Forum - View topicI have Fallen
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fighterholic
Posts: 9193 |
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So, I went to my local Barnes and Noble today, and I bought volumes of two comic/manga series that are not Japanese in origin: Warcraft and Drama-Con. I had read the first volume of Warcraft a little while back at a library, so I was interested in reading more of it, hence the purchase today. The other series I bought because it looks interesting as far as the cover goes, with cute looking and also designs an obvious imitation of what would seem a Japanese comedy.
Has anybody else who thought they would only read or own Japanese manga ever fallen to the temptation and just bought "American manga"? |
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Not a Jellyfish
 Posts: 539 Location: Boston, MA |
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As stated in the OEL manga jumping the shark thread, I'm a big fan of Shutterbox. Although it's an older OEL it's pretty good. I can't say that there are others that I would choose to read though. Also, I love a few online comic series that can be called OEL manga, The Way to Your Heart is excellent, as well as Arcana. I shed tears when I think of Arcana never finishing.
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LydiaDianne
 Posts: 5634 Location: Southern California |
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I've managed to resist so far. But, I'm sure as time goes by, I'll get sucked in to buying non-Japanese graphic novels.
I'm just hoping that if/when I do, it's a good title. |
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jgreen
 Posts: 1325 Location: St. Louis, MO |
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The first month I started buying manga, lo those many years ago, I bought three titles:
Ranma 1/2 Gunsmith Cats Dirty Pair Dirty Pair, of course, being the Adam Warren "manga-style" American adaptation of the anime. I loved all 3 equally, and I continue to buy comics by Takahashi, Sonoda, AND Warren, and I see no problem with this. A good comic is a good comic regardless of it's country of origin. Just as long as you don't start buying OEL manga just because it's called "manga"....because that school of thought is frowned upon in these parts. 
For other manga-style American comics to pick up next, I wholeheartedly recommend anything by Adam Warren (Dirty Pair, Bubblegum Crisis: Grand Mal, Livewires, the brand new Empowered, and many more), Fred Perry's Gold Digger, Ben Dunn's Ninja High School, the Tokyopop series Boys of Summer (only one volume out so far, and this one has the benefit of an American writer and a Japanese artist). I'd be happy to tell you more about any of those if the titles pique your interest. I also recently checked out the 1st collection of the webcomic Red String and enjoyed it well enough but wasn't really blown away by it. (You can read it for yourself here if you're curious.) And of course, there's many great American, non-manga style graphic novels out there, but you didn't ask about those.
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Dranxis
 Posts: 591 Location: Ohtori Academy |
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I've only read the first volume of Dramacon so far (very, very cute and funny comic, I recommend it) but I definetly intend to buy more OEL manga, or whatever you want to call it. It's a pretty small market so far, but from what I've heard there 'ARE' some good ones out there. 12 Days seems very interesting (might read Blue first though, since I've been meaning to read that for a while) and Gold Digger looks like a lot of fun. Only thing holding me back from Gold Digger is the length...
Has anyone read any of Rod Espinosa's stuff? I've flipped through his Courageous Princess and Neotopia comics and I can't decide if it looks bland or just beautiful. Such pretty backgrounds. *_* |
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Maryohki
 Posts: 526 |
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I bought a volume of Bizenghast, but still need to read it. It looks really good, though <3.
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jgreen
Posts: 1325 Location: St. Louis, MO |
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Holding you back because of the price, or because of just having that much to read? Because you can get the material pretty cheap by buying the full-sized Gold Digger bricks instead of the digest-sized versions. You should note, though, that the first GD brick doesn't have the original 4-issue miniseries.
I read Courageous Princess a loooong time ago so I can't remember much about it, but I do remember enjoying it. That...probably doesn't help much. 
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Richard J.
 Posts: 3367 Location: Sic Semper Tyrannis. |
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I've bought Van Von Hunter and Mail Order Ninja. Both are so silly that I find them highly enjoyable, although I think Ninja is actually very cleverly written in places. Hunter's a good parody of fantasy series. I got into these series only after having a taste of them in my newspaper.
Most of the OEL series seem to be trying to hard to mimic anime/manga. Van Von Hunter and Mail Order Ninja just use a similiar style and either parody or make little references to things. They aren't trying to pretend to be anything but are rather just trying to be their own fun thing. I don't think I could read something that was blatantly trying to mimic something else. |
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HitokiriShadow
 Posts: 6251 |
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I read the first volume of Steady Beat at Borders and I'll order it and whatever other volumes are available at some point. Same for Fool's Gold.
