Manga Design Paperback – Bargain Price, September 25, 2004

I wish my books came with the DVD, This book inspires me to keep woring on my art. I wish they would p[roduce an updated version though.

If you are interested in the visual aspect of manga, this is would be your style reference bible.

This is a heavy chunk of a book with lots of visuals featuring samples of the manga pages in the native Japanese language and thumbnails of selected manga cover art. The samples come in greyscale or full colour which I think is quite a bonus! Categories are sorted by manga-ka (manga author) and although it doesn't feature all the manga artists you might expect (for example Yumiko Igarashi who did the 'Candy Candy' series), most of the authors I love are in there, albeit their biography could do with some updating. Some of the content layout are confusing as what the other reviewers had said, there are a few discrepancies to be found. Otherwise, it's a really good book for re-reading & reference. The DVD-rom included makes for an interesting view too.

The book should get 5 stars but the editing mistakes are truly confusing, especially if you are unfamiliar with a particular artist's work. Each artist is supposed to have a couple pages of art as an example of their work, and in some cases the art is obviously not that of the artist being showcased. It's frustrating because the book is otherwise great! Also, the writing suffers from 'engrish' spelling and grammatical errors, but I actually like that! Either way, still a great reference for serious manga fans.

What could be better for Manga fans than this chunky heavyweight book? The work of a hundred and fifty artists beautifully presented so you can compare their output, from the fragile, design oriented style of Maki Kusumoto to the gutsy in-your-face work of Tetsuo Hara or the child-like whimsy of Momoko Sakura. Each illustrator gets four pages, two with sample artwork and two for biographic detail and three cover reproductions in color. The back of the book has a Manga glossary and websites for some of the artists. I have a minor criticism of the book though, annoyingly the page numbers are only on the first spread of each artist and then positioned right into the spine.Wait, there's more! As well as pages and pages of great comic artwork you get a knockout DVD, too. This has interviews with three artists, Usaruara Furuya, Naoki Urasawa and Reko Okano, lasting an hour and nicely they are presented as if they were speaking from frames on a comic page, plus there is a tour and interviews with four comic shop managers but the really great feature of the DVD are the nine hundred covers (presented in color and two at a time) and if you looked at each one for ten seconds you'll be watching for two hours and thirty minutes.I think this is a pretty amazing package and OK, maybe it won't have everybody's favorite artist but I doubt you'll find anything better at this price.

I am very impressed with this book's selection of artists. The problem is some of the images are mismatched, repeated, or noticably missing. I hope these errors will be fixed in a future printing or edition.

Für Mangaliebhaber ist dieses Buch ein Leckerbissen, da es kurzgefasstes, aber dennoch recht umfassendes Wissen über 140 bekannte Mangaka und deren Werke vermittelt. Die Informationen sind mehrsprachig wiedergegeben (Deutsch, Englisch und Französisch), die DVD allerdings ist ausschließlich auf Japanisch mit englischen Untertiteln.Für meine Tochter, für die das Buch gekauft war, war die DVD damit leider uninteressant, aber das Buch selber ist natürlich dennoch sehr schön und informativ.Zum Manga als solchem, gibt es nur eine sehr kurze Einführung, Hauptaugenmerk liegt auf den verschiedenen Mangaka. Die Bilder sind in Hochglanz gedruckt, so dass nicht nur das Buch selbst mit seinem etwas festeren und schön gestalteten Einband sehr hochwertig wirkt, sondern auch die Illustrationen. Dank seines nicht ganz unbeträchtlichen Gewichts, sollte man es sich allerdings nicht als Lektüre für Bus oder Bahn aussuchen, sondern eher zum Stöbern im gemütlichen Sessel.

Livre qui recense une centaine de mangaka ayant marqué la décennie.Quelques erreurs d'attribution des œuvres, mais ce livre s'adresse plutôt aux fans de manga qui ont déjà une bonne culture et voudraient élargir leurs références.Le DVD est un complément très appréciable.Autrement livraison rapide et produit conforme.

I found this book very interesting also, because it is written in three languages from which one is also Japanese.

présenté sous forme de dictionnaire un petit articles et 4 pages d'extraits des auteurs les plus influents du manga (environ 150 auteurs présentés)