Manga

[Bruce]

No comments on how it sucks.
If you dont have anything to help with, don't post please.

I know nothing of the material and am interested in learning.
Titles that you would recommend and possible links for art and other information please.

Titles I read are
transmet
cerebus
Sandman
bone
frank miller
Hellboy
Alan Moore
Strangers in paradise
A lot of Top Shelf book
A lot of indies.
Chris Ware
...

you get the Idea. I have (but doen't have a huge love for) spandex. Just have been mainly interested in a great story. I'm also interested in a story that goes somwhere. I tried Loan Wolf and cub but dropped it after the 9 vol. because it didn't feel like it was going anywhere.
Also tried Blade of the Immortal and had no real interest. A buddy of mine would like me to finish what is out there though first with blade before giving up. I'll probably go back.

I'm interested in horror titles for Manga. Need information on those.i want to see how they handle pacing and suspence.
Question about something like Ringu or Battle Royal that are out in Manga form. Are they before the movie? Or were the movies based on the books?

Also you sould know that I don't have the money or the interest in the Anime. Just the comic form. so don't compare the two please. Just interested in the comic.

This is it for the Manga lovers. You have someone that is an american comic lover asking for the knowledge to step into your world.
For me, or anyone else that is interested, this is your chance to get us in.
Were a blank slate.
Please help.

[Spectre-7]

Both Ringu and Battle Royale films were based on novels, sadly not manga. I've been intending to read Battle Royale for a while, but haven't gotten around to it. Something about reading prose translated from another language has always seemed sort of distasteful to me, for whatever reason.

I'm gonna get back to you on recommendations... I need a while for that question to stew. :)

[MC Fumunda]

I've really only read Blade of the Immortal (which I couldn't recommend any higher) and Parasyte.

I liked Parasyte a lot, but I had a hard time finding it. It's a cool story about an alien parasite mistakingly taking over a teenaged dude's arm. There's lots of really funny moments in it (like when his whole arm turned into a gigantic raging boner when this girl the dude liked was talking to him) and really crazy actiony moments when there's battles with the parasites that managed to do their job right and take over the whole human. The aliens eat people and can shapechange and stuff. It's wicked cool.

[Carter]

Akira. Make this number one on your hit list. It's six volumes long at nearly 30 bucks each, so if you're feeling kind of broke, get Domu instead. Same author, very similar stories, except Domu is only one book. Akira is much better than the movie because it makes sense and has a really good, emotionally satisfying ending. It's also probably as good a segue from American comics that you're going to find.

Blade of the Immortal. Also somewhat expensive, but super rad. I think there's 14 volumes so far at about 15 bucks a pop.

Orion. It's all the Masamune Shirow-y goodness without the hard to chew footnote laden granola of his newer stuff. Personally, this is my favorite book of his, even though a lot of other people are going to point you to Appleseed or Ghost in the Shell. Unless you're horny for ultra super realistic sci fi, don't start with GitS. It's nothing like the TV show. Don't fall for the lies. Even though the art is freaking amazing, it's nearly unreadable.

Great Teacher Onizuka. It's about a guy that decides to be a teacher so he can bone high school girls and take three months off a year. He's my hero.

Phoenix by Osamu Tezuka. Any volume since they skip around in time and only kind of interlace. Easily my favorite comic of all time. It's too hard for me to summarize since I'm kind of dumb and not good with the English, but it's seriously so so good. Look it up on the Internet.

Tons of other stuff, but this is a good cross section to get 'er done.

[Spectre-7]

Holy Crapola! I didn't realize anyone else read Orion. I also hardily recommend this series. It's rather short, but is one of the most interesting and oddly realized sci-fantasy settings I've run across. It does have its fair share of Shirow footnoting, though. :)

[Carter]

Holy Crapola! I didn't realize anyone else read Orion. I also hardily recommend this series. It's rather short, but is one of the most interesting and oddly realized sci-fantasy settings I've run across. It does have its fair share of Shirow footnoting, though. :)

Jesus Christ, the footnotes in Orion are dwarfed DWARFED by those in GitS 2. I gave up reading and just went through the comic like a flip book and looked at the thongs.

