Welcome to Manga, Graphic Novels, and Comic Books

I love graphic novels, comics, and manga.

They were some of the first books I picked up and enjoyed reading. They seemed to be the natural extension of the picture book - at least that’s what young me thought. There is a lot more nuance to them than picture books.

My first graphic novel or comic book (depending on who you talk to) was my dad’s Asterix books that he had from the 60s. I found them at my grandfather’s house and brought them home to enjoy over and over again. I really liked Cleopatra.

One of my hardcover Asterix books along with Persepolis and a Haunted Mansion comic book. I was surprised by how much I liked the Haunted Mansion book - though the ending is a little abrupt.

Unfortunately, back in the 90s Astrix was almost impossible to find in the US. I had to wait until my dad traveled overseas for him to bring me back a copy...and that was only if he could also find an English book store.

Thankfully by the 2000s, bookstores in the US were starting to import manga and I was able to start collecting Yu Yu Hakusho. Though some of my favorite manga I found at my local library in the form of Kindaichi Mysteries (where you needed to really pay attention to the drawing to help solve the mystery).

One of my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Vol., a collection of Zits (one of my favorite strip comics), and the manga My Brother's Husband about a man meeting his brother-in-law after his twin's death.

I’ve read a lot of manga, graphic novels, and comic books, but my knowledge only really scratches the surface of everything out there. I loved the drawings, the stories, and how easy they were for me to read.

And they were some of the first forms of story telling I wanted to write.

Except writing a graphic novel, manga, or comic is a lot tougher than most other media. Similar to scripts for plays, TV shows, and movies, there are a lot of moving parts to graphic novels, comics, and manga. The script can’t just include dialogue, but details as to what is going on in each panel. Consistency is very important.

Directions also aren’t like what you see in movie and play scripts. See writers aren’t always the artists, so the writers need to describe (in detail) every detail of a scene so that the artists gets it right early...instead of realizing later that the character should have been doing x for five panels when they drew the character doing y.

The script for a graphic novel must be finalized before drawing begins...and once drawing begins, changes are really hard to make unless you want to scrap the entire project. When I’m writing a comic script, I have to be conscious of what can fit on a page and how to build tension for when that page is turned. Knowing how to pull off a good transition is takes a lot of practice.

Then there’s the technique of using the panels themselves for story telling. The size, shape, boarder versus no boarder, and even the space between panels all enhance how the story is told. No boarders might show that time is open ended or extends beyond the boundary set up by the page. In consistent panel sizes or jagged shapes might show a character’s or situations’s instability. The spaces between panels might be neutral to show negative space or might be in dark shades to suggest a dream sequence.

Depending on where a person learns about the art of writing comics can drastically change their styles. I’m more familiar with Japanese and manga techniques as those are the books I read most often and I’ve taken classes on their style. European and American styles tend to have similar styles, but there are notable differences in how backgrounds and static lines are used.

Representing time and movement can be particularly challenging. How do you show a static character running? Panel over panel or with lots of lines or a cloud of dust rising up behind them? How do you slow a scene down to a crawl or build tension? Draw incremental movements within 5 panels then make the reader turn the page?

As more writers and artist collaborate, a mixing of styles has emerged. Which makes writing the scripts even more important.

I’ve written before how comic, graphic novel, and manga story telling can be preferred to more traditional text. Some people don’t have words, only pictures to convey a message. That’s okay.

Writing is art, though not all art is writing. If you’d like to try your hand at writing comics, manga, and graphic novels. I recommend reading the final products as well as the production notes and scripts.

I’ve been writing a webcomic for over 5 years (really just for the hell of it) and I’m still learning as I go. Sometimes I stare at my scripts wondering what the hell I was thinking or picturing. Other times, I forget entirely what it was I was trying to write.

But as my one yoga teacher likes to say - “the joy is in the journey”.

If you really want to write a comic, graphic novel or manga - go for it. Search for advice and take a class. Find out what works best for you.

And this ends my writing series (for now). I’ll be out next week. So I’ll see you next time.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please, like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope y’all like hearing from me.