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Yo, as a fellow aspiring mangaka, I got some tips for you:

Write for yourself, not for your audience (it's fairly obvious when you're intentionally trying to play to your audience [fanservice, super Japanese sugoi nihongo wo hanase dekiru yoooooo] and fans, especially Americans, will NOT appreciate it)

Shounen heroes can range from Ichigo (shatter fate, straightforward) to Yuuhi [Lucifer & the Biscuit Hammer] (brooding and thinking protagonist), this applies to every genre; research accordingly.

Forgive me if I am wrong, but I assume you are producing an OEL (Original English Language) manga. Don't fall into the stylistic trap, take a look at Osamu Tezuka's "Phoenix" and Hiroaki Samura's "Blade of the Immortal" to really see the artistic pioneers of the genre. Even things like word bubbles and panels can change the feel of an entire page. Don't fall into the Nick Simmons faulty thinking that manga is a specific formula.

If you haven't read it already, I highly recommend Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics". No matter how good of an artist you are, there are certain nuances to the comic trade that need to be explored, if not the entire trade of art.

Take a look at the difference between the wildly successful Jason Chan and the sadly less employed Shaun Healey

Jason Chan is employed by everyone from Wizards of the Coast to Marvel Comics. Would I read a comic of his? Probably not. He can establish a temporary narrative (paint a sweet portrait of a single moment) but so far, seems to lack the ability to pace. A crucial element of manga.

Compare Oh! Great (Air Gear) to Hiromu Arakawa (Fullmetal Alchemist). Holy shit is Oh! Great's art freakin' amazing. Have you seen how he renders people flying upside down and shit? This guy knows anatomy like crazy! Does his story make sense? HELL NO! He seems to make things up as goes along and abandons character development in favor of explaining his ridiculously complicated made-up physics (Air treks stopped making sense like 5 characters ago). On the other hand, Hiromu Arakawa's characters look like they've been through a steam roller, but hey, you can recognize them, they are fully developed characters, and you can understand their motivations.

Naoki Urasawa is an excellent mangaka. He created "20th Century Boys", my favorite piece of literature, and collaborated with Tezuka himself on "Pluto". They guy who won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize pretty much said that Urasawa should've gotten it instead. His art? MEH! But it's a style that makes characters readily differentiable!

STYLE is important. Know what you're trying to say and SAY IT. Ichigo may look like Ikkaku, but their motivations, the stylization of their eyes, and Kubo's backgrounds create entirely unique atmospheres.

Know anatomy, start from ground zero (gesture, proportions), emphasize what you think is important and become unassailable in your knowledge.

DO SOMETHING, even if it sucks, practice, post, copy, learn. Enjoy what you do, manga is awesome.

Hey!

That's awesome you want to learn to create manga! As far as learning how to draw manga with video. Mark Crilley's YouTube channel is incredible. But also if you would like to learn how to draw manga I think it's important to study fundamentals of drawing (Mangaka are trained artists who learn their craft not from drawing manga but drawing from life and creating their own style afterwords) so I would suggest also going through a drawing book or two.


Also here are a few other resources that I think will be incredible for you if you want to not only learn how to draw manga but maybe turn that passion into an actual career!

• Mark Crilley's YouTube channel
  
  
  
• Jake Parker's YouTube channel
  
  
  
• Jason Brubaker's YouTube channel
  
  
  
• Figure Drawing Design and Invention book
  
  Definitely pick this up it's been an incredible learning tool for me and I promise that if you work through this. Your ability will improve drastically!
  
  
• Comics are Great Podcast
  
  Probably the MOST upbeat person in the world of comics/manga
  
  
• Comics Manifest Podcast
  
  My podcast, I interview creators and ask them questions about their work flow, habits, and lessons learned. A resource meant to inspire and encourage creators to keep creating and that building a career in this medium is a possible goal.
  
  
  It seems like you may be fairly young and if that's the case I'm excited for you. Keep working on your craft and I promise that in 5-10 years your work will be incredible! Work hard and keep learning!
  
  
  Good luck!

This chapter more than made up for the last two chapters utilizing the two-page spreads for non-kiss related activities!

The way the chapter examined Torayama's point of view towards Tatsumi was so fun. All the introspection revealing her jealousy and attachment made the payoff at the end so satisfying.

I also really enjoyed Shiramine's veiled comment about her relationship with Kurosawa. That it sparked Torayama's own assurance that she wants to stay with Tatsumi was a nice nod to the rivalry that began both of their respective romances with the ones that they love.