[Justice41]

I think I have the complete run of the original Epic comics AkiRa books not the DH ones. I also have the Orion huge, fat, b/w, book. Studio Proteus stuff. Mia the Mystic is really well drawn and has an interesting story. Hey Bruce I'll sell you my entire lot of Akira's,If'n your interested.(I need to get rid of my comics as it is. Well everything except the thousands of Autographed books that is). Think it's about thirty books or something like that. I also have the complete run of Lone wolf and Cub put out by Now comics not the DH release, which I hear is better done. I really like Japanese comics but like american comics I prefer the more realistic stuff. That Mia the Mystic has some really nice pages.
I have 5 of those Sword of the Immortal books. Great artwork and really interesting stories.

[Inkthinker]

For Horror, I'd suggest Hellsing (for gory vampire horror), Berserk (for gory gothic demon horror, plus towards the later volumes Miura's artwork has become inhumanly gorgeous), or Domu (for spooky suspense horror). I've read and really enjoyed all three...

If you wanted to pick one of those, Domu is a can't-miss masterpiece. It's by Katsuhiro Otomo, the creator of the massive Akira. It's a single-book story, though, so you can consume it in one gulp. His artwork is some of the best ever, combining a Darrowesque obsession with detail and a brilliant sense of cinematic pacing and composition. It's from Dark Horse, and shouldn't be hard to find at all.

Berserk starts as a horror, then reverts to a gritty war story with horrific tinges, builds into a political thriller, and then in about two more books suddenly reverts back to horror, descends to some truly disturbing depths, and begins a long journey towards something else that, so far, has translated into about 260 "issues", collected in 29 volumes (8 of which have been released in the US).

The artist of Hellsing loves ink. And ripping people up. And nazi vampires. Take a look and see what you think.

* * *
Shirow was one of the first mangaka I ever followed. I've read all of the books published in English, and I often find it worthwhile to actually struggle through and grasp the content, because he has some very interesting ideas (for instance, nearly a decade ago he predicted that terrorism would be the subject of international conflict). Given advancements being made in biotechnology and robotics, I wouldn't be surprised if his vision of cyborgs (organic brains encased in robotic bodies) comes to pass in another 50-60 years.

[Carter]

Oh, yeah. You were asking specifically about horror. heh.

3x3 Eyes. It's not horror like a ghost movie, but supernatural all the same. Truth be told, I can't think of anything as far as manga goes that would equate with a horror movie as we know it in America. There's shit tons of stuff with demons and vampires, and most of is really horrible mall manga aimed at 12 year old goth girls.

[Carter]

(for instance, nearly a decade ago he predicted that terrorism would be the subject of international conflict).

Actually, it was nearly 20 years ago. Appleseed first hit in the second half of the 80s. The first OAV came out in 1988, even. I can't find an exact date (all my stuff is in storage for now) but if I had to hazard a guess, I'd say 86?

[TheFightingFoetus]

I have Orion, GITS 1 and 2, Appleseed vol 4, and various random issues of Shirow's work, like Dominion. He's quite possibly my favorite artist, or at least up there with Kirby.

There's a series called Dodekain, by Masayuki Fujihara and published by Antarctic, that I got all 8 issues of in a quarter bin. Good art, and a really fun, goofy giant-robo story. It's not any sort of award winning material, but I think it'd blow some little kids minds, or adults who are willing to look beyond it's obvious "dumb" plot.

Also, I have one of the Akira phone-book sized collections, as well as some random Epic color versions of the book. (Gotta love those early Steve Oliffe computer tones.) Akira is fantastic.

Samurai Girl: Real Bout High School is another favorite series of mine right now. The artwork is phenomenally good, and the action is intense.

