HCM CITY — Several new comic book series for children written and designed by Vietnamese authors and artists from HCM City-based TVC Culture Company will hit bookstore shelves nation-wide this month.
"We hope our comic series with interesting content will capture the attention of young readers, " said Duong Thien Vuong, TVC director.
TVC is one of a few companies which have invested in the domestic comics industry dominated for years by foreign comics.
A sci-fi adventure series including Hiep Uoc Rong (Dragon Treaty) and Vo Ngua Sai Gon (Horse Steps in Sai Gon) are among the comics to be released by TVC this month.
Seven others will be published in coming months, Vuong said.
The struggle between good and evil in the comic series Dung Si Hesman (Hesman The Valiant) and the magical events in Sieu Nhan Viet Nam (Vietnamese Supermen) published by TVC a few years ago were warmly welcomed by children and teenage readers around the country.
"The success of the series encouraged us to invest in our ambitious project ‘Vietnamese comics for Vietnamese,' Vuong said.
Vuong said he was able to start the project only after a number of writers and designers agreed to work permanently with TVC.
"Our co-operation marks a concerted effort to develop a local comic book industry," he said.
"We've invested in Vietnamese comics because this market remains untapped and we always receive letters of encouragement from young readers, especially children's parents, many of whom complain of violence in many foreign comic books," he said.
With some 500,000 copies rolling off the presses in Viet Nam each week, comic books have come to dominate the book market, proving very popular with young readers. However, 90 per cent of these are translations of comic books from other countries, mainly Japan and China.
Vuong said local comic books still lacked good scripts that appeal to a child's imagination.
"To improve the content and design of our productions, we hope to receive readers' creative ideas for characters and stories that capture the imagination of Vietnamese youth," he said. — VNS