In the coming weeks she'll find out whether a Cartoon Network show she's created will get the green light.

Meanwhile, plans are in the works to give manga-drawing workshops at Max the Mutt Animation School (maxthemutt.com), in Toronto, for teens and adults.

Not bad for someone who was tired of animation after college and didn't know exactly what she was going to do.

Chmakova freelanced here and there after graduation, and fed her manga passion in her spare time.

Bitten by the comic bug while a youngster in Russia, Chmakova fell in love with any cartoon book she could get her hands on. But it was the Russian translation of a Japanimation book called ElfQuest, which she read in 1993, that set her mind on fire.

Labels: comics on tv, international, manga, Ontario, Toronto