If Full-Color Manga Were The Norm

imgThe Mandana Tsushin (Manga Bookshelf Transmissions) Blog ponders what the Japanese manga scene would look like if full-color comics were the norm, much like in American and European comics.

To this day, most Japanese manga is in black and white; however, in the US and France, color is the norm when it comes to comics. What would have happened if full-color manga were the norm in Japan as well?

First of all, the cheap, thick weekly manga anthology magazines ("phonebooks") probably wouldn't have existed. Manga might still be serialized primarily in monthly mags. And there would be considerably fewer pages than now. More titles would be published as individual graphic novels right away, rather than being serialized in magazines.

If that were the case, the total span of each individual title would be considerably shorter. It would be impossible to find a series that continued on for thousands of pages: they would all reach a conclusion in a few hundred pages, at most. On the other hand, short-story manga might have evolved more.

If there are fewer pages, it would be difficult to separate one action into multiple panels: larger panels would contain more dialogue; the elapsed time in each panel would grow even longer.

You could use color, so hatching may never have been developed. Instead of competing to see who had the best screentone skills, people would compete based on coloring.

Inevitably, the price-per-page paid out to artists would go up: however, you would no longer see graphic novels with initial runs of a million copies like you do now.

You could say that the advances in Japanese manga happened because precisely because they were in black and white. However, what will happen now that computer coloring has become the norm? Will we see an increase in color manga?

Translated by Neuroretardant

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[...] Up steps ComiPress

[...] Up steps ComiPress with a link to an article which does exactly that. A pondering on what the world would be like if Manga was in colour. If that were the case, the total span of each individual title would be considerably shorter. It would be impossible to find a series that continued on for thousands of pages: they would all reach a conclusion in a few hundred pages, at most. On the other hand, short-story manga might have evolved more. [...]

[...] ComiPress translates

[...] ComiPress translates an article that speculates how manga would be different if it were published in color. David Taylor has some additional thoughts. [...]

Well, this alternative

Well, this alternative exists already, and it's called "Chinese comic industry", where weekly, full-colored, 38-paged issues are the norm... and some of them are quite lenghty as well (Oriental Heroes is still running after 30 years and about 1600 issues!!)

I don't exactly think that

I don't exactly think that the switch to full color page manga will happen anytime soon.
Why? Because it would take much more time to get out quality material if you had to color as well as ink every single page. If you take a look at some(not all) colored comics, you can notice that there's a lack of quality in the detail of the inking job, which might have something to do with shortening time between inking and coloring to publishing.

I'd say that as long as manga-kas put their best effort into getting their lineart look good, I'm happy. For now, I'm going to stick only with the pretty colored pages at the beginning of mangas, which are detailed and well colored.

I find that I prefer black

I find that I prefer black and white manga with special color pages every so often at the beginning of certain chapters or episodes, etc. Color often becomes too distracting when reading comics and takes away some of the details which is better seen in b&w.

colour manga

i have begun work on a cross between eastern anime character design and western marvel colouring. the results are very nice - if you want to see it, email me at roscoe2k5@hotmail.co.uk and i will send you a couple of pages. i am not trying to BE japanese but my love for the japanese way of storytelling and drawing has led to this culmination. :-)

Nacho's

LOOK YOUNG'INS...
TIS AS SIMPLE AS THIS...
Think fo a bunch of Nacho chips. Would you rather eat black and white looking paper ones? OR... Full color ones with double satisfaction :)
taste color and ride the rainbow... WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Well , i prefer colour black

Well , i prefer colour

black and white tinks

people enjoy colour .

!keep the colour!

it's better to keep the

it's better to keep the colour i think. who could want to see it black and white ? we're in the 21'st century, we should enjoy all the technology that camed to us :)