Bit tough last night with Olivia being unsettled from the evening on. Cranky and hungry is not a good mix for a baby, they want to feed but are just too fed up to do it, so now we know.
We're both dog tired, with Rebecca obviously having to shoulder the worst of it, but at least Olivia's being a bit more cooperative today.
The latest issue of Neo magazine reviews Best New Manga and on the whole is pretty positive, with reservations mainly due to the 'is it manga' aspect. The first review on amazon is less that complementary and although very little is mentioned about individual strips I can't help feeling a little put out as it seems to be a petty and cursory reading of the comic at best and at worst is quite arrogant in it's assumptions. I never realised the 'is it manga?' thing would be a... 'thing'. Like Bush I guess it shows what I know. Shame about the uncharitableness shown to new creators too - even if not all are that new. Oh well, can't please everyone.
Bulldog: Empire artist Neill Cameron is writing and drawing his own comic, Thumpculture and it's shaping up to be top stuff indeed, Neill's a great artist and his writing's a lot of fun too.
7 comments:
Before you know it that baby girl will be pestering you for pocket movie :)
Saw the Amazon review and you're right, it was a little on the snarky side but the ten people who post everywhere about anime are every bit as anal as the ten people who post about superhero comics everywhere and should be equally ignored. Can't find the link right now but I think it was on the Park and Barb show column on Silverbullet where they were writing about the post manga creators. People who'd taken in the best influences from Manga and indie comics and euro comics etc and just produced comics now. A lot of the comics in BNM fell into that category, you could see the manga influences if you knew what to look for and were prepared to take the time but the Manganess of it wasn't paramount. If it wasn't for the fact manga provided such a good hook to sell the book by it could easily have gone under any general anthology title.
To my mind it was all good comics but I'm not hung up on definitions like some people out there, I just want to be entertained.
And don't give a thought to the crap nights with Olivia. They never go away, I've just had two very disturbed nights with Molly not well, but the good stuff far out weighs the bad.
The rough night wasn't so bad, and we do expect more of them, but I guess nothing prepares you for seeing your child so upset.
Manga defensiveness is odd to me. Comics being cultural blenders in the first place, and (real!) manga artists being influenced by western artists all the time (Tezuka is a great example, his early work going so far as to feature Disney characters).
Obviously bad reviews are part and parcel of putting something out and that's fine, but cheap shots (I'm sure I'm not the only person featured in BNM more than familiar with Scott McCloud) masquerading as criticism is irritating.
Also, it's early in the game for me and my skin's not thickened yet!
If you gave a Japanese person an American superhero comic they'd probably say "Ah! Superhero manga!". Because manga in Japan is comics. Tintin is manga. Dennis the Menace is manga. It's the West who have seen the Japanese 'house style' (if I may generalise) and applied the Japanese term for comics to comics that come from Japan, but that's purely a western persepective. There are similar arguments in the world of martial arts, with some 'learned teachers' saying only a Japanese/Chinese/Okinawan can teach a true art.
I did start elaborating my spin on your 'manga = comics' post on pencilmonkey Garen, but scrapped it. Basically I agree, manga is simply another name for comics, therefore all's fair. Still, different cultures produce different kinds of comics, not just in terms of content but in how they tell the story. But this still seems fair game to me, observing how an artist from one part of the world does something, emulating it, understanding, adapting it and possibly even creating something new (not a bad goal). I just don't get why some people could think these cultural differences should be boundaries.
Becaue everyone likes to be a snob about something. I'm a snob myself about many things, and have to try hard not to be too often! :-)
P.S - just got Dungeon Twighlight Vol 2: Armageddon - can't wait to find some time to read it...
Find the time soon, it'll be well spent!
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