Welcome to the wonderful club for manga-ka. From the humble beginnings after World War II, manga has grown to become an international phenomenon in the entertainment industry. Prestigious Japanese publishing houses (including the top three: Kodansha, Shueisha, and Shogakukan) release hundreds of titles translated into a multitude of foreign languages worldwide to promote the muti-billion-dollar industry.

Whether you’re new to manga or a professional artist looking to try something different, this club is a great place to get your info.

In this club, you can learn the history of manga, the various popular manga genres, what makes manga so successful, and most important of all, LEARNING HOW TO BECOME THE BEST MANGA-KA YOU CAN BE!!!

Here are somes other great groups that you can get information about Manga/Anime XD
http://www.crunchyroll.com/group/Making_Anime
http://www.crunchyroll.com/group/Original_Anime-Manga_Story_Creators


Manga-ka History

Osamu Tezuka (1928-1989)

Considered the “Father of Manga,” Osamu Tezuka was born in Osaka Japan, in 1928. He’s most remembered as the prolific manga-ka (manga artist) who inspired artists of all genres to follow in his footsteps. Inspired by Walt Disney, Tezuka is credited with applying those large Bambi eyes to the manga characters.

His life works are simply astounding. No other manga-ka has come close to creating as many successful classics. Among them is Tetsuwan Atom (Astro Boy), Black Jack, Tell Adolf, Hi no Tori, Jungle Emperor, and Buddha.
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All manga is not created equal: Looking at the different genres

Just how diverse is the manga world? Any major publisher has at least three types of manga magazines catering to different groups of people. Following is a list of the recognized types of manga being published in Japan:

Kodomo Manga: Comics for little kids
Shonen Manga: Comics for teenage boys
Shojo Manga: Comics for teenage girls
Seinen Manga: Comics for young adult males
Redisu Manga: comics for young adult females
Shojo-ai Manga: Romantic comics for teenage girls
Shojo-ai Yuri Manga: Romantic comics for lesbians
Shonen-ai: Romantic comics for men
Shonen-yaoi Manga: Romantic comics for homosexual men
Seijin Manga: Comics for adult males
Redikomi Manga: Comics written by women for late teen to adult women, depicting more realistic, everyday accounts: literal translation: lady’s comics.
Dojinshi Manga: Comics written and illustrated by amateurs (usually circulated among a close group of other manga amateurs)
Yonkoma Manga: Four-panel comics, usually published in newspapers
Gekiga Manga: Comics focusing on serious topics: geared toward mature audiences
Ecchi Manga: Comics focusing on heterosexual/ lesbian erotic themes (softcore pornography) read by men
Hentai Manga: Comics focusing on hardcore pornography
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Writing a Good Story

Coming up with solid stories that feature characters your readers care about is important to every manga-ka (manga artist). Brilliant artwork and cool effects are initially eye-catching, but today’s readers are sophisticated in taste and demands. As is the case with some mainstream movies being released today, huge special effects in the manga need to be partnered with strong casting and an enticing plot. Despite an increasing amount of manga titles written and illustrated by more than one individual, a manga-ka is ultimately expected to be proficient in both drawing and story telling. Here, I’ll give you pointers on developing a plot, and encourage you to look for inspiration.

Constructing your plot

In this section, I’ll explain the basic stages that a manga-ka uses to create his or her original plot. The basic stages are widely embraced by the manga-ka community today, and they originate from Chinese poetry.

Stage 1: Ki- Introduction of an idea
Stage 1 basically sets up the context and scene so that the story can begin and the characters can begin to interact. To start this Ki (introduction) stage, a manga-ka draws the opening frame, called an establishing shot, to give the readers a sense of the location where the story takes place. These shots are usually larger than the average-sized frame the manga-ka draws, because he wants to include more detail in the setting. By the time this stage is complete, readers should have a good sense of who the important characters are as well as the time and location of the story.

Stage2: Sho- Developing the idea
In the second stage, you focus on building up the suspense of the story based upon the characters and concepts you introduced in the Ki stage. You introduced your readers to your characters and briefed them on the context of your story, and now you build up their curiosity. In the Sho (development) stage, the tempo of the story’s flow should steadily increase. What kind of conflicts are your characters taking on to achieve their goal? Do you leave clues to the readers about possible danger that the main characters themselves don’t know about? What are the perils or challenges ahead? In most manga, the section is crucial, because if the readers don’t care about your characters, they don’t care about what happens to them.

