Review by Jamie Coville

This is the 3rd and *possibly* the final chapter of the Dramacon series. A quick premise: Christie and Matt regularly meet at an anime convention. There are some sparks between them but stuff has prevented them from getting together. So what will it be this year? Another major plot involves Christie's popular artist friend Bethany. Last year a major publisher offered her work, but she turned it down. She did this because her mother is really pushing for her to become something stable and well paying. The mother very strongly objects to Bethany becoming anything creative. She tells Bethany it's a sure ticket to being poor. In this volume we actually meet the Mom and the issue comes to a head in an explosive way. Aside from Chrsitie's and Matt's story, there was a lot of focus on Bethany and little on Lida. It's too bad this couldn't have been bigger as I'd have liked to read Lida's story too. She was a really interesting character from the first two volumes. She is a big name manga creator who gives advice to the aspiring pro's. But then, that does happen at conventions. You miss people you want to see/meet up with because of unexpected stuff pops up. The main question from Lida last volume does get answered at the end of this one. As always the pacing of the story is great. There is always something going on that keeps you hooked and reading. This is probably Svetlana's biggest strength as a writer. The book just begs to be re-read and it sucks you in every time you do. Svetlana continues to evolve as an artist. With this volume she played around with the layouts and moves your eye around the page. She does this with a lot of overlapping panels and the positioning of word balloons. My only real criticism is with the art is there were a couple of pages where it was confusing on where the eye should go next. Specifically a middle panels drew me downwards towards the last panel, skipping the bottom left panel. I noticed one panel read right to left like unflipped manga, which was nifty. Beyond that it was the same playful art, jumping from simple for the humorous moments to more realistic for the serious parts. It made the book a real page turner, but with lots of story packed in so you get your moneys worth. I'm hoping TokyoPop and Svetlana can team up again to do more Dramacon because I think there's more story to tell here. But for now I'll be on the lookout for her next book through Yen Press, titled Night School. As for Dramacon Vol. 3, I give it a 5 out of 5 stars.

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