Mixing Manga/Anime and American Comic Tropes

[BlueWorldComics]

I made sure to preface all my claims with "mostly", "almost", and "with few exceptions" for a reason... lol

Besides, DC and Marvel are the 2 biggest American comic companies, so it still make sense otherwise.

[ble]

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[BlueWorldComics]

I don't have any immediate plans of ever ending my comic, though I suppose it's always a possibility.

But Manga's use of long term goals (e.g. finding One Piece, Philosopher's Stone, etc) is definitely something I have tried implementing...

[nathanKmcwilliams]

My panelling is reminiscent of silver age western comics. This is due to my amateur status in comic making so I went with the simplest type of panelling.
My art leans towards the eastern side of things, right now it's in pixel art so that anime style works for the art.
As I go forward I'll be changing styles and it's going to be a fusion of a cartoony western style and old school manga style (like Saint Seiya kind of)

As for storytelling, I don't think I have enough story just yet to make an accurate evaluation of tropes. But it's very linear and the world is slowly revealed so it's more manga style I think.

[Reign]

When I create my manga, I really want to make it more like Japanese mangaka make it - so I’ll need to study manga better. Sometimes I tend to accidentally mix my American cartoon look with manga, and then it looks a little more like Voltron. I don’t know if my manga has any western tropes...and I don’t know a whole ton about Eastern tropes. Is there really a difference between the two? I know cultures are different, so I guess tropes probably are, too? I don’t know, though.

[sarrowsmith10]

With few exceptions, American comic properties tend to be owned by corporations, which sees them being passed around from writer to writer. This results in schizophrenic storytelling and jarring status quo overhauls.

I think this is very unique to comics in print. Historically print comics in the US followed a particular type of style model, and the companies expected to see all their artists sort of fall in line with that style in order to create a uniform looking product. Writers change a lot, and I will admit that in recent years changing the artist in the middle of a run has become much more noticeable than it has in the past.

Manga in Japan and even other countries like Korea and China, stylistically is actually hugely vast. This is because most publishing companies did not require their creators to match a style guide or storytelling model. So you get any kind of style from CLAMP's unique look, to Akira's look. There are also huge genre categories in manga that also dramatically affect style (https://animeworldthelandofmanga.wordpress.com/2016/11/01/the-5-types-of-manga/) where most western comics are super hero genre. (Not to say all, Image and Aspen comics have a much wider selection of comics outside of super heroes)

Anyways, then you take a look at webcomics. Webcomics are sort of their own beast. First, I'm seeing that many webcomics are moving to the vertical scrolling format. That's unlike anything being done in print, western or manga. So comparing them is just different. Those who draw webcomics are from all over the world. Taking inspiration from their own local art culture, whatever that might be.

For me, I grew up watching anime, but I only started drawing comics after I got married and my husband is a HUGE Marvel/DC guy. So, when I was learning to draw comics, I was using Spiderman and Batman as reference in terms of panel flow and storytelling. But I think I have strong anime/manga influences, especially from Miyazaki movies. So my webcomics would be some weird hybrid mix. I also really love Alphonse Mucha's art nouveau, so that's sort of mixed in as well.

I also produce my webcomic in print and I find its sort of a struggle to fit in. The anime folks say I'm too western and the western folks say I have too much "anime influence." So I'm not really sure what crowd to join to be honest. Fortunately lots of people who make webcomics are like me, so I hope we all band together.

[BlueWorldComics]

I'm not an expert at anime/manga tropes, but certain things you can come to expect from various genres of anime. For example, a famous one is tournament arcs. Dragonball Z, Yu Yu Hakusho, Hunter X Hunter, Naruto all the way to today with One Punch Man and My Hero Academia.

Also character tropes like the Goku/Naruto/Luffy - Kinda dumb, kinda silly, likes to eat, but is also really determined and surprisingly powerful. The Vegeta/Kaiba/Hiei/Bakugo - The hot tempered, reluctant "friend" that's often the second most powerful character on the show. And many more... I just don't feel like being bothered by people arguing "Person A isn't the Person B of that show, they're more comparable to Person C".

American comics are almost always Superhero-related, so a lot of the tropes are based on that genre, e.g. secret identities, damsels in distress, relatively stable power levels, and other things that may seem played out to the untrained eye of a modern comic fan because they are over 100 years old.

These of course are just two specific genres e.g. Shonen and Superhero comics, there are of course many more examples.

[Maps]

I think my art is more influenced by Japanese/Korean styles while my story-telling is more Americanized. Not that I’ve done a ton of my comic yet...

[Reign]

@BlueWorldComics

Ah, that makes sense. Now I see what you’re puttin’ down.

[Jenny-Toons]

I like the Magical Girl trope from Japanese Anime, thought a lot of my characters take place in America. I dunno -- growing up watching the shows, I tend to like Magical girl series more than any of the American superhero stuff, and I always believed that anyone could be a magical girl. So I ended up making a ton of them as a kid.

Style wise, I tend to lean more towards cartoonish anime style. Mostly because I started drawing from Looney Tunes before diving into any anime I watched.

[monotone_ink]

I've gone the full manga route.

Framing Attention in Japanese and American Comics: Cross-Cultural Differences in...

The link I posted just now is a study of how american comics and japanese comics frame attention in different ways.

As a summary, American comics often give you the whole scene, letting the viewer decide where they want to focus their attention. On the other hand, Manga heavily dictates where the viewer places their attention, in a similar manner to film.

