Thursday, August 22, 2024
Japan Society, New York, NY
The 2024 American Manga Awards will be the first-ever awards program honoring manga: manga creators, great manga stories, and the publishing professionals who make it possible for readers in US/Canada to discover and enjoy these amazing characters and stories in English. It will culminate in a ceremony and reception hosted by author and translator Matt Alt and honor the works professionals including Frederik L. Schodt.
The American Manga Awards is presented by LeftField Media, the creators and organizers of Anime NYC, the second largest Japanese pop culture event in North America.
It is co-organized by Japan Society, a leading non-profit organization that has been connecting Japanese arts, culture, language, business, and society with audiences in New York and the world since 1907. Japan Society has welcomed US Presidents, Japanese Prime Ministers, and Nobel Prize Winners, and it will now celebrate the power and artistry of manga.
Award winners will be announced at an invitation-only ceremony and reception at Japan Society’s Lila Acheson Wallace Auditorium in Midtown Manhattan on August 22, 2024.
Held on the eve of Anime NYC, the debut edition of this annual awards program will celebrate manga, manga creators and publishing professionals in 8 categories:
| Mangaka Hall of Fame | Manga Publishing Hall of Fame |
| Best New Manga | Best Continuing Manga Series |
| Best New Edition of Classic Manga | Best Translation |
| Best Lettering | Best Publication Design |
Mangaka Hall of Fame and the Manga Publishing Hall of Fame celebrate lifetime achievement by individuals who have made significant contributions to manga’s introduction, growth, and creative influence in North America. The Hall of Fame honorees will be selected by the American Manga Awards committee.
Best Translation, Best Lettering and Best Publication Design categories will have two nominating judges who are 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 consisting of five subject matter experts (journalists, librarians, reviewers).
The American Manga Awards would like to recognize our sponsors for this year’s event for their generous contributions in bringing this event to life.
ELIGIBILITY GUIDELINES
The following are the guidelines for submission.
Manga published in English (in print or ebooks) between August 1, 2023 – July 30, 2024
- Best New Manga must have first volume published (print or digital) within these eligibility dates
- Best Continuing Manga Series must have at least one volume published (print or digital) within the eligibility dates
- Best New Edition of Classic Manga must be a new English edition of manga (one-shot story or multi-volume series) that was originally published in Japan at least 20 years ago (for 2024, the cutoff date is December 31, 2004)
Manga must be available for purchase from bookstores, comic shops, and other retailers, or for purchase as digital books from ebook platforms (Kindle, Nook, Apple iBooks, Google Play, BookWalker) or direct download-to-own purchase from publishers’ websites.
Not eligible for consideration:
- Limited edition, self-published, or crowdfunded publications that are not readily available for purchase from retail or online bookstores or book distributors
- Digital titles that are only available as per-chapter purchases or can only be accessed by subscriptions on apps/websites
- Digital-only titles are eligible once their graphic novel (tankobon) editions are available for sale as print or ebook editions, whichever release date comes first.
Publishers can submit up to 3 titles per category.
VOTING PROCESS
The winners for these categories will be determined by votes received from professionals working in an editorial capacity with North America (US/Canada) manga publishers. Professionals can register to vote via the American Manga Awards website, or may be invited to vote by invitation from the American Manga Awards committee. Voting will not be open to the general public.
Professional Voting Registration is now open.
SUBMISSIONS
Deadline for submissions is June 15.
To submit a manga publication for consideration, click on the button below.
2024 NOMINATING JUDGES
Matt Alt
Born in Washington, D.C. and raised in its suburbs, Matt currently lives and works in Tokyo. His work as a localizer has appeared in the Dragon Quest, Ninja Gaiden, Nioh, and Gundam game series, among many others.
He is the co-author of numerous books about Japan, and a contributor to The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, and other publications. He was a longtime co-host of the NHK World series “Japanology Plus,” and is the author of Pure Invention: How Japan’s Pop Culture Made the Modern World.
Matt will also be host of the American Manga Awards.
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Hiroko Yoda
Co-founder and President, AltJapan Co.,Ltd.
Hiroko Yoda is a Japanese author, translator, and content creator. Her books include Yokai Attack! The Japanese Monster Survival Guide (Tuttle) and its sequels, and the upcoming Eight Million Ways to Happiness (Tiny Reparations Books.)
Born and raised in Tokyo, she was educated in places as varied as rural Indiana, Washington DC, and the Middle East. She is a former Miko shrine dancer, is certified by the Japanese Association of Shinto Shrines as a Shinto cultural historian, and also a certified kimono fitter and consultant.
In 1999, she co-founded the localization company AltJapan Co., Ltd. to help build bridges between Japan and the world. Over more than two decades she has helped Japanese creators in the video game, manga, anime, toy, and film industries bring their artistic visions to audiences abroad.
Nate Piekos
Eisner-nominated letterer, award-winning graphic designer and typographer, Nate Piekos of Blambot.com.
Nate Piekos graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in graphic design from Rhode Island College in 1998. His font and logo designs can be seen worldwide, and he’s the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2010 Rhode Island College Alumni Honor Roll Award for Success in the Field of Design. In 2021, Nate authored The Essential Guide to Comic Book Lettering; the most comprehensive book ever written on the subject of lettering. In 2023, he was also nominated for the Eisner Award for Lettering, the comics industry’s highest honor. Nate continues to work on some of the most high-profile projects for virtually every major publisher in the comic book industry, including Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Dark Horse Comics, Image Comics, and Boom! Studios.
