I’ve been sending out books at the start of the year for reviews and a rather lovely one came out today at Sequential Tart, by Sheena McNeil.

Each new twist and turn had me fully captivated - I literally could not put it down till I’d read every last page! The art is vibrant and energetic […] Every detail adds realism to this spectacular world, and each character stands out as important and unique - each with a story to tell. […] The story is compelling and entertaining with an excellent flow that makes it fun and easy for such heavy topics of death and sadness.
# read the full review

She awarded it a Grade 9 out of 10. Stunning! My report card has never been so good

In other news, today I went out to meet and interview two ‘Set Production’ Designers concerning my little film project. Everything is being shot on a budget, so the first thing we needed to do was to find a Set Designer so we can discuss costs for building the set and try to keep things affordable.

It was very educational. The two ladies I met today had a lot of experience in the industry, shooting for both Film and Television, and as I explained to them what it was I wanted to capture, in terms of Set Design, they offered a lot of advice and concepts. I was really thrilled by it all. What I thought was very humble about them, was how even though they have all this experience, they’re still very much into working on Indie projects for free, purely for the love of the challenge and to get more items on their Show-reel’s.

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This week sees Sweatdrop Studios reach its sixth year as a manga collective! To celebrate this special occasion, they are giving a whopping 50% discount on their comics until 1st February 2008. Sweatdrop also offer free international shipping for orders over £15 (about US$30), so if you ever wanted to check out some UK-made manga, there couldn’t be a better time.

Click here to visit the Online Shop

Furthermore, there is a free prize draw on the forum, with prizes including Sweatdrop anthologies, books and an original watercolour image by Selina Dean. Just reply to the competition thread on the forum to take part.

Click Here for the Prize Draw Forum thread

Sweatrop Studios is a group of 19 UK-based manga artists which has been operating since January 2002. They have published a number of anthologies such as “Cold Sweat and Tears”, “Blue is for Boys” and “Pink is for Girls”, as well as original titles such as “Looking for the Sun” by Morag Lewis and “Fantastic Cat” by Selina Dean.

Sweatdrop members Emma Vieceli and Sonia Leong recently released “Hamlet” and “Romeo and Juliet” respectively with SelfMadeHero; and Fehed Said released “The Clarence Principle” with Slave Labor Graphics. Several members are also featured in Tokyopop’s UK & Ireland Rising Stars of Manga anthologies.