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Author: Laurine
White The National Japanese-American Historical Society (www.njahs.org) is located in a storefront at 1684 Post Street, uphill from the heart of Japantown (at Post and Buchanan Streets in San Francisco). The NJAHS hosted a special exhibit on Manga: A Century of Social Commentary by Japanese Artists in America, in December and January. A few works of six different Japanese and Japanese-American artists were on display in the front room. The display was open only on weekdays and one Saturday of each month, inconvenient for us living outside the Bay Area. On the afternoon of January 25, not only did I get to see the exhibit, but the NJAHS sponsored a manga panel. The event was not well-publicized; the audience of about 20 people was small but responsive. Four younger girls dropped off by a chaperone were looking at Japanese manga they'd picked up earlier at Kinokuniya Books. Panelists were Fred Schodt, Carl Horn and Tomoko Saito. Fred is known to anime fans for the two books he wrote about Japanese manga, MANGA! MANGA! and JAPANESE DREAMLAND. His new book, NATIVE AMERICAN AND THE LAND OF THE SHOGUN, will be published this spring, a novel about a half-Scot, half-Native American who taught English for 6 months in Nagasaki, before being deported in 1848 (based on actual events). Fred is currently translating AstroBoy and Ghost in the Shell II: Man-Machine Interface for publication by Dark Horse Comics. Carl Horn is editor of the translated manga, Eagle, by Kaiji Kawaguchi. Tomoko Saito retouches artwork and translates manga sound effects for American publication, for titles like Blade of the Immortal. She also creates doujinshi and does character art for Japanese games. Carl started off, speaking about Kaiji Kawaguchi, one of the artists whose work was displayed. Mr. Kawaguchi was born in Hiroshima. In 1997 he decided to create a manga about the making of an Asian-American President (Eagle). He came to America for research, sitting in on council meetings, talking with college professors and Japanese-American groups. The NJAHS store at the side of the room had several issues of the translated Eagle graphic novels (published by Viz) on sale. Fred went into the history of Japanese manga. The modern Japanese comic book is a fusion of American comicbook grammar and tradition Japanese appreciation of art (in woodblocks and scrolls). When Japan was opened to the West in 1853, Japanese artists became exposed to the social satire of French and English artists. Japanese also became aware of the comicstrip when it became popular in America in the late 19th century. Henry Kiyama, a Japanese social commentator, came to American in 1922. He created the "Four Immigrants Manga: a Japanese Experience in San Frnacisco, 1904-1924", with an artistic style similar to the American comicstrip, "Jiggs and Maggie" (aka "Bringing Up Father"), and the dialog a mixture of Japanese and English. The Four Immigrants Manga is availble in English from Stone Bridge Press (publisher of Gilles Poitras' books on anime). The original Japanese text, from the 1920s, is not easily readable in Japan today. Henry Kiyama was another of the artists, with panels for the Four Immigrants Manga on display. Tomoko Saito talked about doujinshi culture. The big doujinshi event in Japan, Comiket, is held twice a year, in summer and winter. Attendance is 200,000 to 300,000 fans, with 20,000 to 30,000 tables of different doujinshi. Compare that with the 50,000 comics fans who will show up in San Diego next July for America's largest comic book convention. There is little to no American publications presence at Comiket, though some American fans attend. The Comiket publications catalog is the size of a phone book. Carl Horn discussed the history of translated manga publication in America, beginning in 1987 with Lone Wolf and Cub (First Comics) and Area 88 and Mai the Psychic Girl (from Eclipse). Frank Miller (Batman: Dark Knight Returns; Ronin; Daredevil) was influenced by manga. He wrote essays for First Comics' Lone Wolf and Cub issues. The black-and-white boom going on with the independent comics at the time (such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) didn't hurt the sales of translated manga. Carl Horn said there is no single "right" approach to market manga in America. We're trying to re-invent one country's mass market into another country's mass market. In Japan manga are so prevalent because some people worked hard for a long time to promote manga for the mass market. Manga will not become a mass market phenomenon in America. Fred Schodt agreed, but manga and anime will probably become more popular here than they currently are. The Japanese market for manga is dropping, as younger Japanese find other sources of entertainment. They are spending their money on video games and cell phone bills. Manga continues to be popular with Japanese adults. Curiously, there is now a market in Japan for English-dubbed anime with subtitles in Japanese. Panelists discussed flipped versus non-flipped translated manga (traditional American on-the-left style versus traditional Japanese on-the-right style). TokyoPop publishes non-flipped manga, because it's fast and cheap. The artwork doesn't need to be touched up. Viz has plans for an un-announced title that will be Japanese style, right-to-left, with translated sound effects. Some Japanese artists will not allow their manga to be published in a flipped edition. Flipped, all the characters become left-handed and the men's shirts button the wrong way. An attempt to publish the American Star Wars comics in Japan was a failure because Japanese assumed it was American arrogance to insist that the comics be non-flipped. Other topics mentioned were the Disney acquisition of rights to Miyazaki's anime feature films. This wasn't done for their potential market in America, but because most of Miyazaki's movies have been under-commercialized in Japan and under-marketed on home video there. Another comment interested the younger members of the small audience, that an anime episode can be broadcast in Japan, then translated, subtitled and available for download on the Internet 24 hours later. The other artists with work on display were Taro Yashima, Jack Matsuoka, Pete Hironaka, and Stan Sakai. Stan Sakai had two panels on the wall, one a black and white short story featuring his comic book character, Usagi Yojimbo, the rabbit ronin. The other panel was color art of Usagi. Usagi Yojimbo is probably my favorite comicbook title, with quite a few graphic novels currently available, published by Fantagraphics and Dark Horse. A few of the graphic novels were on sale alongside Eagle. Following the panel, the audience talked
with the panelists, looked at, and bought, the graphic novels for sale,
or went to the back room to try out the Japanese snacks. |