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Just a reply on some thread that's probably already gone:
Well, it's hard to deny that there are probably cultural influences behind various nationalities' drawing styles, which is why Japanese, Korean, and Chinese comics in general are often very visually distinct in comparison to others.
It's true-- Japanese comics are lumped as such here; however I think of them as seperate from American/Canadian comics -because- they are unique and varied in ways that aren't standard to a culture I was raised in. It's not just the United States that does it. Japanese comics are categorized as such in Europe and South America as well. Japan is simply being noticed for kicking a** at making comics. In turn I'm beginning to notice that people are even starting to refer to Korean comics as manwa...
To any novice, of course Japanese comics are nothing but big eyes, small mouths, wacky-colored hair, etc, but the uninitiated usually defines what they don't know with stereotypes. I'm not knocking your feelings at all, but if your drawing style shows a lot of influence from Japanese artists and you're going to be published in a book at this very moment, guess what the marketing team is going to push. Lots has to change in the comics industry to change how people see things, but comics are often the victim of many stereotypes and prejudices as it is. The art world doesn't even think of comics as valid, museum-worthy art without some kind of distinction.
I don't think distinction is a bad thing. Even if you look at something like the Baroque period, there are characteristics that are based on nationality-- Italian Baroque's subject matter differs from Dutch baroque's subject matter, and each are distinguished by various characteristics. If I were to put different comics from Japan and the United States into a box and not mention where they're from people would start to notice differences in some once they started reading.
 Pink · Sat Aug 27, 2005 @ 02:56am · 2 Comments |
