Thursday, October 13, 2011

Matt's Good Reads: Bakuman

Need some black-and-white stimulation? Join Matt Clark every other Thursday for Matt's Good Reads, where he'll share what he's been reading (and what you should too) on his breaks from the drafting table . This week he recommends...


Bakuman
by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata
Ongoing since 2008
7 volumes published in the US by VIZ Media


THE STORY
The latest series from the team of Tsugumi Ohba (author) and Takeshi Obata (illustrator) that brought the popular series "Death Note," is a slice-of-life series about two youths who dream of being successful in the world of Japanese comics and get their work turned into an anime. The main characters Moritaka Mashiro and Akito Takagi meet after Mashiro leaves his notebook in the class with the drawing of a girl he likes named Azuki Miho. Takagi finds this drawing and uses it to get Mashiro to help him make manga with him, and their dive into the manga world begins.

WHAT'S TO LOVE?
Tsugumi Ohba is well known for creating the unusual character L from Death Note and has let that oddity seep into a few of his characters in the series Bakuman, with Eiji, Fukuda, Hiramaru, Shizuka, and Nanamine leading the front in humerous oddities. It makes sense to have strange characters in the world of manga and comics, because, let's face it, we wouldn't be in this industry unless we were a little off. I don't know exactly how accurate of a depiction of the industry is shown, but it has a very realistic feeling to what the industry is like in Japan's Shonen Jump.

Matt Clark is a sophomore cartooning major. He is a golden retriever, woof, woof (though he would rather not be), and has weird obsessions.

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