{"id":2708,"date":"2006-12-12T07:02:00","date_gmt":"2006-12-12T07:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/?p=2708"},"modified":"2018-11-20T05:25:59","modified_gmt":"2018-11-20T05:25:59","slug":"lifemore-than-just-manga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/?p=2708","title":{"rendered":"Life\u2014More than Just Manga"},"content":{"rendered":"

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This book is a nomination for the graphic novels category of the 2006 Cybil Awards<\/a><\/i>.<\/p>\n

I have to admit\u2014I didn’t think there was any way that a manga about a manga convention could possibly be good. It sounded like way too high a dose of geekiness for me. That’ll teach me to judge a book by A) its cover, and B) the blurb on the back. I really enjoyed Svetlana Chmakova’s Dramacon Vol. 2<\/a>, which turned out to be much more than a story about a manga convention. It’s a story about friendship, love, growing up, and pursuing your dreams. <\/p>\n

It is, though, a story set in the world of comics and manga. If it were only about those topics, it would be far less likely to gain readers outside of the otaku<\/i> set, and frankly, the cover blurb seems written to appeal to that set of fans. But I was very happy to have my first impressions be proven wrong. I’m far from expert on either comics or manga, but this is a charming, funny, surprisingly deep ongoing tale about two young women who are creating their own comic and promoting it at a big comics and anime convention. <\/p>\n

In many ways, this story is about defying certain expectations that dominate the world of comics and manga. The two young women meet their idol, a female comic artist named Lida, who fills them in on the obstacles that face women trying to break into the male-dominated industry. They encounter sexism, racism, and crazed fans who insist that only Japanese can produce “real” manga, and manga produced by and for an English-language audience isn’t legit. However, Christie and Bethany are good–really<\/i> good\u2014and even the most militant of manga fans are able to see that. <\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Bethany’s not sure she can get her parents to realize that drawing comics is a viable career option, even when a famous manga company offers her a job as an artist. Meanwhile, Christie is preoccupied by Matt, a guy she met at the convention the previous year. He’d been a real friend, with the potential for something more, but this year he shows up with\u2026a girlfriend. This title has a bit of soap opera about it, keeping the reader hooked and eager for the next volume. But above all it’s very<\/i> cute and very funny. It’s a great example of the manga style done well: nicely rendered artwork that uses manga conventions effectively but not excessively; that uses subtlety as well as it uses comic exaggeration. <\/p>\n

Evidently Dramacon<\/u>‘s creator, Chmakova, also does a comic in the back of CosmoGIRL<\/i> magazine. Her work gives me hope for the increasing popularity of comics for female readers\u2014and for increasing opportunities for female comics writers and artists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This book is a nomination for the graphic novels category of the 2006 Cybil Awards. I have to admit\u2014I didn’t think there was any…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2,5],"class_list":["post-2708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-af","tag-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2708"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3828,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2708\/revisions\/3828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}