Manga=stepping stone for comics?; Newsarama previews Takeru

There’s a long thread on TCJ about whether manga will deliver more comics readers as a whole.

Or more accurately, “will manga deliver readers to our comics?”… because manga are comics.  Also worrying, so many seem to see manga as nothing more than a stepping stone to “superior works.”

Those issues aside, I’m not even sure if this is a question that needs to be asked.  Rather, creators with mainstream aspirations should be asking themselves “what is manga’s appeal to the mainstream, and how do I incorporate it within my own works?”

One thing manga isn’t going to do is deliver new audiences to art/alt comics in a handbasket.  Art comics, by their nature, holds art/self above all else, while the priority for most manga published here is the audience… it’s a very commercial product.  Manga is going to be no more, and no less, relevant to the alt comix crowd as superhero comics.

That said, everyone should follow up that thread with this essay by Fantagraphics co-publisher Kim Thompson.  No truer words on the state of comics have ever been written.  Right now, manga IS filling the role of the “crap, populist medium” for teens… or to put it more charitably, manga is accessible; it knows its primary goal is to entertain, and gives readers what they want without being too cerebral or dumb to insult the audience (which is actually pretty hard to do.)  Manga is the young debutante every man wants because she knows how to tease and flatter them just right, and all the other girls at the ball are jealous.

Edit: Silly me, I forgot to actually link to the thread.

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Newsarama has some preview pages from the upcoming Witchblade manga, though unfortunately, these don’t show the coloring job Top Cow will be adding for their release.  Newsarama is also very careful to label the pages as NSFW, because, you know, buttcheeks drawn by a Japanese person is much more dangerous than the same by an American artist.

Oh waittaminute… what is that she’s pulling out of her… OMG!  Nevermind, jeebus!  Good day to you, ma’am!