Three friends at the University of Wolverhampton are creating their own international comic book business under a #5 million Government-backed scheme to help students become entrepreneurs.

Andrew Grice, Matthew Dent and Shaun Gough believe there is a gap in the market for people seeking out Japanese Manga comic books.

As fans of the comics, the lads and other friends are often left frustrated at not being able to get their hands on the latest issues in this country of cult favourites such as Yu-Gi-Oh, Pokemon, Gundam, Dragonball and Naruto.

Now they are busy setting up a dedicated online comic book shop called Altair 42.

Sci-fi fans will understand that "Altair" is the setting for 50s sci-fi classic Forbidden Planet, and "42" is from Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which according to the book, is the answer to "life, the universe and everything".

The Computer Science students will be sourcing the most up-to-date stock available of "Manga", which is Japanese for comics and print cartoons.

Andrew, aged 24, and Matthew, aged 23, both of Wolverhampton, and Shaun, aged 24, of Telford, also say they will also stock up-to-date copies of America's popular DC Comics, which feature the likes of Superman and Batman, and Marvel Comics, whose characters include Spiderman and The Hulk.

They are benefiting from #12,000 of financial assistance under the government-backed Student Placements for Entrepreneurs in Education (SPEED) initiative designed to help students start up their own firms during their studies.

The university devised the SPEED project after helping another student, Barry Hoare, set up a successful tennis racquet sports business during his placement year.

Andrew said: "We all collect the comics and there's no one-stop-shop for them that is dedicated to selling comics and that has up-to-date stock.

"We've done a lot of research with comic book groups in the region and we've had a lot of interest from them.

"There's definitely a demand and we are confident we can build up a successful business that we can continue after our studies have finished."

Wolverhampton is managing the SPEED project, which has been rolled out to a number of other institutions across the country.

A total of 750 students, including 90 of its own, will benefit from the two-year scheme, which is being funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England.

Under the SPEED project, university staff will identify entrepreneurial talent at an early stage amongst their students.