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oyceterThis is a general introduction to creating shoujo manga, done in manga format. It's slightly gimmicky; we follow little panda Satomi in her quest to become a shoujo mangaka, but I forgive it for the gimmick because I am so amused by Satomi and Mr. Manga Star, her hard-ass editor.
The book is divided into several sections, each of which covers a topic on manga production, each written by a different shoujo mangaka. They can vary widely in quality; thankfully, the ones that seemed pretty bad were the sections I wasn't very interested in anyway. These include the two chapters on writing (character and plot), which seem to believe that the more cliched something is, the better. I also suspect that the book isn't very good for those looking to improve basic drawing skills like perception or human physique.
On the other hand, while the book never manages to go into great depth, it actually covers things like panelling and toning and inking, all of which are topics that are very foreign to me. I think if you know anything about those topics, this book might be boring, but since I don't, it was pretty neat. I liked it best when the mangaka got into the nitty gritty of what they do, of the pens and the ink they use, of things like sand erasers for erasing clouds into skies of screentone. And there's some fairly basic stuff that I don't think about, like having the main character generally facing or running or walking from right to left, to follow the reader's reading patterns.
Also, while I disregarded most of the story-telling advice ("Exaggerate your characters so you can describe them with just one word!"), I liked notes on how to compress monologues and skip over unimportant action, both of which are things that I (hopefully) already know how to do in writing, but not necessarily in manga.
Now I want more detailed books on things like panelling!
The book is divided into several sections, each of which covers a topic on manga production, each written by a different shoujo mangaka. They can vary widely in quality; thankfully, the ones that seemed pretty bad were the sections I wasn't very interested in anyway. These include the two chapters on writing (character and plot), which seem to believe that the more cliched something is, the better. I also suspect that the book isn't very good for those looking to improve basic drawing skills like perception or human physique.
On the other hand, while the book never manages to go into great depth, it actually covers things like panelling and toning and inking, all of which are topics that are very foreign to me. I think if you know anything about those topics, this book might be boring, but since I don't, it was pretty neat. I liked it best when the mangaka got into the nitty gritty of what they do, of the pens and the ink they use, of things like sand erasers for erasing clouds into skies of screentone. And there's some fairly basic stuff that I don't think about, like having the main character generally facing or running or walking from right to left, to follow the reader's reading patterns.
Also, while I disregarded most of the story-telling advice ("Exaggerate your characters so you can describe them with just one word!"), I liked notes on how to compress monologues and skip over unimportant action, both of which are things that I (hopefully) already know how to do in writing, but not necessarily in manga.
Now I want more detailed books on things like panelling!