The general thread for Manga / manga-styled comic-making, manga-style illustration and related comic work. That said, everyone is welcome here.Support each other and talk about your work or the work of others that excites you. Inking, character design, paneling / layout, writing, planning, and other discussions are all welcome.Post resources, questions, in-progress pages, breakdowns of other works, etc. If a work is not yours, credit the maker (unless it's fucking obvious like a full page of One Piece or something).Thanks to everyone for making /mmg/ a level-headed and helpful place. Remember, drawing and making comics and manga are difficult endeavors, and we're all in this struggle together.Previous thread: >>7931885Some resources:/asg/, our stylistic sister-thread series for those focused more on illustration >>>/ic/asgBooks:Understanding Comicshttps://e-hentai.org/g/2042453/83e7da6ed0/Making Comicshttps://annas-archive.org/md5/d55168f7579c1e23275d1fc9f0a2255dManga in Theory and Practice: The Craft of Creating Mangahttps://annas-archive.org/md5/2877da11e2f852d220853e9944e6ea49Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwritinghttps://archive.org/details/RobertMcKeeStorypdf/Even a Monkey Can Draw Mangahttps://kupdf.net/download/even-a-monkey-can-draw-manga_58b9ca16e12e89233badd376_pdfThe Shonen Jump Guide to Making Mangahttps://mega.nz/file/i81imLpI#GcheJ9Jjk3lw1RE9nQWgL4RG4wEBNOcRmgA-iaU6WpgVideos:"Manga Senpai/Tokyo Name Tank", "SMAC! THE SILENT MANGA AUDITION COMMUNITY"Habanero Scans: https://www.dailymotion.com/HabaneroScans/videosManben link can be found on archive.org on different pages separated by season: https://www.reddit.com/r/manga/comments/1bu9f0y/found_all_of_naoki_urasawas_manben_and_manben_neo/Urasawa Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkIFOAoFm47XOAlJwTa6Ieg/videosOP image is from Munakata Kyouju Sekai-hen, Chapter 4.
>>7940569Other open comic publishers:Dark Horse ( https://www.darkhorse.com )>Dark Horse still welcomes your submissions, and all submissions will still be reviewed, just as they always have been.>All unsolicited story/series proposals must have a full creative team on board. Writer-only proposals will not be reviewed.Image comics ( https://imagecomics.com/ )>Image Comics only publishes creator-owned material. They do not contract creators; they’re only interested in publishing original content for which you would retain all rights.>Image Comics publishes creator-owned/creator-generated properties and THEY DON’T PAY PAGE RATES. Image takes a small flat fee off the books published, and it will be the responsibility of the creators to determine the division of the remaining pay between their creative team members.Drawn and quarterly ( https://drawnandquarterly.com/ )>Please email a low resolution PDF with at least 20 pages of comics and cover letter to submissions. Do not send dropbox links, scripts, or proposals. Please read our submissions FAQ.Fantagraphics ( https://www.fantagraphics.com/ )>submission page: https://www.fantagraphics.com/pages/faqTop Shelf Productions ( https://www.topshelfcomix.com/ )>Regarding submissions, we're easy. Just email us a download link of what you'd like us to review. NOTE: We cannot accept cover letters, plot synopses, or scripts unless they are accompanied by a minimum of 10-20 completed pages (i.e., fully inked and lettered comic book pages).Additional publisher lists:> https://jasonthibault.com/definitive-list-comic-publisher-submission-guidelines/> https://writingtipsoasis.com/best-independent-comic-book-publishers/
>>7940570Some western / indie publishers of Manga:Saturday AM ( https://www.saturday-am.com/ )> Digital indie magazine, seems to be on the up-and-up> Open submissions for long-form series; also distributes series currently being published elsewhere.> Regularly publishes one-shots, making it a good potential outlet for already-finished work.Oni Press ( https://onipress.com/ )> Technically indie, but at this point large enough by comic standards to be mentioned in the same breath as other publishers.Antarctic Press ( https://antarctic-press.myshopify.com/ )> Longtime large-indie publisher of OEL / manga-esque books.> Seemingly taking submissions at present if https://antarctic-press.myshopify.com/pages/submissions is anything to go on.Yen Press ( https://yenpress.com/ )> Started out as a small indie publisher of original / Korean material, and has grown reasonably popular since.> As of 2016, it is also one of the western arms of the Kadokawa Corporation, with Kadokawa owning a 51% stake.> Editorial inquiries can apparently be sent to yenpress@yenpress.com, however, they apparently are not open to new submissions at this time.Viz Media / Viz Originals ( https://www.viz.com/originals )> *The* western manga publisher.> Currently in the exploratory stages of setting up an English label.> Submissions are open and several books have been announced. However, progress on the label seems to be moving very slowly.> Still might be worth a shot anyway.Shrine Comics ( https://shrinecomics.com/ )> Small indie manga publisher> Seemingly attempting to make the transition to physical volumes> Allows crossposting to other sitesIconic Comics (https://www.iconiccomics.com/)>A bit like Oni Press and Antarctic Press>A small publisher with a focus on indie works with manga inspiration
