General Category > General Discussion

Does anyone here read Japanese Manga?

<< < (3/7) > >>

narfstar:
Cinebooks has been doing a variety of translations

vaillant:

--- Quote from: narfstar on February 26, 2012, 06:01:01 AM ---Wonderful cover. How many pages would you say an original Astroboy story arc would have run during this time?

--- End quote ---

Glad you appreciate it. :)
I do not have the original at hand, but the redone final version (available in english in the Astro Boy Dark Horse #13, title: "Shootout in the Alps") is 31 pages. Story length varied, also depending on whether the story run was originally on the magazine or on a supplement (as it's in this case). The first part of this story, for example, run on the magazine from october 1955 to february 1956 (it can be read in the Dark Horse Astro Boy #10, title: "Yellow Horse"), while the second part, this one, was sold as a supplement.
The supplement is pocket-size, in fact I was pretty surprised when I finally got it from Japan. I thought it was in comic-book size, as Shounen was more or less comic-book size (which made it also for a lot better readability).


--- Quote ---As an aside, the argument about not enough Japanese comics being translated into English is also true for large quantities of French, Belgian, Italian, Spanish etc. comics and strips which are of a very high standard and are not translated into English.
--- End quote ---
Hi Paw, allow me to say that coming to the japanese case there is basically a radical difference, which is not related to the quantity/quality of the material, but to the time lapse.
In Italy we did not have manga until 1992 and I think Epic's Akira (1988?) was the first japanese comic with such a diffusion in the US, while – for example – italian comics have been (at least in one case) published in the USA in comic form ("Saturn against the Earth" on "Future Comics", but I think it's incomplete) as early as 1940, but you’re right in saying that USA have been generally reluctant to look outside their own production. Also, manga started to be massively published in english (and in italian) in late 1980s/early 1990s, but the stories presented were mostly, or only, 1980s and 1990s contemporary productions. Most of the 1940s up to the 1980s ("golden age" to "bronze age" loosely equivalents) of japanese comics is unpublished both in english and in european languages.


--- Quote ---Cinebooks has been doing a variety of translations
--- End quote ---
Oh, great. Including Blake & Mortimer, I see. And Yoko Tsuno, too. Just great. :)
Well, that’s what I am speaking about: we do not have a japanese equivalent of this logic. The equation japanese comics = cool, for youngsters & hip people, and golden age/pre-war = old murky stuff still largely prevails. It’s totally uninformed, and very misleading.

vaillant:
An example: this is an issue of Shounen with an installment of the story "Adventure on Mars" (unfortunately I do not own any Shounen issue, it's just a found image).
As I said, Shounen was more or less comic book size, so the artwork could be appreciated in full, in its wonderful two-color printing.
Look at the same story in the reworked, pocket size final edition, and you will see splash pages often omitted and a big penalization.
Imagine Mac Raboy's Captain Marvel Jr. printed in pocket-size… I make this example because Mac Raboy's art is detailed, but it fits to any work.

Drahken:
I'm a huge reader of manga, despite the fact that I only discovered it less than 10 years ago, and only really got into it about 3~4 years ago. I currently have about 250 series that I've finished reading, about 700 that I'm currently reading, and about 120 that I've dropped.

Manga reading is really a very different experience from american comics. For one thing, manga is almost always tied to a single artist & author unless that person dies, in very sharp contrast to the way american comics change artists & authors with every freaking issue. (Additionally, it's extremely common for the author & artist to be the same person.) Another big difference is that manga doesn't have multi-title universes where all the comics by a given publisher take place in the same universe & interact with each other. Unless a mangaka (manga artist/author) specifically creates some kind of spinoff series or sister series to interact with one of his existing series, or multiple mangakas get together for an intentional one-off crossover, manga series remain self-contained. (Which means none of that money-mongering nonsense that marvel is so fond of, that of forcing you to buy 30 issues each, of 10 different titles each, of 20 different characters, just to get a single story.)

Another major difference is that most manga series are actually pretty short (especially compared to american comics), at around 25~50 chapters, and have an actual conclusion. Imagine spiderman or superman having 50 issues & then stopping.
In contrast to that however, there are a fair number of manga that just drag on & on endlessly. Bleach and naruto are 2 prime examples.
The bottom line here is that if manga seems to drag on & on to you, don't blame manga in general, blame the specific manga you're reading.
There are actually a large number of one-shot manga, which are no more than a single chapter in length. Beyond that, there are a lot of manga which are only 1 volume (typically 5-6 chapters) in length.

bminor:
Not if I can help it! 
I am more of a classic American comic book buy.
There is way to much already here on DCM for me to read!
Plus, no jingle to put to yet ANOTHER comic to buy.

Though, way back when I was young I do have a vague memory about Astro Boy, sometime in the mid sixities. I was about seven or eight year old.

B.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page