[merylsilverburg]

Originally Posted by Reid

I also like how Japanese mangaka both write and draw their work. It seems to make the whole process much more concrete and cohesive. Rather than having a whole team working on one comic a system using one main creator and a few assistants probably allows the work to stay truer to the story being told.

Yes, I also forgot about this point. I think this is also why I enjoy manga a bit more. Though, surprising enough, some mangaka actually use some assistants to help them out. For example, Hirano, Kouta of Hellsing has used some assistants (I think for backgrounds and secondary characters) and mangaka of The Big O used a team. I think it's mostly for very long and drawn out action series that certain mangaka use some help.

Originally Posted by Reid

I also agree with meryl in regard to the Japanese influence on American comics. It only really serves to weaken the individuality of American comics when the artists are trying to recreate a Japanese style with many of the works coming out now. Some of them are genuinely influenced and that's alright. When the penciller has grown up watching anime and reading manga it's natural that some of the stylistic undertones would come out in their work but when they try to recreate a style it only weakens what makes American comics unique.

Yes, I think it's sad to see the American comic market do away with their individualistic style for this trend. But, I can't say I don't understand why...I do. It's all about the money. If manga-style is the latest trend, companies would have to adapt this style in order to gain profit (since no one wants to read/look at American-style comics anymore). The part I underlined in your post, I especially agree with. Those who've grown up reading manga and watching anime would adapt the style because they loved the style and want to emulate it. And, when they draw it, it looks genuinely natural. For those who've just *begun* to get into the manga-style of drawing, their drawings...while good...have that very unnatural and rigid look to them. And at times, it's easy to tell which artists are the ones who've just started adopting this style.

Nowadays though, it's kinda sad, because there are so many of those "How-To-Draw-Manga" books out there, which simply teaches most the basics and complex styles of manga, that some of us didn't have access to in the past. Now, I see many people drawing in their notebooks, this manga-style which they've learned using these "How-To" books. What's also very sad (at least for me) is that some of these people (who hated the manga style and anything Japanese when they were young) are actually aspiring to become mangaka (whether US or Japanese) and they are actually getting somewhere! It really pisses me off! Their art is very good, but some of them use these "How-To" books...practice a little...then suddenly, they're all famous and stuff. And, some of them could use a lot of improving on their art, but they become famous anyway! These "How-To" books are good to use to learn basics, but many people literally depend on them and some actually copy the author's style! Trust me, I've seen it. It's either one of these books or something from DBZ. For shoujo stuff, it's either:
1) Sailormoon
2) Cardcaptor Sakura
3) Anything CLAMP
A lot of them look too similar to one another...they don't have their own unique style or even a variation of their favorite style (like, if you enjoy DBZ, then try to change something to make it unique and your own...not many do this).
Yet, I've heard some say to me, "Yeah, I'm totally going to make Japanimation my career!" Japanimation...oh boy...

Originally Posted by Reid

Also, meryl, the word "mangeeru" doesn't mean anything as far as I could find. What's really stupid and irritating about that is that it seems like they tried to spell manga in a English-Japanese romanization way which seems condescending, really. If it means something that I don't know then I feel dumb about saying so but that's the only thing I can think of. What is sort of funny is that the similar word "maneru" means, "to imitate" or "to mimic" which is exactly what they're doing.

Thanks for that Reid, I didn't think that "mangeeru" was a word. I mean, if they wanted to do a somewhat Romanji way, they could've at least gotten "manga" right and wrote something like "mangaaru" if they wanted to be stupid about it. God, nowadays, there are so many items around that are printed with Japanese hiragana/katakana. But, these don't even make sense/make a word. It's so ridiculous...just as long as they slap Japanese or Chinese writing on anything, it sells (like T-shirts or stationary sets). But, I can't bitch too much about this...because the Asian culture (yes, even Japan) does the same thing with English. T-shirts and bags would have bizarre words/phrases, like "Healthy Plastic" or "Do you feel Summer Time Life?"