Manga?
Hey all!
What's with Manga? I'm running some comic projects at the moment and many kids want to do Manga, without reading it or being in to comics. Is it television? Is it advertising? When I look back, the comics I liked best as a kid were tie-ins to cartoons (a lot of the Marvel UK stuff) and none of my friends were in to comics. I guess it's a bit similar for children these days, but Manga is such a trend you can be interested in it without ever reading any.
So from comics based on cartoons to cartoons based on comics...(aah..another lovely, seamless link) I'd like to recommend Tekkonkinkreet and New Frontier. Neither are half as good as the comics, but both are great in their own way. Tekkonkinkreet takes the essence and feel of Matsumoto's work and creates a new and stunning take on the book. It's really beautiful and every bit as unique as the book. New Frontier is a good effort, but the animation doesn't do justice to Cooke's original artwork. But I'm a harsh critic, I love Cooke's work way too much. It's a good cartoon and it has some lovely touches.
And, speaking yet again of critics, I thought I'd mention Contraband, a book I reviewed recently for Comics International magazine. I enjoyed the book (although there were a lot of typos, hopefully this is just a kink that'll be worked out in a new edition), but I found the dialogue a bit clunky. However, it seemed deliberately written in this way and the rest of the book seemed very carefully planned so there was clearly a reason for it. I assumed it was part of the social commentary of the book and asked the writer about it. He said (not in these exact words) that it was based on research he had done in to mobile social networking channels and it reflected the way people use these to put their opinions across (just like I am doing now, in a long rambling monologue.)
Unfortunately, not all reviewers will pick up on this and will just take the dialogue at face value. Reviewers like this.
Has he ever got anything good to say? Does he even like comics? Anyway, don't let that put you off the book . And I really liked Phil Elliotts artwork.