Oishinbo: A la Carte, vol. 1

Story by Tetsu Kariya and Art by Akira Hanasaki
Published in the US by Viz

Slugline: Cooking that reveals more about the characters than the ingredients.

Yamaoka is the son of a famous gourmet, but has rejected his father's life and works. Of course, he unfortunately has been been assigned by the newspaper to cover Japanese cuisine and create the ultimate menu, leading him to multiple confrontations with his father, some of which he walks away the winner others less so. But each chapter of the story talks a little bit more about aspects of Japanese cuisine in factual terms.

This is actually a compilation of the some of the best episodes of the series, which has over 100 collected volumes. Which explains for a rather esoteric topic that the stories here are rather interesting, since they had more than two decades of story to choose from. The interest in these episodes are not in the minutiae of the cooking suggestions and techniques, but in what they represent to the characters. The volume presents a view of a Japan that is far more traditional than what is normally seen in manga. The protagonist is allowed to lose and not know it all, to the primary antagonist, his estranged father. Which both reinforces the traditional values in cooking but violates traditional storytelling rules by having the protagonist being the most competent. Sure, sometimes the actual story itself is simplistic, but there is some interesting balancing between the story and characters, and traditions in storytelling and society.



Oishinbo: A la Carte, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga

-Ferdinand

Professional Manga

By Steve Horton and Jeong Mo Yang
Published by Focal Press, an imprint of Elsevier


Slugline: Not just a software manual

The subtitle of the book is Digital Storytelling with Manga Studio EX, but despite the implication the subtitle gives, the book is more and less than just a manual on how to use the software. For the people that do not know, Manga Studio EX is graphic design/publishing program that has been optimized to work manga and comics publishing formats. About half of the book deals with the use of Manga Studio EX, such as laying out and toning art, with the other half dealing with non-art issues such as storytelling, panel selection and choice, and where to pitch the completed product.

It is more than just a computer manual in that it deals with some of the very real issues of storytelling that are necessary for creating a good story. These are issues that once they have been described, they make perfect sense and is stuff that the reader probably already knew but wasn't consciously aware of. But until they do, it is hard to create stories that include those elements. None of the hints and suggestions are particularly deep or stuff that you will not find elsewhere, but are still useful especially since the storytelling and writing aspects of manga creation tend to be overlooked. The section also includes information about pitching and publishing a manga, though considering the recent changes in TokyoPop some of the information is already out of date.

The art and computer manual information is the first half of the book, and while I am much more of a writer than an artist, there is some interesting stuff there. Details as the importance of line thickness and how it contributes to storytelling is nice, but the actual suggestions for the software seems rather threadbare. I have seen computer software manuals be far more in-depth than this for less complicated actions. I suspect that this falls more into suggestions and tips for using Manga Studio EX rather than a manual on how to use it per se.

It is nice that deals both with art and writing aspects of manga creation rather than just treating one or the other as the whole of manga creation. But while it does cover both, it does not feel that it covers either in an in-depth manner. Maybe this is more useful as the beginning point rather than a master class or in truly making the reader a professional. I don’t want to say it doesn’t have any use, and it does offer relevant and useful information, but this feels more like an introduction to manga creation.



-Ferdinand

CBG Review: The Manga Bible

I have written a review for The Manga Bible, available on the Comic Buyer's Guide website. Please remember that the CBG website uses a 4 star rating. Check it out!



-Ferdinand

CBG Review: Style School, vol. 1

I have written a review for Style School, vol. 1, available on the Comic Buyer's Guide website. Please remember that the CBG website uses a 4 star rating. Check it out!



Style School, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

-Ferdinand

Manga: The Complete Guide

By Jason Thompson
Released by Del Rey


Slugline: Words fail me. Just buy it.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Jason Thompson about Manga: The Complete Guide for Publisher's Weekly Comic Week. Click here for the interview.

