Forum - View topicNEWS: Japan Times on the Manga Name Game
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Jamee
 Posts: 79 Location: North Carolina |
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This article addressed exactly the reason why I don't read "American manga" - the time lag between volumes. I picked up Peach Fuzz when it first came out and thought it was a really cute book. It is not, however, so cute that I'm willing to put up with a one year wait for the next volume. Tokyopop and Seven Seas really should have given this some thought before they started publishing original titles. Manga fans are used to waiting a few months for the next volume of a series; I don't think we're patient enough to wait any longer.
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The Xenos
 Posts: 1519 Location: Boston |
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Well, that's another problem with this 'American manga' bullcrap label.
It's original content, not a reprint. Tokyopop had the relatively cheap and easy task of translating and reprinting already published material. Now they're trying to be an actual comic book compnay. If you ask me, they should look to Dark Horse who has been doing this original comics and manga reprints game for longer than Tokyopop's even been around. Now I'm definately not suggesting trying individual issues, but Dark Horse is a compnay that mostly deals with original work. Of course, they're not hiring untested teenage fans to be put on high profile books like Tokyopop is. That's another complaint about their system. Not all of it seems to be doing this, with previously tested artists like Demo's Becky Cloonan and the person who did Abandoned who had previously done the comic Wet Moon. They first worked on comic books and have worked int he industry. Yet, Tokyopop's Rising Stars of Manga, while exciting, almost seems like a joke. It's an American Idol shortcut to stardom which, in the end, really comes across as cheap to both creators and readers. Now I'm sure there are some good artists and writers who have applied. At the same time, I can only think they're really just getting people hopes up instead of letting them really know what the industry is like. Though I admit the industry is in a major state of flux, partly due to Tokyopop and real manga entering the market. Also, let's not forget one of the finalists for a recent volume of their contest was caught just ripping off panels from Blade of the Immortal. link Of course, does Blade of the Immortal (published by Dark Horse) look anything like this 'manga' style that Stu Levy is promoting? No. Though I think many other artists are thinking about that non-existant made-up style first and learning basic drawing second. Instead of letting young artists and writers learn to draw then find a style, I can't help but think this manga craze Tokyopop is using is creating a while generation of Rob Liefelds. Actually, I'd say one of the best examples of a company that publishes stuff similar to Tokyopop's 'American manga' would be Oni press. Scott Pilgrim immediately comes to mind as similar to what Tokyopop is trying to publish. Yet they have the decency to call it a graphic novel, which is what you call something that's published in one large book. Acutally, it's funny. Again I am reminded how Tokyopop is mixing apples and oranges. They're realzing original work in tankubon size books. That's not how manga is done. These 'American manga' are full graphic novels, with generally no chapters like most Japanese books. Stuff like Fruits Basket or Blame! or Berserk or Trigun is first released in weekly or monthly anthology books -then- collected in the format Tokyopop sells. The 'American manga' Tokyopop is selling doesn't do that at all. So, this is yet another way that it's just not manga, and just an American made graphic novel. |
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