Stage3: Ten- The dramatic, unexpected turn of events
In the third stage, you want a surprise development where your characters face a situation that throws the readers of guard. Note that I say “readers” and not necessarily characters. In the Ten (turn) stage, the result of all the building up since Stage 2 leads to the ultimate climax where readers are sitting at the edge of their seats holding their breathes. If you’re looking to reveal to the readers the largest showdown of your story sequence, this is the right time and place to do so!

Stage4: Ketsu- Conclusion
Stage 4 finishes the story. While some episodes may end by fully resolving an issue, others end by opening another can of worms, leaving the readers hanging from a cliff, wanting to know what happens in the next issue.
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Deciding Who Your Audience Is

First thing’s first: Ask yourself who your manga audience is going to be. No matter how proficiently you crank out wonderful pages with stellar story concepts, your audience won’t if your material is geared toward the wrong crowd.

To avoid writing for the wrong audience, find out what kind of manga genre best fits your story style and drawing tastes. I recommend getting several manga magazine and flipping through a number of titles. Chatting with friends and participating in online manga groups are both great ways to find niche immediately, don’t worry. I can take time.

The story line isn’t always what triggers your interest in a niche sometimes the artwork or character design draws you in. I recommend scouting out local anime or manga conventions to see what type of character art is out there. Talk to the exhibiting guest artists who have their artwork on display. If a style interests you, ask which audience the manga-ka marking toward.

Establishing a Synopsis and Plot

Simply put, a plot is what makes your manga juicy enough to get your readers to read until the end. An effective plot begins by building up a series of sequential obstacles and events that keep the audience wondering what’s going to happen to the characters. These obstacles and events build toward the very height of the story’s climax; the characters receive the obstacles and ultimately restore order.

Creating a synopsis

A synopsis is several short paragraphs in which you present your characters, the setting, and the main obstacle that your character must overcome. If you’re interested in submitting work to a publisher, most editors request a synopsis along with copies of the first 5 pages of your original artwork. In length, a synopsis shouldn’t exceed a full page. Although you don’t state exactly how the main characters conquer their problem, you should include enough information to catch the publisher’s or reader’s attention. Your ultimate goal is to whet the appetite of the publishers by giving them something to nibble on when they look at your submission. Although readers rarely get to see the synopsis in their favorite comic book, most manga publishers in the Japan typical place a brief synopsis of the story at the beginning of the book so that new readers tuning in for the first time know what’s going on before they jump in.

Look at the synopsis as a brainstorming opportunity, where you can flesh out a general proposal of what you have in mind without actually committing to a resolution.
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Differences in workload and credit for artists

Many comic book artists and manga-ka go into the market for the love of the sequential art rather than for the money. However, the two have different processes by which they execute their work, and they’re glorified in different ways.

Penciler: This artist lays down the frames and images based upon the script he or she receives from the writer. Usually, the penciler gets paid the most because of the responsibility takes the most time and usually dictates the overall look of the book.

Writer: The writer is responsible for writing the story of the comic book. He or She makes sure that the story not only flows well page to page (without cramming too many frames into one page), but also ends within 22 pages, which is the usual comic book page count. Many successful comic book writers have gone on to write their own novels.

Inker: The inker goes over the pencils and enhances or “interprets” the quality of the work before sending the illustrations to the colorist. Traditionally, pencil drawings were more difficult to reproduce, so the inkers were in charge of making sure that the lines were clear. However, thanks to rapid scanners being pumped out at increasingly more affordable prices, more and more comic book projects are foregoing the inking process and moving straight to color.

Colorist: Traditionally, colorists colored the pages by hand. However, again, thanks to powerful technology, colorists all (and I do mean all) use graphics software such as Photoshop and Painter to pump out pages at a faster pace while inventing new special effects.

Letterer: In the past, lettering was craft the special skill of making sure that words were legible and easy to read. The process took care but also cost time and money. Thanks to computers, almost all comic book lettering is now done digitally. Only a few titles still use a specialist to handle such a task.