HISTORY
This page is dedicated to the history of UKMANGAXL.
You might also find sample homepages from UKMANGAXL of the past and reviews of comics no longer in print.
The history of UKMANGAXL
UKMANGAXL was conceived as a way to fill the niche in comics journalism at the time by offering to exclusively review manga style comics made in the UK, by artists from the UK. At that time it was simply not covered well enough for my liking or many others' and when it was it was usually in some backhanded or subtle jibe or out and out mocking cynicism.
This lack of appropriate journalism simply didn't do the creators any justice whatsoever. Critique from these other sources simply wasn't constructive and tended to lean towards the narcissistic.
Giving creators constructive reviews was the original mission of UKMANGAXL.
The actual creation of the website took some time, given I had no idea what I was doing at all. So much research was done looking at how to buy and register the domain, the hosting and everything else. Actually creating a usable website which looked OK was another challenge altogether.
Needless to say after a week of struggling with my own lack of knowledge I actually had something that worked. When I look back now that first site looked rough, but I was quite proud of it at the time.
Later the site would expand to include not just reviews and news but lists of artists and studios working with the manga style in the UK.
Table sharing
Table sharing became the second mission of UKmangaXL from 2006 to 2009, the concept was simple. Buy a table, sell bits of it to other people. Some events at the time were hugely expensive (at least if you're on a below average wage) so by sharing the table I covered my costs (hopefully) and the artists themselves would get a slice of the action at a price they could afford, many of them being students. I'd like to think because of my efforts many lone artists can now get their own tables at a fair price at such events. I'd like to think I've made a positive contribution.
The present and future of UKMANGAXL
Given the amount of time and effort I've put into creating the site, attending events and all the things I've learned as a result of this project I'll keep it online til death do I part. The scene seems to have fallen off a little though in the last few years and seems to be in decline. People have simply vanished. Whether they all just walked off to facebook or twitter is anybodies guess. ;)
At one time this site would have focused purely original work, however there is a lot of worthy fanworks out there that deserve some attention also, and why not. This place is supposed to be a celebration of creativity after all.
Sites like UKMANGAXL will always have their uses I believe. Sites like this have always been about the content, untouched by mob opinion.
UKMANGAXL Webdesign history
Here you'll find various images of UKMANGAXL from the past. Click on a thumbnail to view, to return to this page click back on your browser.
I used to have the full page layouts on here but bots kept trying to hack them. I kept wondering why.. oh well. Now they can have fun trying to hack png files. :P