>>7940572/mmg/'s very own anon-led anthology: /ic/onographyhttps://discord.gg/QYnFBves7Vhttps://forms.gle/d3a2Cwwd44sJYyqv9(Anthology project is defunct but the discord is alive)Additional community added Resources:Mangafonts: https://mangafonts.carrd.co/Hiro Mashima YT: https://www.youtube.com/@mashimaCh/videosGanmo, a job listing board for manga assistant work: https://ganmo.j-comi.co.jp/postsHow (You) can help /mmg/:> Know about a contest or a publishing opportunity? TAG THE OP and post a link.> Have a new resource? TAG THE OP and link / mention it for inclusion.> Don't be a crab> Have a link / DL for a mentioned resource? TAG THE OP and mention what you're supplying a link for.> SCREENSHOT / PASTEBIN effort posts that help you for posterity.
>>7940569>studying good>access to information...BADLot of hypocrisy in just one page.
>>7940593>how do you indicate monotony, if you had to adapt Groundhog day, how would you convey the dire repetitiveness that is meant to be grinding to the protagonist but not grating to the reader.Do what Endless Eight did and just redraw it all despite the repeating events, complete with different outfits and variations of dialogue. Try some moderate twists on events like a character acting before a different one had previously, maybe show a build up to people realizing things aren't quite right if that's where the story is headed. EE catches a lot of flak for good reason but it also doesn't get enough praise for what it did right.
How much do we actually care about making our works resemble manga? Not just in terms of style but also techniques: using half-tones in place of hard shadows, Ben Day dots, using only shades of black and white, that kind of thing.I personally have no plans to ever print anything I make. But if people are turned off by the fact my work doesn't look like it could be printed, it might be worth reconsidering. Or just turning saturation down to zero, but you didn't hear that from me.
>>7940633If you want to use manga techniques to make something that resembles manga, then make a manga. If you just want to do your own kind of comic but value this place because there's informative feedback from people who care to know what they're talking about, that's a valid use of the general as well.
>>7940633I never cared that much about it, I just happened to like monochrome comics and most of my comic consumption is manga. So drawing my own comics how I like just naturally results in a manga-like work.
>>7940641>So drawing my own comics how I like just naturally results in a manga-like work.Dingle's just like me fr fr
>>7940633I like the look of manga, so I naturally gravitate toward a lot of its techniques, but I don't go out of my way to try and draw in a stereotypical "anime" style with the big eyes and expressions.
>>7940593Thank you for the tips, this general is very helpful
>>7940633>How much do we actually care about making our works resemble manga?Without trying to get too manga-vs-comicy about it...I believe that most of what makes manga look like manga is actually simply that it looks good.It's like if only one country in the world knew how to build functioning bridges, you would be able to tell that their bridges are from that country simply because they haven't collapsed, but that wouldn't make it some unique style of bridgebuilding that belongs to that country, rather that's just what a functioning bridge looks like. In manga, the column gutters are thinner than the row gutters, this makes it easy to tell which direction to read in.Is that a stylistic choice? or is that simply a good idea?In manga they use speed lines to communicate movement, dramatic moments, emotion, tension, etc.Is that a stylistic choice? or is that just a good idea? Do you know a better way to communicate those things without speed lines?In manga they draw characters with exaggerated features, ie cartoony. Because the nature of the medium means most of the drawings are very small,and have to be drawn quickly, so it is far easier to convey expressions if they are drawn with bigger eyes, mouths, etc.This one is arguably the most describable as a stylistic choice... but it's also a good idea.