The entire sequence of Torayama requesting to stay with Tatsumi was amazing. Tatsumi's mutual agreement in front of Torayama's mother made me think it couldn't get any better, so I was floored when they ran into a hug hug and fell to a tumbling kiss. This arc will be a pure joy to read again. I hope these two will be back a lot more to see their relationship grow even more.

A Kiss and a White Lily Volume 8 is out ext month, as well as the English translation of Volume 5. Be sure to support this series if you can!

Thanks MiamMiam-Team!

I think a good one for her would be Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy, which is child-friendly, absolutely fantastic, and is a pioneering manga that influenced many of the series that followed it (ex. Dragon Ball). It has a lot of action and fighting but is also tempered with a warmth and humanism (even though the main character is a robot). Osamu's art style is great and really appealling: he draws his characters in a Disney-esque style (large eyes, cute faces) and is great at imparting emotional expressiveness, is good at conveying action and has a gift for page layout, and his art has a sense of momentum and dynamism that rivals many live-action films. He's also a good manga artist to start with because his style and technique influenced so many authors and series that came afterward (Cyborg 009, Dragon Ball). Dark Horse has published all 23 volumes of it, and although it's out of print you can get used copies of it for a good price. It doesn't really matter which particular volume you get, since each Astro Boy story is generally self-contained and can be understood by reading it in an of itself. (I should also note that the tankoban- i.e. collected volume- release of the series presents the stories in Tezuka's preferred reading order rather than chronologically.)

Here's a link to Vol. 1 of the Dark Horse edition: https://www.amazon.com/Astro-Boy-Vol-Osamu-Tezuka/dp/1569716765/ref=olp_product_details?_encoding=UTF8&me=&qid=1573781433&sr=8-2

I'd say your strongest point is your ability to convey action. The leaping on page 16 is particularly well executed. You also actually have a pretty good grasp of perspective drawing with the environments! It could use a little work, but I feel like every artist could do with more practice!!

The main suggestion I could give you is to start drawing from life. I know you are heavily influenced by Japanese comics, but trust me when I say that all professional manga artists are able to draw from life. What I mean is, take a figure drawing class, or at the very least pick up this book, or any other figure drawing book really. It will help you greatly with getting proportions correct, as well as help you with understanding the internal structure of the body. By skipping learning how to draw from life, and learning to draw from looking at Manga, you're really only taking the face value. Like, have you ever used a copy machine to make a copy of a copy? The original page looks crisp and clean, but that first copy has a few spots and scratches, and then the copy of that copy has big black splotches on it, and eventually the text is completely illegible. Not to say that your art is really bad! It's actually pretty decent for your first comics! I just believe that doing some observational studies will help your work greatly!

The next major thing you should work on is the writing. I get that his blindfold is what keeps his demons at bay, but by starting the comic off with the central character punching a guy's body in two, and then ripping another guy's arm off... it makes me not care about the character. I feel like if you would have shown the readers that he was a kind person, by like, helping the elderly, or defending his father or something, then I'd be like, "Why is this sweet kid suddenly a vicious murderer?" But since you didn't I was like, "Is this a violent comic for the sake of drawing a violent comic?" Therefore, when the dad was brought in to be killed, he started talking about how innocent the kid was, which is the exact opposite of my first impression. Also, why did they kill the dad? Why, then, did they let evil demon kid live, only to exile him? Wouldn't killing Kai solve all of their problems?

Anyway, I feel like you have potential, mainly because you were actually able to produce this much work! Do you have any idea how many people say they want to make comics but pale at the sight of how much work it is? You are a hard worker, and I know that you will be able to persevere and evolve into something so much better than you already are! On that note, buy Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud. It will change your life. I'm being 100% serious here. McCloud is not only the go-to comics theorist, but he was also one of the first professional Americans to see the potential of drawing comics influenced by the Japanese! Once you have devoured this book, because you will want more, buy Making Comics, also by Scott McCloud. While Understanding dissects the medium and explains things you never would have thought about before, Making Comics applies those thoughts into a school-like setting.

tl;dr: It's good, but could be much better. Worship Scott McCloud.

I was gonna say Frederik L. Schodt's: Manga! Manga! but you beat me too it. (although as all_my_fish said it might be a bit hard to find it.)

Manga: 60 Years of Japanese Comics and Dreamland Japan aren't too shabby in terms of information on manga (although again you will have to find them first.)

