Hajime Isayama and More than 100 Other Mangaka Donate to Art Auction for Ukrainians

Tetsuya Chiba, the creator of Ashita no Joe (Tomorrow’s Joe), is a member of the Japan Cartoonists’ Association, and he suggested the group put on an auction to aid the people of Ukraine. The Association agreed, and is establishing an online charity auction.

Manga creators have been lining up to help. 146 art cards have been donated by more than one hundred mangaka, with such big names as Hajime Isayama (Attack on Titan), Akihito Tsukushi (Made in Abyss), and Jyoji Morikawa (Hajime no Ippo). All of the artwork is themed with the concept of peace.

Chiba remarked, “I want to create pieces to express things in a way that even children can understand that this is the outcome of war, and what should be done for it to not happen.”

Morikawa spoke publicly about the auction, saying, “I want people to feel peace is good; I want people to accept our art in that way.”

In March, during the early days of the war on Ukraine, the Japan Cartoonists’ Association put out a statement that they were anti-war, and said, “It is a great joy to us that Japanese manga is loved in Ukraine, Russia, and around the world. All of its readers are also inheritors of a prayer for peace.”

The money earned from the auction will go to Doctors Without Borders (a.k.a. Médecins Sans Frontières). The organization said this about its work helping Ukrainians:

“As of July 1, 2022, there are approximately 147 international Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) staff and 494 Ukrainian staff working across Ukraine, with more joining the team every day. They work as medical staff (surgeons, doctors, nurses); psychologists; logistics and administration; and management. We currently have teams based in Apostolove, Dnipro, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kharkiv, Kropyvnytskyi, Kryvyi Rih, Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, Poltava, Pokrovsk, Uzhhorod, Vinnytsia, Zaporizhzhia, and Zhytomyr.”

You can find a link to the auction and more information on it here. Just be aware it’s written in Japanese. The auction ends on October 23.

Source: ANN

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Danica Davidson is the author of the bestselling Manga Art for Beginners with artist Melanie Westin, plus its sequel, Manga Art for Everyone, and the first-of-its-kind manga chalk book Chalk Art Manga, both illustrated by professional Japanese mangaka Rena Saiya. Check out her other comics and books at www.danicadavidson.com.