Yesterday I wrote about the importance of the spirit of collaboration for Japanese comics in future, but I didn't really get into another major factor that I think is stifling creativity here - the weekly serials!
Let's get this kicked off with an excerpt from my translation of an article in which Urasawa talks a little about the weeklies:
Honestly, the situation in Japan where comics are released in weekly anthologies is a very abnormal one. Everyone has become accustomed to it and deals with it like it was nothing, but people overseas think that producing comics of this quality on a weekly basis is insane. ... Yeah, it really is insane.
50 years ago, knowing it was something extremely difficult to do, weekly comics were created on a trial basis for the first time. But even after that initial trial period, it continued and is still the way it is now. It’s actually impossible. But it’s going through the impossible that has made today’s manga culture prosperous. It's an amazing story!
It is an amazing story, but like he said it's also insane and impossible. You can only do the impossible so long before it catches up with you, and the fact the Urasawa isn't doing weeklies anymore is evidence of that. Weeklies got the industry to where it is, but it won't sustain it forever.
Urasawa's own current comic, Billy Bat, is serialized in Weekly Morning, but only appears every two weeks at best. If you factor in the time off he has taken already in this young series, it's practically a monthly.
Uraswa also took some notoriously long breaks from 20th Century Boys, so much so that the series is generally considered to consist of three different sections that roughly mark the long breaks and restarts in the serial.
In my opinion, that hurt the series because he appeared to get lost a few times and had trouble pulling it back together in the end. It could be argued that he never really did. The first third of the series is by far the best and 21st Century Boys was anticlimactic and didn't tie up loose ends well at all. A lot of my Japanese friends who were into the series said the same thing.
What if Urasawa had less pressure and more time between episodes to think things through? Maybe he would have stayed in a groove longer and not needed to go off on so many tangents and different directions. Maybe he wouldn't have taken such a long break from it. Maybe it would have turned out differently and ended brilliantly as it began.
At the same time as 20th Century Boys he was also doing Pluto. Episodes of Pluto took so painfully long to come out that following the serial became pointless. It is, however, brilliant when read all together in tankobon format and should have been released that way in the first place. Why it wasn't is because the industry generally won't allow it. Tradition, and the fact that the industry can't afford to lose the revenue that comes from selling you a comic twice, are difficult obstacles to overcome.
How long will it be before Japanese also start waiting for the trades like people are more and more in the U.S. with pamphlets? Especially for a shorter series like Pluto that is so often delayed, it makes sense to wait, doesn't it?
The only weekly serial I follow regularly right now is Vagabond. Vagabond comes out weekly for long stretches, but Inoue has taken some very long breaks from that too, partly to work on his other "weekly", Real. Real comes out so infrequently that it is barely a monthly, even though it is published in weekly Young Jump.
The big weekly anthology magazine, Weekly Shonen Jump, features extraordinary weekly hits like Naruto and One Piece, but also a revolving door of new titles, some of which stick but then get farmed out to Jump Square, which is a monthly.
Don't believe me that the weekly format is on it's last legs? American manga readers can check out the February 2010 issue of U.S. SJ and read what Takei has to say about doing Ultimo in the monthly format rather than weekly. He actually now has the time to work on the details of his own art. What a concept!! Let's see a little more of that, please!
Gifted creators who are excellent all around like Urasawa, Inoue, Oda and Kishimoto, just to name a few that I like, are a joy to follow. They always deliver and always leave you wanting more, which in turn makes you want to follow a weekly serial. They are also rare. Most creators are far stronger in either storytelling and writing, or in art. Few can do both well, and even fewer can produce their best work at such a breakneck schedule week in and week out.
I would like to see how some of these people do with more time, but less help from uncredited assistants. I'd also like to see more credits for inkers, colourists, background artists etc. Ultimo actually credits an inker and colourist, which is extremely rare! Unless everyone else is really doing the majority of their own work themselves - which they are often not once they have a regular serial - I'd like to see a lot more credit where credit is due. Either that or give the artists extra time, but force them to actually do it all themselves in exchange for taking all the credit! That would probably mean going to at least a monthly format for most.
