UPDATE: Fuck it, I screwed up. I’m redoing the post
here. Meanwhile,
Noah’s response to the original version is here.
Now the old version:
We at HU are having our second round of “theme” posts. First time we talked about our comics discoveries of 2008. This time we’re talking about manga: what is it, why is it, why do I hate it so badly I can’t look at more than a page? “Hate” is a strong term, but it’s true that my brain and eye shut down as soon as I encounter a manga specimen. All that solid-black hair, those pie-shaped googly eyes and triangle mouths (with rounded corners!), the stunted pseudo-children, the skimpy few words stranded in fat balloons. And never anything in view but more black hair, googly eyes, and a lonely sprinkling of words against white space. Page after page, book after book, truckload after truckload. Manga makes me feel claustrophobic.
Mind you, I haven’t read any. I’m starting off the round robin because perfect ignorance and unreasoning dislike provide a striking backdrop for the informed and authoritative. My colleagues will soon be along to provide some intelligent content. In the meantime, I’ll suggest the following: manga, all manga, carries to an extreme the formal trend followed by US mainstream comics over the past few decades, which is to streamline word-and-picture arrangements so that the eye is always pinging forward with as little drag as possible, even if a concomitant of drag might be better dialogue or more detailed drawing. [ Preceding sentence is not clear. To Noah it sounded like I was saying manga was imitating new-style US superhero comics. I just meant the two show the same tendency and manga takes it further. ]
Another observation: All the above, right down to my closing suggestion, places me in the same class as some fellow turning on the radio in 1968 and deciding that Jimi Hendrix, Otis Redding, the Beatles, the Young Rascals, the Four Tops, and the Velvet Underground are all pretty much the same because they have that damn beat and the electrified instruments. So, having set myself up, I now await my education at the hands of those who know better.
UPDATE: Wait a second, is this manga? Maybe I should rewrite. Nah … double down. Time for the big guns.
For example, over on some message board a guy called blackasthenight breaks off from frotting his pimples and declares:
ok now honestly, who has ever seen anyone whoes head, eyes, mouth, ect. is shaped like that? to me this just appears as a lack of willingness to studdy anatomy.
and whats with this gay stuff. half the time i see this crap its two dudes about to get it on. i mean wtf japan? also why do 80% of the dudes look like girls? and all the people with tails and stuff? and extra ears???
Yeah, Japan — wtf?
And what’s up with reading the books from right to left? Don’t the Japanese know how to read books?
Mister Crippen,
I understand the point you make in this post, and the radical (or “outrageous”, but radical sounds more positive) stance you’re taking in order to ellicit responses. So, even though I suppose you are not as innocent as you pose here, let me start with a little rewriting of your first paragraph here.
This time we’re talking about comic books: what is it, why is it, why do I hate it so badly I can’t look at more than a page? “Hate” is a strong term, but it’s true that my brain and eye shut down as soon as I encounter a comic book specimen. All that colorful spandex, those sulking brawny guys and model-thin women (with enormous breasts!), the ridiculous mad villains, the self-absorbed art stranded across splash pages. And never anything in view but more colorful spandex, muscular anatomies, and a generous sprinkling of dramatic poses across double-pages. Page after page, book after book, truckload after truckload. Comic books makes me feel claustrophobic.
Of course, you are going to object. Of course, comic books are not just about super-heroes, and even in this specific genre there are things that are not falling into this caricatural stereotype. But first, there’s the Sturgeon rule, about 90% of anything being crap. That works for comics as a whole (and manga might indeed not be your cup of tea), but that also works for manga in itself.
The added problem for manga is the fact that publishers in general have been focusing on a very specific part of manga, geared at a very specific readership. Shônen and Shôjo manga represent the core of western translations, and are also unfortunately some of the most standardized genres of the Japanese production as a whole. Please also note that those two genres also generate most of the cross-media business opportunities (with animated series, videogames and the like), increasing their already important visibility.
With a publishing history going back to the 1920s, and working at full-steam since the 1950s, Japanese artists have produced a wide range of works, both in terms of style and of themes. That goes for the mainstream part of the production, and also for the alternative part, with the first major magazine (Garo) kicking off in 1963. You wanted examples? Here are a few that might help change a little your idea of manga…
Classic pre-Tezuka manga: here, here and there.
