1. Home
  2. Hobbies & Games
  3. Comic Books

Manga 101 - Basic Walk-through of the Manga World

By , About.com Guide

3 of 6

The Artwork and Style of Manga Comics

Honda Tohru of "Fruits Basket" - A Typical Manga Character

Copyright Tokyopop All Rights Reserved
Manga has become widely known for its style of artwork. People who know about Manga will be able to recognize artwork from Manga comics quickly. The interesting thing is how Manga artwork has begun to influence artists of today. Many artists are showing influences by Manga like Ed McGuinness, and Frank Miller. Americans are even making Manga, like Fred Gallagher of Megatokyo.

There are many characteristics that make Manga very distinctive. The largest thing that Manga art is known for is its characters. Manga characters almost always have large eyes, small mouths, and they also usually have abnormal hair color. These things give their characters a very western look to them. Manga like Akira, however, has gone against this grain.

Manga characters usually show over exaggerated emotions. When a character cries, it usually pours out in buckets, when they laugh, their face seems engulfed by the size of their mouths and their eyes become slits. An angry character will have rosy cheeks and steam rolling from around their body. This use of emotion would most likely be categorized as cartoonish.

Explore Comic Books

About.com Special Features

Holiday Central

What to eat, where to go, fun things to do and how to save money on the perfect gifts. More >

Scrapbook Technique Gallery

Use these ideas to inspire your own uniquely beautiful pages. More >

  1. Home
  2. Hobbies & Games
  3. Comic Books
  4. Collecting Comic Books
  5. Manga 101 - Artwork and Style of Manga Comics

©2009 About.com, a part of The New York Times Company.

All rights reserved.