Aside from the art, weekly formats also give creators little time to consider plot points, so when they get stuck or just need a little time to think about something, they either take time off or pump out boring filler or those incredibly annoying flashbacks that go on for pages and pages. I'd rather an asterisk telling me to see episode whatever if I don't remember, instead of paying for reprints of shit I already bought!
Weeklies pull stunts like that way too often, but there are only so many options for a creator when they can't or won't take time off to figure things out.
Some are just lazy, but most are just trapped by an industry that refuses to change with the times and explore new formats and ways of doing things. Like I wrote yesterday, the industry needs to free up creators to create, not just produce.
With apologies to the handful of awesome ones, that's why I think most weekly serials suck! Many aren’t even weeklies to begin with, and most that are shouldn’t be. Except for the ones that really deliver quality every single week, almost all of them should go biweekly or monthly and artists should get paid bit more so they can afford to. If that means also paying the top guys who really put out awesome weeklies more, then that's fine. They deserve the cash. Besides, with more time all creators will need fewer assistants that they have to pay anyway. In fact, instead of being let go, maybe those assistants could make comics of their own to support the creator/studio they work for? Just a thought.
Anyway, if the weekly anthologies stagger content well they'll be fine. In the end they'll probably also find that they will have more really solid titles with even higher quality production and artistic values than ever before to keep current readers hooked, and bring in new ones.
13 comments
do i think weekly format is best for manga? No
do i think it's going to die any time soon? Not yet, they make too much money with it
I dunno, i guess it's a tradition and it made manga what it is but yeah many manga suffer because of it but others don't. People want their manga on a weekly basis (they need their fix xD)
20th did suffer a lot on the last part and i think everybody agrees with that, if urasawa could have taken more time it would have been an incredible master piece with no "errors" whatsoever but which manga has, there are no perfect mangas xD
I always thought that the better you became as a mangaka the more time you could take xD like Inoue or Urasawa do, like ok i've done it now let me rest and get my thoughts in order xD
And im all in for crediting assistants, inkers, colorists and even editors, good think im reading bakuman and i get to know a lot about the industry, how they work, what assitans do and what mangaka do, how the editor helps and well about the jump system and all (questionaries and that kind of thing) i know it's a manga so it's not a hundred percent true but it's what i got xD
And finally Naruto and Bleach to mention a few would be a LOT better than what they are now if they were monthly xD
till next post
"This wraps up Vol. 32 which goes on sale 1/15. Unfortunately, there were a couple breaks during this series, as I had other work such as Real and the Museum of Contemporary Art. I wasn't able to meet the expectations of all the readers who follow me every week. I'm sorry. I'd love to have everybody continue reading every week, but I only have one body and it can only do so much. It's frustrating.
I had to make the most edits in a graphic novel ever for this one. It could be that the weekly issues aren't showing what the final version will be. In other words I haven't "completed" them in time. I feel that I may be nearing the end of my life as a serialized manga artist (although to be honest, I think I've been heading in that direction for a while now...).
Or if I want to continue, I have to change something."
You can tell he's frustrated, not only with the schedule but also with the fact that he just can't do his best under that schedule.
AWESOME!!!
I hadn't seen that yet.
Thank you very much!
And this affects the individual manga volume sales, too. If you look at the weekly ratings, you'll find the weekly series way ahead of the monthly titles. Last I checked, I believe, the Prince of Tennis sequel was the bestselling Jump SQ title - a title that started in Weekly Jump.
Weekly Jump is a tough magazine and it is surely not easy to be successful in the format, but it's also where the megahits are born. As long as that's the case, authors will try to get in the magazine, despite its concept's flaws.
And as long as they'll be making them more money than monthly magazines, the publishers aren't going to scrap the entire concept of weekly serialization.
"The big weekly anthology magazine, Weekly Shonen Jump, features extraordinary weekly hits like Naruto and One Piece, but also a revolving door of new titles, some of which stick but then get farmed out to Jump Square, which is a monthly."
