Manga Fever Hits the Library

Once upon a time, reading a comic book required sitting in the back of the school bus and hiding it or risk being labeled a nerd. Not any more kids, not anymore! There is a new leader in comic's around known as manga. Manga, a Japanese comic or print cartoon, has taken Japan by storm and is rapidly crossing over to the states.

Manga is the Japanese word for comics and consists of comics and print cartoons. It is insanely popular in Japan with the market selling $408 million dollars worth of comics in Japan last year alone, compared to the United States mere 36 million.

On Wednesday, July 20, graphic artists, Andrew and Veronica Fish, came to the to teach young teens (and some stray adults) the art of manga drawing.

"Manga artists are rock stars in Japan," Andrew Fish said, "I just returned from Japan, and I want you to picture a world where adults are as cool as you because they read manga."

Leah Ambrosino, a young manga student noted that her favorite series is D.Graman, but she was anxious to learn more about both the art and how to draw the characters.

Teaching is second natured to Andrew Fish who teaches at both Emerson College in Boston and the Worcester Art Museum. He has 12 graphic novels currently in print and is working on Dracula. He also has six how-to's out there for the budding artist. That having been said, he really enjoys working with tweens and teens.

"We've had great luck," Andrew said. "We are graphic artists by trade, but these workshops have been really well received; mostly because librarians are really tight knit and most of our business comes from referrals."

Veronica speaks fluent Japanese and has been a manga follower since she was a young girl. She also has a book published and is currently working on a re-do of Frankenstein. She, too, is a teacher.

As Veronica began to walk the students through some basic drawings, she explained that Astro Boy by Osama Tazuka was the first big manga released. She also talked about the first woman manga artist and her work called Sazae-San.

"This first comic was about a woman left behind when her husband went off to war and the really mundane parts of life," she explained. "Her manga was the very first one relased back in 1946."

She went on to explain that when drawing manga, you want to focus on shapes and using really big eyes as that is part of manga.

"The characters always have really big eyes because they were originally based off of Mickey Mouse," Veronica said. "You can also display a lot of personalities by shapes. Most importantly, never worry about perfection."

"The first thing you should do is flip the pencil over and bite the squishy end off," Andrew said, "Because manga artists don't make mistakes."

Casey Chilton, 13, loved the class and thought the Fish's were funny.

"I have wanted to be involved with manga since ever, or at least as long as I can remember," Chilton said. "I learned some new tricks today, and I'm really excited about trying this out digitally."

Both Fish's noted that they have begun to venture into the digital realm and suggest it as a great tool for young kids.

"Mainly, drawing comics is about reducing to simplicity," Andrew Fish said. "Remember to leave some black on your drawings and to draw slightly differently to convey gender, age and emotion."

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