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Does anyone here read Japanese Manga?

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Lady Sky Skipper:
I read both American and Japanese comics and I was just wondering if anyone else did the same. :)

narfstar:
I have read some manga. I enjoyed some Ranma. I found the problem with manga for me is that they drag things out far too long. Hundred of pages with very little story.

JVJ (RIP):
There wasn't any Manga in America in the "Golden Age", LSS, so most of us didn't experience it until VIZ comics in the 1980s. Rather late to the party, us.

Narf - did I ever tell you the story about Jean-Claude Mezieres? He's a French comic artist who was invited to lecture and teach at a seminar in Japan. One of his final exercises for his class was to tell a short little story (the student could pick the subject) in only three pages. Several of the more experiences Manga artists in the class simply COULDN'T do it! You're right, three pages was just not enough to tell a complete story about ANYTHING.

Still Manga is much better in Japan where it doesn't cost so much and 100 pages in both affordable and an easy way to kill about the same time as an issue of U.S. comic.

Welcome, Lady Sky Slipper

Peace, Jim (|:{>

vaillant:

--- Quote ---There wasn't any Manga in America in the "Golden Age", LSS, so most of us didn't experience it until VIZ comics in the 1980s. Rather late to the party, us.
--- End quote ---

Eh, JVJ, in Italy it has been even worse. Not only we have not had any US comic books of the golden age (very sporadic exceptions for Superman and Batman, pretty maimed and often retraced, mildly published from 1939 to 1947), but we have not had any actual japanese comic published with consistency until 1992.

In fact, having studied very, very little their historical production, I think it can safely be affirmed that – since in Japan they did not have a proper "golden age" because the modern conception of manga emerged slightly afterwards the war, more or less the late 1940s and 1950s productions, can be compared to relevant degree to the "golden age period" productions of other "comics-literate" countries.

E.g. there are interesting parallels between the early Tezuka production (late 1940s) and the early Tintin stories by Hergé (for France/Belgium), while war themes had been occasionally addressed in a large inter-war production (before "modern" manga) which is almost entirely known in the West.
A thing worth stressing is that the original Tetsuwan Atomu (Astro Boy) stories appeared in an antologic magazine (Shounen, which means "Boy"), in a very similar fashion to the one of many antological golden age comic-books, and the original version has a stile and quality pretty influenced by the classic syndicated strips (Mickey Mouse and the work of Geo McManus were favorites of Tezuka which had the opportunity to watch Mickey Mouse and other B/W shorts as a child).

I have purchased an anastatic reprint of the first six years of Atom stories (published in two colors) and they aren't the same thing of the redrawn versions which became "definitive" and were published by Dark Horse in recent years in english language. A pity I don't understand the dialogue, since I don't know japanese, because there are often also remarkable plot differences.

narfstar:
Good one Jim and I can sure see that. I think a lot of current story arc writers would have the same problem. They could not write a single issue story, let alone three pages.

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