Dramacon Manga Profile and Story Summary

Title:

Dramacon (English)

Creator:

Author and Artist:Svetlana Chmakova

Publisher:

TokyoPop (US)

Volumes:

3 volumes

Manga Genres:

Content Rating:

T – Teens, Age 13+ for teen romance, mild profanity
More about content ratings

About the Manga:

First published in 2005, Dramacon emerged as one of TokyoPop's most popular original English language (OEL) manga titles.

Widely acclaimed by comics and book critics, and the recipient of a Harvey and Eisner Award nomination (the comics industry equivalents of the Emmys or the Oscars) in 2006 and 2007 respectively, Dramacon was also cited on Publishers Weekly's Best Comics of 2005 list. Besides its UK and US editions, Dramacon has also been published in numerous countries and in several languages, including French, German, Spanish and Russian.

About the Author / Artist:

Svetlana Chmakova was born in 1979 in Russia. When she was 16, her family immigrated to Canada, where she resides today. Chmakova has a degree in Classical Animation from Sheridan College in Ontario, and her numerous professional credits include Chasing Rainbows, a weekly Web comic (now on hiatus) hosted on Girlamatic.com, The Adventures of CG, a comic feature for CosmoGirl magazine and her series featured in Yen Plus magazine, Night School.

Story Summary:

Christie is an aspiring manga writer who finds that her first trip to an anime convention is just the start of an adventure that helps her find new friends, new heartaches and new loves, and her first steps toward her dream, to become a published author with a major manga publisher.

Along the way, she must deal with her artist/collaborator/boyfriend Derek, who just can't help flirting with the cuties at the con. Her friends Brett and Opal are just a little too into the hentai stuff. And there's Matt, the mysterious guy in sunglasses whose sarcasm only slightly dampens Christie's fascination with him.

In latter volumes of Dramacon, Christie makes new friends, including Bethany, an aspiring artist whose mother is less than enthusiastic about her career prospects as a professional manga creator. With each new reason to dream and each obstacle to overcome, Christie and Bethany learn about the wild world of manga publishing, cosplay, anime fandom and the in's and out's of being an artist at "the con."

Main Characters

Christie Leroux
When we first meet Christie, she's a student and an aspiring manga writer. Her first collaboration with her boyfriend Derek gets her noticed, but it's her subsequent works with Bethany that really propel her on the path to her dream, to be a published manga creator. Now, if she could only figure out what's the deal with Matt, the guy she meets at the Con who fascinates and infuriates her...
Bethany Peters
Bethany is an aspiring manga artist, and from the looks of things, she's a talented one too, with great prospects for professional success. Trouble is, her mother would rather disown her than let her take a 'hobo job' like being a comics creator. Bethany must decide if she has the courage to follow her dreams or choose to live by her mother's plans for her life instead.

Matt Green
Cool, mysterious, and almost always sarcastic Matt somehow ends up being Christie's knight in a black leather overcoat when things get rough. Despite his obvious chemistry with Christie, Matt finds it hard to shed his cool, "I could care less" exterior to move their relationship beyond their initial attraction to something more.

Lida Zeff
Lida is a successful manga artist with MangaPop, a leading publisher exhibiting at the Lakeside Anime Convention. She discovers Christie's writing and later Bethany's artwork, and offers her critiques, compliments and advice to the aspiring creators as they strive to reach the same career heights that she has achieved.