Last week was a very busy week for me with regards to furthering my knowledge of manga and comics.
I started the week by attending the Ottawa’s International Writers Festival’s presentation “World Within Worlds: A Masterclass on Novels & Graphic Novels” with J.M. DeMatteis and Mike Carey, who both have written for Marvel and DC as well as other independent publishers. Although I was already aware that the process of making comics in America (specifically at DC and Marvel) is different from the Japanese method, was interesting have firsthand accounts of this process. To put it simply, in Japan manga is often the creation of an individual writer/artist called a mangaka. “The Marvel way” of doing things is to have teams of writers and artists working on a specific comic for instance “Spider-man”. A writer may be assigned to a certain number of issues in which he can run his own story arc within the constraints of the characters. Both DeMatteis and Carey talked about the presence or absence of synergy with the artist. The more in sync with the artist the more freedom they could give the artist to come up with panels and then dialogue accordingly. Both would write the story plot then dialogue after the artwork had been roughly developed.
They also talked about the differences between writing a novel versus comics. In one way it was freeing to be able to create your own story from start to finish in a novel but the freedoms sometimes makes the whole process more daunting. Cary found it somewhat easier writing within parameters of a comic book. One of them made that point that with comics, each issues is published and you must move on to the next, no matter what. With novel writing you have the ability to finish writing the book and then rework the beginning if needed.
The discussion then turned to what seemed to be a reoccurring problem, what happens when the publisher pulls the plug on your project. Often times the publisher would discontinue a series or Arc due to poor sales, this would result in a frustrating “ wrap-it up” issues that would result in rushed endings that sometimes didn’t make sense and left many questions unanswered. Some stories remain incomplete.
Another thing that was worthy of note was the discussion on how the digital availability has changed the comic book industry: now those weekly issues never really disappear, posing questions regarding the future of collecting. They talked about the importance of self-promotion and social media for getting noticed, while attendance at the Comic-Cons is still the primary means of contact.
Well, I wasn't able to make it to TCAF this year but I did manage to take the kids to The Comic Book Shoppe for free comic book day. It was busy and a lot of fun, although my daughter was a little afraid of Darth Vader. I made a fun discovery, next to the comic book shop is the Animestop, It was the first time I’d been in there. Wow it was great, and very dangerous for me. I think my days of hunting down manga have gotten a lot easier, plus they have cosplay, posters, figurines, stuffies, oh boy! I snagged myself a Durarara key chain (one of my favourite anime series), a Pokémon key chain for my daughter and a Pokémon manga for my son,( yes my kids are Pokémon crazy, it’s all they talk about) . I’m definitely going back when it’s not as chaotically busy.