The SILENT MANGA AUDITION® (SMA) is the world’s biggest manga audition, exclusively for manga without dialogue. Through silent manga, talented international creators have the same chance as Japanese creators to join the manga world. Draw your characters’ expressions full of emotion and heart to work towards your dream debut!
This round’s theme is ‘Letters‘! We’re asking you to create stories that include a physical letter written on pen and paper (or a digital letter, such as an email). Letters are tools for people to communicate their thoughts and feelings to others. Therefore, we’re asking for stories in which characters use letters to express their feelings ー or perhaps receive feelings from others in letters. We hope your characters will use letters as a vehicle to come to mutual understanding.
Of course, as long as letters are used as tools for communication in your piece, your characters can read, write, send, rip up, ignore, or throw away letters… the possibilities are endless!
Now that the theme is a physical object, instead of a concept or an emotion, you can choose which emotion you would like to highlight! Will the letter in your work make your characters cry? Laugh? Scream out in fury? Perhaps it will bring them tears of joy, as seen in the banner illustration by SMA MasterClass member monami, featuring characters from her award-winning one-shot, Fleeting Light!
This round’s theme is purposefully vague, as to accommodate as many types of stories as possible, so get creative with it! Put your pen to paper and show us how pen and paper letters make your characters feel! Remember that it’s not just about showing big emotion. Show us the build-up to the emotion before, and then show us what your character does with that emotion after.
We can’t wait to see how you interpret the theme of letters, but don’t forget to make it ‘silent’. Create a manga with no dialogue and no language barriers – just pure storytelling! Show us a 5-17 page story that can be understood through visuals alone!
Just like you, these creators joined SMA while following their dreams! Now they’re with us in Japan, working towards their debuts! Check out what they’ve made so far:
Offer to Enter the MasterClass and Receive Editorial Support Introduction to the Artists Village Aso 096k Project
Offer to Enter the MasterClass and Receive Editorial Support Introduction to the Artists Village Aso 096k Project
¥100,000
Excellence Award and Above to be Published on “MangaHot”
Excellence Award Runner-Ups and Above to be Featured in Monthly Comic ZENON
¥30,000
Excellence Award Runner-Ups and Above to be Featured in Monthly Comic ZENON
¥10,000
EVERY entry receives professional editorial feedback! The feedback will contain your entry’s strong points and highlight things we’d like you to practice and learn more about in order to create professional-level manga.
Entrants who complete a survey after joining SMA24 will receive a Clip Studio Paint EX 3-month activation code! Clip Studio Paint is the artist’s drawing, painting, comic, webtoon, and animation tool, loved by professionals. Don’t miss out on your chance to try Clip Studio Paint! Please also keep in mind that you can only receive the free trial code once!
The SMA judges evaluate SMA entries based on the following criteria. Above all, conveying your character’s expressions is the most important thing.
Characters’ emotions are expressed and displayed clearly.
The story and setting display your originality.
The theme is conveyed well through a story that’s easy to understand with enjoyable paneling.
NOTE: Entries done on paper should be scanned and digitized with a 300 dpi resolution. Page Layout Guidelines HERE (B4 Size) >>
Check out our tutorial on how to set up and export your pages in Clip Studio Paint EX!
Check out our tutorial on how to upload your silent manga to the entry system!
COAMIX Inc. is a Tokyo-based manga publisher founded by manga creators who are famous worldwide. Among its many titles, Record of Ragnarok, MOTHER PARASITE, Keiji’s Kabuki Adventure, and The War of Greedy Witches stand out as some recent and internationally acclaimed manga series from COAMIX Inc.
