Interested in the manga biz? Live in the OC?

UC Irvine Extension has a course for you! From Anime News Network:

Starting in January, the UC Irvine Extension program in California will be offering the third class in a series on the business of anime and manga in the United States. “Manga and Anime Explosion: Finishing and Publishing Your Manga” will be a five-session class designed to teach students about the manga publishing and rights management business. Previous courses in the series included an introduction to anime and manga and a class on story development.

Mike’s Take: it looks like you’ve already missed out, alas, if you were more interested in developing storytelling skills. Or if you didn’t even know anything about anime and manga (which I’m sure is true of the people who read this site, eh?). But if you already have a webcomic or have work ready to submit and/or publish, and if you have the dough (this is why I can’t take extension courses like this), you might learn something. The guy who teaches it apparently helped sell Battle Angel Alita to James “King of the World” Cameron and is writing the Americanized version of Berserk. That might not bode well to some ears, but I suppose we are starting to learn these days that clout is awfully important when it comes even to this industry of ours.

Author: gendomike

Michael lives in the Los Angeles area, and has been into anime since he saw Neon Genesis Evangelion in 1999. Some of his favorite shows include Full Metal Alchemist, Honey and Clover, and Welcome to the NHK!. Since 2003 he has gone to at least one anime convention every year. A public radio junkie, which naturally led to podcasting, he now holds a seminary degree and is looking to become Dr. Rev. Otaku Bible Man any day now. Michael can be reached at mike.huang@animediet.net. You can also find his Twitter account at @gendomike.