan (A History of Art in Japan, Tokyo University Press, 2018).
Until 2019, she worked as a curator in the Japanese section of the Asia Department at the British Museum, where she served as lead curator for the 2007 exhibition Crafting Beauty in Modern Japan and the 2019 Citi Exhibition Manga. In 2021, she was appointed a Tottori Furusato Ambassador. More recently, she was responsible for the planning and curation of The Art of Manga exhibition held at the de Young Museum in San Francisco from September 2025 to February 2026 and traveling to the Brooklyn Museum from October 2026 to March 2027.
Judge’s Statement
Coming Soon
LETTERING JUDGES
TAYLOR ESPOSITO
Taylor Esposito is multi-award winning comic book lettering professional, owner of Ghost Glyph Studios, and teacher at the legendary Kubert School. A former staff letterer at DC and production artist at Marvel, he has lettered titles such as Red Hood and The Outlaws, Robin Lives!, and Harley Quinn The Eat KILL Bang Tour; Flash Gordon, The Phantom (Mad Cave Studios), Free Planet, Drawing Blood (Image); Babyteeth, Maniac of New York, Bunny Mask (Aftershock); No One Left to Fight and Survival Street (Dark Horse). Other publishers he has worked with include BOOM! Studios (Amory Wars, VR Troopers) Dynamite (Elvira, Space Ghost, Jonny Quest, Green Hornet), and Oni Press (Nacelleverse, Invasive).
Judge’s Statement
“I’m incredibly honored to be a judge for the 2026 American Manga Awards. As a career letterer going on 15 years of experience (and 20 years in comics) and teaching lettering for the past 7 years, I feel proud to be asked to judge the lettering of this year’s submissions. I’m excited to see what’s being done in the world of manga lettering from the best of the best. I’m looking forward to seeing the creativity and storytelling the submissions put forth.”
PAT BROSSEAU
Eisner Award-nominated Pat Brosseau is a veteran comic book letterer who has worked for every major comic book company on such titles as Hellboy, Wolverine, Aliens Vs Predator, Batman, Justice League, Wonder Woman, Creepshow, and Dick Tracy. He now resides in Northern Vermont with his lovely wife and daughter.
Judge’s Statement
“I’m very honored to serve as a judge for the Best Lettering category at the 2026 American Manga Awards. Lettering is an essential part of comics storytelling, shaping pacing, tone, clarity, and emotion in ways readers may not always consciously notice. The strongest lettering guides the reader naturally through the page while enhancing the overall atmosphere and voice of the story.
As I review this year’s submissions, I’ll be looking for lettering that elevates the reading experience through strong readability, thoughtful placement, effective sound effects, and a clear sense of rhythm and tone. Whether subtle or stylistically bold, great lettering should work seamlessly with the art and storytelling to fully immerse the reader in the comic”
PUBLICATION DESIGN JUDGES
ANDRES JUAREZ
Andres Juarez is the Creative Director, Editorial at Skybound Entertainment where he oversees publication design and production of comic books. Since 2015, his designs have become iconic fixtures of worldwide phenomenon like The Walking Dead and Invincible, along with modernizing pop culture icons through his designs for the industry changing Energon Universe.
Juarez’s designs for record-breaking G.I. Joe and Transformers comics Kickstarter campaigns have also earned universal acclaim. As part of Skybound’s editorial leadership, he plays a major role in ensuring high creative standards and cohesion across projects that often expand into games, television, and film.
Judge’s Statement
“I’m thrilled to serve as a judge for Best Publication Design in comics publishing for this year’s American Manga Awards. I’ll be looking for thoughtful typography, inventive layouts, and production choices that enhance storytelling and fully immerse the reader from cover to final page. Final nominees will show how design and narrative work together to create a cohesive reading experience.”
AMANDA CHUNG
Amanda Chung is the co-founder of lucky risograph and is a NYC-based art director, illustrator, and fabricator. In tandem with her art practice, she is currently a visiting professor/lecturer at Parsons and SVA. Through publishing, Amanda supports artists, small business owners, and grassroots organizers in sharing their stories. lucky risograph is an Asian and Hispanic-owned print press based in DUMBO, Brooklyn. Since their establishment in 2018, they have continued to incorporate the eco-conscious, accessible, and affordable nature of risograph printing into their everyday practice. Some of their most treasured achievements have been collaborating with small businesses and organizations such as Wing On Wo, Yoseka Stationery, La Morada, The Noguchi Museum, GKids, and many more. Previously featured on デザインのひきだし38 published by graphic-sha and Tiny Book of Tiny Stories Vol. 2 by hitrecord!
Judge’s Statement
“Successful publication design requires close attention to how digital designs translate to printed details in book form. I will be looking for publication designs that harmoniously merge the craftsmanship of the manga artist and the print press. It’s important to pay homage to and handle the original content with care, and through the design, open up a new perspective for the American audience”