Tom Orzechowski
Tom Orzechowski was born in Detroit, and began reading comics at age 5. Pen and ink lettering was learned while doing zines. This lead to work in the Marvel bullpen in 1973. Starting in 1975, and for most issues until 1992, Tom lettered Uncanny X-Men, as well as New Mutants, Wolverine, and their related GNs, annuals, and miniseries. Other series work included Jungle Action/Black Panther: Jim Starlin’s Captain Marvel, and then Warlock; Star Wars; and many others throughout the Marvel line.
Via Studio Proteus, a manga translation company formed in 1989, Tom lettered the U.S. publication of Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind. This was followed by work on Appleseed, Dominion Tank Police, Ghost In The Shell, and several other series during the following decade.
In 1992, Tom was tapped to letter Todd McFarlane’s series Spawn, a job he’s held for 355 issues to date. The Guinness Book of Records (2021) recognized him for lettering the most issues of a single series.
Other clients have included Eclipse, Viz, DC, Dark Horse, Image, and Archie. The list continues to grow.
Shigekazu Watanabe
Shigekazu Watanabe has over thirteen years at Kinokuniya USA, rising from Assistant Manager in Los Angeles to East Coast Regional Manager. He has overseen multiple store openings across the U.S., including in Dallas, Austin, and Katy, Texas. From 2017 to 2022, he managed the Midwest and Southern regions. Since April 2022, he has been leading the East Coast region, supervising stores in New York, New Jersey, and Chicago, and successfully opening the new store in Atlanta in 2023. Shigekazu Watanabe’s extensive experience has been vital to Kinokuniya USA’s growth.
Sasha E Head
Sasha E Head is a Graphic Designer and Production Artist in comic book publishing and video games. During her career as a production artist, Sasha guided countless books off to press and designed Image+, the winner of the 2016 ‘Magazine of the Year’ Diamond Gem Award. Her most notable work is on the Image Comics-published titles Time Before Time and Decorum.
Currently, Sasha works as a graphic designer and 2D artist in the video games industry, collaborating with 3D background artists to craft the thoughtful, world-building details that round out beloved, high-quality gameplay experiences. She also meticulously constructs alphabets, mythology-defining infographics, and lore bible tomes for the ongoing Substack comics universe Three Worlds / Three Moons.
Brigid Alverson
Brigid Alverson is a journalist who writes about comics, graphic novels, and manga for Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, and ICv2, where she is also a Contributing Editor. She is the Editor of the Good Comics for Kids blog at SLJ and part of the editorial team at Smash Pages.
Shaenon K. Garrity
Shaenon K. Garrity is a cartoonist and writer best known for Narbonic, Skin Horse (cowritten with Jeffrey C. Wells), and the Willowweep Manor graphic novels (with art by Christopher Baldwin). She has worked as a freelance manga editor and localizer for over 20 years. She lives in Berkeley with a cat, a man, a boy, and two chickens.
Lynzee Loveridge
Anime News Network Executive Editor, ANN Aftershow Podcast Host
Lynzee Loveridge joined the Anime News Network site over a decade ago and has been an avid manga reader twice that long. She has the unique position of knowing what’s tracking with critics and readers, overseeing all of ANN’s manga and anime editorial content. Outside of work, she’s just a magical girl living in a Junji Ito world.
Minovsky
Minovsky is a lifelong manga fan and advocate. Driven by an irrepressible curiosity to discover new and classic material and enthusiastically share what makes these works so special with others, he is eager to participate in the inaugural American Manga Awards as a nominating judge.
Renee Scott
Renee Scott is a young adult librarian based in NYC. Renee works as a blogger and reviewer for Good Comics for Kids, a blog affiliated with School Library Journal. She serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Manga in Libraries. She is a lifelong fan of comics, anime, and manga, and is currently writing her first book. She can be found on Twitter at @libraryladynyc, and on her review blog, The Library Lady of NYC Reviews.
MANGA PUBLISHING HALL OF FAME
Our inaugural induction to the Manga Publishing Hall of Fame is Frederik L. Schodt
Frederik L. Schodt (“Fred”) is an author of numerous non-fiction books on the convergence of Japanese and North American cultures, with subjects ranging from technology to history and religion, but he is especially known for his manga-related writings and translations.
He began seriously reading manga in 1970 while a student at a university in Tokyo. With some similar-minded friends, in 1977 he began doing pioneering manga translation work. The difficulty of getting anything published led him in 1983 to writing the first book about manga in English.
Still in print today and read widely by both fans and scholars, Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics (Kodansha) introduced non-Japanese to a vibrant new visual culture. Fred has subsequently written widely about manga, in both articles and books, and he has also worked on translations of noted artists such as Osamu Tezuka, Riyoko Ikeda, Leiji Matsumoto, Keiji Nakazawa, Masamune Shirow, Yukinobu Hoshino, Naoki Urasawa, Hayao Miyazaki, and the pioneering 1931 work of the Japanese immigrant artist, Henry Kiyama.
He has also won numerous manga-related awards, including, in 2000, the Special Category of the Asahi Shimbun’s Osamu Tezuka Culture Prize; in 2009, the Special Category of the Japan International Manga Award; and, in 2022, the Tom Spurgeon Award at Cartoon Crossroads Columbus. In 2009, the Emperor of Japan granted him the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette, for helping to promote Japanese popular culture in North America. For the last ten years he has also served on the Executive Committee of the Foreign Ministry’s Japan International Manga Award.
His website is at www.jai2.com
CONTACT
For Press Inquiries:
Sue Procko / Danielle Garnier
The Procko Group
[email protected]
[email protected]
For General Inquiries:
[email protected]
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