Some books on manga studies that I willing to buy this year.

Manga and the Representation of Japanese History
This edited collection explores how graphic art and in particular Japanese manga represent Japanese history.
The articles explore the representation of history in manga from disciplines that include such diverse fields as literary studies, politics, history, cultural studies, linguistics, narratology, and semiotics. Despite this diversity of approaches all academics from these respective fields of study agree that manga pose a peculiarly contemporary appeal that transcends the limitation imposed by traditional approaches to the study and teaching of history. The representation of history via manga in Japan has a long and controversial historiographical dimension. Thereby manga and by extension graphic art in Japanese culture has become one of the world’s most powerful modes of expressing contemporary historical verisimilitude. The contributors to this volume elaborate how manga and by extension graphic art rewrites, reinvents and re-imagines the historicity and dialectic of bygone epochs in postwar and contemporary Japan.

Mangatopia : Essays on Manga and Anime in the Modern World
While Japanese manga and anime began to make inroads in Western culture about three decades ago, these art forms remained a subcultural phenomenon until the mid-1990s, when the increased distribution of translated manga and anime brought them into the mainstream. In 2007, U.S. sales of manga reached $210 million evidence of a voracious and enthusiastic fan base.

Drawing on Tradition : Manga, Anime, and Religion in Contemporary Japan
Drawing on Tradition examines religious aspects of the culture of manga and anime production and consumption through a methodological synthesis of narrative and visual analysis, history, and ethnography. Jolyon BarakaThomas shows that authors and audiences create and re-create "religious frames of mind" through their imaginative and ritualized interactions with illustrated worlds

Manga's Cultural Crossroad
Focusing on the art and literary form of manga, this volume examines the intercultural exchanges that have shaped manga during the twentieth century and how manga’s culturalization is related to its globalization. Through contributions from leading scholars in the fields of comics and Japanese culture, it describes "manga culture" in two ways: as a fundamentally hybrid culture comprised of both subcultures and transcultures, and as an aesthetic culture which has eluded modernist notions of art, originality, and authorship. The latter is demonstrated in a special focus on the best-selling manga franchise, NARUTO.

Published Book

Visual Musicality in Graphic Expression
Digital technologies have converged with digital forms and integrally affected developments in art, music, design, film and literature. Visual communication is undergoing a profound transformation as new technologies continually challenge the way images and things are produced. The problem issued in this study is on the inadequacy of learning visual communication design with the traditional method because of the democratization of desktop digital technology in recent learning environment. This research combines the qualitative and quantitative approach, the study used visual data collection, particularly sketches drawn by participants. Quantitative approach was used in compiling and categorizing data through participant observation, which means researcher took place during data gathering. It is to explore and to discover whether the increase in music and graphics in contemporary era of digitalization, can enhance the essentials of creative design through the analogy between music expressions and graphics elements. This research providing morphology of visual language of music and visual expression, particularly in the study of lines and its composition.

Identity and Form in Alternative Comics, 1967 - 2007

Emma Tinker membuat kajian terhadap komik-komik alternatif Amerika sepanjang tahun 1967-2007. Berikut abstrak darinya:

In the late 1960s, U.S. underground cartoonists established the comic book form as a space for the exploration of personal identity. "Alternative" comics grew out of this tradition as subsequent writers produced work independent of the major comics publishers, aimed at an adult audience and encompassing a broad range of visual styles and narrative content. Throughout the past forty years, British, US and Canadian writers and artists have used this medium to explore questions of selfhood and perception, often implicitly or overtly relating these issues to the form, history and conventions of the comic book itself.

Two main threads run through this discussion of the representation of selfhood: childhood and memory on the one hand and sexuality and gender on the other. This thesis argues that for many creators there exists a useful analogy between the comic book form and mental processes, specifically between the fractured, verbal-visual blend of the comics page and the organisation of human memory. It further suggests that the historical association of comics first with childhood, and subsequently with male adolescence, has conditioned the representation of selfhood in adult comics. Comic book consumption has often centred on a community of predominantly young, white, male, socially marginal readers, buying and collecting serialised narratives. Comics creators' awareness of this audience (either in response or resistance) has affected the content of their work.

Although presented as a chronological narrative, this thesis is not a comprehensive history of Anglophone alternative comics, but centres on eight prominent authors/ artists: Robert Crumb; Dave Sim; Lynda Barry; Julie Doucet; Alan Moore; the collaborative partnership of Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean; and Chris Ware. Whilst spanning a wide range of genres and themes (autobiography, fantasy, gothic horror, parody, soap opera, the grotesque and others) each confronts and negotiates with conventions regarding the representation of selfhood.

