manga - MSU History Department

INTERNATIONAL COMICS
britain, canada, mexico, france, india, japan (and beyond)
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MANGA
irresponsible pictures
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manga - irresponsible pictures/whimsical pictures
nowhere else in the world (Japan) do comics appeal to a wider audience or achieve greater
financial success
Manga widely targeted at extremely diverse audiences:
Shōnen manga - targeted at young male audience (10-18 yrs)
Shōjo manga - targeted at young female audience (10-18 yrs)
Seinen manga - targeted at an adult male audience
Josei manga - targeted at an adult female audience
Kodomo manga - targeted at children
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MANGA vs. COMICS
There exists some noteworthy differences between manga and western comics:
Lower Production Values - manga is almost always published in black & white on much
lower quality paper
Scope - Manga is usually published as anthologies of several hundred pages. Each
publication may contain several serialized features.
Style - manga is intended to be read very quickly
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HISTORICAL ROOTS OF MANGA
irresponsible pictures?
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HOKUSAI MANGA
1812 - Hokusai published the first volume of his manga - Quick
Lessons in Simplified Drawing
etehon (art manuals) - a convenient way to make money and
attract more students
drawings of animals, religious figures, and everyday people often with humorous overtones
15 volumes published (12 during his lifetime & 3 posthumously)
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STORYTELLING MANGA
little red books
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The manga magazine publishing boom started with the Russo-Japanese
War (1905)
The manga industry (as a storytelling medium) really took hold in Japan
until after World War II - escapist litterature
Post World War II - Japanese pay libraries.
Cheap “red books” (so-called because of the gaudy red ink used on the
covers) became staples of these vendors
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OSAMU TEZUKA
Osamu Tezuka (1928 - 1989) - defined the modern
medium (language, storytelling techniques, form, etc.)
Took inspiration from animated films of Fleischer Studios
and Walt Disney
Tezuka’s success made is acceptable for serious artists
to work as professional manga creators - mangaka
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MANGA IN THE WEST
Challenges to bringing manga to the west:
Design differences - Japanese read from right to left instead of left to right.
Production problems - switching to a left/right flow results in printing and composition
issues
Cultural conventions - cultural idiots represented certain barriers to easy interpretation
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Lone Wolf & Cub (1987) - reprinted by First Comics
Kazuo Koike & Goseki Kojima - 7000 page epic
beginning 1970
series about a ronin who brings his baby son, the only
surviving member of his murdered family, on a quest for
vengeance upon those who framed him
Frank Miller contributed covers (and an introduction in the
first issue)
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Akira - Katsuhiro Otomo
Started in 1982 (published in Young Magazine)
Ran for 8 years and reached more than 2000
pages
Story of young psychics and bikers living in a
post-apocalyptic Tokyo
Otomo directed an anime version in 1988 attracted attention because of its high production
values.
