Sarasota Arts & Culture Magazine - September/October 2007 - (Page 61)

prepubescent nymphs and flying, macho adolescent heroes to some extent is a logical synthesis of American superheroes of the Golden Age and the deliberate subversive nature of West Coast counter-culture underground comics. Its flat, bright color and sinuous line are a synthesis of Walt Disney and Hanna-Barbera cartoons, and the spectacular images of Japanese eighteenth century Edo period prints and paintings, called Ukiyo-e, “the floating world”; in particular, the prints of beautiful women, mostly courtesans, painted in delicate and bright colors by Suzuki Harunobu, and the paintings of Torii Kiyonaga, a master known for his fluid compositions, flexible line and pleasing color who excelled with his bijin-ga, “portraits of beautiful women”. Manga artists such as Hiroyuki Ishida and Noriyuki Matsumoto are, if not emotional descendants of the Edo school, certainly graphical descendants. There are many themes in manga comics. The sex is more sublimated than in traditional American and European comics. However, the girls in manga are often without special powers, wear normal clothes, attend high school and are trying to resolve some real life problems during their adventures. Here you will find realistic themes as well as boy-and-girl fantasies and zoomorphic metamorphosis; comics for men and women as well as romance for girls, as opposed to children; gory and violent samurai, robotic transformer villains and heroes, disturbing horror and apocalyptic science fiction, issues of censorship and protest; and manga’s role as a major Japanese export and global influence. Japan’s output of manga accounts for 40 percent of everything published each year in the country. The manga aesthetic has spread from comics to all areas of Western youth culture. A unique feature of the page layout in manga books, usually translated from Japanese, is that they read sequentially from top right to bottom left. Unlike action driven Western comics, manga titles—especially those aimed at girls—often have awkward silences, embarrassing moments and close-ups of tearfilled eyes. Understanding the global sales potential of manga, major American publishers have taken note. Comic book publishers such as Time Warner Inc.’s DC Comics and Marvel Entertainment Inc. are marketing new comics for girls, realizing that this is the new big growth opportunity in this medium, a radical change from the usually male-dominated comic book world. In May of this year, DC Comics launched a line of comic books dubbed Minx, which include The Plain Janes, about a band of suburban outcasts who form a secret art gang; and, Clubbing, which follows Charlotte “Lottie” Brook, a Londoner sent to live with her grandparents in the country after being caught with a fake ID at a West End nightspot. In June of this year, The Wall Street Journal noted that “Trade publication Icv2 puts the total comics and graphic novel market at about $640 million last year in the U.S. and Canada, with manga accounting for about $200 million of that figure.” The rise of specialty comic shops in the ‘90s resuscitated the art form, bringing it back from near obsolescence and gave it, like the newsstands in the 1930s, a street venue for its special audience. Consequentially, in 2006, the comic book industry was the healthiest it has been in decades. Last year, Marvel Entertainment’s publishingsegment revenue rose 17 percent to $108.5 million. “Holy profits, Batman!” The time has long past that Johnny had to hide his copy of The Green Lantern under his blankets when he read at night or mother frowned at the sight of Mary poring over her manga on the back seat of the car. For over a hundred years now, from the early days of yellow journalism to the blockbuster at the Cineplex, comic book heroes, heroines and villains continue to live our imaginary lives, where without them, life would surely be less colorful and exciting. arts and culture magazine : : 61

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