Deb Aoki: And then even in the boys love category, there are stories like Age Called Blue by est em (NETComics), which is kind of unusual for yaoi manga. Instead of drawing two androgynous, vaguely feminine looking, usually very similar looking boys who are only different because one has light hair and one has dark hair, est em draws men who look like men -- like men I'd actually like to f**k. (laughs) The art is really stylish, and the stories about these men falling for other men have all the lust and complications of grown-up relationships.
So there's definitely manga that indie comics readers can enjoy -- the trick is trying to match up these readers with the kind of manga that is geared for their tastes. This is hard when the stuff they'd like is shelved with all the other stuff that really isn't for them.
One thing I noticed with Drawn & Quarterly's approach is that they published the Tatsumi books in deluxe hardcovers -- not the usual "manga" sized paperbacks. So they got shelved differently and treated differently by retailers. So maybe their approach helped make these books stand out? Helped prevent say, The Push-Man from getting shelved next to... I dunno, Naruto?
Dan Nadel: It's all about the packaging. Drawn and Quarterly pulled Tatsumi's work from relative obscurity and they made it completely relevant to indie comics readers by having Adrian Tomine design the books and write an introduction explaining that Tatsumi's comics inspired Optic Nerve. They also gave Tatsumi's stories a historical context by positioning him as like the "Will Eisner of Japan," a graphic storyteller who showed Japan's dark underbelly.
It's a very artist-based approach, presented in a durable, compelling package.
BIG IN JAPAN? WHY SOME INDIE MANGA CREATORS FIND GREATER ACCLAIM ABROAD
Ryan Sands: What's also interesting is that there are several "indie manga" creators who are more popular in the U.S. than in Japan.
Jocelyne Allen: In the case of Yoshihiro Tatsumi, in Japan, before the Drawn & Quarterly editions came out, he was almost a nobody. Now, he's getting more attention there because of his success in the States.
Christopher Butcher: I know one manga creator that a lot of publishers have been trying to get the rights to his work is Yoshiharu Tsuge. As I hear it, Tsuge-sensei has refused all offers to translate and publish more of his work in English, and that his response to people who want to read his work is "learn Japanese."
NOTE: Two of Tsuge-sensei's works have been published in English -- Ohba's Electroplate Shop was included in RAW Vol. 2 No. 2 and Neji-Shiki: Screw-Style was featured in Comics Journal #200
Jocelyne Allen: For creators like Tsuge, the problem is that they fear that their work, and the messages in their work will get lost in translation.
Erik Ko: They feel like it's out of their hands.
Jocelyne Allen: They themselves usually can't read English themselves, so they can't confirm whether the translations are very good or not, and if it really captures how they originally wanted it to come across.
It's true that there are lots of really terrible translations in Japan -- like 'Don't eat the waitress.' Those kinds of really bad, awkward English-Japanese translations are ubiquitous in Japan.
Dan Nadel: I think Tsuge will come around, as Drawn and Quarterly publishes more of his contemporaries, and he sees that it's possible for good quality presentations of his work to be published.
Ryan Sands: The AX Anthology is an original project put together by an American publisher -- in this case, Top Shelf. They got contacted by Sean Michael Wilson, a translator / editor living in Japan who knew the editor of AX. Sean worked with the editor of AX to choose a selection of stories from the magazine, and that's what's being put out this summer. It's a good way to present a variety of artists who might not normally get a shot to be published in English if it was only available as a single volume of just their work.
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After a lively hour of discussion, we ran over the time allotted for this panel, and still felt like we could have gone on for a while more on this topic. Thanks to Christopher Butcher and the Toronto Comics Art Festival for hosting this talk, and thanks also to my fellow panelists, Erik Ko, Ryan Sands, Dan Nadel and Jocelyne Allen for sharing their time, experiences and love of manga with the TCAF '10 crowd.
To get a taste of manga for indie comics readers, check out our recent Inkstuds podcast featuring Christopher Butcher, David Welsh and Ryan Sands about indie manga, and our reading list of recommended titles posted at Inkstuds.com.