This is something not many people notice too much, but it's absolutely essential.

[bear1]

I’m creating a comic strip which is in the common format for Newspapers publishing.
However, my characters are more created after character tropes common in Anime/Manga
We mixed writing and the art itself as well.

I grew up with Manga/Anime and therefore am heavily influenced by it. So my artstyle goes more into that direction (although I’m more in the Shounen jump camp and not so much in the bi-Shoujo/bi-shonen stuff...I hope you get what I mean ^^)
However, my husband, who does the inking in our comic, gives my art a more American feel to it. His line work is very bold and not as fine and gentle as common in many manga.

Writing wise I cannot tell if we are more into the tropes of Manga or Western comic. We are essentially are a sitcom and have short stories but also follow ongoing arcs that stretch over many, many chapters/strips.
That kind of stuff is common for comic strips in Newspaper (well, for some at least). But it’s also seen in Manga (Although more in the writing and not so much in the strip format.)

We basically do whatever we want and our readers love it.
However, it’s funny that those who do not like our work tossed either critic at us. Either they didn’t like us because we are ‘a wanna be manga’ or because we are an ‘ugly western comic’
Reality is, we are both and neither and if you don’t like us it’s because we are not your cup of tea. It’s that simple

Btw, in case you wanna check out our work. It’s here:

In SECURITY | Tapas

[nathanKmcwilliams]

Now that you mentioned it, I completely see that. As I've been re reading through some different series, both western comics and manga... I noticed the way backgrounds are used is a big tell in that aspect.

Manga artists aren't afraid to use plain, blank BGs to highlight the characters reaction. While I've noticed western comics tend to have a fully drawn BG with everything in it, even during reaction shots.

(I know a lot of this comes down to the insane deadlines mangaka's tend to have. But it illustrates the point about directed attention vs self guided attention. At least in my mind.)

[IdiotWithPencil]

I'm trying right now mixing more Manga effects and story pacing but with comic panel composition and art style, I mean comics have so much more into it than just the genre, compare something like fable or sandman with something like oldboy or naruto
both sandman and fable have distinct pages and different panel composition while both oldboy and naruto have similar, almost the same panel compositions or forms
I find the panels of comics more interesting compared to manga if i'm honest

[monotone_ink]

@IdiotWithPencil
I'll agree with the variety of compositions in American comics, and I think your point about Manga really comes down to the industry--in Japan, manga are meant to be read as light entertainment.

Above are covers of the 'Weekly Young Jump' magazine. Sometimes they have covers for really popular manga (e.g., the first one is Tokyo Ghoul), but the majority of the time, they have cute girls at the front--it's a publication aimed to young men.

You buy a magazine at the convenience store and when you're sitting in the train, you flick through everything 'till you get to the last pages where all the manga are--from what I've seen, the composition techniques used in manga are made to give you a smooth and easy time.
With that in mind, it's useful if those conventions are consitent between series. On the other hand, American comics demand more focus from you.

@dragonsparking
You can observe this in the classical art of both cultures too--western art made use of oil paints, which meant really detailed scenes that could be worked on for long periods of time.
The Japanese mainly used watercolours and inks on paper, which demanded execution on the spot and efficiency. The cultural influences really do leak into comics.

Have a flick through my webcomic here:

Project SHaDe | Tapas

You'll be able to tell I've gone down the manga route just through the usage of backgrounds (or lack thereof under certain conditions). I've found it's a really efficient way to go about this comic, while also hitting the emotional impacts I desire.

[LT1986]

My comic is a mixture of manga style and American style, because I'm starting to move away from the cartoonish style to a more realistic style. I'm adding more skin texture, hair texture, clothing texture, and less big outlines to things that I draw. I've stopped making the outer edges of the eyebrows bigger than the interior edges. I draw more detailed noses, eyes, and lips, now. I still want to use the things from both styles in my art work, when it is needed to convey a message.

[nathanKmcwilliams]

@monotone_ink

That's an interesting comparison between the two classical styles. I'll give your comic a more in depth look pretty soon, the first chapter was really striking as I skimmed over it.

I use a lot of blank backgrounds too, but I tend to have a gradient or some sort of screentone effect since my comic is really colorful. It doesn't feel right to have a plain white BG, it just feels too empty for my taste (in my own art)
But I both a) don't like drawing backgrounds and b) I like to move fast so I feel you on the desire for efficiency.

[monotone_ink]

I don't know how colorful your webcomic is, however, I know a webcomic that, while using colour, still uses the Japanese conventions of just being really efficient.

It's called 'Tokyo Ghoul JACK' (you can read it here)

You'd probably have to make adjustments to your own style if you wanted to go full efficiency--but if you're willing to go down that road while still keeping colour, have a look through that webcomic.

Also, I want to share this action sequence--the sheer sense of force it conveys is awesome.

[Shanny8]

My comics are a mixture of what works for me between American comics and manga/anime- especially from the storytelling perspective; with pacing. I will sometimes incorporate visual aspects from manga/anime but it has to work to perpetuate the story or sell the particular page/scene.

[IdiotWithPencil]

really comes down to the industry--in Japan, manga are meant to be read as light entertainment.

too true, not only the fact that its light entertainment but also a weekly entertainment, the simple panels of manga is mostly done for time than for any stylistic choice, compared with American comics of course