Tokyopop and CosmoGIRL! to Produce Serial Manga

Date: 2005 July 14 18:05

Posted by Jeremy

Tokyopop has announced that it will be teaming up with CosmoGIRL!, the fastest-selling teen magazine on newsstands, to produce a monthly manga serial in the magazine’s pages. This August will see the debut of "The Adventures of CG!", a shojo-style manga written and drawn by Svetlana Chmakova, the creator of Tokyopop’s upcoming release Dramacon.

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"The Adventures of CG!" tells the story of CG, a college sophmore studying abroad in Tokyo. Each monthly segment will feature CG running into cultural challenges, crowded subways, exciting city life, new friends and maybe even love. Drawn in Chmakova’s unique style, the story is packed with humor, drama and emotion, all the things that make manga great.

Susan Schulz, editor-in-chief of CosmoGIRL!, and Julie Taylor, senior editor of shojo manga at Tokyopop, both feel that readers of CosmoGIRL! will enjoy the new serial. "Our six million ‘CosmoGIRL!’ readers always have their fingers on the pulse," said Schulz. "They’re spot-on in determining what’s hot and what’s not – and what’s hot is definitely shojo manga. It’s already struck a chord with a significant segment of our readers which is why we’re so thrilled to partner with Tokyopop, the leader in the manga field."

Says Taylor, "Since we sell hundreds of thousands of manga to teen girls every year, we are confident that the ‘CosmoGIRL!’ readers will be drawn to this exciting manga. Shojo manga is definitely hot – and it’s just going to get hotter now that it’s appearing in the pages of ‘CosmoGIRL!’"

Artist Svetlana Chmakova has already made her mark on the manga world. She has previously done work for how-to-draw manga books, toy designs, animation, book covers and illustrations, and is currently working on two online comics: "Chasing Rainbows" (at www.girlamatic.com) and "Night Silver" (at www.wirepop.com). She was also recently interviewed in the April, 2005 issue of "Animerica" magazine, just two months prior to its cancellation. Her upcoming Tokyopop project, Dramacon, a romantic comedy about blossoming love at an anime convention, is set to debut in October of 2005.