Professional Manga

The primary component of manga storytelling is what goes on within the borders of a single panel. To use a film analogy, you’re acting as the cinematographer. The cinematographer chooses camera shots, framing, angle and lighting. In other words, what happens in a single manga panel. The director then uses these elements to tell his or her story effectively—from one panel to another, which we’ll talk about in Chapter 11. The analogy doesn’t fit exactly, sure, but it works for our purposes. Using the same terminology that film does also makes it easy to communicate, even if there isn’t any camera. We’re going to first put on that cinematography ...