U.S comic art so much better than manga?

[odago-san]

okie i really want to hear some responses for this one. I read street fighter by udon comics and was blown away by the artwork i mean every frame is really good art by itself. just look at the covers! Almost all american comics are colorized and most of them beautifully done. the attention to detail is just mind boggling like all the pipes and background stuff. Then when i look at my naruto manga it looks like crap compared to it... so im kinda pissed i love naruto and love reading it but dam why they so cheap? manga's dont even compare to the stuff udon puts out. Art wise that is. Sure manga is alla bout the story and stuff but it's about the art too. I just wished the japanese would maybe notice how detailed the american comics are and maybe try it? the covers on mangas are normal at best. even if you aint a fan of american comics u must admit the art is amazing! well thats my complaint what u guys think???

well heres some of the amazing street fighter comics art and covers
http://cyberstore.decepticon-matrix....fighter_8a.jpg
http://www.decepticon-matrix.com/streetfighter_5b.jpg
http://cyberstore.decepticon-matrix....upgoldfoil.jpg
http://www.decepticon-matrix.com/str...df_redfoil.jpg
http://www.decepticon-matrix.com/str...p21preview.jpg

[Animizzle]

Manga appeals to me, I'v read Marvel, it's wicked art. But it's not versatile. It's only good for action and mature stories.

Manga has a broader prospect and an addition of characteristics that really really really appeal to so many people.

Think about the certain face's, eyes, tear on the back of their head, repetetive jokes.

So even if artwise U.S. Comics may be better -In the end it's a matter of personal taste- , Japanese comics serve my amusement a hundered times better.

[megumidk]

US comics will at average have far better artwork then manga. This is mainly because US has an abundency of people with artistic educations, who work more or less in factory like conditions to draw other peoples titles. They are quite skilled, but less then one in 25 will ever have a comic of his own. For them its a normal 9 to 5 job, something that often reflects heavily on the plot quality, which rarely chances very much.

In Japan, on the other hand, artits makes their own stuff and when they stop, the manga stops. That means that creativity outranks quality by quite a bit and in most, will the story have higher priority then the artwork.
This gives a wonderful diversity, where we in the west has the advantage of getting many of the best series, luckily based on popularity and not art quality.

Personally, ill prefear a the lower quality black and white manga over the colorful american comics. This is mainly due to the series in US changes artists without warning, and several of my past favorites suffered horrible fates in the hands of replacement artists (R.I.P Excalibur).

[odago-san]

i agree with you megumidk i hate it when they change artist i mean u get accustomed and love one persons art then next thing u know ur like wtf?? i guess manga are consistent as fart as style goes

[project myu]

Yeah I used to subscribe to four different Spider-man books when I was younger, plus the Spider-man magazine from FOX Kids. The art is better, but like the other guy said, the artists and writers change frequently. This can be a good and bad thing, as this allows fresh perspectives on old characters..

But bad in that there are a lot of inconsistencies (just like when an anime departs from the manga it's based on). That's why I stopped reading Spider-man after a lot of stupid stuff that made no sense kept happening, like Aunt May dying only to come back in a later comic book and the reason is that the Green Goblin hired an actress to pretend to be Aunt May and fake a death. I was like, what the frick? And keep in mind, the fake death wasn't like dying in an explosion or some other spectacular method.. She died on a hospital bed in front of Peter Parker.

[kj1980]

One reason why our manga is done mainly in black-and-white with shades of screentones is simple: to save publishing costs and to keep prices low enough as demanded by the consumers.

First of all, you have to realize that the manga tankoubon that you are reading are initially serialized onto weekly/monthly magazines. "NARUTO," "ONE PIECE," "Bleach," and all others from the publisher Shueisha are originally serialized onto "Weekly Shonen Jump" magazine. These magazines are highly different from those that you see in America - these magazines are printed at extremely high volume (+2~4 million copies) onto newspaper-type paper. Each magazine consists of over 500 pages and are thick as a phonebook. However, using cheap quality paper makes this book light. Add that with the press using black-and-white ink, the costs are kept down to a minimum to around so it can be sold at a reasonable 240 yen per copy.

