[caption id="attachment_4333" align="aligncenter" width="1791"]

Commemorative photo with the award winners. Front row from left: Shuichi Mochida, representative of Kumamoto Coamix, Tsukasa Hojo, director of Coamix and special judge, Nobuhiko Horie, representative of Coamix, and Shinnosuke Watanabe, chief editor of Comic Zenon Editorial Department. [/caption]   The ``Coa Mix Kyushu Manga Award'' was newly launched for new manga artists living in Kyushu. The first award ceremony was held on the 13th at the Carnation Hall of Tsuruya Department Store (Kumamoto City), where Coa Mix Manga Lab is located. A total of 71 entries were submitted (37 from Kumamoto Prefecture, 18 from Fukuoka Prefecture, 9 from Okinawa Prefecture, 4 from Kagoshima Prefecture, 2 from Nagasaki Prefecture, and 1 from Oita Prefecture), with 13 winning entries. We received applications from a wide range of age groups, from 14 to 53 years old. Each winner of the Coa Mix Kyushu Manga Award will be assigned an editor. At the award ceremony venue, each editor in charge welcomed the winners, and a first meeting was held to prepare them for their professional debut in Kyushu. At the award ceremony, Coamix director Tsukasa Hojo, who served as a special judge, encouraged the creative activities of the winners. He talked about the purpose of the award and hoped that this award would help people make their debut as manga artists in Kyushu, which would have been difficult without going to Tokyo.  

Click here for the winners' comments and Tsukasa Hojo's selection review   The award certificate for the story category was presented by Hojo, and the certificates for the silent and name categories were presented by Nobuhiko Horie, representative of Coa Mix. Horie told the award recipients that it is important to continue to hone their talents, and that the Coa Mix editorial department will support them in doing so. After the award ceremony, a social gathering was held for the award winners and guests who support Kumamoto Coa Mix's activities. It also became a place for communication among the award winners. At the conclusion of the meeting, Shuichi Mochida, representative of Kumamoto Coa Mix, took the stage. After congratulating the award winners and thanking the guests, he spoke of his enthusiasm for nurturing talent from Kyushu, saying, ``I want this to be the forefront of manga.''   The ``Coamix Kyushu Manga Award'' is scheduled to be held twice a year. We are currently starting the second round of recruitment. Please see here for application requirements.