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Taiwan Head to Get Signatures from Glass Mask, Mazinger Z's Creators
posted on by Egan Loo
According to United Daily News, Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou will attend the opening ceremony of Taipei International Book Exhibition (TIBE) 2009 on February 4. There, he will receive an autograph from mangaka Suzue Miuchi, creator of Glass no Kamen (Glass Mask) and a guest of honor of TIBE 2009. Gō Nagai, another guest of honor who is best known as the creator of the Mazinger Z and Cutey Honey manga/anime franchises, is unable to attend the ceremony personally. Instead, Nagai will send his greetings by illustrating a special autographed poster of Mazinger Z with Japan and Taiwan in the background to mark the friendship of two nations. Ma will be the first president to visit TIBE.
Ma has a long history with manga and comic-related events. As the mayor of Taipei, he attended the "Comic Exhibition at Taipei" event for the first time in August 2002. He admitted at the event that while he had read many comics in his youth, his knowledge about current manga was very limited, so he could only recognize Crayon Shin-chan. While visiting the exhibition hall, Ma played the Beyblade game with young visitors.
In August 2005 and 2006, Ma was invited to recommend comics and appear at the opening ceremony (pictured above) of the 6th Comic Exhibition at Taipei. To promote the “delicious cuisine” theme that year, Ma signed a cake with his face on it and held a volume of the Yakitate!! Japan manga on his hands.
In a June 2007 event, Ma was invited to present awards to aspiring Young Comic artists. In his speech, he encouraged students to express themselves with drawing pens, He also recommended titles such as The Silent Service, Black Jack, One Piece, and Astro Boy. He even exposed a personal secret: he had drawn comics, including nude female bodies, in his early days. However, his late father found his drawings, and he was forbidden to draw more.
Thank you to dormcat for the news.
Source: Southcn.com, www.gamer.com.tw, www.people.com.cn, ChinaReviewNews.com
