So this time last week I was airport hopping, returning from my first manga/anime convention. At least as a guest, that is. I've played the role of "cool uncle" by taking my teenage niece (a genuine manga chic) to a few local, one-day manga/anime shows, but this -- A-Kon in Dallas, TX. -- was my first stint as a name-in-the-program, seated-in-the-artists-alley guest. Ka-Blam, my digital printing business, had created some materials for the convention and they were kind enough to offer us a table at the show.
I meet some nice folks, discovered some really good manga of which I'm somewhat embarassed to admit I was ignorant, and discovered a couple of cool webcomics of which I was previously unaware. One being Drew Edwards's over thetop monster mash Halloween Man and another being a new, very slick, noir comic from Daniel Fu called The Retriever. Both well worth a read.
All in all it was a fascinating experience, eye-opening in many ways, and I came away more convinced of one thing than ever before. Comics are comics. A simple, but somewhat heretical doctrine that I've always held dear. There's really only three kinds ... good ones, bad ones, and ones that could've been better.
In the past I've been guilty of overlooking manga. The big eyes, the sometimes androgynous male leads, that weird dropping into chibi mode in the middle of a scene ... just not my thing, I rationalized. Pretty silly reasons to write off a whole segment of comics, especially one as energetic and thriving as manga. And somewhat hypocritical as well. I mean, here I am an evangelist for digital comics, dealing day in and day out with the frustration of trying to get through to my brethren and sisters stuck in the mire of traditional comics worldview, folks who love "comics" and would love many webcomics if only they'd give them a try, but they won't because webcomics just aren't "their thing."
Comicdom has always promoted the formation of cliques -- Newspaper vs. comic books, Marvel readers vs. DC readers, "mainstream" vs. "indy", western vs. manga, print vs. digital. It's all a form of "us vs. them". It's divide and conquer and it's never served us well. So my proposal to you this ... examine your comics related prejudices. Maybe it's a genre you think you don't like -- say superheroes. Maybe it's a format, maybe you don't like infinite canvas or flash comics. Maybe you don't like black and white. Maybe you think you don't like manga.So once you've indentified a segment of comics that you think you don't like, then purposefully read a few comics from that segment. Maybe you'll only confirm that you really don't like them. That's fine. No one has to like everything. But maybe, just maybe you'll find a whole new world of stuff out there that you had previously written off.
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Comments
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One-liners - Preparation H. Shrinks Hemorrhoids. New Comic Posted 06/16/06
One-liners - New strips on Fridays.
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Wise words. Sadly, though,
Wise words. Sadly, though, more difficult to put into practice than you make it sound. The problem - for both manga and webcomics - is the sheer volume of second-rate output currently available.
I'm prepared to admit that, along with many brought up on US comics, I long shared a certain prejudice against manga titles for exactly the reasons you mentioned - "big eyes, [...] androgynous male leads, that weird dropping into chibi mode in the middle of a scene" ... However, I try to be open minded and I have since made several forays into manga, sometimes on spec, sometimes on recommendations from others. You know what? I found it merely served to reinforce my prejudices. The "big eyes and androgynous male leads" are slightly disturbing and "that weird dropping into chibi mode in the middle of a scene" really does interrupt the story, completely shattering any suspension of disbelief. Are there examples of manga out there which could yet win me over? Probably, but with the torrent of derivative pap on the shelves just now (thanks, Tokyo Pop!), my chances of finding it seem pretty remote and I'm only prepared to spend money on so many disappointing titles before giving up the hunt all together.
The same is true of webcomics. Like you, I try to champion webcomics among the unbelievers and, for the most part, it doesn't cost any money to experiment with a few. But - as someone said in a post yesterday (Furtado, if I remember rightly) - the number of poor quality titles all over the web (often those with the higher traffic volumes) means that you can waste many precious hours searching for a rare gem, only to come away empty handed, angry at the time you've fruitlessly invested and resolved not to bother again.
The current explosion in both web titles and manga titles is very much a two-edged sword, making a wide range of new titles available which the US majors would never have published but which - at the same time -Â is making it increasingly difficult to find examples of genuine quality.
Broken Voice Comics
Because comics are not just for kids
Subject field!
The current explosion in both web titles and manga titles is very much a two-edged sword, making a wide range of new titles available which the US majors would never have published but which - at the same time - is making it increasingly difficult to find examples of genuine quality.
Yeah, I disagree, more comics available means more quality comics available and the ratio of quality to not will probably be about the same as it was before the new comics came in. More good comics means more good comics for people to find, which will increase the amount of fans of such comics and the amount of people spreading the word. You just have to know where to look which... takes less work as more word spreads. And if you don't like androgynous male/ random chibi manga there's always all of the normal looking male no chibis at all manga out there.
No volume of bad comics should stop you from championing webcomics or anything. The majority of anything will probably be seen as bad by just about everyone. This is common knowledge that probably shouldn't need to be repeated... except it does =\ When you champion webcomics, champion the ones you like. That's it. People that like the comics you hate will do the same thing, and those comics will gain new fans because of it and if you're concerned about webcomics as a whole everything is fine. People that like the comics you hate actually do really like them, so there's nothing wrong with them finding and reading them.
Liking manga is easy if you don't look at it is one entity you have to take on as a whole. I read a lot of manga. That doesn't change the fact that when I walk by the manga section in the book store I usually end up leaving it empty handed. If you don't want to bother looking, it doesn't really matter though. Quite honestly I think you could ignore every modern japanese,American, and webcomic ever made and find more than enough entertainment just reading stuff that was made between 1965-75 or whatever. There's a lot of stuff out there, and you'll never find all of it, so I'm fine with ignoring some things to focus on others.
Kiwis by beat!
Not so much my experience
the number of poor quality titles all over the web (often those with the higher traffic volumes) means that you can waste many precious hours searching for a rare gem, only to come away empty handed, angry at the time you've fruitlessly invested and resolved not to bother again.
I may be too easy to please, but I've never had that much of a problem finding interesting comics online. Good cartoonists link to other good cartoonists; collectives such as Keenspot and Modern Tales have some quality control; banner ads give some taste of the comics (and show the makers are at least committed enough to do some promotion work); and forum discussions bring up some pretty good titles. (I can't remember which of these I found Broken Voice Comics through, but I found them.)
Being politic
Tut, tut! I guess, to be politic, you should say you found us through Comixpedia.
Delighted to hear you did find us, though!
Broken Voice Comics
Because comics are not just for kids
History repeating itself....