Max Manga

Max Says:

Drawing Parallels

As a big fan of both comic books and, of course, a good novel, it almost went without saying that I’d end up reading Manga.

For those who don’t know, Manga is a term that generally refers to Japanese comics, or, for a literal translation: ‘whimsical pictures’. In Japan, these books read from ‘back to front’. Lately, the craze in the Western world has been  to translate what is already there and create tie-ins for films and video games.

Artful

The first thing you’ll notice about this type of book is the way it’s drawn. Now, obviously every series is different as there are hundreds of artists around doing the work. There are, of course, different styles but the texts often share an overall tone. It would appear that Japanese manga, for example, will always lean towards cute, younger characters, often drawn in an almost childlike way; yet adult themes are not covered up, and are almost poked fun of at times (e.g. with uncomfortable situations, or with outfits that are skimpier than they normally would be).

Cute and Cuddly

The big exports from Japan are titles like Evangelion, Love Hina and Yu-Gi-Oh. However, the more stylized works, such as Fruits Basket (written by Natsuki Takaya), are the most memorable; its young girl character, Tohru, moves in with a family who have a dark secret and becomes the object of their affection (and vice versa). As it turns out, the members of the family are all cursed as members of the Chinese zodiac (Rat, Dog, etc.). This includes poor Kyo, who feels more hard done by, being a cat, and who is therefore outside of the zodiac and (by extension) his family. The curse is suitably cute for this kind of story: They can’t hug a member of the opposite sex. This, of course, makes the love interests (brothers Kyo and Yuki) rather fun and entertaining. It’s cute, it’s fluffy – literally – and I’d highly recommend your looking into it.

Expanded Universe

As far as the tie-ins go, the latest company to run its product through Tokyopop (the distributor of the most manga in the U.S.) is Blizzard Entertainment, who push out World of Warcraft titles.

These are usually written by the same authors who work on their books, allowing for some form of continuity. Some, such as Christie Golden, are very good writers and can have fun with what they ask the artists to create for them, while staying loyal to the famous characters loved by fans. Others like to create their own protagonists and heroes, often causing a degree of distress to their readers; and this tarnishes their reputations slightly.

Precious Little Life

Now with all that in mind, I can highly recommend the Scott Pilgrim series of books by Bryan Lee O’Malley. The story and the film (Scott Pilgrim vs the World, to be exact) were written at the same time, so there was very little of “the comic/manga was better!” outcry. Pilgrim is a typical main character – between jobs, in a band, dating a Chinese-Canadian Catholic high school girl – whose world gets turned upside down by a delivery girl who rollerblades through his head at night to make her deliveries. It gets less typical as the 6 book series goes on, as we watch Scott fall for Ramona and battle her seven evil ex’s in order to continue dating her.

Put simply, it’s fun, it’s geeky and I would recommend it as a series to anyone looking to try out manga for the first time.

Have you’ve read some before? Get it anyway. To break an old cliché, just because it’s got pictures doesn’t mean it doesn’t tell a damn good story.

If you haven’t already seen it, this is the official trailer for Scott Pilgrim vs The World.

Are you an artist? Mark Crilley shows you how to draw Manga here.