>>7940673contpic related is a Japanese IP but drawn by a westerner.The character designs are obviously anime with the big eyes and massive red hair,but most everything else is western. It's in color, the speechbubbles are oriented horizontally, and there's no gutter spacing variation.There are speed lines though, and I think the page would be arguably much weaker without them.Personally I think the preference of manga to be binary black and white with dots for midtones is unnecessary.It's a technical decision, it's quicker to draw and cheaper to print, but what artistic impact does it have?There is definitely some dramatic flair that black and white has, thinking of black and white photographs or movies... but even in the modern day, filmmakers can selectively utililize black and white in their movies for that same dramatic effect, without filming the whole movie in black and white.Furthermore anime, which is very closed linked to manga, is not black and white, and often the presence of color adds to the artistic merit of the piece.
>>7940677The use of color in pic related, Cowboy Bebop adds to its artistic merit. It's an anime original but could just have easily been a manga adaptation... but its manga counterpart would have been black and white
>>7940673>In manga they use speed linesNot to be yet another Bone dickrider since it's not the only example, but that guy was pretty great at conveying movement with minimal use of speed lines by mostly just showing the characters and stuff in motion and the effects actions had on the surrounding environment. I don't think speed lines are inherently bad but a lot of manga's overuse of them is a stylistic choice, especially in weekly stuff where they don't always have time to do backgrounds so they fill the space with speed lines.
>>7940677>but what artistic impact does it have?Besides the aforementioned cheaper production, lack of color can force one to make designs that stand out better so if it's recognizable in b&w then it's potentially even better in color. Not that you need monochrome as a crutch to achieve this, but for example one of my favorite comics was Priest's Deathstroke run and there were times I couldn't tell certain characters apart without context since they were drawn similarly despite it being in color and I think they would have taken more care to diversify those designs if they had to do it in b&w.
drafting hefferchu + lining penguin comicsany feedback is welcome!https://www.twitch.tv/efsius1/https://www.youtube.com/@efsius1/streams
>>7940752Thanks, gonna use some of those videos for ref. I got no idea how to do most manga tones
>>7940775It's like a cartridge, you have to blow on it to make it work.
Hows the color look compared to just having screentones? Honestly ive found putting color over it takes less time than screentones, and the few people ive been showing this too irl, think colors betterAlso yeah gonna have to redo the gun here, looks lazy
>>7940797>>7940798I'll say it looks better. Plus if it takes less time that's a very compelling reason to just stick with colors.
>>7940797I don't think screentones methodology perfectly translates over to colorThat is to say, you can't just color in the screentones.color manga pages do this alot and in my opinion it looks terrible.They haven't fundamentally changed how they render their pages, they've simply replaced screentone layers with color layers.Black and white adds a somewhat abstract effect to the art, it's less realistic and your brain fills in details. Backgrounds being a good example.The bottom left panel in pic related has no background. In black and white this is fine, you would still interpret the character as being in the room drawn in the panel to the right. But in color... it's just white, he's in a void, not the room.Situations like this demand that you be more realistic in your rendering when using color, you can't get away with leaving out details like you can in black and white.
>>7940808contThis character here is drawn with black hair in black and white. But he actually has brown hair, so in the color versions of the manga, he is still drawn with the same black hair, but now the highlights are colored in brown. It doesn't look great. It looks far better in black and white, or in the anime version which was drawn with color in mind frm the beginning.With your page, I think the first panel in >>7940797would look fine without the background if it were black and white, but with color I feel like it's lacking.You don't have to draw a full background, but I think there needs to be more indication of where the characters are.
>>7940816I notice in anime adaptations of manga, they will often include a background where in the manga none was present.Pic related very likely did not have a background, but just the rough indication of texture, and the right color of the background is all that is needed to make it feel grounded.In the manga, which would be black and white, this was almost certainly just a white background.And I think that if the manga were color, the same need for some indication of a background would be present.
