| Listening intently to an audience comment at their Friday panel at
A-Kon are (left to right) Adam Warren, Brian Stelfreeze and Newton Ewell.
All three artists fell in love with the Japanese manga style and made it
their own, just as that style became fashionable with U.S. mainstream comics
publishers. But, as the artists revealed, not everyone in the industry
loves that style - and some hate it. |
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| There's a very weird vehemence among art directors from a certain time
period," said Ewell. "I never thought this (manga style) would dredge up
this racial animosity. Unspoken was the thought that older people in the
comics and animation industry may hold a deep-seated grudge against Japan,
dating back to World War II. |
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| Warren, who said he's a relative latecomer to the manga style, said
he started trying to use that style in his drawings while attending a comics
art school...and the instructor didn't like what he was doing. "My teacher
would rub his beard and say, `Adam, is this Wendy Pini work?'" |
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| While the artists said that feeling exists in the older reaches of
the industry, it's disappearing because younger audiences like the manga
style - and comics companies see a chance to make money that way, the artists
said. "When a book comes out and it makes money, they (executives) say,
`Maybe this will work for us,'" said Stelfreeze. |
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