According to a report in The Japan Times Online, Kyoto Seika University will take the lead in comic art scholarship by offering graduate-level courses in creating comic books. While there are plenty of schools around the world teaching aspirants how to make with the funny books (I've often dreamed of attending the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art, just to name my favorite example), this new move opens up the possibility of referring to certain creators as "doctor." I mean, other than the supra-fabuloso Mike Allred, already known as "Doc" by friends and fans.
Comic book doctors. I heartily endorse this concept.
Actually, I believe if you're a manga assistant working for a manga-ka, you refer to your boss as sensei. This can mean teacher, coach or doctor. So I guess we already have a lot of Dr. Comicbooks roaming Japan, pencil in one hand, Winsor-Newton brush or Pigma Micron pen in the other, screentone sheet in the third. This course will just make it official. And in a further "I live in Japan" note, there's a design academy with its own brand new manga school right around the corner from where I live. If my Japanese language skills were up to snuff, I'd enroll there!
Japan-- where even the government promotes comic book culture. Yes, I love it here.
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