Also A Drifting Life by Yoshihiro Tatsumi is an autobiographic manga about the gekiga movement that took place withing manga (and talks about the history of manga to a certain extent. (It is also a pretty well done manga in and of itself)).

I wish I could help find you some better non-book sources.

Your essay seems ok so far.

Here is a couple of lines from Schodt's book that you might could use:

>The word manga (pronounced "mahngah") can mean caricature, cartoon, comic strip, comic book, or animation. Coined by the Japanese woodblock- print artist Hokusai in 1814, it uses the Chinese ideograms [I don't know how to type these sorry] man ("involuntary" or "in spite of oneself") and [another one chinese character] ga ("picture"). Hokusai was evidently trying to describe something like "whimsical sketches." But it is interesting to note that the first ideogram has a secondary meaning of "morally corrupt." The term manga did not come into popular usage until the beginning of this century. Before that, cartoons were called Toba-e or "Toba pictures," after an 11th-century artist; giga, or "playful pictures"; kyoga, or "crazy pictures"; and, in the late 19th century, ponchi-e, or "Punch pictures," after the British magizine. In addition to manga one also hears today the word gekiga or "drama pictures" to describe the more serious, realistic story-comics. Some Japanese, however, simply adopt an English word to describe their favorite reading matter: komikkusu.

(from page 18 of Manga! Manga!)

there you go a source you can use and quote and make your teacher happy (maybe).

Google Scholar is your friend. You won't be able to fully read all of the articles they link you to, but it is a great place to start.

Wired Magazine did a great article on manga a while back.

This article is pretty good for a brief history of manga's development through history.

I don't know if you'll be able to get ahold of it in Norway, but this book is The Authority on manga, though a bit outdated. This book is good too and more current.

Hope that helps you out.

There's so much to praise about this manga and this author in general. I love his attention to detail. A lot of mangas and movies depict homes as neat minimalist set pieces whereas in real life, there is stuff lying around everywhere in our rooms that reveal our characters. We never get a flashback or conversation with Mikura's grandfather but we understand the depth of their relationship through all of the stuff that's left behind after he dies. His art is just amazing at conveying emotions and atmosphere without words.

I really hope he continues this series and I plan on pre-ordering this book for when its released in english: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1506700799

I'm pretty surprised that Dark Horse chose to publish this instead of Memories of Emanon which is more popular, hopefully that means the author is planning on resuming this series.

I don't really have anything to compare it to, but I recently got the 2-volume deluxe etc edition of Nausicaa and was blown away by its quality.

Super super super nice.

Step 1. LOOK at the art.

It sounds like you're doing this, that's great! The artist probably spent 2–10 hours on that one page, I'm sure they'd like it if people did more than glance at it. You might find it useful if you pay attention to these things in particular: shapes, how lighting works (the shadows, shading, and highlights), line width, composition and layout, foreground/background and perspective, anatomy and proportions (which can be unrealistic and still look good), textures and effects.

Take a look at through the Escher Girls tumblr if you want to see what inaccurate anatomy can do to otherwise skilled artwork.

Step 2. Learn about what goes into artwork. For comics, manga, and other sequential art in particular, I HIGHLY recommend reading Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics. It is not a how-to-draw book. It's also well worth your time, and odds are good you can find it at your local library if you live in an native English-speaking country. The sequel, Making Comics, is also really good.

Step 3. Keep looking at the art for multiple series, over time eventually you'll start to notice what works and what doesn't, when rules are broken to good effect and when they really should've listened.

The Garden of Words is another good oneshot I recommend. It also has a movie, both of which I found to be enjoyable. Unfortunately I don't have any other recommendations that are under 5 volumes in length but these are ones that I would recommend.

The Evangelion Omnibus has 5 mega volumes out and is finished (about $100 plus tax) - 14 total volumes. Claymore is quite a bit longer but it has a box set of all 27 volumes for about $140 (~5$ each volume) and it seems right in line with your interests, just shop around for the best price online.

If you're into rom-coms then:

• Monster Musume has 8 volumes out and is ongoing (slow releases; next release is in september)
  
  
• Ninja Girls has 9 volumes out and is finished.
  
  
• Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches has 8 volumes out and is ongoing.
  
  While not manga, Bryan Lee O'Malley has Scott Pilgrim (6 volumes) and Seconds (one shot) - both of which I highly recommend.
  
  edit: links in the doobly-doo

It's a great series, so I guess it all comes down to how much money you have free to use. That said where did you see it for $172 and did it come something else special because right now I'm seeing all 27 volumes for $146 on Amazon. At that price it's definitely worth it for a Berserk fan if you're not broke.

Scott McCloud looks really interesting, especially Understanding Comic seems to be right up my alley.

By way of related literature on Amazon when looking up the Thompson book, I found a couple of interesting looking titles - thought I'd share:

• A Brief History of Manga (2014)
  
• Manga: An Anthology of Global and Cultural Perspectives (2009)
  
• Dreamland Japan: Writings on Modern Manga - Japanese Comics for "Otaku" (1996)
  
  Looking through their tables of content, they seem solid enough.
  
  Thanks for the recommendations! :)

Yes, the one and only Hayao Miyazaki. That grumpy old 'animu is a mistake' guy. Also made some of the best animated film classics, from the action-packed Mononoke Hime to the adorable My Neighbour Totoro.

Now on to the series itself. A warning, the series is not in Batoto, so you can go buy the absolutely excellent box edition for Nausicaa here which I can personally vouch, and fully recommend. If not, sail the seven seas, which I don't really recommend. Anyways.

This series itself is chosen because there are a plethora of things to discuss. From the unique artstyle, to it's steampunk setting, to it's messianic main character. That and Book Club has done way too many SoLs.

Nausicaa has some of my favorite war scenes throughout all the manga world. I've read Kingdom, Vinland Saga, Bokko, some of the big name war series in the manga world and there's something about the composition of the war scenes in Nausicaa that makes it feel more visceral than most. Definite must read if you're a fan of war scenes.

Another interesting thought is the relevancy of the message contained in the series to our current times. Protecting the environment. If you watched at least 2 of Miyazaki's works, you'll know that he is a big enviroment buff. Just look at the details in which he draws the flora and fauna in any of his series.

Also thank Nausicaa. From his interviews it appears that without Nausicaa to channel his grudge on the destruction of the environment, we wouldn't get cute, fluffy series ala Totoro and Ponyo.

Quoted from Wikipedia:

"He also noted that his continued struggle with the subject matter in the ongoing development of the Nausicaä manga allowed him to create different, lighter, films than he would have been able to make without Nausicaä providing an outlet for his more serious thoughts throughout the period of its creation"

Last thing to note, the anime adaptation is a must-watch classic, but only covers 1/3 of the manga.

Personal thanks to /u/motogmxposed for the Aria recommendation last month! Great choice right there, sorry for having to forgot to credit you last month.

I absolutely adore Tsurata Kenji's art, I've bought up everything I could find of it. When I first heard about this getting licensed I was incredulous, as I never expected his work to get an English treatment. But now it's out and hopefully it can get some of his work some much needed English attention. I'll cross my fingers and hope Emanon get's the same. You guys go out and buy a copy, now!!!


Amazon


Rightstuf


B&N

I would like to begin with stating that anime/manga are not artistic styles, they are mediums. Manga can run the gamut of looking like bleach to crying freeman and depend on the influences of the aforementioned artist.

I'm going to recommend this basic figure drawing book as it will teach your cousin some very basic, but great things.

http://www.amazon.com/Figure-Drawing-Invention-Michael-Hampton/dp/0615272819/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1322839777&sr=1-7

There are tons these days. It's a real popular format. Some stuff I'd recommend:

Just Good Stuff:

• Gunslinger Girl
  
• Umineko no Naku Koro ni
  
• Vinland Saga
  
• Victorian Romance Emma
  
• Another
  
  Classic Clamp from Dark Horse:
  
  
• Cardcaptor Sakura
  
• Chobits
  
• Clover
  
  Yuri:
  
  
• Girl Friends
  
• Whispered Words

Great collection! You should consider picking up Monster Perfect Edition, it's a reprint of Monster, two volumes per edition of this one.

That is the right series but I recommend picking up this, it has all 3 volumes and has a beautiful hard cover .

well, my suggestion is mediocre, but here:
If you want an easy guide to the basics, and you've got a few bucks, try this: http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Manga-Mark-Crilley-drawing/dp/1440309310/.
bought a copy myself, vastly inproved in a few hours (sorry no examples, no scanner)
If you are broke like myself, he also has a lot of stuff on youtube. good luck!

Watched the anime years ago and i plan to buy the manga.

Did you not know, Monster is being re-released? As Monster The Perfect Edition? 2 Volume Omnibus'. With bigger pages. Better quality paper and colour pages.

The first one comes out in a few days. Here it is on Amazon UK if your from the US have a look on your amazon.

I can't help on the promotion side of things, but on the creation side I highly recommend reading Manga in Theory and Practice: The Craft of Creating Manga by Hirohiko Araki (author of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure). This will explain everything you've ever wanted to know and more about the comics creation process.

Since you're not aware, it should be mentioned that most manga tend to be long series and span multiple books, so it's rarely just one book.

I would recommend something like Cardcaptor Sakura. This particular edition of the series has 4 books in total. You can search them using the search term "Cardcaptor Sakura Omnibus".

Since you've mentioned she likes Hayao Miyazaki's works, check out this manga box set by him. It's called Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind.

This Nausicaa boxset is the nicest set of books of any type that I own. Just beautiful. And big.

EDIT: A couple more images.

Mark Crilley has a great series of books on how to draw in the manga style, as well as a very in-depth YouTube channel showing how to draw and not just manga. His realism work is insane. He's also the author of several children's books, so he knows his stuff and his content is very good for all ages.

Surprisingly, Jojo author Hirohiko Araki's book "Manga in Theory and Practice" is actually available in English. In it, he himself admits to being inspired by a Hitchcock reference.

Mark also has an excellent guide book called Mastering Manga. I highly recommend it for beginners.

My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness 1 Volume | Amazon

The Gods Lie 1 Volume | Amazon

A Girl on the Shore 2 in 1 Omnibus | Amazon

Solanin 2 in 1 Omnibus | Amazon

not simple 1 Volume | Amazon

All You Need is Kill 2 in 1 Omnibus | Amazon

Complete stories in 1 or 2 volumes.

They sell a box set, here it is on Amazon for $135 but generally yeah like 10 dollars a volume for Manga is right its expensive especially for a long series with lots of volumes

Another option is buying a manga guidebook! It's a couple years old, but I got this for Christmas one year and I rather enjoyed it! http://www.amazon.com/Manga-Complete-Guide-Jason-Thompson/dp/0345485904/ref=sr_1_11?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1322715394&sr=1-11

There is a really nice hardcover version available if anyone likes to collect those: http://www.amazon.com/Uzumaki-3---1-Deluxe-vols/dp/1421561328/

Both of these books are excellent.

1

2

If you can't aford them, here are the PDFs.

You try amazon or Bookdepository at all? Both sites are my go-to for manga purchases that also deliver new or used.

Tomie, Uzumaki, and Gyo are all famous horror titles by Junji Ito that are commonly suggested to people and are sold in complete editions. (All volumes are condensed into 1)

The names are linked to their respective amazon listings as well.

This one is the good one for drawing manga. You can find pdfs, so I'd do that, and then order a copy.

​

https://www.amazon.com/How-Draw-Manga-Compiling-Characters/dp/4889960422

Check this out it might help you.

To you I highly recommend Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud. It's not manga, but it is a comic about the mechanics of comics.

Amazon link:

https://www.amazon.com/Lesbian-Experience-Loneliness-Nagata-Kabi/dp/1626926034

I live in a very small country, so its from a local internet store. But if you live in the states you can find it on amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Uzumaki-3---1-Deluxe-vols/dp/1421561328/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1452699174&sr=8-1&keywords=uzumaki+junji+ito

Take one Making Comics by Scott McCloud and call me in the morning.

if you wanna see it

Claymore

~20 bucks on amazon too! I'm about to buy that for myself after Christmas!

You mean hardcover volumes and/or omnibus?

First things that come to mind are (these are all hardcovers)

Nausicaa box set (2 hardcover books for all 7 volumes)

Gundam: The Origin 2in1 hardcover volumes. 8 out 12 total out. Volume 12 comes out in December. Although I know Japan did get a Aizōban release so not sure if much other than the covers are different.

Vinland Saga - 2 in 1 hardcover volumes. 5 out more coming out later this year.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Part 1 - Phantom Blood - Volume 1 Hardcover although only 1 volume out at the moment. Volume 2 in May and Volume 3 in August.

Highschool of the Dead Color Omnibus 2 books first one has the first 4 volumes 2nd one has the next 3 all in full color.

Nijigahara Holograph by Inio Asano

Wandering Son (Hourou Musuko)

The Angel of Elhamburg by Aki this one just came out this week

A Bride's Story (Otoyomegatari) with Emma getting a hardcover release soon

I am sure there are more but these are the ones that come to mind at the moment.

This is called critical theory. Try https://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Comics-Invisible-Scott-McCloud/dp/006097625X