HOME | DD
raerae — Comic Flow
Published: 2009-12-10 16:47:12 +0000 UTC; Views: 4008; Favourites: 63; Downloads: 162
Redirect to original
Description
Guess this is a bit of a soapbox tutorial, but I see many people miming the way Japanese manga reads for the sake of mimicking. Hell, I even see people with panels that zig-zag everywhere making it completely unreadable. Panel placement is important, and so is how it reads.Related content
Comments: 13
Thanks so much for making this. I tried to explain this concept to my friends, and they just disregarded what I said. I mean, don't people think there's a REASON that Japanese comics are read from right to left? It's no coincidence that the flow of the language matches the art flow. But people don't realize that, and make OEL manga right to left JUST BECAUSE it's how Japanese people do it. And to be honest, when my friends say that they're "so used to reading Japanese manga that they can't make art from left to right", I really don't buy it... If you grew up speaking English, you've been "used to it" your whole darn life. Besides, if your excuse is "I want to translate it and publish it in Japanese one day", I guess that's okay... but don't people realize that Japanese can be printed from left to right, too? English CAN'T be printed from right to left, EVER. And when I told my friend this whole principal, she said that she was reading a translated manga, and that you "get used to it". Yeah, I get that. If you are TRANSLATING, it's better to sacrifice that flow for the sake of not possibly ruining the art by reversing it, which could be worse. But if you're making a "manga" in English as its original language? MAKE THE ART FROM LEFT TO RIGHT. The text is PART if the artwork! WHAT is wrong with that? Why are so many manga-readers I know against that?
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Glad you found it useful. Yeah, translations in anything are bound to have it's quirks and artifacts from the original language. Choosing to leave appropriate these artifacts as a 'style' baffles me.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Doesn't it also disrupt the flow, in a broader sense, if someone reads all Japanese format manga and the just switches direction to read a OEL manga?
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Not necessarily. For one, everything else in the English language is left-to-right. Even if a webcomic reads right-to-left? The BUTTONS are still (usually)left-to-right in direction. It's the natural direction for us to go.
If the panels and placement are done right their eye should flow naturally without much trouble in the direction the comic-creator means for it to go(I chose a rather generic layout for my example, though). Not being able to tell which way something is to be read is just bad panelling, like one webcomic where I got through 20 pages before I figured out it was right-to-left.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
But at the same time, a comic isn't like a page in a book. In a book lines of text reach all the way across the page and your eyes have to move across to read it. But in a speech bubble the text is compressed and your eyes can read the whole thing without moving, so it doesn't really cause a problem with flow.
And when you say BUTTONS I assume you mean the buttons you press to change pages if your read on a computer. I agree that it's wrong to reverse that. But really your only pressing forward so once you have your mouse on it that's it. It could be anywhere on the page and not really matter. And if you go backwards in the comic, your already forsaking flow anyway.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Your eyes do move, though, just not as much, and it depends on the size of the bubble as to how much it effects flow It ruins the overall composition. If you draw a figure leading your eye to the panel on the left, but the words in a largish bubble lead right, then it certainly ruins the flow. This is why one manga where all the text was horizonal(and thus written left-to-right) read left-to-right.
Just another problem with OEL manga that reads the Japanese way is that it limits your audience to readers those that are already manga-readers by mimicking a translation artifact. Which is fine, I suppose. But some people don't want to limit their audience.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I actually have trouble reading comics that are left to right so I tend to make my comics right to left, because it's more comfortable for me. Also, The flow caused by the words isn't as strong as the flow caused by art and paneling, so if you can get the paneling and art to flow well it doesn't cause that big of a problem.
And since I don't personally know anyone who likes American style comics and don't scoff at Manga art and storytelling, limiting the audience isn't really a concern for me.
I think in the end you just have to do what your most comfortable with, and do it the best you can.
and fix the backwards buttons
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Should be forced to read by every aspiring "manga-ka" weeaboo.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Completely agree with you. Translations from the Japanese should follow the original flow for the reasons you give. But doing new English material right-to-left is aping form at the expense of function. To me telling a story clearly is of primary importance.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Panels are easy... Having the patience to draw the same character at top quality over and over is my problem.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
This is a nice little guide to have, especially for people that are new to creating comics.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0