Now if each and every title were to be done in color, the production costs for these magazines would skyrocket.

The idea is:
A. These magazines are meant to be read, and thrown away.
B. If you like a serialization, you will buy the tankoubon when it comes out.

So, why the heck should the publisher have to make something in color when these magazines are going to be thrown away? At the same time when expenses would rise, so does the price of such magazines as well.

Questions are:
1. If you are spending 240 yen for something in black-and-white, but it becomes sold for 800 yen or more when it becomes in color, would you buy it?
2. Is it worth for the publisher to go through all the trouble?
3. Would demand increase or will it decrease due to the sudden price jump because it was released in color? (if the company is selling +4 million copies per week, do they want to risk losing that many readers because they raised the price per copy of the magazine because they decided to make it into color?)


Another reason is exactly the point that these magazines are issued every week: coloring in each and every one of them is too time consuming. Manga artists are already scrapped with time and are frequently pushed to its time limits as mandated by the publishers with the current schedule of:

A. "Name"(rough draft)
B. Pen-ire (pen outline)
C. Beta-nuri (inking black areas)
D. Screentone-hari (using screentones)
E. Shi-age (finalization)

for each and every week of publication.

[rixot]

Using kj1980's Shonen Jump as an example, you pay about $2.25 U.S. for about 500 pages of material which comes out on a weekly basis. For a U.S. comic, you pay $3.00+ for material that comes out once per month. I don't remember how many pages on average you get per comic but I know for sure it doesn't go over 50 and probably not much more than 30.

Comparing art quality, I guess you get what you pay for?

[Mr_Paper]

Time is the definitive factor here. Like Rixot said, North American comics are traditionally published monthly. This means that there is far more time for the artists to work on the release and add all the details that North American comics have. Compared to the weekly releases of most Japanese comics, there just isn't any time in the six day schedual to do all the work needed to bring the art quality up to that of North American comics.

[dreamless]

I guess the reason is always time and money. You can also compare the animated movies, usually the US animated movies have far higher graphical quality (not necessarily artistic quality) than Japanese animated movies.

[kujoe]

The colors of US comic books nowadays are partly due to the technology available. Hence, the colors are the first thing you'll definitely notice. Way back then, the typical coloring wasn't really much too look at, and those that stand out weren't really that memorable either.

Moreover, there's a penciling formula of sorts for US comic books--especially in the titles dealing with superheroes. Established poses and patterns, panel layouts and the tricks of the trade. (In fact, I remember back then, that the artists seem to avoid drawing the feet as much as they can, by hiding or obscuring them from view. I have no idea if that's still being done today.)

As for manga, I really can't say anything about it, except that it's more often that manga artists use a more cinematic approach or more establishing shots when it comes to the panels per page. The angles of perspective are more varied, and I personally prefer that. Too bad the paper quality isn't as good, but I can live with it.

I would also like to point out that there are times when black and white is more preferable depending on the style of the artist(s).

[Ambience Blue]

Just a little thing, but does anyone else here think the artwork looks a lot like that of Korean artist Hyung-Tae Kim? (Correct me if I'm mistaken, but he's the one who did the art for Magna Carta)

http://www.cideasphere.com/magnacart...ze/chelsea.jpg
http://www.cideasphere.com/magnacart...e/calintz1.jpg
http://www.cideasphere.com/magnacart.../juclecia2.jpg
http://www.cideasphere.com/magnacart...ize/helios.jpg
http://www.cideasphere.com/magnacart...ze/mc_art2.jpg
http://www.cideasphere.com/magnacart...ze/mc_art3.jpg
http://membres.lycos.fr/sbebinc/magna-2.jpg

[Tripfag]

Take it from a fan of both: If you think any one is better, you haven't looked hard enough.

