Graphic novels have been regarded as a legitimate media before Akira bro.

Talking about pure storytelling and excitement, you can't get better than Tintin. And that does it without pantyshots every two pages. There are some good stuff, but I have yet to read any japanese comics that come anywhere close to Tintin on pretty much any aspect.

Why should we promote the mediocre?

(I am just reminded of when there was that arguement about rm2k'ers basing their stories solely on like dragonball and shit, and MOG posted asking like 'what, do you expect us all to read 1984?' as if... it's some kind of bad thing, or even anything tricky to read..)

I used to like tintin when I was a kid but now I realize how shallow it was

ps: I'm talking about the animated version

the cartoon is pretty bad, but then that's kinda what you expect when something's edited down into a 30 minute show.

Kids aren't going to compare and contrast storytelling techniques.  They are going to get the one with the most tits and/or blood in it.

Japanese comics are actually renowned for their lack of characterisation and development, they're shallow and superflat. That's kinda one of the main attractions of them to the mass audience, and especially to Japan's post-war culture.

The style is something that has unfortunately been adopted by the majority of mainstream comic writers and artists. It is unfortunate for the reason that it is a cinematic way of storytelling, which clashes strongly with the literary aspect of it. Comics aren't movies, and visually there's a jarring sense that doesn't fit right when writers and artists try to make them into movies. The drama looks fake and very forced, as opposed to the naturalness of say Jack Kirby.
The disposable nature of manga also leads very much into this, it's something to quickly read and throw away, everything is kept short and to the point, this makes it difficult to actually do something original with the story, let alone something worthwhile.


If you're after dynamic page design, check out the work of Grant Morrison. It's not cinematic in the least, it's just pure comic experimentation. Rather than referencing Seven samurai, he ref's Gilbert and george. His run on Batman is basically a step-by-step guide to how to make the ultimate in comic entertainment. From exciting and innovative page layouts and panel composition to the use of colour, or even backdrops to present interesting ideas and striking visual imagery.

Also don't be dumb, nobody expects someone to be like, 'hmm I am writting this issue of spider-man where mary jane battles against a cyborg controlled spidey, i must bone up on my Orwell', but somebody who reads say, Byron and Joyce will be a much better writer than someone who reads jeffery "I steal everything" archer and tom "heh, people still buy this recycled garbage" clancy.

there is little/no character development outside of the standard comming of age story. It's shallow and flat, even outside the mainstream. The lack of depth in manga and anime (and indeed japan's post-war culture) lead to the development of the superflat art movement. A strong reason for this is because during the massive post-war cultural reboot, the country was swamped with US airforce bases, bringing along with them disney movies and such, which were so heavily taken by the japanese public that the average female heroine still resembles the disney princess look. Because of this dramatic commercialisation, and abandonement of their existing culture (something which still now the country is hesitent to grasp hold of), they have used Disney as the basis of their entertainment (the simplistic storytelling techniques and straightfoward character archetypes are prettymuch constant in all media).  Some artists and writers have used their past, and the quite rich amount of writers from their past, and have a knowledge of storytelling, yeah, but because of the way their culture has developed that is a far smaller percentage than european, american or middle-eastern comics.


It's straight and to the point, that allows them to make extended long series' where nothing much happens, yet the reader feels like they've read a lot. A reason for this is the page layout and even the small size of the pages. Splash images, few panels etc and the whole page is gone. There isn't the room to toy around with an extended concept knowing that the majority of readers will just chuck the issue away after reading it and do the same the next week/fortnight. Instead you get what is a straight forward progression from a-b-c-d. Issues revolving around a fight scene, or an arguement, and that's it. When released as volumes it fails as a continuous work, but more a series of sharp scenes. English comics had that problem in the 80's and now, but because the majority of them were written by the so-called 'second invasion', they managed to work around it, being able to say use the limited page count effectively, featuring multiple scenes carefully managed.

Because people like movies with explosions, does not mean everything should have explosions in. It is the catering to small attention spans that creates the expectation of everything being a quick machine-gun flurry of information, without the time to let the information sink in. That is basically manga.

Yeah our library teachers a complete pushover.
Anyways don't worry Atma Buster I already told him to get us Fairy Tail(We go to the same school)
Too bad we have over like 1 000 books and anyone hardly reads anything except for manga.What the hells the whole point of that.
Also he didn't say we can order any we want he said he'd let us buy a few every month.

Wait so Atma Buster is a real person? I always assumed it was another of dom's accounts or something.

IS THIS WHAT YOU WANT OUR CHILDREN TO BECOME?


DO YOU SEE WHAT MANGA DOES?

I don't think its the manga I think his mom drank too much

liking manga is just a product of it

people can like what they want, it doesn't mean there's something wrong with them or whatnot.

yeah but that's not the fault of what country his chosen comics come from. The obvious lack of care at his school library may be to blame though.

Berserk has already been mentioned, so -

Lone Wolf and Cub
Blade of the Immortal


That said, I don't really think Manga belongs in a school library. They tell an interesting story (sometimes) and can expose you to how another culture thinks and tends to entertain itself, but they aren't really going to expand anyone's horizons.

By my junior year in high school, I had enough credits completed that I had two free class periods, so I worked in the school's library. When I wasn't stocking or making sure nobody spilled drinks/brought food in (part clerk, part bouncer) I would read whatever I found interesting.

Some content - History of Chinese Culture, The complete works of Arthur Conan Doyle, how opiates acts on the human body, history of flight, Dark Tower (this one I actually regret now), Balzac, On the Road, Snows of Kilimanjaro, Beckett, books on several martial arts (the common ones though, Karate, Tae Kwon Do, etc), so many biographies it wasn't even funny, and a lot more I could stretch this post out with if I were so inclined.

A lot of it was just for entertainment, but I learned a great deal from the rest of it - something I don't think you can honestly say about a majority of manga out there.

I saw a book called "Manga For Dummies" in waterstone's today and I was like is there any other kind hehehe

was it just a manga compilation mark hehehehehe

(I am just reminded of when there was that arguement about rm2k'ers basing their stories solely on like dragonball and shit, and MOG posted asking like 'what, do you expect us all to read 1984?' as if... it's some kind of bad thing, or even anything tricky to read..)

1984 is not heavy reading, and it's not a bad thing either, but it shouldn't necessarily be an expectation, you know? The bar and standard of quality should always be set a little higher, I can agree to that.