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Category: Comics and mangas

This category is about drawing comics and mangas.

Comicbiber in Aquarell — Comic beaver in watercolor

Features of manga

I’ve put these two types of illustrated stories together once, since they essentially differ only in the actual drawing style. Where mangas still have fixed characteristics to be recognizable as such, western comics don’t really have preset styles that you have to adhere to in order for a comic to be a comic.

A western comic can have very realistic representations (example Marvel or DC Comics like Batman, Superman, Spiderman and Co.) as well as trivialized, abstract or own styles (from Mickey Mouse over Asterix to Lucky Luke, Tim & Struppi everything is really represented and possible).

It would also be important to know the difference between a comic and a comic strip. The comic strip consists of only a few pictures (1-5 panels) and primarily represents the climax of a story, i.e. a punch line. The comic strip wants to entertain and cheer up and/ or stimulate thinking.

Difference from caricature

There is also a difference between this and caricature. While a caricature mostly refers to the depiction of real, living or deceased persons and usually deals with social or political topics in the form of criticism or satire, the comic strip deals with all subject areas and mostly with everyday situations (these can of course deviate from reality depending on the character). Typical comic strips would be, for example, Garfield, Willy Wacker or Häger.

Difference from classic comic

The comic itself represents a complete, complex story over several images and several pages. Similar to a TV series, this story can be structured in such a way that each volume or book is self-contained or episodic.

Often a combination is used; the stories are then self-contained, usually have no consequences for subsequent stories but to earlier events are still alluded to.

With a Manga it behaves actually exactly the same as with the Comic. Only here the drawing style, which is primarily Japanese or Chinese, is the decisive factor. In addition, a manga is not read from left to right, as is usual in the West, but rather from right to left (i.e. practically from back to front), in accordance with Japanese culture.

Me as a cartoon character at the drawing table (DALL-E) — Me as a cartoon character at the drawing table

Manga target groups

In general, and especially in the case of manga, picture stories have certain target groups that they want to appeal to. This is determined by the story and not least by the actual drawing style. Thus, there are special manga stories for girls, which are also reflected in the drawing style. The drawing style of manga for boys, on the other hand, is more angular.

Produktempfehlungen

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Manga erste Schritte: Alles was der angehende Mangaka braucht	Manga Step by Step: Einzigartiger Basiskurs	Manga-Figuren entwickeln
Comiczeichenkurs: So wirst du Comiczeichner	Comics und Graphic Novels zeichnen	Making Comics (Englisch)