Manga Studio® for Dummies®

Manga in America

In This Chapter

• Understanding how Manga differs from traditional Western comics

• Looking at the initial popularity and accessibility of anime in the 1960s–1980s

• Examining the manga and anime boom of the late 1990s

• Discussing the rise of OEL Manga on bookshelves and the Internet

Knowing a little bit about the past and present of the business you're about to enter is always a good thing. Perhaps you got into the genre only recently and probably don't know about the long journey of manga from unknown entity, to cult status, to mainstream acceptance (or at the very least, acknowledgement) in the United States. So you can think of this bonus chapter as your "crib notes" history of manga (and its animated counterpart, anime) in America.

In this chapter, I go over exactly what manga is and how it differs (however slightly) from American superhero comics. Then I go over the brief history of manga and anime in America from the 1960s to the present. I discuss the new realm of manga and manga-based books on the Internet through webcomics, and in print through publishing of OEL manga. Finally, I discuss exactly how Manga Studio relates to all of the above.

So What Is Manga?

Manga in Japanese means "comics." It's probably not as earth-shattering a revelation as you were probably thinking it would be, but it actually brings up a pet peeve of mine.

There are two camps of fans out there who can't seem to stand the other. On one side you have the manga fans, who decry the Supermen and Spider-Men ...