Dirk’s Garo Week (showcasing the variety of styles in a ’92 issue): Part I, II, III, IV and V.
ComiPress’ translation of “Manga Zombie”, a book on alternative/weird manga
Richard — Damn straight. It’s amazing the Japanese can make cars when they don’t know how to bind book pages in the right order.
Xavier — All good points and valuable resources. Except the business about mainstream US comics also being monotonous. Yeah, they sure are, but that doesn’t help manga.
But the links and the background on manga publishing are just fine, so thanks. My education commences!
I’m gonna ignore most of your points and just give you some suggestions of stuff to read. If you still want to bitch about these recommendations after having read them, hey, I’d read that! I’d love to read more people complaining about how much manga sucks, I might even be sympathetic. Preferably from someone who’s read a lot of it, but at this point I’d settle for incisive criticism from anyone who’s willing to engage it more closely than “bug eyes! ugh!” I know it’s asking a lot!
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Have you checked out anything by Jiro Taniguchi? I’m not going to kid you, his stories aren’t that compelling but he works in recognizable “manga-style” while at the same time side-stepping a lot of your complaints about faces, lack of detail and such. The guy’s got a great eye for detail and visual continuity that makes up for the fact that his characters kind of look the same. I particularly like The Walking Man but that might not be your thing because it lacks dialog. If it ever comes out in English, check out A Distant Neighborhood. There are also a couple of very good episodes in The Ice Wanderer.
Uzumaki, Gyo, Tomie, Flesh Colored Horror, all by Junji Ito. Funny and truly-weird horror manga that, again works in a recognizably-manga style. Weird not in the normal sense of “just a bunch of random f-ed up crap”, or the “Japan is just a bunch of weird creep-o’s” but in the much rarer and more impressive meaning where it actually has a compelling story that _almost_ makes sense.
Ode to Kirihito. This would be a good one to read on a long plane-trip. It’s basically a very good thriller.
Dance till Tomorrow, by Naoki Yamamoto. Okay, kind of lame sexual wish-fulfillment and very much a comic for “young dudes”, and also nowhere near as good as other stuff by this artist which is never gonna get any proper translation release over here. But good art, good cartooning, good dialog, and I even find the characters pretty charming. If I sound reserved in my praise it’s because I’m not sure it’s the best to recommend, but I like it quite a bit.
Dragon Ball, Akira Toriyama. Not Dragon Ball Z. The first few volumes are excellent humor-adventure comicking. If you read this you can also boost your cred as it is a canonical Shonen Jump title.
Anywhere But Here. Not sure why this doesn’t get mentioned more. It’s a pretty awesome gag comic that was published by Fantagraphics a few years ago and seems to have gone completely unnoticed.
Best wishes,
-David Alex
PS: Anywhere But Here BY MIKI TORI
DA
“I’d settle for incisive criticism from anyone who’s willing to engage it more closely than “bug eyes! ugh!” I know it’s asking a lot!”
Send a check, pal.
Tom — my paraphrasing your text was just a way to demonstrate how it was easy to over-generalize and end up throwing the baby with the bathwater. Maybe I should have been clearer about that in retrospect.
Regarding other reading suggestions:
Secret Comics Japan was an interesting anthology published in 2000, showcasing some very different artists from Nananan Kiriko to Usamaru Furuya to Kago Shintarô.
More than a few translations of the latter can be found on ero-guro blog Same Hat! Same Hat! but I wouldn’t recommend it for the faint at heart. While on the subject of scanlations, Kotonoha is also a great place to check out, as they have dealt with artists beyond the usual mainstream fare, including Matsumoto Jiro, Igarashi Daisuke, and Arai Hideki to name but a few.
Top Shelf is about to publish an collection of authors from alternative anthology Ax (which pretty much rose from the ashes of Garo, see here for the shameless plug), it could be something to check out.
Tom, I’m glad we’re blogging together because it means I read you more often, and I think you’re pretty hilarious.
But I just wanted to throw this in for blackisthenight’s furthered understanding of “studdy” anatomy:
All those Japanese dudes in real life dig makeovers, manicures and fashion magazines. A lot.
For instance, there is Popeye, a fashion mag for 20something men. And Richard Gere was a spokesman for Dandy House, for pity’s sake.
Cue Aerosmith?