I have been reading manga for quite a while, dating back to the mid 80s, and short of some scholarly works that are now out of print and were written so densely to be virtually impenetrable, this is the single best resource I have ever had the pleasure to read. And those academic references were only more complete in the details of how the manga market was born and evolved in Japan, and the early first steps over to the US, but lacked the breadth of understand of the current US market. Not only does this cover all the translated manga in the US, it describes all the genres, especially many of whom have been overlooked in the current manga boom (military, science fiction and mecha, I'm looking at you) but once were the staple of the few imported titles. I came across old friends such as Area 88 and Pineapple Army, along with the dozens of high school dramedies that are the modern output of manga. It also talks and reviews the yaoi and the adult manga titles. In the 90s, adult manga once seemed to be the only manga that would sell back in comic shops.

The genre descriptions also have reading lists, so to give suggestions and the appendixes talk about the Japanese language and the challenges of translating it, along with an artist guide.

You need this. Every person who reads manga more than casually should have this, or wants to know more about manga than what is on the printed page. Even though it will be a dated, as the release schedules of the publishers continue to roll along, and as even more publishers arrive, the usefulness of this as historical introduction and an overview of the dozens of genres of manga will not be affected by the passage of time.

PS. Every library that stocks manga should also get this. No excuses.



Manga: The Complete Guide is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

-Ferdinand

Making Comics

By Scott McCloud
Published by Harper Paperbacks



Slugline: Everything else you need to know about making comics .

I've said before that we will occasionally review stuff here that are not precisely manga, but will be of interest to manga fans even if they do not seem to at first blush. In the western comics, Scott McCloud is one of the foremost theoreticians of comics. Calling him a theoretician makes him sound very dry and possibly boring, but he approaches his work in a very entertaining style, packing it with ideas that explode like grenades in your consciousness just a few minutes into reading the book. And reading the book is not a very difficult task, considering it is a comic book with Scott McCloud himself guiding you through the work.

Making Comics is not about art, or how you draw chibis, but instead about the more abstract and more important issues about what you draw, how you frame, how much space should be between panels or should there even panels at all. He doesn't give you any concrete answers, but points out what the questions should be. If you have ever looked at a page and wondered why it just didn't feel right, Making Comics offers a concrete list of questions you can ask to help you discover just why that is.

While he does mostly focus on western comics, McCloud has been looking at some of the regional differences between comics, and he does have a short section about some of the differences between American and Japanese comics.

Considering just how many "How to Draw" books there are on the market, and how many of them are manga-focused, if you want to learn how to draw that is well covered. But if you want to do more than just arrange them one after another, if you want to tell a story with your pictures, to turn something good into something great, Making Comics is an invaluable toolkit to have, just as important as pencil and paper.



- Ferdinand

New Lanchester Strategy, v. 2 & 3

New Lanchester Strategy: Sales and Marketing Strategy for the Weak vol. 2
New Lanchester Strategy: Sales and Marketing Strategy for the Strong vol. 3
Written by Shinichi Yano, illustrated by Kenichi Sato and translated by Connie Prene
Released in the US by Lanchester Press, Inc



Slugline: Learning to beat your business opponents, manga style!

I thought I would try something a little different from what you are used to. A business theory manga. The Lanchester business theory deals with how to beat business opponents by focusing on their weak points and so on. This has been used in Japan as one of the theories employed in their post-WW 2 recovery. This title was translated by a small specialty press in the late 90s that focuses on Lanchester theory works.

The reason I chose to review this particular title is that it is one of the few examples I know of a non-fiction manga, showing the width and breadth of the medium. Because it's not just about which titles tell good stories, it's about what kind of information manga can be used to communicate. And the answer is anything, because stories are just information, theories are just information. This sort of manga has not reached our shores yet, but I hope this can show what other sorts manga can turn up if the market keeps expanding and demanding material, even material that we may not yet realize we want.

This is a three part manga series, but right now only the last two are available via Amazon. The story is told through the eyes of a group leader, striving to do his all for his company, facing opponents both within and without the company. He talks to friends and fellow company members, each time illustrating one particular point of the business theory in an accessible, commonsense way. Nothing really earthshattering about the theories, but it does take some interesting approaches on understanding and applying business theories, both offensively and defensively.



- Ferdinand

p.s. Now seriously, you thought manga was all sailor girls and bishonen, didn't you. As boring as this manga might sound, imagine how much more boring it would be without pictures...

- Miranda