Silent Japanese Manga Design Competition and a Chance to Win Cash Prizes 2021

Silent Manga Audition invites illustrators and professionals around the world to participate in the manga design competition. This year's theme is "moments of crying, smiling, or love," These three fundamental elements are the cornerstones of every Japanese manga published, ensuring the work contains one of the most important aspects of storytelling. The participant should enter a short manga that is free of dialogue and includes one of the main emotional elements.

Competition Rules:

• The page count for a single Manga Audition entry is 31 pages or less. The aim of the Audition is to demonstrate your ability to direct an effective narrative through an entertaining story. Consequently, the shorter the page count, the easier it is to achieve this goal. It’s the quality of this ability, rather than the quantity that counts.
• When using the “B4” size paper: Draw directly onto the paper. The drawing area of a B4 page should be Width: 220mm x Height: 310mm – inclusive of the Main Content area plus a Trim Margin of 20mm. “20mm” Trim Margin MAY be trimmed off when printing in a reduced size, so do not draw anything of importance in that area. Use this area if you would like detail to run off the page.
• If B4 paper is unavailable, you can use any paper size (e.g., A4). But remember to keep the aspect ratio unchanged.
• Entries done in the paper should be digitalized, selecting 300dpi resolution.
• All digital drawing tools are welcome in SMA (Clip studio, Manga studio, GIMP, Adobe Photoshop, Medibang, Paint, etc). 
• Dialogue: the use of dialogue to tell the story is strictly forbidden in Silent Manga.
• Copyright infringement: Using copyrighted characters or imagery.
• Speech balloons containing “!?”: Exclamations and other punctuation marks are fine, but always keep in mind that those devices are there to ENHANCE your expressive emotions, not to SUBSTITUTE them.
• SIGNS: e.g., Parking / Flower Shop / Restaurants, etc.: Signage is also OKAY, provided they are very common and universally understood.
• Drawn letters that represent sound is welcome and actually encouraged in ANY LANGUAGE.
• Utilize the 1st page, as part of the storytelling and not just a cover page.
• You can use “Double page spread (a pair of 2 adjacent pages in a book)”. Treat the page spread as ONE WIDE CANVAS.
• Complex stories are often inappropriate for Silent Manga. Plan ahead, and think of a simple, yet effective story before you begin your final manga. “A simple message that captures the theme” will be awarded higher than a “complex story with a confusing message”.

TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS:

• Your manga must start from A SINGLE PAGE, on the left side of the spread.
• All manga to be drawn from “Right-to-Left” (Japan standard).
• Image format: JPG or PNG format.
• File size: 1 file 2 MB or less.
• Image file name: Add the serial number at the end.
  • [Correct example] : page_001.jpg, page_002.jpg, etc. …
  • [Incorrect example] : page1.jpg / 1_page.jpg, etc. …
• Resolution / Dimension Size: Up to 300 dpi / 4000 px x 4000 px
• Images will be displayed on the web exactly as you upload them, so please TRIM AND CROP your images. All gutter, trim marks, and other parts of the image you wouldn’t present to a reader should be trimmed off.

Prizes:

• Grand Prix: ¥500000
• Grand Prix runner up ¥300000
• Excellence award: ¥100000
• Excellence runner up ¥30000
• Honorable mention: ¥10000

About Silent Manga Audition:

Established in 2012, the SILENT MANGA AUDITION® is an international manga competition that aims to discover, support, and publish the future stars of the global manga. Hosted by manga Japanese publisher COAMIX Inc., and lead by CEO Nobuhiko Horie (ex-chief editor of ‘Weekly Shonen Jump’ and ‘Weekly Comic Bunch’), this pioneering event has grown to become one of the biggest and most successful manga competitions in the world.

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