[Chiibi]

I never liked U.S. comics much because they're never drawn cute at all like manga. *shot*

They're just so.....ergh it's like one genre only: ACTION!! If there are some out there that are more than just the actiony battles, forgive me. I am a bit ignorant in this area.

Now action is fine...but...I think comics should be more than just that....and I want romance between a cute boy and girl with huge eyes and flowy hair, not all these burly guys with super powers who wear tights. XD I also want wacky humor, awkward situations, sweet fluffiness, character bonding and etc.

In short, I just don't like the styles nor the themes of American comics. :x

[Vexx]

Wait... what? Unless you're talking about the "graphic novels" (printed on glossy high quality paper) most color US comics end up looking like messy smudgy crap due to the printing process and quality of paper used.

Manga has the advantage of being black'n'white so it comes across "cleaner" but it is unfortunate that some manga isn't color because its *really* nice because they use higher quality paper for color inserts.

"American" graphic novels, however, are really hard to beat in terms of quality.

[Chiibi]

^ Yesh, they're talking about graphic novel comics-not Sunday funnies. Sunday funnies are amusing though. Calvin and Hobbes, anyone?

[Zu Ra]

Originally Posted by Vexx

Wait... what? Unless you're talking about the "graphic novels" (printed on glossy high quality paper) most color US comics end up looking like messy smudgy crap due to the printing process and quality of paper used.

It not only depends the quality of paper it also depends on form of printing used .

Generally normal printing takes place in with an Offset Printing M/C which is low on quality but cheap . They could use Gravure Printing which is extremly high quality ,but the copper plates required for gravure are really expensive to make and cant be reused .

There is an alternative which would balance the quality and cost thats Flexographic Printing but its still a taboo with its 'aniline' tag . So still most of the print industry depends on Offset

[Vagrant0]

Originally Posted by Chiibi

I never liked U.S. comics much because they're never drawn cute at all like manga. *shot*

They're just so.....ergh it's like one genre only: ACTION!! If there are some out there that are more than just the actiony battles, forgive me. I am a bit ignorant in this area.

Now action is fine...but...I think comics should be more than just that....and I want romance between a cute boy and girl with huge eyes and flowy hair, not all these burly guys with super powers who wear tights. XD I also want wacky humor, awkward situations, sweet fluffiness, character bonding and etc.

In short, I just don't like the styles nor the themes of American comics. :x

You can kinda blame the attacks against American comics back in the 40's and 50's which pretty much left comics to the realm of childhood things, forcing decency and simplicity into stoylines. Comics weren't seen for quality of stories, or even as reading. They were seen as something that kids did and adults didn't. If you mentioned you read comics to anyone, you would have been viewed as an idiot or a retard. As you can imagine, this going on for 30-40 years kinda killed most comic companies that weren't just turning out stories written for children. Although things are slightly different today, publishing companies are less likely to show interest in a drama based comic when they already have successful action comics. There is also still that stigma of being seen as mentally inferior because you're reading stuff with pictures.

Most dramatic comics that are available in the US are either published online as web comics, or are imported from japan.

This is not to suggest that there isn't drama and depth in some of the American action comics. If you know where to look, it's there. Marvel does however seem to do a better job at it than DC.

[Chiibi]

Originally Posted by Vagrant0

You can kinda blame the attacks against American comics back in the 40's and 50's which pretty much left comics to the realm of childhood things, forcing decency and simplicity into stoylines. Comics weren't seen for quality of stories, or even as reading. They were seen as something that kids did and adults didn't. If you mentioned you read comics to anyone, you would have been viewed as an idiot or a retard.

That is very sad. I hate it when people are close-minded like that. But it's good that such a view is dwindling as of today. I go to comic book conventions sometimes (because a little anime makes its way in^^) and you mostly see adults there instead of kids. o.o

[Phantasmagoria]

15 years back, U.S comic art > manga i.m.o.
15 years later, manga > U.S comic art i.m.o.

[7Th]

Originally Posted by Tripfag

Take it from a fan of both: If you think any one is better, you haven't looked hard enough.

Pretty much.