>>7940797I think it serves you better, but now you might be lacking abit of drama, or contrast, I know its a night scene, but its all getting very muddy.the muzzle flash from the gun will be so overexposed in the dark, really cool opportunity to play with the harsh shadows.also we're all aussie here, you dont have to call it color.
>>7940821h-how did you know I wasn't American?
>>7940808>What do you think, Raito-kun?That's not how they say it in my rub-a-dub-dubbed aneemays
>>7940823your cops are aussie, and your old man protagonist has a mullet worthy of a bloke down the pub.
>>7940826red rorry yerrow rorry red rorry yerrow rorry the Japanese are terrible
i'm not finishing this tonight. i'm lazy and want to play skyrim.>>7940829love this drawing.>>7940752the establishing shot is hilarious
Fuck i just wrote some long ass essay, it fell asleep for a second while i was talking to a coworker , and it just reset the whole page>>7940808Lotta good points, definitely right with the first page, I’ll add texture, or draw the background if im not satisfied.I’ve been using rohan at the lourve and the long halloween as my main references, and they’re relatively simple with their coloring, but they either have more contrast with alot of blacks, or a more watercolory background that makes it more interesting.>>7940821That looks really cool. I aint coloured the whole scene, so when im doing that I’ll experiment with dark values and actually learn how to colour highlights. Im not certain if i want it to be that dark, I’ve been stealing colours from Ghost in the Shell, and that tends to be pretty light during the night scenes, especially with skin color, but ill have a play around, could look more cinematic, and i do really like that contrast>>7940829Good to know he visibly looks aussie, he’s sorta meant to represent the corruption of the aussie spirit, boomercore, also >>7940823 aint me>>7940823Hey, only im allowed to impersonate other people, Jake’s my creation, you’d better not copy me
Also wanna reiterate, fucking hell Rohan At the Lourve is so beautiful
>>7940680I think speed lines are mostly a time-saving measure, that is, they are literally used for "speed"... it's cheaper than a real background, but still looks better than just a white void. I don't have the brutal deadlines of a mangaka so I don't see a reason to not draw real backgrounds.
>>7940906It's economical, but it's also the best way.Can you think of a better way to convey the sense of speed in pic related that isn't speed lines?
>>7940908
>>7940908Composition here probably could be better, but should be good enough to communicate the ideaI'd move the camera farther out, showing the entire vehicle, so that I can show it partially levitating at a dynamic angleI'd use posing for the characters to make it look more like they're holding on to their dear lives... I understand in the original panel the hero(?) was meant to have a cool moment or something, but I'd lose that, it's nonsense, and it's the major thing that's fighting against the idea that the car is in motion and the speed lines are a crutch for thatAdd some floating objects in mid-airPeople reactingIt's more fun this way, is it not?
>>7940920>It's more fun this way, is it not?Yeah, until you remember that you have a deadline to meet.
>>7940920You took a relatively quick small panel and turned it into something big and busy and more time consuming.
>>7940922>>7940923That was kind of my whole pointThe speed lines are there to save time, but if you have the time there are always ways to make things better
Are there any other example of doujinshi storyboards?
>>7940924Yeah but it's not really a replacement for a small panel just showing the character chuckling...
>>7940927Unless there's a writer who insists details like that to be there you can just change the script to make it more visually interesting.
>>7940929you can't make every panel a detailed dynamic panel. That's western comics logic.
>>7940931You can't tell me what to do!
>>7940920That's one way of doing things but like >>7940923 and >>7940927 said, it's just a quick panel and even if there was more time to work on it, it shouldn't be needlessly busy especially for something like DB where visuals being easy to digest is one of its highlights. I think the compromise between speed lines and backgrounds is not to do something completely different for no reason but to combine aspects of both in ways that compliment one another, such as turning parts of the background into speed lines. This way it isn't just lines but a recognizable shape, and it doesn't draw too much attention to itself because it's mostly out of focus while conveying the idea of speed. As you can see here Yamcha is passing by a seminal DB monument which lets the reader know his general whereabouts at this point in time.
>>7940941>I think the compromise between speed lines and backgrounds is not to do something completely different for no reasonNever compromise. Not even in the face of armageddon.
>>7940947Everything about the medium is made of compromise.
