Hello students and welcome to the 2011-2012 Graphic Novel and Manga class. This class is an introduction for students desiring to create and learn about the culture of comic books, graphic novels and manga.
GENERAL COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course will introduce you to the basic tools and techniques of drawing graphic novels. It will also introduce you to the techniques of writing graphic novels. Some assignments will focus on drawing icons. Some assignments will focus on drawing realistically. Some assignments will focus on drawing abstractly.
The assignments will become more open and complicated as the semester progresses. While you are not expected to match Osamu Tezuka by the end of the term, the goal is for you to feel comfortable enough creating sequential art to use the form to express your own ideas.
Absense Policy
Absences means not being in class without a valid, written excuse from the front desk, the extended day program or a school official.
2 absences: partial grade drop
3 absences: full grade drop
5-10 absences: Fail class
Grades
You will be graded on a combination of:
- Your work; quantity and quality
- Your development over the semester
- Your overall commitment and attitude
- There is no homework in this class; however, work produced outside of class will be considered in your mid-term and final grade if it pertains to class.
General Class Rules
As you will soon learn, everyone will be at a separate level of graphic novel/manga creation. Some people will be more advanced realistic drawers. Others will have a talent of iconic drawing (Don't worry - if you are confused as to what I am talking about, I'll explain as class goes on). Some students will be fantastic storytellers. And some students will struggle. In this class, you must all be supportive of one another and your creative talents. Art is NOT a competition; rather, the creation of manga is, as the manga artist Yuichi Yokoyama states: "The purpose is to draw manga for me, not for others. It is self-contemplation." ---
If I were to piggy back on this comment, I'd add that manga, and all art for this matter is self-contemplation and a meditation.
Therefore, the putting down of anyone else's creations or artwork will not be tolerated. After 1 warning, if the badgering and hating on of other people's work continues, you will be removed from the class with no questions asked. As a teacher, this is what I will be most strict about. Nervousness and timidness to express will destroy this class. This must remain a safe environment.
Please keep your language appropriate for a class setting.WHAT IS A GRAPHIC NOVEL?
The term is not strictly defined, though one broad dictionary definition is "a fictional story that is presented in comic-strip format and presented as a book."[3] In the publishing trade, the term is sometimes extended to material that would not be considered a novel if produced in another medium. Collections of comic books that do not form a continuous story, anthologies or collections of loosely related pieces, and even non-fiction are stocked by libraries and bookstores as "graphic novels" (similar to the manner in which dramatic stories are included in "comic" books). It is also sometimes used to create a distinction between works created as stand-alone stories, in contrast to collections or compilations of a story arc from a comic book series published in book form.[4][5]
Whether manga, which has had a much longer of both novel-like publishing and production of comics for adult audiences, should be included in the term is not always agreed upon. Likewise, in continental Europe, both original book-length stories such as La rivolta dei racchi (1967) by Guido Buzzelli,[6] and collections of comic strips have been commonly published in hardcover volumes, often called "albums", since the end of the 19th century (including Franco-Belgian comics series such as "The Adventures of Tintin" and "Lieutenant Blueberry", and Italian series such as "Corto Maltese").
WHAT IS A COMIC BOOK?
From Wikipedia:
Comics (from the Greek κωμικός, kōmikos "of or pertaining to comedy" from κῶμος - kōmos "revel, komos",[1] via the Latin cōmicus) denotes a hybrid medium having verbal side of its vocabulary tightly tied to its visual side in order to convey narrative or information only, the latter in case of non-fiction comics, seeking synergy by using both visual (non-verbal) and verbal side in interaction. Although some comics are picture-only, pantomime strips, such as The Little King, the verbal side usually expand upon the pictures, but sometimes act in counterpoint.[2]
The term derives from the mostly humorous early work in the medium, and came to apply to that form of the medium including those far from comic. The sequential nature of the pictures, and the predominance of pictures over words, distinguishes comics from picture books, although some in comics studies disagree and claim that in fact what differentiates comics from other forms on the continuum from word-only narratives, on one hand, to picture-only narratives, on the other, is social context.[3]
WHAT IS MANGA?
