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Mangatalk: American comics
This post is mostly a reply to some discussion going on in the comments in ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kate_nepveu's post here, where at one point we get into differences between American and Japanese comics and how manga is often designed so that the visual flow of the page drags you across important parts of the art, like characters' faces, while that's not such a strong concern in American comics.
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I don't have time at the moment to write a long essay about the differences, but I took the time to scan in an assortment of pages from various American comics I own. Fairly bad quality, making some unreadable, but that's beside the point. :) If anyone wants to use any of these scans for their own purposes, essays, whatever, be my guest. :)
The only one of that group that really pushes you through the art is the first Transmetropolitan page. I didn't notice it at first, but the cigarette smoke and business with the cigarette makes you look at the art more. The other Transmet page is less obvious, but there's some areas where you're forced to look at the art as you read the text - most especially panels 2, 4, and 5. Panel 3 sort of loses it because they were trying to cram too much in, and the long tail on the balloon in 1 pulls you through it to Spider Jerusalem, but panel 4 relaly pushes you down to panel 5 by the kids face and it leading right into his changed expression in 5.
(The XXXenophile page is worksafe; all the art in all of them is worksafe, although the text in some - Transmetropolitan especially - is discussing unsavory things and there may be the occasional bit of language.)
kate_nepveu's post here, where at one point we get into differences between American and Japanese comics and how manga is often designed so that the visual flow of the page drags you across important parts of the art, like characters' faces, while that's not such a strong concern in American comics.----------
I don't have time at the moment to write a long essay about the differences, but I took the time to scan in an assortment of pages from various American comics I own. Fairly bad quality, making some unreadable, but that's beside the point. :) If anyone wants to use any of these scans for their own purposes, essays, whatever, be my guest. :)
The only one of that group that really pushes you through the art is the first Transmetropolitan page. I didn't notice it at first, but the cigarette smoke and business with the cigarette makes you look at the art more. The other Transmet page is less obvious, but there's some areas where you're forced to look at the art as you read the text - most especially panels 2, 4, and 5. Panel 3 sort of loses it because they were trying to cram too much in, and the long tail on the balloon in 1 pulls you through it to Spider Jerusalem, but panel 4 relaly pushes you down to panel 5 by the kids face and it leading right into his changed expression in 5.
(The XXXenophile page is worksafe; all the art in all of them is worksafe, although the text in some - Transmetropolitan especially - is discussing unsavory things and there may be the occasional bit of language.)