Comics Are Great! 07 – Manga is Great
December 2, 2010 by Jerzy Drozd
Filed under CAG Podcast, Podcasts
Hot on the heels of last episode’s celebration of American Comics, this time we’re paying tribute to the wonderful world of comics from Japan, otherwise known as Manga!
I’m joined by one of my favorite roundtables of cartoonists:
Brandon Dayton is the cartoonist behind the comic Green Monk and contributor to the Feature Creeps process blog.
Kasey Van Hise is the creator of Winters In Lavelle, who may or may not be doing a comic soon called Fat Unicorn.
Dave Roman is the creator of Astronaut Academy, soon to come out from First Second Publishing.
We sit down for a discussion on some of the common misconceptions by American audiences in regards to Manga, followed by some of the lessons we’ve learned through letting some of our favorite Manga influence our works.
Links and artists mentioned in this episode:
- Shaenon K. Garrity’s blog post, Ten Things to Know About the Future of Comics
- Osamu Tezuka
- Hayao Miyazaki
- Katsuhiro Otomo
- Pokémon
- Trigun
- Cowboy Bebop
- GoGo Monster
- Rumiko Takahashi
- Amy Kim Ganter
- Becky Cloonan
- One Piece
- Digimon
- Transformers: Robots In Disguise
- Taiyo Matsumoto
- Natsume Ono
- Ristorante Paradiso
- House of Five Leaves
- Keiko Takemiya
- Cowa, by Akira Toriyama
Some of the books mentioned in this episode:
Other links mentioned at the end of the episode:
- Raina Telgemeier is holding a holiday sale on her Baby-Sitters Club original pages–only $30!
- Kasey Van Hise will give you a free Winters In Lavelle button set if you purchase her book and mention this podcast!
- My 216-page graphic novel The Front: Rebirth is on sale until December 15 for a paltry $6!
- Brandon Dayton is having a print sale on his website (and he also takes commissions)!
Follow Jerzy, Dave, Brandon, and Kasey on Twitter!
Podcast (comicsaregreat): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:19:29 — 72.8MB) | Embed
Are you planning to ever post this early version of The Front? I know I’d like to see it.
As for the creativity/ripoff, people used to ape Kirby, but unless they take it their own way and develop their own style (I had a friend who could have become a manga-style artist if he didn’t choose a different life path) they may end up having a point. However, I’ve seen a number of artists who have in fact developed their own style and manga/anime has only been an influence.
Sky-Bite tends to be a lot of fans’ favorites, but I tend to graviate towards Sideburn (Speedbreaker in the original Car Robots version). But I do like Sky-Bite. Too bad his toy was based on a terrible mold.
I kind of insist that animated spin-off comics at least resemble the cartoon. I love Ming S. Su’s work on DC’s Ben 10 stories, Eric Jones on Batman: The Brave & The Bold and the artist on the Darkwing Duck comic. Also, I wanted the cartoon and comic models of the original Transformers to look like the toys. I’m weird like that. 🙂
I’ve been thinking about putting up all of my 1990s self-published stuff online, actually. You’ve got me considering it more seriously!