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Requested by classicalzawa. This poll will run for 10 days.

I think that my vote will be "No/Never, I only read manga" but I would like some clarification first.

By "comics" you mean the comic book format, or floppies, right?
"Comics" does not include graphic novels, such as "Amazing Agent Luna" or "Vampire Cheerleaders," in the trade paperback format, right?

^
That is a question that that only classicalzawa can answer.....

Comics can definitely be in trade paperback form (as a long time manga reader, the idea of getting individual issues is just silly to me) or single issue format. But I guess you could say that they originally came out in single issue format before getting collected into a TPB, so that's a pretty big distinction.

As for Amazing Agent Luna, it depends on how you feel about mangaesque things. I'm just going to say that they're close enough to lump in with the manga. Ditto for manhwa and manhua.

OK then.
If we eliminate what could be called OEL manga then, as I expected, my answer is "No/Never, I only read manga."

It has been several decades since I have read a real comic.

Your timing is good. In a few months I would be able to say no. I'm still following two series both of which should end in shortly. Witchblade has solicited its last issue and it remains to be seen if the last couple issues will ship. Fables has ended and the last spinoff should end shortly.

For a while I was heavily into Western Comics. To begin with, when I started collecting manga, it could only be found in comic shops. Since there was not an overwhelming amount of it, I ended seeing and buying some independent series for something to do. This is how I got into the Top Cow/Witchblade universe and such other titles as Tellos, Barry Ween Boy Genius and Strangers in Paradise.

At the time manga was issued in single comic book pamphlets. Graphic novels editions were available for some manga, but they were not guaranteed and frequently came out years after the singles. This meant going through back issue bins where ever I could find comic shops in order to complete some series. Doing this I was constantly exposed to back issues of Magical Drama Queen Roxy a Gen 13 special from Adam Warren. I ended up buying the three issue series. It was fun as a magical girl parody but it left me wondering who the characters were. I ended up getting into Gen 13 and through that all of the Wildstorm Universe of superheroes. Fortunately the issues were extremely cheap at the time. Unfortunately DC comics had bought Wildstorm and eventually trashed the universe.

Strangely, I bought almost no standard Marvel or DC superheroes. On the Marvel side, I bought only Generation X because they crossed over with Gen 13. From DC I bought a single arc of Batman because it was drawn by Jim Lee.

And, oh yeah, when Cross Gen comics started I pretty much bought most of their output for a couple of years until they crashed and burned.

TLDR: as a result of past indiscretions, I have three shelf units of US comics. Currently I'm tapering down to nothing.

PS: isn't there a word missing from the title of this thread??

I put down every once in a while because now and then I may find a good series to read. Most often those comics will be from what I consider third party publishers who are not DC or Marvel. I find these to be very story driven with interesting characters.

Western Comics can be found on blogs private writers. I read a lot of stories of his time and was surprisingly interesting.

I read newspaper comic strips. As well as webcomics, recently I read Watchmen as well, pretty great comic that one.

Still, western comics are lacking in dynamism and realism.

I've been an otaku longer but I own more American comics. Lately I've felt a need to stray away from cliches. While American comics are slowly straying away from their's, Japanese comics are still stuck in their ways.

American comics are pure cliche. Fact is that in the US very little artistic talent is allocated to comics books which are a marginal element of US culture. In Japan comics are a central medium for the country's culture, more so than movies are for US culture. So comparing Japanese Comics with American comics is ludicrous they are not even remotely on the same league in terms of quantity and quality. Also, most good comics made outside of Japan are made in other Asian countries: China, Taiwan, Korea, etc.

Jose Cruz wrote:

American comics are pure cliche. Fact is that in the US very little artistic talent is allocated to comics books which are a marginal element of US culture. In Japan comics are a central medium for the country's culture, more so than movies are for US culture. So comparing Japanese Comics with American comics is ludicrous they are not even remotely on the same league in terms of quantity and quality. Also, most good comics made outside of Japan are made in other Asian countries: China, Taiwan, Korea, etc.

Nice wide blanket judgment there painting all American comics with the same brush. A very inaccurate brush no less. The traditional superhero comics are cliche yes. Even with reboots or alternate universes etc many fall into that same rut. There are some gems in the mix but they are outnumbered by the assembly line norm.

What you need to do is take a look beyond that specific genre because there is a wide range of great comics from all sorts of other genres. Comics that are nowhere near the cliche norm and also have great artistic value. I'm not even talking about the common name popular ones like Walking Dead. I could list no less than 3 dozen right off the top of my head that are well written, not the normal cliche topics, and also have varying degrees of art ranging from good to great. Simply saying all American comics are cliche and uninspired artistically with little to no talent is at best extremely inaccurate, at worst borderline ignorant.

My post was a reaction to the ignorant generalizations made in regards to manga.

Its rather prejudiced to make any generalization regarding the characteristics of comics made in any given country.

However, one thing that I noticed that Western comics lack in comparison to Asian comics is that Asian comics have developed the comic language to a degree that makes it a more dynamic experience that provides a more tactile experience. The art in Japanese comics is simply more advanced and sophisticated, due to the fact that Japanese comics are tremendously larger as an industry and medium than comics in any Western country.

Jose Cruz wrote:

My post was a reaction to the ignorant generalizations made in regards to manga.

OK, I'll bite: Where have you read such generalizations?

Jose Cruz wrote:

Quote:

Its rather prejudiced to make any generalization regarding the characteristics of comics made in any given country.

And yet you have made several posts here doing just that. More to the point, other than a single sentence by ParaChomp, you have been the only one in this thread making such generalizations.

You are correct that the Japanese industry is much larger than that in the US. The rest of your statements in this thread are either a matter of opinion or so vague as to be meaningless.

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