Comments on: A Lost Sense of Wonder

By: Near-Mint Heroes » Insert Clever Title Here

Near-Mint Heroes » Insert Clever Title Here — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 21:02:10 +0000

[...] Speaking of Thought Balloons. There is an interesting discussion going on here about a recent post at Poite Dissent asking where all the wonder in comics went to. Hopefully I can talk a little about this subject this weekend. [...]

By: Tivome

Tivome — Fri, 28 May 2004 16:06:10 +0000

Of course manga will keep people’s interest, since a real comic industry, with genres designed to appeal to every age group. In the US, once people grew tired of superhero comics, they turn to books, movies, and TV shows which offers something for their age group. In Japan, they just buy the comic (MANGA IS COMICS!) appeals to their age group. There’s already anthologies aimed at post-middle age folks in Japan; the idea is that you’re born reading comics; you’ll die reading comics too. Instead of forcing everyone in all age-group to accept variations of a shonen genre (superheros), the Japanese industry just offer other stories which older adults or girls want to read. Instead of publishing “Another Dragonball with adult themes”, they publish “Long Wolf and Club” and “Eagle”. This is they way a REAL comics industry should work. We don’t have such an industry.

By: Shawn Fumo

Shawn Fumo — Thu, 27 May 2004 18:30:04 +0000

Well, if they keep reading manga throughout their lives, they’ll be life-long comic book readers. Speaking in terms of US-made comics, I think it’ll come about on its own eventually. Witness things like Tokyopop’s Rising Stars of Manga contest/anthology. Look at Shutterbox and the coming Peach Fuzz books. People who grew up reading manga are starting to make their own comics, which provides an obvious entry-way. That will itself diverge more from manga as time goes on and creators get comfortable with their own styles, helping it merge more into the rest of US comics.

I think we’re also going to see a bit of an explosion of female artists and writers as the current shoujo crop grow up. That combined with the fact that most manga has only one creative team throughout the run and aren’t everlasting franchises means I think a lot of people growing up with these titles will try to make something of their own eventually. Even if it starts very derivative, it can hopefully evolve as time goes on..

I also see titles like Courtney Crumbrin and Blue Monday starting to make inroads into bookstores, books which would have had a lot of trouble getting any exposure in the past. In some ways, I think this is actually a better time for companies like Oni Press than it is for the “big two”.

We still have a long ways to go, but I think the manga invasian and the overall move to more graphic novels and diversity of topics in the US industry will end up being good things.

Plus, as someone above mentioned, a lot of manga is very much like superhero comics anyway. Our definition of “superhero” is really just a small subset of possible heros, even those with special powers. I think that an important difference many US SH comics vs. manga tends to be themes versus surface trappings. Marvel and DC seem set on re-inventing superheros with many genres and topics. On the other hand, a lot of manga take certain themes (adventure, fighting, friendship) and put different trappings on top. I think the latter tends to be more successful, because a majority of kids like particular themes, and if the end result involves pirates or ninjas or sports, those trappings lend a bit more variety on the surface. But if someone isn’t into spandex or code-names, they probably won’t give a superhero title a shot, even if it was really a romance at its heart..

Shawn

By: Scott

Scott — Thu, 27 May 2004 02:59:11 +0000

John, You’re right; manga is certainly attracting the kids. How can that then be capitalized on to make the kids life-long comic book readers, or will manga do it by itself?

By: John Jakala

John Jakala — Thu, 27 May 2004 02:45:08 +0000

I think manga offers what you seek. Back when I had subscriptions to SHONEN JUMP and RAIJIN COMICS, I was impressed with how they managed to make each installment of the ongoing serial a satisfying chunk in its own right. And manga like SGT. FROG are great, goofy, gonzo fun.