I recently picked up a series, entirely in japanese, called Bastard. I managed to pick up 6 books for 30 bucks, and think it's pretty amazing. Great monster art, and action, and even without english translations, reads very well. The dude's really a bastard! ;)

Storywise, the best thing I've read from Tokyopop has been the Suikoden series, based on the playstation RPG's. They're really well written, and again, feature some nice and striking art. Not as over the top and in your face as some of the books I'm looking at, but still really quality work.

Outside of Hunter Killer and All Star Batman, the only books I give two shits about these days are manga. I'm actually enjoying black and white work, more than fully rendered color stuff these days, and that's saying something. (Though HK is incredibly well colored.)

[Super Rats]

Best thing to do is hit a Borders and check out the books Carter mentioned. I gather you are into the more mature/edgy stuff, so I'll shy away from some of the quirkier stuff. With that in mind, here are some others you might consider:

Planetes (http://www.tokyopop.com/dbpage.php?page=product&productid=1572) Highly recommended.

Kare Kano (His and Her Circumstances) (http://www.tokyopop.com/dbpage.php?page=product&productid=1368) -- I'm sure you won't like it, but it is my all time favorite title and I recommend it out of habit. Tsuda isn't the greatest artist in the world, but it's nice to see characters grow up.

Uzumaki (http://store.viz.com/product/GNVRX0001/b.UZUMAKI/s.ybHzTQab) -- It's a creepy type of horror. Also highly recommended.

Saikano (http://store.viz.com/product/GNSTU0001/b.IG_EDITORSCH+SAIKANO/s.ffL2SPYN) -- To me this was a very honest read.

Flowers and Bees (http://store.viz.com/product/GNVVV0002/b.IG_EDITORSCH+FLOWERB/s.nWfskzCA) -- Most people are turned off by the artwork. I was one of them, but this is very funny stuff.

Maison Ikkoku (http://store.viz.com/product/GNVSV0015/b.MAISONIKKOKU/s.xx30UPJh) -- Rumiko Takahashi is a great storyteller.

Hope you find at least one of those enjoyable.

On the trashier, throw-away side, I recommend Hot Gimmick (http://store.viz.com/product/GNVTV0001/b.IG_SHOJO+HOTGIMMICK/s.Bi8M1dyK). It's the type of book where I find myself yelling at the characters, but it is addictive. For a velvet goldmine of punk colliding with chic, check out Paradise Kiss (http://www.tokyopop.com/dbpage.php?propertycode=PKS&categorycode=BMG).

[Super Rats]

As far as Battle Royale, I enjoy it, but I've never seen the movie or read the books. General consensus is that the comics aren't true to the original source and there is much complaining in manga land about the Enlish adaptation. The comic tends to focus on gore as opposed to focusing on the fear and psychological aspects of the whole situation. I treat the comic as overly violent, kind of hideous to look at, but enjoyable, trash reading.

[Inkthinker]

Actually, it was nearly 20 years ago. Appleseed first hit in the second half of the 80s. The first OAV came out in 1988, even. I can't find an exact date (all my stuff is in storage for now) but if I had to hazard a guess, I'd say 86?


Yeah, but I thought he didn't write his big-ass treatise on terrorism being the new international warfare until the early-mid-nineties, published here in the Appleseed Databook.

But sure, hey, 15 or 20 years... I'm just sayin', the man's ahead of his time.

:D

[F!]

Black & White (http://www.rightstuf.com/1-800-338-6827/catalogmgr/6lHbghjG24QjxBC2Tb/browse/item/31536/4/0/0), No. 5 (http://www.rightstuf.com/1-800-338-6827/catalogmgr/6lHbghjG24QjxBC2Tb/browse/item/56509/4/0/0), and Blue Spring (http://www.rightstuf.com/1-800-338-6827/catalogmgr/6lHbghjG24QjxBC2Tb/browse/item/64096/4/0/0) by Taiyo Matsumoto.

