American Manga... Generation Huh?

[doronjosama]

Over at AnimeNewsNetwork, there's an article about a new book coming out called Mangaka America. Basically, a who's who kind of book, featuring the new generation of American manga artists. Seems like a good idea, right? Well, yes, and while I am delighted that my friend Adam Warren is writing the foreword and that veterans like shutterbox and rikkisimons are finally getting some good press (despite their last name being misspelled, again, sheesh), I have issues with the comments on the article. In particular, one comment where someone says, and I quote directly, (all original spelling, punctuation and grammar preserved):

"i glad american manga-ka are getting more in the spotlight.

the first generation of manga ka!"

Whoa, whoa, whoa, back up there, Tex... FIRST generation? Oh, I don't think so. To be quite technical, the first generation of American manga artists (or "manga-ka", as they are so trendily being called now, though the word "manga-ka" just means "comic artist" if you talk to a Japanese person, so even Greg Land would be called that if he went to Japan- he would just be an amecomi manga-ka...) hit these shores in the 1980's. Artists like Ben Dunn, Lea Hernandez, Adam Warren, Ted Nomura, Tim Eldred, Stan Sakai, Rikki & Tavisha, Colleen Doran, Reggie Byers, Barry Blair, Greg Espinoza and even Frank Miller all worked with a manga influence back in the 1980's. They are the First Generation of American Manga-ka (and honestly, I only use this term because the book does... some of these artists I list would never refer to themselves as such). The 1990's brought the Second Generation of American Manga-ka, with Fred Perry, Joe Wight, Pat Duke, Robert DeJesus, Tyrone Ford, Dave Wilson (and the rest of the Antarctic Press crew of the 90's...), Bruce Lewis, Joe Madureira, Humberto Ramos, Chynna Clugston, Will Allison, and Dean Hsieh. I'd say the Third Generation would include people like Josh Lesnick, Diana Sprinkle, Michael Vega, Locke, Eddie Perkins, Ferdinand Poblete, PMBQ, David Hutchison, Rod Espinosa, Susan Meyer, ET and Elizabeth Bryan, Jo Chen, Skottie Young and John Barrett. The current TokyoPop/Webcomic Generation is at least the Fourth Generation of American Manga-ka. It's hard to divide everyone up into strictly defined decade-based generations also, since so many of the people from the First Generation continued to work in a manga-influenced style from the time they started until now- it's just now they're perceived as "bandwagon jumpers", instead of "people who worked really hard for a long time in a style that was incredibly uncommercial in this country until just recently". I remember when you could not get arrested if you drew in a manga-influenced style- now, it's all the rage.

Anyway, there's my curmudgeonly two cents. I wish the current generation of American manga artists and their fanatical supporters would stop acting like they just invented the wheel. People have been doing manga-influenced comics storytelling in this country since the 1980's. Or the late 1970's, if you want to throw Wendy Pini into the mix. I just wish the people who came before would get their "propers" every once in a while.

ETA: Added links to as many people as I could find.

Comments

[jetbaby.livejournal.com]

P.S. Are we supposed to believe that this is some journalistic endeavor? 'cos (with all due respect to Adam and the Simonseses) it looks to me like one big TPop circle jerk.

[svetlania.livejournal.com]

O__o

[jeepersjournal.livejournal.com]

To be fair, it does feature Tania Del Rio, who chose to go with Archie, rather then pursuing TP. It's a look at specific artists, who are currently very prominent due to TP's bookstore presence. I hope in the future they might look at other artists for sequels, but I don't know if that was the intention.

[divalea.livejournal.com]

Tania was in a RSoM anthology.
Tania and her partner (husband?) wrote the book, and they packaged it for Collins. Her partner works for Harper Collins as a book designer.

[jameshanrahan.livejournal.com]

Tokyopop, no matter how someone feels about the company, is the company that pushed manga to it's new prominence with cheaper prices and more variety, forcing Viz to answer in kind and other publishers to take notice.
TP creators are the most visible and recognizable in the new wave, especially since they are in print. webcomics are still alien and foreign beasties to the print industry-- except for freaks like Penny Arcade. You know, the same way manga style was perceived for a long time
And besides, the book was published by HarperCollins and produced by Steelriver Studios of which Tania Del Rio is a member.

[svetlania.livejournal.com]

>Tokyopop, no matter how someone feels about the company, is the company
>that pushed manga to it's new prominence with cheaper prices and more
>variety, forcing Viz to answer in kind and other publishers to take notice.

AMEN!

P.S. Such a cute icon XD

[jeepersjournal.livejournal.com]

That explains a lot :) It is nice look at a specific set of creators.

[divalea.livejournal.com]

James, they didn't come up with that on their own. All accounts give credit for that to Kurt Hassler, (just recently) former Borders gn czar and TokyoPop creator.

And I was, as I am compelled to say over and over, doing tankubon at a $9.95 price point in 1997. When Cathedral Child was released in 1998, there was an appalling amount of bitching from retailers about the size and low price point.

Until Hassler told TP he'd get them into dump bins at Borders checkouts if they made their books $9.95, they were still selling collections at around $17. I know, because I bought my daughter one and only one Sailor Moon "pocket manga" the year CC came out, and I was appalled at the price.

[jameshanrahan.livejournal.com]

Lea, I know the part that Kurt Hassler has played in this but the point is that it is because of TP the company doing this in such huge quantities that they became so well known, that some manga companies followed suit and the lower prices became the norm rather than the exception. I am not taking anything away from the part Kurt played in how manga is now done in the U.S. Sorry if it looked like I was slighting him or misleading anyone but I was being a little more general for the sake of brevity.

Oh, and boy do I remember those collections from SMILE/TOKYOPOP being $17. I was working in a comic shop at the time and the guy I was working for was only one teeny tiny evolutionary step up from a cheap flea market hustler; just canny enough to realize he MIGHT make money off graphic novels and manga but NOT sharp enough to really cultivate customer loyalty or a really good inventory. I was one of the few employees who was really interested in pushing indies, books for kids, or collections of any sort (whether manga, graphic novels or collections of old newspaper strips) and cultivating the type of customer that would buy them. I was always trying to get moms and non-superhero buyers to consider things.

And yeah, I remember when your books came out and I remember how low you got them priced. ^_^
And though you did such a thing earlier than TP, they WERE a major exception at the time, especially with other manga and graphic novels averaging at about $17 a book. Not ONLY did I get to see you in person more often back then and you had TOLD me about it but, as I said, I was working for a comic shop at the time and your book was one I tried to get more copies of BECAUSE of it's lower price point. Unfortunately the store owner was among those retailers who hated the lower price and always did his comic store math as Lower Price=Less Money For Store rather than Lower Price=Greater Incentive For Customers= More Books Sold. Man I hated that place. You live in SA, you know the kind of shop I mean.