|
it IS alien… and it takes a certain amount of mental and aesthetic refocus for the average American (or at least, someone who grew up with their values shaped by American culture, ie me) to appreciate it.
like, I don’t think you’re much of a comics fan in general, so it might be even tougher for you. me… I absolutely lived comics until about ten years ago. as far as pop culture goes, they had complete primacy for me, way above music or film.
I always admired anime to some degree in the 70s..., I dug the Shogun Warriors, Battle of the Planets, Speed Racer and all that (Star Rakers was probably my favorite, though… I felt so “grown up” watching that). when manga became really popular in the 80s, I have to admit that I wasn’t really that interested… I hated most of the American stuff that was influenced by manga (eg Transformers, Voltron).
anyway, when I finally did try to get back into manga, I was really alienated by the art. I mean, the cartoony, “puppy dog eyes” style was something I always admired about Japanese comic art, as well as the economy of line. but sometimes, it was just too weird for me. on one hand, you’d have beautifully drawn stuff like Akira and Ghost in the Shell (though I have to admit that I didn’t even find those stories all that engaging at the time) and then on the other, I’m looking at a bunch of stuff that is asking to be taken seriously and all the people in it are drawn like puppies with human bodies (these was particularly disconcerting/risible with the more “adult” material.)
but I’m rambling. let me get to the point. lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about Osamu Tezuka, and I think that his work is kinda the bridge that allowed me to access this previously alien world because his art (especially in Tetsuwon Atomu) was so influenced by Disney and Fleischer studios. also, because he basically introduced so many of the conceits that became manga standards, such as the “puppy dog eyes”…
from there, I started to understand the “code” of the medium better… the way that symbology is more important to dialogue, the bizarre sound effects, and especially the eloquence of the visuals… it’s just a different way of thinking.
in the “Manga! Manga!” book that Aja recommended above, there’s a quote by Frank Miller where he sort of talks about these “codes”… like, in American comics, we’ve gotten used to our own codes, like a certain configuration of lines being used to represent a nose. we see that configuration and think “a nose,” right? but when you think about it, it really looks nothing like a human nose. I learned how to draw from comics, and I remember when I first moved to Nigeria, drawing noses a certain way in Art class… people laughed at my noses and the teacher used to tell me how crap they were…
I think another thing that got me interested in manga was just learning how diverse the mudium was… I mean, I always knew that people of all ages read comics in Japan, but like most people in this country I associated manga with giant robots, schoolgirls being raped by demons, impossibly big-titted women in leather catsuits, etc. and I didn’t much care for any of that. I’ve found myself gravitating more towards the shojo stuff, the romantic comedies, the funny animals, stuff like that.
_____________________
http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2010/287/6/c/the_wire_lineup__huge_download_by_dennisculver-d30s7vl.jpg
The man who thinks at 50 the same way he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life - Muhammed Ali
|
Printer-friendly copy 
Email this topic to a friend
Pass The Popcorn 
igital Justice - ehh
.jpg)