[KaRzA]

Maisson ikkoku and Uzumaki are really different but very nice
Monster (just started to publish there... have seen on previews, but don't know the publisher) is a great manga, check it

I love shirow... gits and gits2 are wonderfull drawn... but are really hard to read (i have both on japanese (i friend asked me if i can read japanese... no.. i can't but i'll understand exactly the same lol)) Orion is very nice, but i prefer dominion2... the art is fantastic, and the script is nice also

Blade of the inmortal is nice... but... i found hard to read in english, not the translation, the action itself... until i noticed that just some of the pages have been turned from right to left, but not all them (just like in the street fighter (by kanzaki) where the panels were cut and pasted not to turn the pages in reverse)... is it still done this way?

[Bruce]

Thanks a ton guys.
This gives me a solid list to start hitting.
My money is put away for Chicago, but I know I can at least pick up some of the books half off there.
I'm looking forward to trying this world out. Both art and story telling are going to take a bit to get comfortable with, but I think I have wanted that for a while now.

Please post more. Give us the goods.

[Popninja]

I can recommend Gyo by Junjo Ito. I've only read Volume 1, but I found it pretty freaky. It's about a couple trying to escape walking sea creatures(fish, sharks, stingrays, etc.) that are giving off a rotten stench.

SuperRats mentioned Uzumaki. That's also by Ito.

[NickRocks]

im surprised no ones mentioned One Piece by Eiichiro Oda, which can currently be found in the monthly book Shonen Jump for 5 bucks a pop. its a funny book with insane action, and the art is just great. its a great influence of mine.

[Carter]

I've never read the comic, but I rented the Uzumaki movie a few weeks ago, and it's the weirdest god damn thing I've ever seen. It falls somewhere in between Uwe Bolle bad and Troma amazing.

[Carter]

Yeah, but I thought he didn't write his big-ass treatise on terrorism being the new international warfare until the early-mid-nineties, published here in the Appleseed Databook.

But sure, hey, 15 or 20 years... I'm just sayin', the man's ahead of his time.

:D

You might be right. I'm pretty sure it was written around the same time the Berlin wall was coming down and the Soviet Union was disbanding, so it was an amazing leap of logic on Shirow's part that turned out to be right. Until then, it was all about gigantic world wars and superpower politics.

[50%grey]

Shonen Jumps great if you like fun comics,and I'm also diggin Beet the vandel buster.

[Finnegan]

Nausicaa of the valley of wind - Hayao Miyazaki

viz did a 4 volume compilation of this series, and in my opinion it is one of the best examples of the medium. i cannot say enough good things about it. it's SOO much better than the movie (and i think the movie is great). if you are any sort of miyazaki fan, then buy this at any cost.

also, like carter said, PHOENIX - tezuka...

simply Brilliant. Wow! i think viz has republished up to volume 5 or six (of 12). this is another series that i simply cannot reccomend higher. whatever the price... it's worth it

Planetes, Blade of the immortal, akira, Domu, Lone wolf and cub, and some others i can't think of is what rounds out my manga collection. not a single one has dissapointed


=BoB=

[Inkthinker]

If we're opening the door to general suggestions outside of horror, I cannot recommend highly enough to the work of Yukito Kishiro.

His most well-known, long-running series is Battle Angel Alita, which I love immensely, but I should warn that the recently RE-reprinted early volumes suffer from being shrunk a bit, espescially given that in his early days Kishiro used a lot of dark tones and heavy blacks which do not reduce well... why NO-ONE in frigging publishing seems to catch on to this problem with several books out there is beyond me.

At any rate, even when they're a little muddy, they're still brilliant. The last few volumes print better (reflecting Kishiro's improvements in his style), and the whole set is 9 books total and has a somewhat quick but satisfying conclusion.

HOWEVER, he has another series called Aqua Knight that is only 3(?) volumes in length and consists of later, lighter work that reprinted very nicely. Aqua Knight has a pretty light, loose story, but the artwork, designs and action are (IMO) excellent. With a little haggling, I don't see why you couldn't pick up the whole set for less than $20 at any major convention.