My main reason for waiting is that they take so long to come out. I'll probably order both at the next Tokyopop TRSI sale. I may look into some others as well. |
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KyuuA4
 Posts: 1361 Location: America, where anime and manga can be made |
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For now, I only limit myself to two manga series, as far as purchases go: AMG and Negima. Though at least Von Von Hunter catches the corner of my eye everytime I go to the manga section. There be a cute girl drawn in that one. Awww yea.
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Eruanna
 Posts: 451 Location: Canada |
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I actually get pretty pissy with people who consider anything non-manga to be inherently inferior. Its art. What difference does it make whether the person who created it was American, Japanese, Korean, Canadian, frick, any country or nationality can create art and storys, and its all valid. Thinking that "lol only da japanese comics r any gud" is incredibly racist, and really offends me.
You haven't "fallen". You have opened your mind. EDIT: Oh yeah. As for some good non Japanese titles I know of (I dont call them OEL, I just consider them all "graphic novels" anyways.) are these: Destiny's Hand is VERY good, I own the first book and am waiting for the second one to come out. Earthsong is an amazing webcomic that has a book published, and I want to buy a copy, but I cant shop online, so Im hoping to find one some other way. You can read it here: http://www.earthsongsaga.com/index.html Theres also Return to the Labyrinth, its a sequel story to the (amazing) Jim Henson movie Labyrinth. Im also a big fan of the Marvelverse of course. (they arent even close to being able to be called "manga" though) Last edited by Eruanna on Tue Apr 10, 2007 12:11 am; edited 2 times in total |
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HitokiriShadow
Posts: 6251 |
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Yeah, I don't see any reason to be ashamed of reading it as if its automatically bad or inferior. I have reservations about supporting Tokyopop's marketing using the term 'manga' but that's not going to stop me from buying the ones I want (eventually).
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DazzleNeko
 Posts: 44 |
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I actually don't see anything wrong with supporting them. Simply because they aren't Japanese doesn't mean they are inferior or bad.
The only one I have read is Off*Beat, which I totally love. I am thinking about getting Dramacon, since it sounds a bit like Genshiken. I was also interesting in trying Fool's Gold someday. But I agree with HitokiriShadow that they do take forever to come out. It's like a year between each new volume. |
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marie-antoinette
 Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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I wouldn't say Dramacon is that much like Genshiken at all, though I've only read one volume of the latter. They have a similar-ish subject matter, but that's about it. As for me, I "fell" a long time ago, when Dramacon first came out because I knew I had to have it. I haven't read any of the others, though there are some I am interested in...but there are too many other things I'm collecting at this point in time to justify it 
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HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
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Dramacon is nothing really like Genshiken. Depending on your preferences you may prefer one over the other, to compare:
Dramacon = OEL manga about the AMERICAN anime con scene from the perspective of an anime convention artist. There are allusions to working in the typical artist alley type area, obvious cosplay overtures and the overarcing stories/drama of character interactions many of which could be told in any setting. The lead is a girl and altho I have nothing bad to say about the book, it IS more tailored to a female audience in the sense that the lead is a girl and the story addresses things from her perspective (for the most part). Genshiken = Manga about the JAPANESE anime club and (especially) doujinshi scene from the perspective of various otaku who inhabit the fan club. Since the base cast is larger and (theoretically) more diverse, Genshiken goes from both male and female perspectives, altho because the guys are more "boring" longer stretches of time are seen from the female views, but (IMO) not in the "shoujo-ish way that Dramacon is done. The story is more targetted to an "otaku" demographic, people who will recognize themselves or friends in the "cosplayer" or "artist" or "(porn) game fiend" characters who are presented. Basically, IMO, while anime/manga fans will recognize the "types" put forth in dramacon, the characters are more independent from the setting and could be recognizable to people who have never set foot in an anime convention. OTOH, Genshiken has characters with a charm specific to anime/manga/doujinshi fans that LIKELY wouldn't be appreciated by people outside the hobby. In other words, to me, the "anime con" aspect of Dramacon is just to give it a setting whereas in Genshiken the fandom setting is integral to the title, but your mileage may vary. Again, none of that is intended to take away from Dramacon OR Genshiken, both titles have their merits, but any comparisons between the two are mostly "surface" traits from my perspective. |
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