Just In Case This Is Pertinent - Blog Posts

So, I decided to buy Hirohiko Araki's "Manga in Theory and Practice: The Craft of Creating Manga" book with an Amazon gift card I got for completing a survey...because my accidental splurges tend to to entail buying art books that I buy in the hopes that artists better than I am might rub off on me, and I really like Hirohiko Araki and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure a lot.

Anyway, lemme just say that I found myself saying "Bless your heart, Araki...", because of one particular paragraph in the book (on page 69, in Chapter 3).

I don't know if Araki realizes that "Stein" and "Berg" are stereotypically Jewish last name endings or not, or if this is the translator's own commentary, but just...

... I can't help but laugh with pity, because it's just...why? Perhaps he doesn't know that specific thing about Western culture or something, idk, but it's something that warrants a very stern "oy vey" and laughing because of just how naive it comes across as. If anything, I'd imagine people with -stein and -berg last names as being minor characters in Seinfeld.

Most of the advice seems pretty similar to what's offered in Scott McCloud's "Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga, and Graphic Novels", with some clear cut differences on things like execution of the book itself, opinions on digital versus traditional art, differing takes on the important components of what makes good sequential art good, etc.

Otherwise, the books is relatively similar to any other book on sequential art, and it's still interesting to take a glimpse at his opinions, especially when I'm leaning towards the assumption this is more of a minor faux pas with Araki being kind of a Westaboo than anything. He still ultimately strikes me as a man who's really dedicated to his craft more than anything else.