'We are now in the condition of Manga as air' as Osamu Tezuka once wrote. In contemporary Japan I think its not quite true - but one comes to feel like saying it. Compared to the pitiful and frankly disgraceful state of the comic book industry in the UK, Japan is really a comic book paradise. Take a walk down almost any sizeable street and there will soon be a 7/11 type shop with a manga section. These normal avenues for getting manga (equivalent to newsagents in a way) typically have around 150 to 200 different titles of trade paper backs, and about 30 large size regular monthly and weekly anthologies. Every now and then you will also come across bookshops with larger manga sections - borders type bookshops here often have a manga section that will offer several hundred different books. And then there is the usually at least one really big speciality store for just manga in which your into the 10,000's. As of that wasn't enough there are also manga libraries, where you can sit and read any manga from a range of 1000's for a small hourly fee. Another favourite of mine is the cyber cafes, where you can spend all day and all night if you like, for about 2 pounds an hour. Here you can use pool tables, massage rooms, karaoke, computers, get a private booth at no extra cost, free drinks included and of course... 1000's of manga to read!

This month we've got an interview with regular IndieReview columnist, Moonface Press owner, and comics writer Andy Winter. We cover most of his comics, and have a good chat about some of his big upcoming projects for 2008. He's got a lot coming out this year, so we took the time to see what he's got planned, and see where this year will lead Moonface Press and Andy.

This month I thought I’d talk about something specifically from a writer’s perspective – how to recruit and work with an artist on your strip or comic. Obviously, your first task is to actually approach an artist about working with you. These days that shouldn’t be too difficult. After all, there are loads of places online you can now visit to make contact with artists and illustrators, and view their work. There’s www.deviantart.com and www.comicspace.com for a start. You could also trawl a few comic-related messageboards as they often contain dedicated threads for writers seeking artists and vice versa.