International influences
International influences |
|
Page 17 of 17  Cover to Ranxerox 2: Happy Birthday Lubna (Catalan, 1987). Art: Gaetano Liberatore. The outrageous Italian tale of an ultra-violent robot and his affair with a pubescent delinquent, which would no doubt have caused quite a stir in Britain and America had it been more widely distributed. There were other Japanese storytelling conventions that were likely to be difficult for Western audiences, and which could not so easily be disguised. For example, comics symbolism could be very different. 'Sleep', for example, was not symbolized with a string of'zeds', but with a bubble emanating from the character's nose. Similarly, facial characteristics were very different: for example, the heroes of many manga were drawn with over-large, Western-style eyes, in order to aid reader identification: the villains, by contrast, were usually rendered in more realistic fashion, in order to objectify them, to emphasize their 'otherness'. Finally, the pacing of Japanese stories could sometimes be very deliberate, and even slow. This was a huge contrast to the slam-bang tradition of American and British comics. The generation of mood was an essential aspect of lengthy nianga, and there were many more 'silent' panels than in Western comics (in terms of format, there simply was not the same pressure on any one instalment to show a lot 'happening'): possibly, this attitude to pacing can be traced to the tradition of labyrinthine works of art in Japan. In the words of one historian, 'In Japan more than anywhere else, comics is an art of intervals."  Pixy  Detail from Dragon Ball 2 (1995). Art: Ahira Toriyama. A comedy adventure, and currently one of the best-selling comics in Japan. |