Interest

New Shonen Jump Rookie Contest Has Gag Manga Artist Kyosuke Usuta as Judge

Shonen Jump Rookie, a webcomic portal for novice artists, is holding a contest for aspiring manga artists with gag manga artist Kyōsuke Usuta (Sexy Commando Gaiden: Sugoi yo!! Masaru-san, Pyu to Fuku! Jaguar) serving as the judge.

Usuta explains what he's looking for on the contest's webpage:

This is the first time I've given an award with this kind of prize, but you don't have to do a gag manga, I don't care even if you draw a manga with a pitch-black story. But I don't much like really dark stories, so maybe it's better to send those when someone else is doing this. I definitely like shōnen-type manga.

Whenever I evaluate something (and not Just!! (manga), I ask if it's trying to do something interesting. I think I will most look for whether it tries to do weird stuff or whether it's infused with the sense of wanting to make something no one else can make.

Well, it's not like you'll get the award even with those elements. Manga is harder to draw than you might think. To win the award, it's probably best to draw a masterpiece that everyone who reads it will be surprised by. Please do your best!

There is no page limit, but keeping the entries under 60 pages is suggested. Works with more than two chapters will not be considered. Artists may also choose whether to draw their manga horizontally or vertically. Works appearing in commercial magazines or websites are ineligible. Participants are allowed to submit up to five works. Entries will begin appearing on Shonen Jump Rookie around the end of August, with new entries every Friday.

The contest will last until October 31; winners will be announced in December and January. The rewards will be a trophy from Usuta himself, publication in Shonen Jump +, and prize money (500,000 yen/US$4,835 for the Grand Prize, 100,00 yen/US$967 for the Great Prize). The third-place winner will only receive money (50,000 yen/US$483). To get the trophy, you have to be able to come to Shueisha in Tokyo.

Meanwhile, the website is posting entries from the previously announced Shonen Jump Rookie contest, with To Love-Ru's Kentarō Yabuki as the judge. Here are some selections (awards have not yet been given—the contest will run through September 30):

"Yomigaere! Sokushi-chan!" ("Revive! Sudden Death-chan!") by ryoNO8 follows a girl with an unfortunate tendency to die all the time.

"Kana no Yūbinya-san✉" ("Kana the Mailwoman") by Leader (Akumoto) makes delivering the mail hilarious.

And you thought tsundere classmates were bad... Ryōtarō's "Tsunsen!" gives us a schoolteacher who slams her students with a pop quiz right off the bat, then swears that she's "doing it for them!"

For more entries in the Yabuki manga contest, visit this page (Japanese only).

Source: Shonen Jump Rookie