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Illustrator okama Gets Art Exhibit for Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland Books
posted on by Jennifer Sherman
Illustrator and manga creator okama is releasing his version of L. Frank Baum's classic novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz as the 11th volume of Kadokawa's 100 Nengo mo Yomareru Meisaku (Masterpieces You Can Read 100 Years Later) series on November 30. To celebrate the release, the "okama no Kaku Sekai Meisaku 'Fushigi no Kuni no Alice' 'Oz no Mahōtsukai'-ten" (World Masterpieces That okama Draws: Alice in Wonderland, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Exhibition) will be held at the GoFa gallery in Tokyo from December 8 to January 14.
The 100 Nengo mo Yomareru Meisaku book series recreates classics of Japanese and Western literature with new art by Japanese illustrators. The books targeted at elementary school students feature "story guide manga," color illustrations and posters, and guides for writing book reports. Before illustrating the series' The Wonderful Wizard of Oz book, okama drew the series' versions of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass books. The books debuted simultaneously as the series' first two titles in 2016.
The upcoming exhibition will display okama's contributions to the series. In addition, the exhibition will offer merchandise such as reproduction illustrations hand-signed by okama. The illustrator will have a special signing event on December 22.
Last year, Seven Seas published the original English-language novel The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald with illustrations by okama. He has also worked as conceptual designer and character designer on multiple anime series including Dragon Pilot: Hisone and Masotan, Senki Zesshō Symphogear, and Aquarion. The adult manga publisher FAKKU released okama's Hanafuda manga in English in 2015.
Sources: GoFa's website, Comic Natalie
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