Forum - View topicwhy manga in black and white?
|
|
| Author | Message | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
Mr_Ez
 Posts: 6 |
|
|||
|
hello,
first of all i'm new into this manga stuff. so when look at some manga books, the first couple of page is coloured but then most of them are black and white, are they always like that? i mean is there any manga that have full colour content out there? black and white just seems to kills the environment effect for me. thanks |
||||
|
||||
Arkard
 Posts: 677 Location: Poland |
|
|||
|
Uuhh, then you wont be happy about what I am gonna say to you.
Almost all manga is black/white with the occasional BONUS color pages (meaning they are usually a treat  ). Not everyone does that however. And of course there the special edition manga that are full color, like in Japan I saw that with Kare Kano, but same as above, they are not common.
And I dont know why it bothers you so much, I found the most beautiful art imaginable in manga, all in black and white. Maybe you should pick some good art manga before you judge it there is a thread here abotu manga with great art. Look for it.
|
||||
|
||||
|
Mr_Ez
Posts: 6 |
|
|||
|
oh so thats how it is, well i'm gonna read some short manga story tonight. i got this "noise" and "Gantz" and coming soon i'm gonna get "blue heaven".
yo Arkard when u said "I found the most beautiful art imaginable in manga" it just pump me up to read manga dude! |
||||
|
||||
CorneredAngel
 Posts: 854 Location: New York, NY |
|
|||
I would not be surprised if the answer to 'why black-and-white' is 'because it's cheaper that way.' Especially when you keep in mind the fact that manga really first became popular in the years right after World War II, when cutting costs of *anything* to the bare minimum was pretty much necessary. Having said that, there are a few manga out there that are in color, like the first chapter of CLAMP's "The One I Love" and the recent Robot anthology. I'll leave the question of full-color doujinshi out entirely, because that's neither here nor there, but really, if you want color in your Japanese popular culture, that's what the anime version of any given manga is for ^^ |
||||
|
||||
|
Coffeeman
Posts: 298 |
|
|||
|
I'd say the main motivating factors are cost (cheaper) and equipment (can be printed on a black&white printing machine, as opposed to a color printing machine)
Most of all, I'd say it's price. Full color doujinshi are different because they are smaller runs, and can have a greater price tag because of it. |
||||
|
||||
|
dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 9902 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
|
|||
|
Thanks to advancing technology, there are more and more full-color manga available. One of them is Robot by Range Murata et al., recently reviewed by ANN. However, they are expensive and thin (thickness-wise), with much shorter stories per issue compared to traditional magazines e.g. Shounen Jump.
By the way, Robot is much more a magazine than an artbook. 
|
||||
|
||||
|
silverwings
Posts: 55 |
|
|||
|
A related question,
Why do american publishers choose to print the 'color' pages of Japanese manga in Black and White? |
||||
|
||||
Dranxis
 Posts: 591 Location: Ohtori Academy |
|
|||
In America, comics are done on a monthly schedule, whereas manga is produced on a weekly basis. Since coloring takes alot of time, most manga artists just go with b&w to meet deadlines. Occasionally pages in color are created as a bonus for the magazine they run in, like Shonen Jump. When the manga chapters are collected into tankoubon (graphic novel) format, the color pages are usually converted to grayscale so its cheaper to produce. Since American publishers use the tankoubon pages to scan for their releases, most graphic novels here do not include color pages. However, some artbooks are avaliible (such as the Inu-Yasha artbook) that collect these color pages. |
||||
|
||||
hey_jesse
 Posts: 1 |
|
|||
|
funny question
maybe,full color manga existed I just wanna say ,if manga are full color instead of black and white ,I'll pay less passion on it …… just like reading some antic books,that's really bother me! anyway,just like what you have said ,in Japan the first couple of page is coloured but then most of them are black and white, and sometimes this special edition manga for Japanese manga magazine only.
|
||||
|
||||
Tempest
 I Run this place.ANN Publisher  Posts: 10420 Location: Do not message me for support. |
|
|||
That's exactly the reason Manga is generally black and white. The creator's of many serialized manga have to be able to pump out 16~32 pages of manga a week (1 chapter for a weekly magazine like Shonen Jump). There's just no time in that schedule for color. It's also a lot cheaper to print balck and white material than color, so with cheaper printing costs, companies are able to sell the manga much cheaper. Compare the $9.99 cover price of most manga graphic novels to the to the higher price of graphic novels for American and European comics. A typical 64 page leaflet comic in full color costs aroun $3~$5 these days, whereas the 300 page Shonen Jump costs about $5. Both American comics and manga started out in black and white (the original superman strips for exampple were black and white), and since then they've developped in opposite directions.
Depends on the publisher, some publishers will print these pages in color. The ones that don't have a very obvious reason, cost. The cost of adding a couple color pages to a black and white book is not insignificant. -t |
||||
|
||||
|
.Sy
Posts: 1266 |
|
|||
|
Usually manga is first serialized in a magazine when it comes out in Japan. If there are color pages, they are always printed in the magazine. It's the companies' descision whether to reprint color in the graphic novel release. I don't think Shonen Jump graphic novels (both US and Japan) reprint color pages. At least, not normally. It's cheaper to produce manga in black and white. But many artists in Japan are also on a weekly/monthly schedule. Weekly manga creators such as those working for Weekly Jump (a magazine) have to pump out a 20 page manga chapter every week. They simply don't have time to write the plot, sketch, ink, and color. If you've ever read the creator's comments in the Rurouni Kenshin manga, it's a hectic schedule. And when Watsuki does have manga colored for Rurouni Kenshin, it's done by an assistant. Usually, it's the first chapter of a manga regularly gets full color. Debut chapters are longer, but the artist(s) isn't/aren't working on a weekly schedule up untill then. However, I think there is one company in North America that publishes American manga in full color. I've seen some American comics that are in color, and they cost more. Maybe 3 USD a chapter for about 30 pgs.? (I think) A graphic novel with the same page count would have to cost more than $12.
Here's the thread about manga with good art. |
||||
|
||||
|
kara mcpherson
Posts: 2 |
|
|||
|
if you want to pay 50 bucks for a manga that is in color be my guest, i will pay my ten bucks for a manga. have fun, just enjoy the graphics because some of them are really good...like rurouni kenshin, yami no matsuei [descendants of darkness], tsubasa, peacemaker kurogane, and too many more i love...
kara |
||||
|
||||
|
Michi
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 741 Location: Los Angeles, CA |
|
|||
Not all manga are produced weekly, but yes, most are. There are also monthly magazines... but they're still black and white.  ;
|
||||
|
||||
|
Dranxis
Posts: 591 Location: Ohtori Academy |
|
|||
Actually now that you mention it, there are some monthly mags I know of. Isn't Excel Saga serialized in the monthly Young King Comics? No wonder it takes eight or nine months for them to collect enough chapters into one volume. 
|
||||
|
||||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group