Thursday, March 12, 2009

Manga, manga!

I love comic books, especially manga... I have to admit dat i gained my reading skills by learning to read from Gila-gila (the famous comic book at dat time) when im about 4 or 5 years old... my older sis just can't stand it anymore to help read out loud the comic books for me, so i thought dat i have to try to read it on my own, since all my other siblings can't be bothered by the fact that they have an illiterate lil' sister...

Getting exposed to comic books in such an early age does have lots of side-effects, regardless whether it is positive of negative... well, i'm not goin' to go through all the details, but the most 'long-lasting' effect (can i even put it like dat? hahhaha) is of course, dreaming about making one myself...

I never consider or even thinking dat making a comic book is an easy thing to do, but it sure is pretty damn hard when i actually grab my pencils and pens wif intention of drawing sumthin' dat could be called as a manga... when i'm in form 1, my fren n i tried to collaborate in drawing a manga... we drew a few pages n dats it... i can't help myself from re-correcting anything dat i drew n even sum of my fren's (dats kinda rude, i know, i know)... reading, breathing n living wif great mangas (dat is sooo otaku) just won't let me get away wif me drawing sumthing so hideous... it is unaccaptable (being a lil' perfectionist there)... it is true n i admit dat i have no talent whatsoever in drawing, but i believe dat there is two kind of talents in life, one dat comes naturally; n the other one comes from hardwork... u create ur own talent (wif god's willing, of course) by working on it 24-7... kinda like shaved ice... the more effort u put in shaving the ice, then the more shaved ice u will get in ur bowl... then u could enjoy the shaved ice wif syrups or.... eheh... sounds stupid but the way i see it, it does kinda have the resemblence, but anyway, dat is what i tried to achive... not the shaved ice, of course, but the so called 'hardwork tallent'.

It feels good when people does praise my fren n I on our work, n my other work dat i had done personally, even if it is only a few people... It means dat u r actually progressing n improving... but at sum point, my work stop improving... it just got uglier n uglier... or is it dat my standard just got higher n higher? Either way, my confidence level just sunk to the bottom of the barrel n never dare for once to look up again... after a few pages of I-don't-think-U-could-call-dat-as-manga, each wif a different stories, i put down the pens n pencils for good... u may call me a quiter, but i think 'a realistic person' would sounds a whole lot better... I guess i spent too lil' time on shaving the ice n getting excited for people ordering my shaved ice that i stop shaving n take a look at the bowl... n of course, when i look at my bowl, wif a lil' ice but looks good enough, i just keep on playing wif it instead of keep on shaving, until it melted...

OMG, my post is sooo long... hahhaha.... well, movin' on....

The reason i actually tell all dis stuff is because of the manga i recently read, 'Bakuman', after sumone (sorry, can't remember his name) in Megaport suggested it... I give it a try since the summary sounds pretty cool n not cliche at all, the mangaka is after all the same as the mangaka for 'Death Note' ( n again, can't remember his name, though his work is easy to recognize). I'm a bad, bad fan of his...

Chapter after chapter (i start reading since yesterday), it amazes me (although I had already prepared myself based on this guy's reviews) at how much work dat it actually involves in drawing a manga... Pure admiration n interest in manga is not sufficient enough to get u through on drawing a manga, even if u r so damn talented... I pretty much got a lot of slap in the face when i read this manga because it resembles me so much in one way or another... (me as a mangaka wannabe or as a reader). It is also kinda embarassing too... This story really is well written n the mangakas know what they are talking about wif all the facts n different point of views n perspectives. I read this manga (along wif 2 other manga i already been reading) starting from around 11 am, after my morning class till 11.15 pm or sumthing, 12 straight hours, only taking breaks for solat n food... It is that good and I only did stop reading b'cause the internet connection is getting poorer n poorer, or in a more 'college kids like' sense, dumber n dumber... It makes no or just a lil' bit of sense to keep refreshing the page for 4 to 5 times n cursing all the way when my head had already been throbbing in ache for the past few hours...

Aside from my face constantly getting slapped while reading dis manga (which i did seriously consider to sue, hahhaha, kidding, kidding, no need to feel all work up) i think dat the mangaka actually did telling the story from his experience.. I'm too lazy to do a research n dis may sound very much or less stupid for those who have the facts in their hands, but based on his artworks before, like in 'Death Note', ' Ral Grado', n the one-shot manga, i'm not really sure i remembers it right but i think its 'Baby' or sumthing, did kinda connect wif this manga...

Example, take the scene where Hattori, the Ashirogi Muto's editor, said that their artwork seems too much like a novel, doesn't it make u think like, "Damn, it is so like death note, wif all dat lines in the huge speech bubbles." It always bothers me dat why the heck must dis mangaka wrote all dis unnecessary lines? My mind just screaming, "Make it simple, make it simple! Ur story is too complicated as it is!" It soon became a habit to skip a speech bubbles dat looks like it will kill me if i dare to stare at it for too long... If u ever read the manga, u will know wat i mean... but, whether u agree or not, is totally up to u... But dun get me wrong, the story is very interesting n addictive, (if not, it won't be made into movies) it just dat it will be a whole lot easier to enjoy if it is made a lil' less, hmm, should i say 'constructive'? Yeah, dat will do.. When people say that lil' is more, they actually got a point there...

Okey, my post is becoming freakishly long... I will surely post the continuation of this in the next entry, just to make it look like a normal blog in a glance. Hahahhha...

Ordering form dari bibir ikan...

No comments: