Trifecta

Hello, World

Hello Everyone! As the title of this blog suggests, I will be posting my thoughts on comics here. What sort of thoughts, you may ask? Good question, I don't quite know the answer to that myself. All I know is that I've had a passion for sequential art ever since I read my first manga around the 6th grade, and ever since then, despite some self-denial, I've wanted to use sequential art as my own form of storytelling.

Is it not ironic, then, that even though I say I want to create comics, I've never really drawn one? Or that even though I say I love comics so much, I haven't read as many as the average fan? When speaking with friends who also read comics, I often can't talk about it because I haven't read the series they've read! I believe there are several reasons for this: the comics I read tend to cater towards a more "mature and serious" audience while my friends read more mainstream titles, and as an aspiring creator myself, the way I appreciate comics and would like to talk about them is probably quite different than the way a reader appreciates and talks about comics. Nonetheless, there are a lot of comics and a lot of knowledge out there I need to inform myself about, and I will use this blog as a record of my research, findings, and subsequent thoughts. As I do this I hope to discover what it is I really want to do in the world of comics.

As a comics reader, I mostly read manga, although I do read a couple American comics (mostly webcomics) and have wanted to delve into comics from all over the world as well! I hope to use this blog to inform myself about great comics around the world, the differences and similarities between these comics, as well as to inform myself more about the business aspect of the comics industry in various nations around the world. In addition, I'd like to discuss what comics can learn from other forms of storytelling, such as literature, film, art, music, etc., and perhaps how seemingly totally unrelated topics can inform comics as well! I'll probably start with what I am most familiar with, manga and the United States, before researching less familiar topics (like webcomics and European comics), and finally out into the unknown! 

I know many comics blogs out there do a lot of reviews, and many blogs are even dedicated to the sole purpose of comic reviews. This blog most likely won't be doing as such. I will be pointing out comics I find interesting or comics that I believe a lot can be learned from, but a full length review most likely won't be happening on this blog. Who knows, this may change at a later point in time, but for now I'd like to inform myself about the larger picture before digging into the specifics. :-)

Finally, I hope this blog can bring about more awareness about the current diversity in the comics medium and the diversity that can be achieved by the comics medium. Many people already know that comics have superheroes, tell epic adventures of fantasy and the like, but it is the lesser known stories, the unheard of and the untold ones (of the "normal" everyday person perhaps), in which I believe comics have the most potential to grow, to not only redefine themselves but also add to their repertoire of works. This blog is geared towards a future in which there is as much variety and experimentation in the comics medium as there is with film and literature, as much critical analysis, acclaim, and accessibility, and as many creators and fans!

Profile 

It was really difficult for me to find a blog that was similar to the way I wanted to write about my topic, but I finally found one by the name of Manga Widget. The problem with many comic, particularly manga, websites that I've found is that they seem to be dedicated solely to reviews, but this one, as stated on the "About" page, "features essays on various topics concerning manga and the American manga market and business, as well as reviews of licensed, translated manga".


The author's name is Alexander Hoffman, and he is a hobbyist comics reader. There seems to be no system for when he posts, but he seems to post at least 3-4 times a month, sometimes bunched all together over the span of 1-2 weeks and at other times spaced evenly. There is no ranking for this blog on technorati.com and no list of followers either, but on a visit to his Twitter page we see he has a following of around 260 people. I believe his two most recent posts, "A Discussion on Crowd-Sourcing and Digital Manga’s Barbara Kickstarter Campaign" and "Manga Widget Investigates: Tzusuki wa Mata Ashita", excellently sum up what this author is capable of.


In "A Discussion on Crowd-Sourcing and Digital Manga’s Barbara Kickstarter Campaign", Hoffman talks about Digital Manga Publishing's Kickstarter Campaign for one of Osamu Tezuka's works. I find the way he initiates the discussion by tackling another author's skepticism about this project before going into his own reasons to support this project very effective and convincing. He concludes with his thoughts on the future of manga publishing and how he hopes "that licensing and publishing in the United States continues to grow out of the system created in the 90's and in a more open, more consumer-oriented way".


His second blogpost, "Manga Widget Investigates: Tzusuki wa Mata Ashita", is a brief discussion on a manga that "focuses on the relationship between family members". I like the way he talks about his opinions on the manga very honestly and portrays his hope to be able to read it someday. He also discusses potential publishers that may be able to license the series and ends with the note, "I would love to see manga like this in the United States, and I challenge publishers to redefine the meaning of manga with titles like Tzusuki wa Mata Ashita".


I find Hoffman's thoughts about the manga industry very similar to mine and believe I have much to learn from him, and much to learn from the people that disagree with him as well. He writes about manga with a lot of love and respect for the medium, and belief in its potential and future as well. One thing his blog could do better is have a more effective archive system, since I have a very difficult time reaching the first post of his blog. Also, I am not too sure what the links on top mean, such as the MMF Archives. Those could use some explanation, and it would be even better if he had Archives to his own posts on top as well. All in all, I hope to write with the same earnestness and depth of knowledge as he does as I attempt to portray my own thoughts about comics on this blog. 

Voice Critique

Sarcasm and analogies can be hard to pull off, but the author of "After Before Watchmen: the industry reacts" was able to pull both off successfully, at least to the audience the article was intended for.
Peppered with links and plastered with thick blocks of quotes, the journalistic masterpiece could rival the subject of its existence in its craftsmanship! From the first two paragraphs the author demonstrates his knowledge of not only the comics industry but the entire field of literature. 

In the first paragraph he demonstrates his high regard for comics and the comic in particular he is talking about, Watchmen, with his quotation of facts:

"It is definitely something--DC's bestselling graphic novel of all time, a beloved classic taught in schools, one of Time's Best 100 novels of the last 100 years, the book that defined grim and gritty"

The author backs up his high regard for the comic with evidence of society's own regard for Watchmen, implying that if we don't feel the same way, then back off, this article is not for you! However, if you are even the slightest bit open to the idea, the author provides links to educate you, in this paragraph and throughout the article, if you want to understand more deeply what he is talking about.

"Like all great works, it's multifaceted". What a great word, "multifaceted"! As I read this article again, I can't help but speak those words in my mind over and over again. The word in itself is multifaceted! Moving on, I find his comparison to "Scarlett", the infamously horrid "sequel" to the multifaceted classic "Gone with the Wind", to start off the next paragraph absolutely witty and ingenious! If that's how the Watchmen prequels will turn out, then that would be an absolute disaster! In addition, he continues to inject some of his own thoughts on the issue in this paragraph. With "it brings up every argument over whether comics are literature or licensing," after his previous paragraph where he rather clearly insinuated that he thinks of comics as literature, along with the sentence after this line where he restates "WATCHMEN is literature", we get a feeling of how he feels about this issue. But he shows his sympathy for the fans as well, with his humorously stated understanding of "the obsessive need of devotees to get MORE", and then he throws in another literary reference, this time to the author of the Lord of the Ring series J.R.R. Tolkien. And if you're a fan of that series, you know just how obsessive they can get! (or fans of any series, for that matter).
Then the block quotes war begins! Line after line we are bombarded with lines and lines of quotes, at least they're interesting! And they serve their purpose, backing up the claims of the author solidly. And the author acknowledges the bombs he's thrown at us too at the end of his raid: "Okay. Deep breath." This helps to mend the relationship between the reader and the author, as the author somewhat apologizes for dropping the bombs and thus ensures he won't be throwing any more of that at us. 

He continues the rest of the article in much of the same vein as the beginning, with the same humorous and sarcastic tone of voice. Thus, the author is able to keep his audience engaged throughout the entire article through clever manipulation of his own voice.