KODANSHA COMICS Wins Eisner For US Edition Of International Material

From the official Kodansha press release . . . . . .   Witch Hat Atelier Wins Prestigious Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards During Comic-Con International 2020 In its first nomination and win, Witch Hat Atelier by Kamome Shirahama wins a 2020 Eisner Award for Best U.S. Edition of International Material-Asia July 25, 2020 – New York, NY / San Diego, CA – First announced during the online award ceremony for the The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards held Friday, July 24, 2020 during Comic-Con International San Diego, Witch Hat Atelier by Kamome Shirahama, and published by Kodansha USA Publishing, was awarded a 2020 Eisner Award for Best U.S. Edition of International Material-Asia category! "Witnessing the spellbinding charm of this manga with universal appeal entrance the world has been enormously gratifying for us at Kodansha USA," said President & CEO Alvin Lu. "This special recognition by the Eisners committee and voters is a great honor. On behalf of the enormously talented Shirahama-sensei, thank you." Often considered by the comics, manga and graphic novel industry as “the Oscars of Comics,” the Eisner Awards are voted on by industry professionals and given out in more than two-dozen categories each year during Comic-Con International San Diego. This year, Witch Hat Atelier won a 2020 Eisner Award, joining other Kodansha USA Publishing titles who have also received this award in the past including, Tokyo Tarareba Girls by Akiko Higashimura in 2019, and AKIRA by Katsuhiro Otomo in 2018. Witch Hat Atelier is the beautifully illustrated, all-ages, story about a girl who longs for magic in her life and learns that, on the inside, she already is what she wishes she could be. In a world where everyone takes wonders like magic spells and dragons for granted, Coco is a girl with a simple dream: she wants to be a witch. But everybody knows magicians are born, not made, and Coco was not born with a gift for magic. Resigned to her un-magical life, Coco is about to give up on her dream to become a witch … until the day she meets Qifrey, a mysterious, traveling magician. After secretly seeing Qifrey perform magic in a way she’s never seen before, Coco soon learns what everybody “knows” might not be the truth, and discovers that her magical dream may not be as far away as it may seem… Witch Hat Atelier has seen over 2.3 million copies published across 18 countries, and is available to English speaking fans digitally via Amazon Kindle, BookWalker, comiXology, Apple Books, Google Play, Rakuten Kobo, Nook, and izneo, and also available in print, distributed by Penguin Random House. For more information on this and other Kodansha USA Publishing series please visit: https://kodanshacomics.com/. About Kamome Shirahama  Kamome Shirahama debuted as a manga artist with Eniale & Dewiela. And as an illustrator, worked on covers for various DC Comics and Marvel’s Star Wars comics. In 2016, she began serialization of Witch Hat Atelier in the Monthly Morning Two manga magazine published by Kodansha Ltd. This series has been well received by a worldwide audience and has won a number of international awards such as the Japan Expo Award, in France. About Kodansha USA Publishing, LLC Established in New York in 2008, Kodansha USA Publishing (KUP) is a subsidiary of Kodansha, Japan’s largest publisher. Its manga imprint is Kodansha Comics, which began by releasing Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira and Shirow Masamune’s The Ghost in the Shell. Today, thanks to hits like Attack on Titan, Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Edition, Noragami, and FAIRY TAIL, it is now the No. 2 manga publisher in the United States by revenue. VERTICAL, which publishes fan favorite manga titles like Chi’s Sweet Home and BLAME!, as well as the popular MONOGATARI novel series, is also an imprint of KUP. Both Kodansha Comics and VERTICAL are distributed by Penguin Random House Publisher Services. http://www.kodanshacomics.com