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The Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Mr Gregory So, today (August 31) met with local up-and-coming comic artists who have been selected to be featured in the second phase of the Hong Kong Avenue of Comic Stars.
He congratulated the six comic artists whose original comic characters will be presented in painted sculptures on the Avenue. The characters are Kong Kee's Ding Ding Penguin, Bigsoil's Polar Bear and the Boy, Cuson Lo's Cuson, Felix Ip's Jing Lie, Szeto Kim-kiu's Lok and Keung Chi-kit's Samba.
These new sculptures will be displayed alongside the 24 classic local comic characters featured in the first phase of the Avenue, including Tony Wong's Wang Xiao Hu and Ma Wing-shing's Cloud.
Mr So expressed the hope that the new addition of comic characters would bring more colour and vibrancy to the Avenue and showcase the endless creativity of local animation and comic (ani-com) talents.
Located at Kowloon Park in Tsim Sha Tsui, the Avenue is sponsored by Create Hong Kong to promote Hong Kong's comic sector. A total of 24 vividly painted sculptures of classic local comic characters and 10 bronze handprints of renowned local comic artists are exhibited in the first phase of the project. Since its opening in September 2012, the Avenue has attracted about 1 million visitors.
At the meeting, the comic artists introduced their original comic characters to Mr So and shared with him the distinctive creative features and techniques in the creation of these characters.
Mr So encouraged emerging comic artists to further engage in licensing, with a view to maximising the economic potential of business related to intellectual property (IP).
"Hong Kong has a well-established legal system that enables IP owners to employ different business models, such as licensing, to tap into unfamiliar areas, new media and even reinvention in different sectors," Mr So said.
"Hong Kong has its own very popular original comic characters. We can step up our efforts in IP-related business, such as cross-sector collaboration between ani-com talents and toy manufacturers to produce figures or models, which can help attract more people to our comics and promote our own original comic characters to other parts of the world," he added.
For the second phase of the Avenue, which is also sponsored by Create Hong Kong, the existing 24 painted sculptures and 10 bronze handprints will be refurbished and six new painted sculptures of local original comic characters will be added. These additional comic characters have been selected by a panel comprising industry professionals and representatives of relevant organisations from local nominations of comic characters that debuted after 2000.
The Hong Kong Comic and Animation Federation is running both phases of the Avenue. The opening of the second phase is tentatively scheduled for early 2016. More details are available at www.comicavenue.hk.
Ends/Monday, August 31, 2015
Issued at HKT 15:35
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