I believe this is not true, or misleading. As far as I know, the only WJ title that has been "farmed out" to JSQ is D.Gray-man, and that happened very recently. If I remember correctly, it was because an injury has made it impossible for the author to work in the weekly schedule, but I'm not 100% sure. Prince of Tennis properly finished its run in Weekly Jump before they somehow decided on a sequel in Jump SQ. Anyway, it's not a common practice, and you make it sound as if Weekly Jump is bleeding established series into Jump SQ, and dying. This is not the case.
Thank you for you comments. You make a lot of good points.
I didn't mean to say Weekly was dying in favor of SQ, and you are right that not much has been formed out to it. You are also right that is it not common practise, but what I7m saying is that it should be and I think it will be in the future.
There are former weeklies that are now monthy's from other mags such as Young Jump - e.g. Inubaka, which sells very well but took lots of breaks from the regular weekly serial too.
You're right that SQ it isn't replacing Jump. Not yet!
Weekly Shonen Jump is by far number one and something that was that big will stay on top for a while yet, especially with One Piece, Bleach, Naruto and so on. But it's still on a long, steady decline - albeit a slow one.
I just don't think the next generation of hits will be weeklies or, if they are, be able to sustain themselves as weeklies after the first year or two in the future. I feel that the format is a mirage right now that will begin to fade away very soon. I think it has to.
Case in point is the Inoue quote that Bahamut posted above your comment, and Takei's comments about the monthy format. I think more and more creators are goingto start feeling that way.
I agree that currently the up and commers have to have a hit in Weekly Jump to make their name, but I don't think it will stay that way. I don't see how it can, that's all.
for longer series I would skip volumes that added nothing to the story.
As for some series like Naruto, bleach, inu yasha, it would be greatly reduced or pages devoted to actual content. I've skipped about 100 chapters in bleach and still feel like I need to skip. Fans call Tite a troll, I mean enough with panels of brush strokes (all good in abstract paints, not in a shounen jump manga) that is not a fight scene. Its like how collage students go through finals only they have that every single week.
besides, I dont really have time to keep up with weekly chapters anyway. I read them at most every other week with the exception of 1 title.
on 01/10/10 at 14:47
Do you think an undisciplined artist can still be a better creator with more time every cycle to relax and rest (and procrastinate)? Do you think a disciplined artist would become an even more incredible, successful, and balanced creator if allowed to work on a monthly schedule?
Do you think the increased page count that comes with monthly or bimonthly deadlines would help the works, too?
Thankas for you comments.
You raise some interesting issues.
First of all, for shojo artist that find it easy to procrastinate, I would let them try to go weekly and see if they can hack it without taking a lot of time off or passing off most of the art to assistants. If they can, great. If not, then it's their problem.
There are a rare few who can handle the weeky format, just not very many.
I agree with you that it's a lack of discipline that leads many to lean on assistants, but in that case I would question their value as a creator.
Undisciplined artists may or may not be better given more some - depends on the person. But monthly comics should be better than weeklies given that you have 4 times more time. Even if your page count is doubled, you still have double the time to do it in!
Procrastinators will procrastinate no matter what. A monthly format would give them less of a excuse when they procrastinate themselves into a corner and their work suffers and/or they leaning heavily on assisants.
What I hate to see is a really good creator being held back, forced to cut corners, or simply take time off because they are under too much pressure in the weekly format.
Case in point, what Takehiko Inoue wrote on his website.
Honestly, I think undisciplined artists will eventually either shape up or dig their own career grave anyway, regardless of the format.
The good creators will be that much better.
Either way, I also think assistant should get more credit.
Whether the weekly format will continue to be economically viable, that I don't know. But I think it's made possible some incredible stories, and it has a style and a flow all its own which is not found in monthly manga. The risk of burnout, and having to make major story decisions under pressure is just part of the challenge of doing weekly manga and, frankly, the appeal of reading it -- seeing how the artists cope with these things.
There's a wealth of amazing in that comic beyond Vagabond. As a female reader, I find the likes of OL Life, Shima Shima, and Himawari to be quite engaging. And these are comics that come out at least 3 out of 4 times in a month. In fact, i rarely see Shima Shima take a break but it still has an interesting story.
