Forum - View topicWhat are the different positions needed to create manga?
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Zade
Posts: 79 |
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I want to start a "club" in my high-school that creates and distributes manga around the school. The problem is I don't know all the position and can't seem to find them. Is most manga made completely by one person or are any produced like anime with certain people doing certain jobs?
Anyway if more than one person can be used, what are the positions? |
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marie-antoinette
 Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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I'm not an expert, but this is what I can tell from reading manga and reading a really interesting book on mangakas.
Usually there is one main artist who does the majority of the drawing and story creation. An editor will often help with aspects of the story, though it really depends on the project and who originated the idea (sometimes it is the mangaka, sometimes the publication in which the work will be published). Most mangaka have many assistants, who often get to do backgrounds and screentones and other things like that, but there seem to be a decent amount of mangaka who work alone. There also are cases where one person comes up with the story and another person is in charge of the art. So really, there's nothing set in stone. So for your project, just figure out what works best and using everyone's skills. |
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The Xenos
 Posts: 1519 Location: Boston |
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In Japan, mainstream and better selling manga, ie the ones you see collected here in the US, have entire studios working on them. You may just see one name on the new issue of Bleach or Hellsing, but multiple artists are working on it. You have the creator of the manga in the credits, but they often have a number of assistants. Sometimes you also have a writer as well as the artist, like Death Note for instance. For something in a popular weekly magazine like Shonen Jump, I've gotten the impression of several. Now they may go uncredited in the book, but it's something on their resume and reputation. This is how many artists get their foot into mainstream manga. I think One Piece's Oda started assisting on Kenshin. Meanwhile Fairy Tail's creator was as an assistant on One Piece.
Though for something at your school, I'd say the small press market in Japan is where to look. Doujinshi. No, it's not Japanese for porn. It's just that porn sells and a good deal of it is porn parodies. Plus it's also what sells here in America. Anyway, read a manga like Genshiken or Comic Party to see what this scene is like. It's very interesting to see how amateur artists start in Japan. The doujinshi market is merely amateur creators selling their books. Okay, hope I don't get too preachy now. I'm not only a manga fan, I also like American comics. The funny thing is that the more I heard about this doujinshi market, the more it reminded me that Japan's comic market and America's aren't all that different. Most US creators started out in small press and self published situations like in Japan. Of course Japan's market is bigger and more popular, but they are still similar. So here's where some might disagree with me. Don't think about it as manga. Don't even think about it as comic books. Not even as graphic novels. Just think of your story, characters, artwork, etc. Let your story realize itself. Now I'm not sure if you got a writer and artists or doing both the story and art yourself. It's up to you and who you know. Even if you're doing it as a team, it's all personal choice how much each of you want to impact the story and art. Considering my luck with collaborating right now, or lack thereof, maybe I this area isn't my specialty. There are many ways for writers and artists to interact. Just find a partnership that works for both of you. I could be nerdy and start citing creators off the top of my head, but I'll leave it at that. Anyway, once you got your story roughed out, only then figure out how you're going to publish it. Most doujinshi is actually the size of US comic books, often a bit thicker, but then again so are small press comics. I even know of the word 'zine for some self published comics, especially back during the US indie boom of the 80s. A little before my time, but it's where a number of current big names came from. So, manga, dojinshi, comics, 'zines. Whatever. Find a something that works for you how ever you publish it. Of course there's also a whole new format in teh last decade. The web comic. Of course you may want to hammer things out before you present your comics to the entire planet. |
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The Xenos
Posts: 1519 Location: Boston |
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Oh geez. How could I forget about the editors? Yeah. For good and bad, most manga and American books have editors. Now usually we don't hear about that in America because editorial is usually heard about in the magazines and Japanese manga news sites. Of course on the American comics side, I've followed plenty of good and bad stories about editors. Though again for a small self published thing like you're looking for, editorial doesn't play too much into it. That job is usually take up by the creator or one of them if dealing with more than one creator.
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Zade
Posts: 79 |
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So its just writers, artists and, editors?
Thanks for the reference material. I hope there is going to be a good ratio of writers to artists. Maybe we should create something like a catalog of all the comics/mangas first chapters so everyone can find what they like. Under the American Comic Book article on wikipedia I found even more jobs; writer, penciler, inker, colorist, and letterer. |
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zanarkand princess
 Posts: 1484 |
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Well unlike american comics manga aren't usually in color so there goes your colorer and the assistants do all those other jobs you mentioned. It also depends on your time schedule if you are short on time you might want more people working on it.
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Zade
Posts: 79 |
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I wanted it to be a manga club because most of the drawers I know draw manga style but some friends pointed out to me it should encompass all kinds of arts and I couldn't disagree... I was supposed to say that in my original post but had to get off the computer... I think manga would look cooler than most American comics but some American comics do look good and I don't think anyone would mind added color to manga style.
Also I wanna be a writer not an Artist... I'm not very good at drawing. |
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marie-antoinette
Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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Of course remember, just from a financial point of view, that it costs significantly more to print in colour than it does for black and white, especially if you want to have any decent quality.
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