An even better choice might be his sequel/alternate ending to Alita, Battle Angel Alita: Last Order. These books represent the pinnacle of Kishiro's talents so far, and they are some of the best action manga I have ever read. Kishiro blends traditional illustration methods with digital techniques in multiple seamless ways (unlike Shirow, for instance, where the seams are all too evident), and takes full advantage of a variety of tools. His ability to depict motion and action are among the very best (I place him alongside Takahiko Inoue and Ogure Ito) and the techniques that can be gleaned from stufy of his depictions of movement are as valuable as the entertainment gathered by reading the continued adventures of his titular heroine Alita.

Last Order represents an alternative to the ending of the previous series, which he apparently closed out prematurely due to total artistic burnout and health concerns. It wasn't until after he had stepped aside and done some other works (Aqua Knight, as well as his Frank Miller-influenced high contrast short series Ashen Victor, which was a heavy style departure but is very interesting). LO picks up the story right towards the end of the previous series, when the main character is thought to be killed by an explosive ambush, and continues on from there. It is his current series, and we get a new GN from Viz about oohhhhhh... every year or so. It's very painful. There are 5 volumes of Last Order currently available, and you CAN pick up the story from the beginning of this series even if you haven't read the previous one. This shouldn't represent a total investment greater than $30-$40 for all five books at a major convention.

* * *

I also recommend Takehiko Inoue's Vagabond, a brilliant comics adaptation of the classic samurai novel Musashi. Inoue's gathered up all the skill he's gained form years as a leading mangaka and thrown it full-tilt into this new telling of the tale. This is the way novel adaptations should be done, not pulling any punched or abridging the story, but taking the long view of things... at 21 volumes, Inoue has only pushed through about 1/3 of the total novel (I think). His graphic storytelling is simply brilliant, using a variety of techinques from realism to outright impressionism, switching from fine ink line as thin as a hair to create intricate mountain landscapes, to heavy charcoal or rough brush to illustrate violent emotions and the inner fury of a killer.

Given that Inoue spent decades drawing his basketball series Slam Dunk!, his style is very mature and extremely well-developed, and invaluably inspiring.

* * *

I'll also put a prop in for Blade of the Immortal, it's brilliant. I had no idea DH was charging so much for the trades... but since I've been collecting it in single issues since its inception, I've probably invested even more.

Money well spent, I think. :D

[Miss V]

Flowers and Bees (http://store.viz.com/product/GNVVV0002/b.IG_EDITORSCH+FLOWERB/s.nWfskzCA) -- Most people are turned off by the artwork. I was one of them, but this is very funny stuff.

I love Flowers and Bees. I felt the same way about the art, but I have a friend at Viz who said it was amazing, and gave me a free copy.

I also second Akira and Blade of the Immortal. Those (along with Flowers and Bees) are the only manga a pick up on a regular basis.

Another one of my favorites is Real (http://omanga.net/?cid=b_real) by Takehiko Inoue. It's about wheelchair basketball. It hasn't been released in the US, but that link will take you to a scanlation. I have a friend who says she likes it better than Vagabond, but I haven't read Vagabond yet, so I can't judge.

Another one I like is Hard Boiled Angel. (http://www.centralparkmedia.com/cpmpress/hardboiled.cfm) I had a hard time getting into the art at first, but now I like it (for the most part).

I also recommend anything by Kiriko Nananan. I'm not sure if any of her work has been translated in English, but if it has, pick it up. You can see previews of a few of her comics in French here. (http://www.sakka.info/catalogue/bio.php?a=castNanananKi)

Blame! (http://tokyopop.com/dbpage.php?propertycode=BLM&categorycode=BMG) is pretty good, too. The artwork is beautiful, but the story is pretty confusing at times.

[Finnegan]

oh whoa, i had no clue that Blame was being localized... AWESOME.


=BoB=

[MC Chris]

I second Vagabond and Planetes. Great stuff.

[Solace]

cut and pasted from a very recent (last 2 days) warren ellis emailer about manga suggestions. just seemed to fit.

>>bad signal
WARREN ELLIS

I wish artbomb.net was still up. Most
of the stuff you all recommended
to me, I'd already reviewed there.
I even provided a back-cover quote
to one of the EAGLE books, which
more than one of you suggested to
me. And, as exactly none of you
remembered, ha ha, I wrote a
column for the manga magazine
PULP.

