Word: mangas
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...comic strips that appeared in lowbrow magazines in 1960s Japan. It was a prosperous time for the nation, but viewed through the gimlet eye of gekiga pioneer Yoshihiro Tatsumi, industrialization brought not wealth but alienation and cultural confusion. Nearly 40 years after initial publication, Tatsumi's bizarre, tabloid-inspired manga remains relevant?and this fall, non-Japanese readers will be able to sample the best of it when Abandon the Old in Tokyo, a collection of Tatsumi's work, is published in English. Tatsumi's shell-shocked characters include a truck driver who ditches his invalid mother; a factory worker...
...climate for such deals owes much to Tokyopop and its aggressive development of a new paradigm. It moved manga from comics shops to mainstream booksellers. "Tokyopop created what is known as the authentic Japanese manga," says Reid. Tokyopop insisted the books read from back to front so as not to compromise the original artwork and spelled Japanese sound effects phonetically. It changed the books' dimensions to mass-market paperback size (about 200 pages) but stuck to a $10 price--about an hour's worth of babysitting...
...Americans have introduced an artistic controversy: Is a doe-eyed Nancy Drew, who debuted last April, really manga? Japanese manga resembles a cinematic storyboard with less happening in each panel than in U.S. comics. There are more motion lines; simple, expressive facial lines; and stories that depict "ordinary people in extraordinary situations dealing with the weirdest things you've ever thought of," according to Tokyopop...
Style aside, Viz Media contends that true manga is made only in Japan--which isn't surprising, since Viz has access to Japanese titles. Tokyopop CEO Stu Levy disagrees: "Manga is like hip-hop. It's a lifestyle. To say that you can't draw it because you don't have the DNA is just silly...
...Manga is also drawing new media. Fans can download Tokyopop's "manga pods" (audio snippets). There's a music label and a MySpace site, and mobile-manga games are on the way. Tokyopop is planning TV animation and-- the ultimate crossover--a motion picture with Sony Screen Gems. Anyone for Manga Meets Spider...