Manga Design [Paperback]

Julius Wiedemann (Author), Amano Masanao (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 25, 2004

Get the skinny on the Manga phenomenon and it's superstars - both human and fictional - via 140 A-Z listings.

Editorial Reviews

Review

... packs 1,000 covers into 576 pages... pop in the accompanying DVD for a tour of Tokyo's largest manga store. -- Wired Magazine, June 2004

About the Author

Masanao Amano has been writing about manga art for more than 10 years. He was previously editor of the magazine Comickers and is currently the editor-in-chief of Style, a monthly magazine dedicated to the art of both Japanese and non-Japanese comics. He has also edited a special manga book for FIFA that was distributed during the World Cup in Japan in 2002. He lives and works in Tokyo.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Taschen; Pap/DVD edition (September 25, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 3822825913
• ISBN-13: 978-3822825914
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7.7 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,812,096 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Manga monster., October 5, 2004

By 

Robin Benson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Manga Design (Paperback)

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.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Glaring Editing errors mar a great book, November 23, 2004

By 

V. Luz "pufferfisch" (sf, ca) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Manga Design (Paperback)

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.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Editing mistakes..., February 3, 2005

By 

Kgar "Kgar_Fiction" (SF, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Manga Design (Paperback)

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.