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FRANCO-BELGIAN
bande dessinée
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The French and Belgians have always embraced the comics medium as art
Claude Beylie (French film scholar) argued that comics deserved to be held as the “ninth art”
putting it on even footing with television and seven other arts by Italian film critic Ricciotto
Canudo
In the Franco-Belgian tradition, comics are bande dessinée (“drawn strips”) - also referred to
as BD
Stripverhalen (“strip stories”) in Dutch
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HERGÉ
Georges Prosper Rémi (1907 - 1983) - used the pen name Hergé
Debuted on January 10th, 1929 in the Belgian newspaper Le
Vingtième Siècle as part of the youth supplement (Le Petit Vingtième)
Catholic and conservative newspaper from Brussels, led by abbot
Norbert Wallez
Published a series of other (less popular strips) in the pages of Le
Petit Vingtième
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Tintin in the Land of the Soviets (originally known
as Les Aventures de Tintin, reporter du Petit
"Vingtième", au pays des Soviets)
Published in 1930
Political satire - expressing Hergé's distrust of the
Soviet Union and poking fun at its claim to have a
thriving economy
Bolsheviks are represented as the villains (atheists)
Hergé used Moscou Sans Voiles (Moscow
Unveiled) written by Joseph Douillet, a former
Belgian consul in Soviet Russia
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ASTERIX & OBELIX
wild and crazy gauls
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RENÉ GOSCINNY
René Goscinny (1926 –1977)
Served in the French army, and eventually became the
illustrator for the 141st Alpine Infantry Battalion
Collaborated with Albert Uderzo on a series of
projects including Oumpah-pah
Launched The Adventures of Asterix as a strip in Pilot
(French comics periodical) in 1959
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BANDE DESSINÉE ALBUM
The successful reception of strips like Tintin and Asterix led to an important development in
the solicitations of bande dessinée - the album
hardbound collections of strips - encouraged the idea that the bande dessinée were
keepsakes worth reading instead of disposable ephemera
also helped nurture the professional standing of creators nd fostered a favorable repute for the
burgeoning industry
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The album system of bande dessinée publication prospered because:
1. Creators were paid both for their serialized work appearing in periodicals as well as
royalties from the album reprints - it became possible to make a living being a creator
2. Copyright laws protected a creator’s ownership of a character or a strip, so the
agreement to have a publisher print (or reprint) a strip was not tantamount to
surrendering ownership of the IP
3. Because a creator could make their living at their profession and they were always linked
to their creation, fame and notoriety began to emerge around the most talented creators
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COMICS REVIEW BOARD
1949 law establishing a review board for the censoring of French comics (reacting to the flood
of imported comics flowing into france after WWII)
The law resulted in an unlikely alliance between Catholic educators and the Communist Party
Board set limits on the amount of material that could be imported for publication - forced
publishers to rely on native talent
Board was undermined in the 1960s as the French counterculture movement turned their
attentions outside of France - especially underground American comix (R. Crumb)
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MOEBIUS
the next generation of french comics
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Jean Giraud - Meobius (Gir)
Came to prominence as the artists of the
Lieutenant Blueberry - published in Pilote
(starting in 1963)
co-founded Métal Hurlant - a horror and science
fiction comics anthology magazine - later
franchised in the U.S. as Heavy Metal
Later work rejected traditional realistic depictions
in favor of Nouveau Réalisme
1988 - collaborated with Stan Lee on Silver
Surfer Epic Comics project
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CANADIAN COMICS
stories from the great white north
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The Canadian comics industry is wrapped up in the country’s attempt to maintain a distinct
national identity (in the shadow of the United States)
Distinct difference between the comic industry in French speaking Canada and English
speaking Canada
Import of U.S. comics into Canada started in the 1930s
War Exchange Conservation Act (1940) stopped the import of non-essential materials
(including comic books)
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Maple Leaf Publishing - Better Comics #1 (1941)
Other publishers soon followed and began offering a
variety of books: sports, humor, westerns, war,
adventure, detective, and superhero
Some publishers side stepped the War Exchange
Conservation Act and published
Anglo American - purchased Captain Marvel scripts
from Fawcett Comics and had Canadian artists
redraw them before publishing and distributing them
in Canada
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Triumph-Adventure Comics #1 (Aug. 1941)
Created by Adrian Dingle and published by
Hillborough Studio
Demi goddess who protected the Inuit people
First Canadian national superhero - one of the first
femals superheroes (predates Wonder Woman by
several months)
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CANADIAN COMICS IN THE WAKE OF THE
SECOND WORLD WAR
wartime protectionism could only keep American comics at bay for so long
As soon as the second world war ended, American comics flooded the country again
By 1947, the American publishing industry had reasserted itself
Canadian publishers might reprint American material, but no original Canadian material was
created.