The majority of manga I read these
days, I read as scanlations (which
I always think should be "scanslations",
but isn't), due to the difficulty of
obtaining any kind of comics around
here. SOIL is very good. SWITCH,
which I grabbed the other night,
is beautifully illustrated. There was
a short about a suicide leap, the
title of which I cannot remember
right now, that I linked on the website.
I have no idea why the big comics
message boards don't have people
scouring Omanga and Manga Jouhou
and the like for the new releases.
But then, the big boards aren't
given to much outside that which
you'd expect.

I skimmed MODEL the other day
in Ottakar's, which was just a little
too empty for my taste, though
its long, etiolated, Beardsley-manga
figures were appealing.

One point I wanted to make is that
"manga" isn't a single artistic
style, as many of you believe.
SANCTUARY, BANANA FISH,
PANORAMA OF HELL and UZUMAKI
(and that ****ed up Cinderalla-
zombie book the title of which
momentarily escapes me) do not
come out of the same house. I
defy anyone to call BENKEI IN
NEW YORK "that big-eye stuff."
Manga isn't a genre. Manga is just
the Japanese term from comics.
And you know from US comics and
UK comics and Francophone comics
that a multipicity of styles and
genres live under the term "comics".
Same with manhwa, quadrinhos,
fumetti. It's all bloody comics.
Francophone comics contained
both Herge and Druillet. When
you just write off manga without
exploring it, then you're that
same person who writes off
Anglophone comics without looking
at them.

If there is a separation between
forms, it's this: that manga nev er
forgot how to produce comics for
girls. And I like that for lots of
reasons. Not least of which is that
a percentage of those new readers
will stay with the form but will also
grow out of children's stories. And
then I get to talk to them.

I study manga a lot. It's interesting
to me that Eisner was considered
too dense for the Japanese audience.
Manga readers buy a complete
experience (serialised or not),
and don't measure out plot points
by page like the more anal element
of the Anglophone audience.

It's something central to the
American readership, maybe: Chris
Claremont once said of Alan Moore,
"if he could plot, we'd all have to
get together and kill him." Which
utterly misses the most compelling
part of Alan's writing, the way he
develops and expresses ideas and
character. Plot does not define
story. Plot is the framework within
which ideas are explored and
personalities and relationships are
unfolded. If all you want is plot,
go and read a Tom Clancy novel.

And that's how manga works, if
you are desperately looking for a
way to tie that local medium
together as a "style". The isolated
moments in space, the relationships,
ideas and people are more important
than giving you what you feel is
the correct plot density per kilo
of pages. It's about letting the
story be told to you, not just
viewing the plot-beat slides bang
bang bang.

It's going to be interesting to see
Anglophone creators really get to
grips with what's now being called
the OEL, or Original English Language
manga, in the 100-150pp digest
size. Which is happening, now. For
writers who live in the dialogue, like
me, it's a forbidding-looking form.
Dialogue slows manga down. I tend
to run my work at a boilerplate
pace of three balloons a panel.
Manga likes one balloon and lives
with two. Those few lines, for me,
would really have to count -- I
couldn't just whip through with
functional dialogue.

I think I'm talking about something
else now. Go and find HOTEL
HARBOUR VIEW, and 2001 NIGHTS.
Look at NAUSICAA and tell me that
guy never looked at Moebius. Look
at the way the pages build into the
pencilled double-page-spreads in
BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL. Beg,
steal or borrow BAREFOOT GEN and
ADOLF. And you've just barely,
barely scratched the surface.

-- W
<<

[Inkthinker]

Ellis knows comics. :D

[Justice41]

It's funny, That Ellis riff reminds me of the debate we had a while back about why american comics and cartoons aren't as good as Japanese and even Korean comics and cartoons. The things Ellis mentions about page count and how much dialogue to use. This is why no amount of faux Japanese comic creators in America will be able to completely recreate the look, feel and overall quality of Japanese comics and cartoons. They may turn out a version of the artistic stylings but never capture that pacing. The Editors would have a fit.

