New Blog, Newer Series

Where I live there’s an awesome comic book store. It’s kind of like ‘Cheers’ for nerds; everybody knows your name. When I go there I look forward to talking with the staff and other comic-readers almost as much as actually getting and reading my comics.

Now, most of the people who work and shop there lean more towards American comics than manga, where’s it’s the opposite for me. Yet every and now and then a series will come along that unites us; Sandman, Buffy season 8, Monster. It made me think how there’s two kinds of manga out there: ones that speak to the otaku heart and soul, and ones that have cross-over appeal with American comic readers. So I’ve decided to highlight those series that even Marvel zombies might be even able to sink their teeth into.

But first, let me tell you what this series is NOT:

‘Manga for People Who Don’t Like Comics:’ Once upon a time I believed that comics was a neglected medium. I believed that in a perfect world everyone would read comics, and the only reason that wasn’t reality was because of other people’s preconceptions about the medium. I thought that everyone would love comics if they just found that one perfect series that opened the door for them: ‘From Hell’ for historians, Joe Sacco stuff for people who read the newspaper with CNN on in the background, and so on. I tried proletarizing to friends and family, lending out my copy of Watchmen and getting it back unread. It didn’t work. Somehow my friends didn’t turn into Alan Moore worshiping, seeing-panels-their-sleep comic book fans (like me).

And I realized that was okay. In fact, I was being kind of a jerk pushing this whole medium on people. And I was partly right; there is a comic book out there for everybody, but rarely will that love for one comic translate into a love for the genre. For example, my roommate may go gaga over Persepolis and track down other works by Marjane Satrapi, but she’s not going to seek out Maus or anything (actually, I gave her Maus for Christmas and she loved it. I guess I can’t stop evangelizing completely).

I’ve come to develop a theory, based on nothing but my own observations. I think there are people who are inclined to enjoy sequential art and people who aren’t. A minority of people’s brains are wired to enjoy a combination of words and pictures, where’s for most people it’s either words or pictures. Like I said, no scientific bases for this (in fact, there’s most likely evidence proving the opposite, so I’m just covering my ass). It’s just, there are people who will read a comic and enjoy it because of it’s writing and art, and then move on. Then there are people like me, who will read a comic and enjoy it merely because it’s a comic. This is getting harder and harder to describe, but there’s just something intrinsically pleasing about a page laid out with panels, or matching a balloon of dialogue to a drawn expression. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy writing or art, and can recognize differing levels of quality, but I am likely to give a comic a try just because it’s a comic.

So, this column is written for people who are already into comics in general. This series is not meant to sell people on a medium, but a niche aspect of that medium.

This column is also NOT:

‘Manga for People Who Don’t Like Fun:’ You know who you are. There’s going to be some preeeetty weird stuff showcased here. A horror comic about a small town plagued by spirals, a manga where Adolf Hitler is a character, survivalist horror, garbage men in space, and much more. Manga has a reputation for being weird and wacky, and sometimes it’s well deserved, but other times it’s just people projecting their preconceptions about manga on them.

Basically, I’m asking you to take these suggestions with an open mind. Yeah, it might be weird, and you’ll have to learn to read backwards, but that’s part of the fun.

So, next Wednesday I will post my first installment in “Manga for People Who Don’t Like Manga.” It will be about the manga that inspired this series in the first place: Monster by Naoki Urasawa. See you then.