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THE CANADIAN COMICS RESURGENCE
The Canadian comics publishing industry saw a resurgence in the late 1960s and early 1970s
The result of:
rise of fandom/cycle of domestic nationalism
Emergence of the small press model
Emergence of the underground/alternative/comix scene
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Orb Nos. 2-5 (July 1974 – 1975); Power
Comics No. 4 (Nov. 1977)
Science fiction story - adventures on Mars, etc.
Originally the creation of the writer T. Casey
Brennan and the artist John Allison
Character was later revamped by Orb publisher
James Waley and the artist James Craig.
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Captain Canuck - Originally developed by Ron
Leishman (later with Richard Comely)
Self published by Richard Comely (under the
Comely Comix banner)
First issue was published in July of 1975 attracted much media attention (domestically and
internationally)
Took place in the future (1990s) when Canada was
a superpower because of its natural resources
Character worked for CISO (Canadian International
Security Agency)
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Cerebus the Aardvark - created by Dave Sim
Self published by Aardvark-Vanaheim Press
1977 - 2004; 300 issues
Throughout its run, book shifted from a sword and
sorcery parody to a platform for socio-political
commentary
Negotiations regarding DC buying Cerebus took place
from 1985 - 1988; DC offered $100,000 and 10% of
all licensing and merchandising, which Sim rejected.
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Sim became an outspoken advocate of creators'
rights in comics, and used the editorial pages of
Cerebus to promote self-publishing and greater artist
activism
The biggest individual supporter of the Comic Book
Legal Defense Fund
Eventually began to alienate many of his readers as
well as fellow creators
Lengthy prose sections (#186/#265) that are
incredibly misogynistic & sexist - Sim identified a
"feminist/homosexualist axis" that opposed
traditional and rational societal values
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THE MODERN CANADIAN CONTRIBUTION
creators
publishers
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HISTORIETAS
mexican comics
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Mexico has sustained a vibrant comics industry of its own despite the threat of American
competition
Historietas - little stories
The success of historietas has to do with several factors:
language barrier
social acceptance of graphic storytelling
economic factors
storytelling structure
fan community
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ECONOMIC & LANGUAGE FACTORS
Getting comics to Mexican publishers was a low priority for American publishers in the early
days of comics
1921 - editor of one Mexican newspaper (El Heraldo) commissioned a strip by a local artist
(Salvador Pruneda) - story of a cowboy named Don Catarino.
By 1934 newspaper publishers began collecting and reprinting strips
Among the most popular were Paquin and Pepin
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STORYTELLING STRUCTURE & FAN COMMUNITY
Mexican audiences preferred ongoing episodic storytelling - which didn’t catch on in the U.S.
market until the Silver Age
continuing stories would encourage readers to return - developed “brand loyalty”
Encouraged a sense of fan community: published reader letters, introduced creator profiles
(developing a “star” system of cartoonists and writers), sponsored contests to engage readers
Techniques later employed by Stan Lee at Marvel during the Silver Age
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MEXICAN COMICS CONTROVERSY
Depictions of violence, sex, and non-traditional content (gender roles) raised the concern of
more conservative segments of Mexican society - Catholic Legion of Decency
Comision Calificadora de Publicaciones y Revistas Ilustradas (the Qualifying Committee for
Publications and Illustrated Magazines) - 1944
Review all comic titles and related publications once they were issues
Within the omissions power to levy fines, revoke publishing licenses, and recomment
prosecution for violation of decency laws
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LA FAMILIA BURRON
Gabriel Vargas - first published in 1948
Drawn by Vargas from 1948 - 1971
Follows a middle class family in Mexico City
Much of the humor in La Familia Burron comes from class
distinctions
Burola (the wife of the family) attempts scheme after scheme to
raise her middle class family up from the modest living
provided by her husband’s barber salary
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KALIMAN
Kalimam: El Hombre Increible
Began as a radio play in 1963
First comic (created by Rafael Cutberto Navarro and Modesto
Vázquez González) was published in December 4, 1965
1200 issues were published (until 1991) - reprints have been
published since 1998.
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