Sure, it's a tough job but it's a fact of their life. And many know that they have to work on the weeklies to make sure their tankoubon would get sold when it's out. I for one wondered why Urasawa agreed to write for Morning since it weekly considering that his previous works were monthly in general and he had a tendency to get laid back and lost in his story once chaos starts. Well, it's certainly showing now in Billy Bat. idk what the hell is happening to that manga with all the time skipping that's happening.
Thanks for your comments.
First of all, yes, Morning is a great magazine. I agree. OL Life and Shima shima are quality titles, too. Morning is Kodansha's flagship weekly and only the best go there, but what is left after that? Weekly quality in both art and writing is not the standard anymore because so few can do it. Even the flagship anthologies are being propped up by non-weeklies like Billy Bat.
What would be wrong with making Morning or Young Jump monthlies and adding pages to popular titles for the artists that can handle it? The ones that can't do the equivalent of four weeklies in a month can do less pages and have more time to do them in and creators can keep their deadlines and not take lng break because they are burnt out or actually doing something else in their life for a change.
Doesn't everyone win then?
Just like this generation won't work overtime for a bowl of udon then drink until last train like their father's did, or unwaveringly support the kids and household in the absence of said father and at the expense of their own interests like their mothers did, this generation isn't as willing or able to suffer for their work like their predecessors.
The post-war generation made doing the impossible a way of life. They had to and they made Japan what it is today. Hats off to them! But in general their kids simply can't and won't.
The titles you mentioned, Khursten, are good ones, I agree. I though that "Say Hello to Black Jack" was awesome, and "Jipang" was regular quality too.
But on the critical side, and with apologies to the good titles, the art in Morning (in my opinion) tends to be quite poor overall. Comics are disposable items in Japan so maybe I put too much emphasis on art, but I hate to see mediocre character drawings on top of traced backgrounds and screentones, and I don't have words to describe the atrocity that is Dragon Zakura, which is the worst drawn comic I've ever seen in a major magazine. It is page after page of badly drawn talking heads who do nothing but discuss how to get into Tokyo university. It should be a book, not a comic. The art is utterly pointless.
I think the very fact that Billy Bat is in Morning is a sign that there is a problem. Billy Bat should not be in a weekly magazine because it has never been weekly and I doubt it ever was intended to be. It won't maintain it's roughly bi-weekly schedule either. However, Kodansha probably cannot afford not to have their big free agent signing in their flagship mag even though it doesn't belong there.
Billy Bat may have been a great chance to boost a monthly magazine, but that's gone to waste. Same goes for Real in Young Jump - it shouldn't be there.
Morning has great comics, no argument there. But there is little beyond a select few per publisher that have any right to be weeklies.
That's just my opinion, though.
Point taken. I definitely can see it from your point of view.
I just would prefer to see creators do less coping and more creating.
I am in the process of writing about the comparision to the superhero format you talked about in referece to collaborations. I'll be posting that tomorrow or the next day.
Thanks for the inspiration!
I totally agree that not every artist or artstyle is suited for weekly serials, and that's why not all anthologies come out weekly. Creators have options.
Honestly, I think the weekly format is a way for a mangaka to build up his fanbase and perfect his craft. There is a lot of manga that people enjoy weekly in Japan, but if it was published biweekly or monthly, they'd probably be forgotten, because they fail to stand out enough. The weekly format affords creators a degree of leeway because their product is easily digested in small chunks. Odd as it may seem, the fact that a chapter is only 18 pages and it will be replaced with a new one in 7 days makes it easier to "suffer" through it's less interesting or more stereotypical elements.
I'm glad Naoki Urasawa can finally write at whatever pace he likes, and I totally agree with your criticisms of 20th Century Boys. Still, Billy Bat is probably the weakest Urasawa title I've read, and it already seems like his most disorganized and frenetic project.
In summary, I think deadlines can bring out the best in people, and force them to be creative. I personally find that by and large, Japan dominates the rest of the world in the field of serialized sequential art, and I think there are many titles (particularly shonen) that work best in a fast-paced, weekly format.
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