Comic Illustration& Manga

Art Appreciation

What is a comic book?

A comic book portrays a story through a series of sequential illustrations that incorporate short bits of text containing dialogue, sounds, or narratives. The story may be humorous, or it may present a world of adventure, mystery, or fantasy.

History of comics:

The use of sequential illustrations to tell a story dates to prehistoric times when early humans painted series of images on rocks and cave walls. Egyptian hieroglyphics are another form of sequential illustrations that tell a story

Hand-drawn illustrations appeared regularly in newspapers and magazines starting in the 1800s. Many of them used humorous or un-flattering portrayals of well-known people and were the origin of modern cartoons and comics.

The first newspaper comic strip in the United States wasRichard Felton Outcault's "The Yellow Kid," which appeared in the Hearst New York American on February 16, 1896. It was published in the Sunday supplement to the paper and was quickly joined by other comic strips.

By the 1910s, the Sunday comics were so popular that newspapers would occasionally publish small books containing reprints of past strips, which they would distribute to promote the paper and gain new readers. Soon, other publishing companies were assembling comic strips from several papers and selling them to merchants to be given away as premiums. In 1934, Eastern Color Printing Company decided to sell these books directly to the public for 10 cents each.

During the late 1930s, many of the now-famous superheroes made their first appearances in comic books, and comic book sales soared as good triumphed over evil. By the early 1950s, however, readers grew tired of superheroes, and some comic book publishers turned instead to lurid crime and horror stories with graphic illustrations. Some people felt this material was unsuitable for children, and the comic book industry came under public criticism and federal investigation in 1954. In response, many comic book publishers banded together and issued the Standards of Comics Code Authority, which defined appropriate material for comics.

Comic books enjoyed a resurgence of interest during the 1980s, when fresh new artists created a whole new cast of heroes and heroines. Today, comic books are as popular as ever, and the comic book industry is a million-dollar business that includes movies, television series, toys, costumes, and many other items.

The following are some famous comic artists.

Jack Kirby

Jim Lee

Todd McFarlane

Will Eisner

Bill Watterson

Jack Kirby:

Jack Kirby (aka "The King of the Comics") was the most influential and respected illustrator and creator of comic books, at least of the super-hero/adventure variety.

Among the characters that Jack either created or co-created were Captain America, The Fantastic Four, The X-Men, The Incredible Hulk, Boy Commandos, Challengers of the Unknown, The New Gods, Kamandi, Darkseid, Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos, Captain Victory, The Silver Surfer, The Mighty Thor and at least a hundred others.

Jim Lee:

Along with Todd McFarlane, Jim Lee is the most influential stylist in comics over the last 10 years. After working on titles such as Alpha Flight and The Punisher, Jim made his impact felt on Uncanny X-Men and then on the mega-selling X-Men series before breaking away to form image comics. With a super slick, highly rendered style, Lee combined elements of various comic illustrators to define a look for the fickle fans of the 90's. His drawing is accomplished in all areas, far beyond most of his contemporaries: form, texture, lighting, and staging

each evidence superior technique and command.

Todd McFarlane:

Todd McFarlane (born March 16, 1961) is a Canadian comic book artist, writer, toy manufacturer/designer, and media entrepreneur who is best known as the creator of the occult fantasy series Spawn.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, McFarlane became a comic book superstar due to his work on Marvel Comics' Spider-Man franchise. In 1992, he helped form Image Comics, pulling the occult anti-hero character Spawn from his high school portfolio and updating him for the 1990s. Spawn was one of America's most popular heroes in the 1990s and encouraged a trend in creator-owned comic book properties.

Will Eisner:

By the time of his death on January 3, 2005, following complications from open heart surgery, Eisner was recognized internationally as one of the giants in the field of sequential art,a term he coined.

In a career that spanned nearly seventy years and eight decades — from the dawn of the comic book to the advent of digital comics — he truly was the 'father of the Graphic Novel'. He broke new ground in the development of visual narrative and the language of comics and was the creator of The Spirit, John Law, Lady Luck, Mr. Mystic, Uncle Sam, Blackhawk, Sheena and countless others.

