Although the manga craze came to Germany later than it did to America or the Romance countries, German publishers have lost no time in capitalizing on the popularity of this Japanese import. Particularly important economically has been the appeal of manga to a previously barely tapped young female readership. Not content merely to import and translate Japanese product, however, the German manga publishers have aggressively fostered local manga artists by means of national competitions, with the winners publishing stories in German manga...

Japanese manga comics have recently become as hugely popular in Germany as they have in the English-speaking world. In Germany, however, the manga market has been colonized by the established comics publishers, principally Carlsen and Ehapa Verlag, who have not only been aggressive in licensing real Asian manga, but have also cultivated homegrown artists via competitions and magazines. These methods have led to the discovery and publication of several German manga artists, including Christina Plaka, Anike Hage, Gina Wetzel, Nina Werner,...