Portugal is a small country with a huge history! The first, truly global empire, Portugal’s reach once stretched from South America to Japan during the height of the Age of Discovery. Today, this innocuous little country on the Iberian Peninsula is once again leading the way, though in the place of gold, Comic Con Portugal is hunting for international manga by inviting the SILENT MANGA AUDITION® to participate!

From September 6th to the 9th, the city of Oeiras hosted Portugal’s 5th Comic Con. This year’s event saw record breaking attendance numbers, with guests from Spain, England, France and Portugal’s “geek” community descending on the event ground Passeio Marítimo de Algés to drink in their favorite movies, comics and cosplay. But this year, the 100,000 ticket holders were treated to something very special… the SILENT MANGA AUDITION®!

By collaborating with JANKENPON (http://jankenpon.pt) , Portugal’s number one manga newspaper, along with sponsorship from Mercedes Benz, SMAC! were offered the chance to exhibit the spectacular work of our European SMA Community members.

You can read the selected works here

 

(unfortunately due to complication with the production some schedule works have to be canceled)    

Additionally, JANKENPON, with the cooperation of the Portuguese Ministry of Culture, flew out two of our Master Class members, Kachisou and Nicolas David, where they “mangafied” two Mercedes Benz Smart Cars with their stunning work.

KACHISOU AND NICOLAS DAVID representing SMA!

 

This titanic MANGA BATTLE was live streamed, where audience members cast a vote on the best work, with the winning car embarking on a national comic event tour!

The SMAC!/JANKENPON partnership doesn’t end there either! After the success of Comic Con Portugal, the manga newspaper intends to tour the SMA exhibition throughout Europe, with guest appearances from SMAC! Master Class members. So please watch this space for more information.

 

We were incredibly proud to take part in JANKENPON’s mission to raise the awareness of European manga, and its place in today’s pop culture.