[A.D.R.I.A.N.]

Blade of the Immortal (http://www.mangamaniacs.org/reviews/blade.shtml)

The only one that I can really vouch for since it's the only one I've read besides Akira.

[MC Chris]

It's funny, That Ellis riff reminds me of the debate we had a while back about why american comics and cartoons aren't as good as Japanese and even Korean comics and cartoons. The things Ellis mentions about page count and how much dialogue to use. This is why no amount of faux Japanese comic creators in America will be able to completely recreate the look, feel and overall quality of Japanese comics and cartoons. They may turn out a version of the artistic stylings but never capture that pacing. The Editors would have a fit.
That's the truth. Imagine them looking at a comic with no "action" or dialogue for two or three pages. They'd freak out.

[Inkthinker]

It's funny, That Ellis riff reminds me of the debate we had a while back about why american comics and cartoons aren't as good as Japanese and even Korean comics and cartoons. The things Ellis mentions about page count and how much dialogue to use. This is why no amount of faux Japanese comic creators in America will be able to completely recreate the look, feel and overall quality of Japanese comics and cartoons. They may turn out a version of the artistic stylings but never capture that pacing. The Editors would have a fit.


That was true 10, even 5 years ago... but the times, they are a-changin'.

Depending on who your Editor is and what publisher you're going with, there's a lot more potential for flexibility in pacing.

Consider: Tokyopop contracts creators for something like 3 150-200 page books at a swing. There's little or nothing that I've heard about how those pages need to be paced... if your action requires that it be spread out over a whole page, or several pages, in order to be effectively read, well then so be it. There's certainly much in the way of precedent for you to do so...

Books like Sharknife seem to have a much more Japanese style of pacing as well, as do long-running "OEL" manga like Gold Digger. Actually, I don't know what you'd call Perry's pacing... he's all over the place at this point.

Yeah, those are fifth-down tier publishers (I suspect TokyoPop should be counted higher, since I don't think Diamond's ranking counts TP's Bookscan sales, which are pretty healthy), but they're also on the rise.

[Carter]

At Wizard Dallas, there was a Tokyopop editor and some contractees from Austin speaking. Apparently, the "house style" encourages decompression and high art to word ballon ratio. I haven't really checked out any of their OEL stuff yet because much of it hasn't hit, but I'm really looking forward to MBQ. (http://tokyopop.com/dbpage.php?page=product&productid=3349)

http://www.newsarama.com/tokyopop/risingstars/MBQ/page06.jpg
http://www.newsarama.com/tokyopop/risingstars/MBQ/page09.jpg

These pages aren't back to back. I just thought they were good examples.

[MC Chris]

Heh, I like those pages. I've been waiting to check out MBQ myself.

[Justice41]

That was true 10, even 5 years ago... but the times, they are a-changin'.

Depending on who your Editor is and what publisher you're going with, there's a lot more potential for flexibility in pacing.

Consider: Tokyopop contracts creators for something like 3 150-200 page books at a swing. There's little or nothing that I've heard about how those pages need to be paced... if your action requires that it be spread out over a whole page, or several pages, in order to be effectively read, well then so be it. There's certainly much in the way of precedent for you to do so...

Books like Sharknife seem to have a much more Japanese style of pacing as well, as do long-running "OEL" manga like Gold Digger. Actually, I don't know what you'd call Perry's pacing... he's all over the place at this point.

Yeah, those are fifth-down tier publishers (I suspect TokyoPop should be counted higher, since I don't think Diamond's ranking counts TP's Bookscan sales, which are pretty healthy), but they're also on the rise.
When I talk about comic companies, I'm always talking about Marvel, DC and Image unless specifically named. The closest I've seen any mainstream book come to having a real world pacing is Vertigo.

[Inkthinker]

Heh, I like those pages. I've been waiting to check out MBQ myself.

MBQ is the first TokyoPop OEL book that I'm really psyched for.

[Digital Klown]

Wait.. Tokyopop is translating Blame? When is it coming out?

