Elena Vitagliano is an award winning Italian comic artist living in London. Her work is related to the analysis of human emotions and the meaning of life. She grew up in Italy during an era of predominantly Japanese anime. This had a massive impact on her, leading to her developing a keen interest in Japanese culture, culminating in a degree revolving around Oriental culture, art and language, and even spending a year living and studying in Tokyo. Eventually, her passion got the better of her and she began to pursue a graphic design and manga career. Her winning streak encompasses various National Italian illustration awards, being a finalist at Torino Comix 2011, winning in the 2011 Manga Jiman Competition (organized by the Japanese Embassy in UK) and in 2013 the European Competition "Comics for Equality”.

Her greatest award has been received in 2018 though. She has been the first European woman to win the Grand Prix Award (first prize) in the Silent Manga Audition (international Japanese competition) - 8th edition - with the short manga “The cruelest Rule” about fair play. Furthermore, she occasionally writes articles about manga, makes manga portraits, cooperates with museums, associations and manga events and used to host a daily radio show about anime and manga. She is currently cooperating with a Japanese editor to write and draw a full-length manga novel and has just published a harvest of her short stories in Italy, called “Silent Smiles”.

Elena is the first Italian mangaka to be published in Shonen Jump Plus. You can read about it here.