12th Manga Division Encouragement Prize
Cartoon 2008
Comic strip manga [Japan]
KIKUCHI Masafumi
Outline
A Single Frame Manga that condenses profound humor, satire, and into one succinct image. The tales are skillfully woven together by title and image, and can be enjoyed irrespective of culture or language. This book is a collection of 19 pieces of the artist’s existing works.
Reason for Award
I was surprised by the high level of skill involved in this award-winning work. The artist approaches his subject with a sharp and critical point of view, and has the vision to integrate and express his ideas in one accurate and succinct picture. The illustrations are simple and friendly, which facilitates the conveyance of the topics beyond age or area; a long cultivated insight and skill is perhaps what makes this possible. Although nowadays One Frame Manga (cartoon) is not as popular as it once was, I hope that the artist will continue to keenly perceive potential dangers and convey warnings about them to society in this time of uncertainty.