Speaking of manga.. I've just finished the latest scansalation of Gantz.. one of the most addictive manga I've ever read. It has some of the most violent imagery and gut-wrenching stories that I've ever seen in a manga.

[Inkthinker]

Wait.. Tokyopop is translating Blame? When is it coming out?

Speaking of manga.. I've just finished the latest scansalation of Gantz.. one of the most addictive manga I've ever read. It has some of the most violent imagery and gut-wrenching stories that I've ever seen in a manga.

Is it TokyoPop that's doing Blame? I thought it was Viz for some reason.

Gantz is awesome. For one thing, they will kill anyone in that cast, including main characters. That's one of those books that needs to be remade as a live-action HBO series. It's a great one for plot twists and unexpected actions.

I also dig it because it's made completely digitally, if I'm not mistaken... everything is modelled in CG and then characters are drawn over placeholding mannequins. They combine line-art vector renders with Comic Studio pens and tones to create a very solid result that's worked well for years now to create a high-quality book on a rapid schedule.

[Digital Klown]

Is it TokyoPop that's doing Blame? I thought it was Viz for some reason.



Yeah, it's TokyoPop: Blame (http://tokyopop.com/dbpage.php?page=product&productid=3182)

The "Street Date" is August 9th, apparently.



Gantz is awesome. For one thing, they will kill anyone in that cast, including main characters. That's one of those books that needs to be remade as a live-action HBO series. It's a great one for plot twists and unexpected actions.

I noticed from the ads in the scansalation that a game is also out for the PS2.. I wonder if it lives up to the manga.

[Inkthinker]

I noticed from the ads in the scansalation that a game is also out for the PS2.. I wonder if it lives up to the manga.


Mmmmeeeehhhhh... doubtful. Video game adaptations are to manga as film adaptations to comics... occasionally a hit, more often than not a whiffle, at least so far as I've seen. I doubt it'll make it to the States anyhow, given that we don't even get the manga (yet).

We do have the Gantz anime on DVD, but I'm told that it's weaksauce in comparison to the manga. Considering that I saw it at Wal-Mart, I'm inclined to believe it (or else Wal-Mart has a nasty surprise coming)... it's pretty intense.

[MC Chris]

Yeah, it's TokyoPop: Blame (http://tokyopop.com/dbpage.php?page=product&productid=3182)

The "Street Date" is August 9th, apparently.

That's weird. It's on this week's ship list in Benito's thread.

[CWmax]

Uzumaki and Gyo by Junji Ito- Both are great Lovecraftian horror books.

Vagabond- MY FAVORITE COMIC OF ALL TIME.

CW

[Digital Klown]

That's weird. It's on this week's ship list in Benito's thread.

Hey, you're right. Alright, I'm making a trip to the comicshop this week for sure.

[Digital Klown]

Mmmmeeeehhhhh... doubtful. Video game adaptations are to manga as film adaptations to comics... occasionally a hit, more often than not a whiffle, at least so far as I've seen. I doubt it'll make it to the States anyhow, given that we don't even get the manga (yet).

We do have the Gantz anime on DVD, but I'm told that it's weaksauce in comparison to the manga. Considering that I saw it at Wal-Mart, I'm inclined to believe it (or else Wal-Mart has a nasty surprise coming)... it's pretty intense.

The copy of the anime that I saw had a label that said it contained scenes that were cut from the Japanese version. Don't know what that really means, though. If it's too violent for the Japanese audience, then it's probably too much for the North American audience.

[Carter]

The copy of the anime that I saw had a label that said it contained scenes that were cut from the Japanese version. Don't know what that really means, though. If it's too violent for the Japanese audience, then it's probably too much for the North American audience.

Not so much. Japan is blaming all their problems on cartoons and video games just like we are, especially lately. There was one episode in Evangelion that sent the politicians in a frenzy and anime as a whole was sent to the chopping block. In fact, Cowboy Bebop was heavily edited during its first on on Japanese TV and was never popular until the DVDs came out.