Bill Watterson:

Bill Watterson is an American cartoonist and the author of the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes cartoon series. He also wrote and drew several Target: The Political Cartoon Quarterly drawings.

Calvin and Hobbes was first published on November 18, 1985. His influences include Charles Schulz, for his work in Peanuts; Walt Kelly for his comic Pogo; and George Herriman for Krazy Kat. Additionally, he has woven parts of his life into the comic. The theme of Calvin's father making Calvin suffer in order to "build character" came from his own father.

Watterson spent much of his career trying to change the climate of newspaper comics. He believed that the artistic value of comics was being undermined, and that the space they occupied in newspapers continually decreased, subject to arbitrary whims of shortsighted publishers. Furthermore, he opined that art should not be judged by the medium for which it is created (i.e., there is no "high" art or "low" art, just art).

Manga

Manga

What is the origin of Manga? The answer depends on how you define ”Manga." The word itself was popularized by the famous woodblock print artist Hokusai, but contrary to a popular myth, it was not invented by him. The word is composed of two Chinese characters—the first meaning "in spite of oneself" or "lax" and the second meaning "picture"—and has been used to describe various comical images for at least two centuries.

Managa

If we define comics using American cartoonist Will Eisner's definition of comics as "sequential art." The first clear examples of such sequential art in Japan are the picture scrolls of medieval Japan, which combine pictures and text to tell stories or describe events. These scrolls look and work like modern Manga or comics in many ways, but modern-day Manga are produced for mass consumption, picture scrolls were singular works of art produced for an elite audience.

Manga

Another theory of the ancestory of the modern Manga is the European/American-style political cartoon of the later 19th Century, and the multi-panel comic strips that flourished in American newspapers in the last years of the 19th Century and the first years of the 20th Century.

Some have suggested that the Japanese have a historically-rooted affinity for such visual media as Manga, but for the first half of the twentieth century, American comics were more popular and diverse than were Japanese Manga.

Manga

Perhaps the single most important factors in the creation of the modern Manga industry was the work of one artist, the late Osamu Tezuka. Tezuka's most popular creation, Mighty Atom, is known through out the world; an animated version was broadcast in the U.S. in the 1960's under the name "Astro Boy.

Listed below are a few Manga famous artists:

Osamu Tezuka

Masamune Shirow

Masashi Kishimoto

Osamu Tezuka:

Dr. Osamu Tezuka Nov. 3, 1928 – Feb. 9, 1989) was a Japanese Manga artist, animator, producer and medical doctor, although he never practiced medicine. Born in Osaka Prefecture, he is best known as the creator of “Astro Boy” and “Kimba the White Lion”. He is often credited as the ”Father of Anime", and is often considered the Japanese equivalent to Walt Disney, who served as a major inspiration during his formative years. His prolific output, pioneering techniques, and innovative redefinitions of genres earned him such titles as "the Father of Manga" and "the God of Manga”.

Masamune Shirow

Masamune Shirow is a pen name, based on a famous swordsmith, Masamune. He is best known for the Manga “Ghost in the Shell”, which has since been turned into three anime movies, two anime TV series and several video games. Shirow is also popular for creating erotic art.

He studied oil painting at Osaka University of Arts. While in college, he developed an interest in Manga, which led him to create his own complete work, Black Magic, which was published in the Manga fanzine Atlas. him.

The result was Appleseed, a full volume of densely-plotted drama taking place in an ambiguous future. The story was a sensation, and won the 1986 Seiun Award for Best Manga. After a professional reprint of Black Magic and a second volume of Appleseed, he released Dominion in 1986. Two more volumes of Appleseed followed before he began work on Ghost in the Shell.

Masashi Kishimoto

Masashi Kishimoto (born 8 November, 1974) is well known for creating the manga series Naruto.

Kishimoto's first work as a manga artist was Karakuri, which he submitted to Shueisha in 1996. In 1999, Naruto was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump, winning its monthly "Hop Step Award". Naruto is still ongoing, with more than 40 volumes and just over 30 released in English, and has sold over 71 million copies in Japan as of volume 36, also being adapted into two successful anime series.