Untuk membaca selengkapnya silakan cari dan klik tautan di sebelah kanan antar-muka situs ini. =)

Japanese Visual Culture

Buku in berkenaan mengenai budaya pop Jepang dari sudut pandang dunia manga dan anime.
Ditulis oleh 15 orang peneliti komik Jepang dari berbagai suku bangsa, dan pengantarnya oleh Frederik L.Schodt.

Anjuran saya baiknya memulai dengan membaca bab terakhir bab 14, considering manga discourse oleh jaqueline Berndt.

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Born of Japan's cultural encounter with Western entertainment media, manga (comic books or graphic novels) and anime (animated films) are two of the most universally recognized forms of contemporary mass culture. Because they tell stories through visual imagery, they vault over language barriers. Well suited to electronic transmission and distributed by Japan's globalized culture industry, they have become a powerful force in both the mediascape and the marketplace.This volume brings together an international group of scholars from many specialties to probe the richness and subtleties of these deceptively simple cultural forms. The contributors explore the historical, cultural, sociological, and religious dimensions of manga and anime, and examine specific sub-genres, artists, and stylistics. The book also addresses such topics as spirituality, the use of visual culture by Japanese new religious movements, Japanese Goth, nostalgia and Japanese pop, comics for girls, and more. With illustrations throughout, it is a rich source for all scholars and fans of manga and anime as well as students of contemporary mass culture or Japanese culture and civilization. (review from amazon.com)
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Kajian Komik: studi budaya yg lagi HoT!

Studi atau kajian kritis komik semakin menjadi sebuah disiplin ilmu tersendiri yg dihargai dengan  diluncurkannya sebuah buku berjudul' A COMICS Studies Reader'. Kajian kritis komik bukanlah mengkaji soal bagaimana membuat komik yang baik, tetapi mengkritisi peredaran dan isu-isu penting yg menjadi perhatian dalam komik-komik.
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A Comics Studies Reader offers the best of the new comics scholarship in nearly thirty essays on a wide variety of such comics forms as gag cartoons, editorial cartoons, comic strips, comic books, manga, and graphic novels.

The anthology covers the pioneering work of Rodolphe Töpffer, the Disney comics of Carl Barks, and the graphic novels of Art Spiegelman and Chris Ware, as well as Peanuts, romance comics, and superheroes. It explores the stylistic achievements of manga, the international anti-comics campaign, and power and class in Mexican comic books and English illustrated stories.

A Comics Studies Reader introduces readers to the major debates and points of reference that continue to shape the field. It will interest anyone who wants to delve deeper into the world of comics and is ideal for classroom use.

With Chris Ware and Chris Oliveros, Jeet Heer is editing a series of volumes reprinting Frank King's Gasoline Alley, three volumes of which have been published. A Toronto-based writer, he has written introductory essays to the George Herriman Krazy and Ignatz series.
Kent Worcester teaches political theory at Marymount Manhattan College. He is the author of C. L. R. James: A Political Biography and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Museum of Comic and Cartoon
Art (MoCCA). (from amazon.com)

Sejarah ilustrasi

Buku terbaru dari Steven Heller, pengarang Graphic History yg komprehensif sbg buku pegangan desain grafis. kali ini ia meluncurkan buku visual sejarah ilustrasi. Menarik!

Kartun Ala Gayour

Gayour adalah nama yang tak asing bagi peminat komik kartun era 80-90an di Malaysia. Saya paling suka dengan karakter-karakter cewek-ceweknya yang sederhana tapi cute, mata yang cantik dan bibir yang 'hot' merah merekah. Baru-baru ini beliau berhasil menerbitkan buku belajar kartun.
Berikut ini beberapa halaman dari buku tersebut. Sebuah rujukan membuat karakter komik yang penting bagi calon komikus maupun yang sudah menjadi komikus.

Intepretasi lirik lagu ke dalam medium komik

Tribute to Tori Amos

Buku keren ini, dihasilkan oleh beragam bakat individual dalam dunia kepengarangan komik. Bermacam2 cara menginterpretasikan lirik lagu2 Tori Amos, dan tentu saja beragam jenis ilustrasi yg memukau. Ukuran yg besar penuh warna, dgn harga yg sebandinglah, ibarat slogan sebuah majalah berita, buku Comic Book Tattoo Tales Inspired by Tori Amos ini enak di baca dan perlu.