Winning Manga Art Works Gallery 2023
$10,000 in scholarships was awarded to Idaho high school students for their first year at the University of Idaho. $8,000 was awarded in various amounts for use toward any degree and $2,000 was from the College of Art and Architecture for a student planning to major in CAA.
$2,000 in scholarships was awarded to current University of Idaho students for use in any major.
High School Winners
Comics
1st Place Winner: Alexis Jennings
Meow: Beginning and End
Judges comments: Great inclusion of text, nice expressions, and great style and line work.
Award: $2,000 Scholarship
2nd Place Winner: Quinlyn M Rutherford-Stone
The Potion Maker & the Frog
Judges comments: Good facial expressions and funny moments. Great background details and great job doing three pages.
Award: $1,000 Scholarship
3rd Place Winner: Mindi Overholt
Drifting Away
Judges comments: Nice drawing of hands. Nice textures. Good contrast.
Award: $500 Scholarship
Honorable Mention: Regina Bates
Eliminating Trash
Judges comments: Nice panel design. Good use of contrast…the dark atmosphere is well expressed.
Award: $500 Scholarship
Illustration
1st Place Winner: Montserrat Juarez
Candle Light
Judges comments: Very expressionistic painting. Love the rendering. Atmosphere is great.
Award: $2,000 Scholarship
2nd Place Winner: Sam C. Arnold
Green Morning
Judges comments: The coloring is beautiful and the way the tree in the background is merging with the character is also very interesting.
Award: $1,000 Scholarship
3rd Place Winner: Nicolette Rhodes
The Opal Oni
Judges comments: Nice handle with materials. The colors are very rich. Nice composition.
Award: $500 Scholarship
Honorable Mention: Yarianne Pelayo
Bloody Nose
Judges comments: Love the buildings and the checker pattern. Drawing cars at perspective is incredibly difficult and this is a great effort.
Award: $500 Scholarship
College of Art & Architecture
Winner: Mindi Overholt
Drifting Away
Judges comments: A fun, dreamy page with good atmosphere.
Award: $2,000 Scholarship
College Winners
Comics
1st Place Winner: Cami Heath
Wendigo
Judges comments: Understandable story, and a well organized panel layout. Great use of a monochromatic palette, nice facial expressions, great shading, nice use of perspective. Love the way the smoke is used.
Award: $800 Scholarship
2nd Place Winner: Amber Aittama
Doped Delerium
Judges comments: Really good flow with the story. Clean drawing. I like how the background is drawn, and that some parts are going out of the panel line, but in a dynamic way. Very imaginative.
Award: $400 Scholarship
Illustration
1st Place Winner: Evahrose Cannon
Bass Guitar
Judges comments: Unique character design. Nice style, good use of shading. Solid detail.
Award: $800 Scholarship
AsiaPOP! Manga Contest Judges
Bon Won Koo, Jury Chair
Bon Won Koo is an assistant professor in the Manga Faculty at Kyoto Seika University. She teaches the praxis and theory of drawing manga, and her research interests include manga expressions and the reading process and the manga market and production process both in and outside of Japan.
Dennis Lo
Dennis Lo grew up with anime, manga, and manhua, and quickly developed an interest in drawing everything he had ever seen, from Sci-fi movies to TV shows. He is the winner of TOKYOPOP Rising Stars of Manga 8 competition in the Horror category, with his entry “Daylight.” He is currently a professor of graphic design at Minneapolis Community and Technical College and his ongoing series, “Strange Symmetry,” is published through Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing.
Website: dloartwork.com
Noah Kroese
Noah Kroese is an illustrator, cartoonist, and author. Since graduating with a B.F.A. from the University of Idaho in 2004, Noah has worked for a diverse range of national and international clients including Investing.com, Microsoft, and NASA. His illustrated book, “Saturday”, was published in late 2015.
Website: noahkroese.com