The Japanese word manga, literally translated, means "Whimsical Pictures" and came into common usage in the late 18th century (1750-1800). To put this period into a western time frame, This is basically the period of the French Revolution and Marie Antoinette.
So when Europeans were wearing clothes like this and "eating cake", the Japanese started making manga. Here are two covers of very early manga:
Manga starts to be seen in Japan's Meiji period which is Japan's second to last empire period before World War II. In this period Japan started its modernization and became a world power. While technically this is manga because it is "whimsical drawings", we don't begin seeing sequence and narrative until later when manga was influenced by American comic books.
Manga exploded and started making lots of money after World War II in the 1950ties. The United States of America was occupying Japan. In this time Japan's previously militaristic and ultra-nationalist Japan rebuilt its political and economic infrastructure. An explosion of artistic creativity occured in this period, including Osamu Tezuka, considered the godfather of manga.
Tezuka was the author behind various extremely influential and significant manga. His most influential work was perhaps Astroboy about a mechanical boy superhero. Both visually and narratively, we can still see Tezuka's influence on contemporary manga characters such as Megaman.
Here we have a machine boy with large expressive eyeballs ...
... and once again, here we have a mega machine man with large expressive eyeballs.
Tezuka's most significant work is arguably the series "Buddha" which is the artist's interpretation of Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism. It is significant for it's historic and religious references, but is also just a GREAT, action packed read with drama, romance, sword play, mystical powers and more! We'll be looking at this book in this class. A used copy of Buddha #1 goes for $7 plus shipping on Amazon. It gets the professor Turnbull seal of approval. The holiday season is just around the corner, perhaps you could persuade mom or dad ... ?
Today in Japan, everyone reads manga; kids, adults, women, men, the elderly and teenagers. There is a genre of manga for everyone. Manga, now in a global post-modern era, is unafraid of mixing genre, aesthetics and designs. Here are some examples.
Rebound is a basketball manga. While there are plenty of sports titles in other mediums, Rebound is significant because of the way playing basketball is depicted; the artist Yuriko Nishiyama uses lines and marks usually depicted in action-adventure manga for sports.
Gon is the chronicles of a series of encounters a small, mean dinosaur has with various forest dwellers. Gon is usually provoked by these animals and engages in a fight with them. It is wordless and drawn with great attention to detail. A historical comparison would be a to Albert Durer. Totally weird, but if you want to learn how to draw from reality, start looking at this series.
While technically not Manga since it's creator is Canadian, Scott Pilgrim is highly influenced by the manga aesthetic, both in its depiction of the human form and it's action sequences. Scott Pilgrim was turned into a movie this summer and as far as genre goes, is a cross over between a slacker drama, romance, an action adventure and a music comic with constant video game references. Highly recommended.
Cat Eyed Boy is a horror comic book ... for kids! It's target audience is young teenagers and its main protagonist is the cat eyed boy; a homeless mutant child who lives in suburban Japan attics and basements. Where ever he goes, strange events seem to follow.Week 1:
THE ICON, ICONIC DRAWING AND WHY THE JAPANESE DRAW WITH "BIG EYES"
Iconic drawing uses the language of icons in order to communicate ideas.
For instance, the mcDonalds arches is an iconic. Therefore to draw the mcDonalds M using gold and red would be an "iconic drawing".In manga, icons are everywhere. Artists make the decision to not draw figuratively or realistically in exchange for drawing iconically. This makes it easier to communicate ideas.
Eyes are usually iconic drawings. Eyeballs are usually never this big but are enlarged in order to illustrate expression. Nobodies eyes turn into spirals when they're super frustrated and to piggy back on the comment, nobody has a little "QUESTION MARK" over their head when they're confused. Question marks, steam out of ears, spiral eyes, - this is all iconic decisions because it communicates an idea over attempting to look realistic.
Class Assignment:Similarly to the ancient Egyptians, create your own alphabet using icons. Each letter of the alphabet can be your own icon. Once your alphabet is completed, write us a secret code!
Week 2:
Drawing Realistically (week 1): The human figure
Week 3:
Drawing Realistically (week 2): Perspective Drawing and enviornments
Week 4:
Abstract Drawing
Week 5:
The 4th type of drawing: "The written word"
Week 6:
CONVERGING OF DRAWING TECHNIQUES WITH TEXT
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