Hey everyone! I haven’t been very active on Tumblr in a while because I’v been busy. But I’d like to start posting my art on here more frequently as I am working on several new projects including several short films for school. I hope you enjoy what I’v got!
I was thinking about why I prefer to read manga over American comics (as in, monthly serialized comics) and, putting aside opinions about the “quality” of either medium, I think the reason why is because I have absolutely no idea how American comics work.
Say you’re a complete noob to manga. You don’t know shit about it. But that One Piece thing you saw on TV looks really cool and you want to read it. Where do you start? Volume 1 and go from there.
But imagine the same situation but with comics. You just saw the new Spiderman movie and now you got a craving for more like it. Where do you begin? Well, no one knows because there’s been 901823434^34 different iterations of the character for decades.
With manga, there’s usually one guy (and maybe a team of artists under them to help) working on it. Even if it goes on for years or may switch leads, there’s usually some “consistency” to keep everything in check. With American comics on the other hand, it’s the complete opposite: you have multiple different writers and artists, each contributing their own take on the character: alternate timelines, alternate motifs, etc etc. It’s all a big clusterfuck to me and I have no idea how anyone can keep track of it all.
i wanna read spiderman, where do i start?
“well, you’ll have to choose one of the major points in the series to start at and then switch between different iterations depending on what kind of tone you’re looking for“
i wanna read jojo, where do i start?
“volume 1“
“I want to read X-Men and Wolverine, where do I start?”
Saying A is better than B even though they do things completely differently is a bit unfair. It would be so boring if both Manga and American comics had the exact same system. If you want consistency over DECADES, then sure, read Manga. If you want to see rotating writers/artists who can breath fresh new life in characters you already love, then maybe American comics is what you want.
For example, yes, I wish X-Men could have stayed more consistent and focused.
At the same time, I WISH BERSERK WOULD FUCKING FINISH ALREADY.
But saying one method is superior to the other is incredibly short-sighted to me.
Nah having one series by one author is clearly superior.
At least Berserk is moving along a single continuity and plotline to an eventual conclusion (albeit at a glacial start-stop pace), rather than being constantly rebooted and passed off to talentless nepotistic hacks who couldn’t come anywhere close to the kind of linework and gravitas Miura puts out.
