5by8, #1: What is Manga?
originally written for and posted on Comicsnob.com [Dec ’06 – May ’08]
SO, what is manga?
“Manga” is just another world for comics, folks. Hate to burst your bubble, but that’s all it is. It’s a Japanese word, I’ll give you that, but there is no extra weight that can really be applied past the country of origin.There is a sentiment among some American fans of Japanese comics to invest “manga” with almost mythical status, that manga is somehow more pure of an art form, an expression that has deeper historic roots and a greater creative gravitas.
As to history, well, modern-style manga dates to 1945 and Dr. Osamu Tezuka. (Bats and Supe are from the 30s. I’m just sayin’.) And if you think of manga as being something noble and pure… well, maybe you aren’t reading the same books I am.
A lot of this elitism derives from the need for each new generation to stake out something of its own, something new. They put a label on it, like (to pull in a musical analogy) Rock, or Punk, or Metal, or Grunge, or Trip-hop, or whatever it is the emo kids are listening to nowadays. The point isn’t so often the music itself, but the label that differentiates ‘ours’ from ‘yours’.
Let me cite my favourite Duke Ellington quote: “If it sounds good and feels good, then it is good.” Music is music, Comics are comics, and if you like it then it doesn’t matter what we call it.
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Now that I’ve taken a bit of the air out of some folk’s pretensions, let’s take a look at what really makes manga different. So far as I can tell, there are only two main differences: first a matter of length, and second a matter of style– and these aren’t really differences at all. Let me ’splain:
Your average manga tankoban, or paperback, is going to run 160-240 pages. Your average comic is 24-32 pages. Actually, a lot of manga is first serialized in magazines in Japan, so each monthly installment (which then becomes a chapter in the tankoban) would correspond to a single comic. To make a fair comparison, manga paperback to comic book, you’d have to consider collections, graphic novels, or a stack of comics equal to about a year of your favourite superhero rag. It’s not a fair comparison.
That said, the longer page-count does give our writers and artists a lot more room to tell a story. Actual execution on this promise varies as much for Japanese comics as it does for American equivalents, but the opportunity is there. Some manga snobs like to conveniently ignore this point; they’ll say that longer stories and deeper meaning can only be found on the far side of the Pacific. My take on that is that they obviously haven’t read Watchmen, Sandman, or Frank Miller.
Next, let’s look at the style points: Big eyes, funky hair, and a unique visual ‘vocabulary’.
The eyes and hair, which many American readers might point to as being a bit much, are actually nothing new. Mickey and Bugs share a lot of the same facial and body proportions; Betty Boop is pretty much a straight ‘manga’ style character, too. No, really, go do a Google image search and you’ll see what I’m talking about. Setting aside the fact that these deformations are artistic standards, they also are used because it’s an easy ‘cheat’. Eyes are very expressive and can easily convey emotion– larger eyes do the job that much better. Also, the hair profiles (and often, colour) serve to make each character instantly recognizable. When you’re dealing with a large cast, most of whom are similar (i.e. a gaggle of cute high school girls, or a bunch of martial arts fighters in a tournament) then a unique profile that instantly IDs the character is a definite plus. Matt Groening (I shouldn’t have to tell you, but that’s Matt “Simpsons” “Futurama” Groening) has spoken up on this point also, and a distinct profile, in silhouette, is an important consideration in each of his character designs.
The visual vocabulary of manga is where we find most of the differences, though. Not that the actual conventions of manga are hard to figure out– the throbbing vein on a forehead, the blush of embarrassment, a nervous sweat, the sigh of relief– but taken in aggregate, it can be a bit much all at once. And when combined with a particular application of style, they can seem as alien as, well, Japanese dialogue in a John Wayne movie. Over time, I’ve found that these bits and pieces slip into the background, kind of like Bam and Pow sound effects in the Batman TV show.
The big difference is the use of chibi or super-deformed (occasionally abbreviated SDF) versions of the characters in panels or extended asides within the comic. Some manga don’t use this convention at all. Others rely on it heavily.
This is more easily seen than described, but I’ll give it a shot: The basic idea is that a quick-and-dirty, cute, and “cartoony” version of an otherwise faithfully-depicted character is used by the artist, often for comedic effect, and usually in a situation where the character in question is either stressed, surprised, or otherwise placed in a situation just outside of the norms of the story. The closest American equivalent would be a wild-take from a vintage Looney Tunes short. You watch the eyes bug out or the jaw drop in an extremely anatomically-incorrect way, and then in the next panel, it all shifts back to normal.
You either follow, or you don’t. And sometimes even if you’re familiar with the convention, it’ll still be done poorly. Like any joke, it won’t always work. And its use is restricted to manga or manga-inspired works; I’ve yet to see anything like it in a ‘mainstream’ comic.
But that is the extent of the differences in my opinion. After that, it is all just sequential art, whether we’re considering X-men, Garfield, PvP, or Fullmetal Alchemist. Manga are comics. And the deformed style doesn’t always raise its ugly, swollen super-cute head; only one of the four manga reviewed on the site to date employs this convention. The others are straight-up action comics for the most part.
I’ll admit that manga are different, though, and this provides a whole new window on the world of comics, for those who don’t mind an influx of inspiration into the perhaps-stale world of superhero stories. For my money– while I do love Japanese comics– I think the most interesting development is the emergence of Original English Language manga. (check out my review of Captain Nemo, for one example.)
