Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
inspirational , 16 Nov 2006
I love this collection. It's huge! and so so varied . So much of the shonen and shojo that's being imported these days is the same, and I can't help wishing there was more of the variety available in japan on offer here. This really reminds me of that variety. It feels like artists taking risks that others just don't. I love Selina Dean's dreamy wordless Astroboy-in-love type 'Snails Don't Have Friends', which just makes me want to get drawing!
Other gems are Andi Watson's 'Princess at Midnight', Morikawa's 'Advent' - which I'd seen before - and Craig Conlan's Fat Panda. The other thing is that all these stories have proper endings. Admittedly there are a few where the ending doesn't quite come off, but they're the exception. It's definitely not a collection of 'sneaks'. Hope there's another one to come next year.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Truly magic., 9 Dec 2006
Variety is the spice of life and this volume has it all. OK, so you probably won't like EVERYTHING in it, but there's something for everyone. The smorgasbord of styles show manga in a new light and it's a great introdction to the japanese art.
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6 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
Doing no-one any favours., 4 Nov 2006
Nowhere, on either the front or back cover, does it make it clear that the contributors are, with only a handful of exceptions, primarily British and almost all are at the very beginnings of their comic/manga careers (if they ever have one). The 'best', therefore, has been drawn from a very small pool and it highlights weaknesses rather than strengths, doing...
I expected it to be derivative, manga is, after all, a very specific form of comic art. Unfortunately the majority of the contributors here don't seem to have learned the lessons taught by the masters of the form. Given a small amount of space (compared to American comics) either one line has to do the work of ten or the content of a panel has to be pared to the minimum -just look at what Osamu Tezuka can do with a small space. The otherwise potentially interesting "Bulldog:Empire" is ruined by clutter, its content really unsuited to the manga form. Advent, by a Japanese ex-pat, is the best example. A lot of the art is simply awkward and ungainly and none of it is a good advertisement for manga.
If the contributors really want to master their craft, I'd recommend they (along with anyone interested in the form) read Scott McCloud's recently published "Making Comics", also available from Amazon.
The only real success which manages to utilise the manga form into an otherwise alien setting is Asia Alfasi's "Jinn Narration", a modern fantasy centred on a hijab-wearing Muslim girl. The story is focussed, the sketchy art generally effective albeit a bit overly zipatoned (I'm sure they don't call it that and I'm showing my age) for my taste as it often darkens the drawing unnecessarily.
In short, while the book isn't worthless it's a long way from being the best and it's going straight to my local charity shop because I certainly won't be reading it again.
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