The front cover of the Manga NT Raw illustrated by Siku

The front cover of the Manga NT Raw illustrated by Siku

LONDON - A growing craze in Britain for manga, a Japanese style of comic packed with big-eyed, wild-haired characters, has inspired publishers to produce manga versions of William Shakespeare plays and even a manga bible.

British artists are also trying their hand at recreating Japan's traditional brand of comic art, while demand for English-language copies of Japanese manga stories like Fruits Basket and Astro Boy is rocketing.

The interest in manga, already popular in the United States, France and Germany, is encouraging more people to learn about Japan, which should ultimately provide a boost for the Japanese economy, experts say.

"The manga scene in the UK is on the serious climb," said upcoming comic artist John Aggs, who won a prestigious manga-drawing competition in Britain and Ireland in early March run by manga publisher Tokyopop.

"It is the exoticism of manga. Japan is very far away, it is trendy, it has got a lot of neon lights and it appeals to people," said Rising Stars of Manga winner Aggs.

Satirical art in Japan can be traced back to medieval times. But the word manga, which literally means "whimsical picture", is often linked back to 19th century Japanese woodblock artist Katsushika Hokusai who used it to describe his work.

Manga developed its modern meaning, to describe a whole genre of Japanese animated art, at the beginning of the 1900s when artists in Japan were influenced by imports of political comic strips from the United States and Britain such as Punch.

The style really caught on after World War Two thanks to the work of Osamu Tezuka, often known as "the god of manga", who created iconic characters such as Astro Boy.

"In a way, what is happening now a century later here with us doing our own manga, is no different to the Japanese doing their own comics at the turn of the last century," said manga expert and freelance journalist Paul Gravett.

Manga mania

Manga-style characters feature in many of today's computer games and animations, making them the default look of cartoons for children. Appetite is also strong for manga books, the equivalent of a lengthy comic, which come in a variety of themes from horror and romance to comedy and even pornography.