EAGLE: THE MAKING OF AN ASIAN-AMERICAN PRESIDENT

San Francisco, CA -- Viz Comics is pleased and honored that EAGLE: THE MAKING OF AN ASIAN-AMERICAN PRESIDENT has been nominated in four major categories for the 13th annual Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards--likened to the Academy Awards of American comics.

EAGLE is a nominee for Best New Series, Best Continuing Series, and Best U.S. Edition of Foreign Material. Creator Kaiji Kawaguchi is nominated for Best Writer/Artist. The Eisner Awards ceremony is at the San Diego Comic-Con, America's largest, held again in July.

"These might be the most Eisner nominations any manga has ever received in a single year," said EAGLE editor and writer of its English adaptation, Carl Gustav Horn. "Americans who believe in the power of graphic storytelling may hear about how manga are a true mass medium in Japan, strong as TV or movies, supported by millions of adult readers. But when they look at so many of the manga that make it to the U.S.--manga that are mere tie-ins to toys, video games, and anime--it's hard for them to see why."

"But when an EAGLE gets released, people finally get to see why," said Horn, noting that many U.S. readers liken Eagle's appeal to the Emmy-winning TV drama THE WEST WING. "In three of the four categories, EAGLE had to compete against many superb English-language comics; Viz is amazed and pleased, for instance, to see Kaiji Kawaguchi earn as many nominations this year as did FROM HELL's Alan Moore.

"Some people have even compared the fact that a manga is in so many major Eisner categories this year to CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON's presence at the Oscars. Within the fourth nomination, the 'foreign' category, EAGLE is competing against two other superb manga, AKIRA and LONE WOLF AND CUB. But these two are classic titles, already famous from having been previously published here in the 1980s. We're grateful to see a new title like EAGLE nominated right beside them, because it recognizes that there are manga being done right now in Japan that are just as groundbreaking, exciting and relevant."

A story originally begun in Japan in 1997 -- and having just ended there this month -- EAGLE gives readers an alternate version of the 2000 U.S. Presidential race, where characters inspired by actual American political figures clash against Kawaguchi's own creations: different Democratic and Republican candidates each far more interesting than the real ones!

"I first became interested in using the American presidential election as subject matter after watching the documentary THE WAR ROOM," Kawaguchi told THE LOS ANGELES TIMES in a recent interview. "The idea of how this man is selected--this man who will have a tremendous effect on the world, the spectacle of the contest--now that's an interesting setting for a story!"

EAGLE, hailed as a "canny political thriller" by U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, follows its two main characters: third-generation Japanese-American Senator from New York, Kenneth Yamaoka, and the native Japanese reporter invited to America to cover his campaign, young Takashi Jo. Yamaoka has worked his whole life towards running for President: a dream that helped him survive Vietnam, graduate Yale Law, and even marry into one of the oldest and wealthiest families in New England. He's got the money and the tactics ready to run the race at last. So why, why, does the Senator risk destroying all his dreams in an instant--by confiding to an angry and confused Takashi that he was that American soldier who had an affair with his mother--that he is the father Takashi never knew?

Warren Ellis, whom ROLLING STONE called today's "Hot Comics Writer" for works such as TRANSMETROPOLITAN, describes EAGLE as "a wild tangle of sex and secrets and hate and Machiavellian intrigue. It's PRIMARY COLORS in a really bad mood."

EAGLE creator Kawaguchi combines a keen outsider's perspective on American history with an insider's detail on American politics, to ask: if the U.S. is a nation of immigrants and the leader of a diverse world, than why do its presidents all look alike? If America is still not "ready" yet for a minority president, then how high a price would have to be paid to make it happen?

EAGLE: THE MAKING OF AN ASIAN-AMERICAN PRESIDENT is a 22-issue series, Volume 15, the April 2001 issue, titled "The Nomination."

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