RISING STARS OF MANGA UP-DATE

 I wanted to check and see how the artists featured in the “Rising Stars Of Manga” feature have been doing and so contacted the creator who has to be the top UK Manga artist -Yishan Li.

 “Hi ya

Great you get in touch again :I was looking for you all the time whenever I went to a convention! I will in Bristol every year as long as I am in the UK.  

I love that convention -from next year they will have a manga expo alongside  the main expo and I will be there as a guest.

I am still working on those french books mainly.  Two for Dargaud and one for Delcourt -and two of them will be published next march (that is certain now).

Also I started working on a monthly manga page for American magazine Cosmogirl (teen version of cosmopolition)… quite happy about this new job because they sell something like 1.4 million a month and  Tokyopop is going to make a graphic novel of it very soon..

keep in touch!

Yishan”

Okay,so let’s put Li’s busy diary for 2007 in some order,naturally the high-point was doing an interview with me!  Erm,right,so take it away,Li!

“May 15, 2007 

I attended Bristol International Comic Expo on 12th and 13th of May. Manga section got bigger this year and there was even a Manga Spotlight.  I was promoting the books of Yaoi Press, the American publisher I worked for in 2005-2006 and published 2 books with, and it was quite a success!  I almost sold out all the books!  This is the second year I have been to Bristol Comic Expo and I got to know many more people this time.

May 25, 2007 

My first book in French is published now! Well, it’s not published in France but in Switzerland, and I only did one page for the book -_-. This is a very interestring book which is for the 70 years annversiary of Swiss Tribolo (scrach card) and has 45 artists from all over the world contributing one page each. I am so honored to be involved in this project alongside all these great artists. Btw, my good friends Jianyi and Wangpeng also had their pages in the book.

 Here is a photo of the book cover and my page (p30) 

“The Adventures of CG!” 

“The Adventures of CG!” is my latest project with Tokyopop and appears monthly in the American magazine Cosmogirl, which is the teen version of fashion magazine Cosmopolitan.  

The previous artist Svetlana Chmakova left in April so I took on the job, and from August issue (2007) you can find my work in the last page of the magazine.”

Cosmogirl and its 1.4 million readership is  incredible for any artist and will give Li the big break and financial rewards she deserves and for those 50 year old men who look a little,er,”odd” when going through Cosmogirl at least there is the Tokyopop collection to look forward to!

2008 looks like being a good year for Li!