Monday, July 29, 2013
How manga will my manga manga?
From probably most definitions of manga, what I am making is not going to be manga? Some people think manga has to be made in Japan. This makes a little sense, because comics from other places are called "comics" or "manwha" or "manhua" or "képregény" or whatever depending on your language. But I'd be kind of outta luck in that case, so I'm going to inventory here what I'm doing what's different and similar to my understanding of what makes a manga.
1. Reading Direction
My manga will be read from right-to-left. There was no specification that it had to be in the contest, and I thought about it a bit, because the words will be in English, so the words will still be going left to right. But in the drastically unlikely event of me winning, the manga will be published in some form by the English version of WSJ, all of which is read right-to-left. I'm just going to have to find ways around the (I can think of relatively few) problems this might create.
2. Color
Manga doesn't have to be all black and white. Most of it I see is, what with it being cheaper and all that, but there are full color manga, and special color pages are pretty common, especially in Jump. I don't plan right now on having any color pages in mine. If English Jump wasn't all digital, that would be a fairly obvious choice, but the real reason is just personal preference. I like the black and white. Mainly because I like sharp, simple style, and possibly because I'm partially colorblind. If I finish with plenty of time, I might try to do some watercolor on a page or something, but I'm not going in with that in mind.
3. Ink
I don't know what the exact case is, but I'm pretty sure most manga is still done analogue. Mine will be digital. I'm very lucky to be born in this time, since I can't imagine myself making anything remotely worthwhile without the aid of an undo key. Plus all the supplies involved; big paper, ink, pens, whiteout or something, maybe one of those french curve rulers it seems like the mangaka in manga always have. That is not my plan.
4. Screentone
One of the biggest identifiable features of manga, I think, is the use of screentone. If I didn't try out some rad patterns to give some texture to my manga, I would be doing a bad job and also not liking the end results. I'm doing this digitally, so I don't have to go out and buy actual sheets of the stuff, but I don't want to just go google image search it and copy and paste stuff either, so I've been working on making some of my own screentone. Um, mostly in MSPaintXP. Yesterday I made some herringbonish ones, and I've already decided I'm going to need some houndstooth, too.
1. Reading Direction
My manga will be read from right-to-left. There was no specification that it had to be in the contest, and I thought about it a bit, because the words will be in English, so the words will still be going left to right. But in the drastically unlikely event of me winning, the manga will be published in some form by the English version of WSJ, all of which is read right-to-left. I'm just going to have to find ways around the (I can think of relatively few) problems this might create.
2. Color
Manga doesn't have to be all black and white. Most of it I see is, what with it being cheaper and all that, but there are full color manga, and special color pages are pretty common, especially in Jump. I don't plan right now on having any color pages in mine. If English Jump wasn't all digital, that would be a fairly obvious choice, but the real reason is just personal preference. I like the black and white. Mainly because I like sharp, simple style, and possibly because I'm partially colorblind. If I finish with plenty of time, I might try to do some watercolor on a page or something, but I'm not going in with that in mind.
3. Ink
I don't know what the exact case is, but I'm pretty sure most manga is still done analogue. Mine will be digital. I'm very lucky to be born in this time, since I can't imagine myself making anything remotely worthwhile without the aid of an undo key. Plus all the supplies involved; big paper, ink, pens, whiteout or something, maybe one of those french curve rulers it seems like the mangaka in manga always have. That is not my plan.
4. Screentone
One of the biggest identifiable features of manga, I think, is the use of screentone. If I didn't try out some rad patterns to give some texture to my manga, I would be doing a bad job and also not liking the end results. I'm doing this digitally, so I don't have to go out and buy actual sheets of the stuff, but I don't want to just go google image search it and copy and paste stuff either, so I've been working on making some of my own screentone. Um, mostly in MSPaintXP. Yesterday I made some herringbonish ones, and I've already decided I'm going to need some houndstooth, too.
here's some now!
.Labels: manga
# posted by Gug Lurge @ 9:39 PM 
Comments:
<< Home
I was totally lacking in the manga dept. thanks for educating me. Very interesting and you are very talented
Post a Comment
<< Home
