A Haida Manga
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Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Kateřina Cvachová Indigenous Graphic Novel: Red: A Haida Manga Master’s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: Mgr. Martina Horáková, Ph.D. 2019 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Author’s signature Acknowledgement I would like to thank Mgr. Martina Horáková, Ph.D. for her guidance during the time I was working on this thesis. Special thanks belong to Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas for his kind and generous offer to help and answer questions regarding his work and for his permission to use his work in my thesis. Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 1 Manga and Western Comics ...................................................................................................... 5 The Background of Manga ..................................................................................................... 5 Manga and Comics Terminology ......................................................................................... 13 Sequential Art .................................................................................................................... 15 Time and Space in Comics ............................................................................................... 16 Panels.................................................................................................................................. 17 Gutter ................................................................................................................................. 19 Transitions ......................................................................................................................... 20 Balloons and Bubbles ........................................................................................................ 21 Lettering ............................................................................................................................. 22 The Haida and Their Culture .................................................................................................. 24 Haida Art ............................................................................................................................... 26 Red: A Haida Manga ................................................................................................................. 32 Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas’ Art ........................................................................................ 32 Analysis of Red: A Haida Manga.......................................................................................... 44 Conclusion.................................................................................................................................. 68 Bibliography .............................................................................................................................. 70 Resume ....................................................................................................................................... 72 Appendix .................................................................................................................................... 74 Introduction As a topic of this thesis I have chosen Red: A Haida Manga created by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, indigenous artist and member of the Haida Gwaii nation. However, first, for the purpose of this thesis, the terms graphic novel, comic (or comics in plural) and manga should be explained so that the difference between them is more visible. This is important because Yahgulanaas chose manga as his medium but also because some readers might not be familiar with the term manga and the medium itself. The difference of similarities between these media should be explained before the specific elements or the background of manga are introduced. Paul Gravett states in his book Graphic Novels: Everything You Need to Know that two people can be credited with coining the term graphic novel, one being Will Eisner and the other Richard Kyle. Gravett claims that around the early 1970s Eisner and others were experimenting with the medium to prove that it could be sold in shops the same way books are. The surprising inspiration came from Europe because the American artists began to be invited to European comic art festivals where they could see how the medium was changing and how it was more mature and different gravitating toward more adult and mature content than in America (Gravett 38). Gravett cites Will Eisner who said that without the limits imposed by the industry, such as the pre-set number of pages “each story was written without regard to space and each was allowed to develop its format from itself; that is, to evolve from its narration” (qtd. in Gravett 38). Without the pre-set number of pages, the artist would gain more freedom because they could develop their stories and content and use any number of pages that they needed to finish their stories. The result of Eisner's work was A contract with God, however, the publishers had difficulty describing the work to the readers, and therefore Eisner suggested “graphic novel.” However, Gravett also mentions Richard Kyle, a comics fan, who supposedly 1 coined the term around November 1964 in an article because he wanted to, in a way, dispose of the childish and humorous and negative connotations attached to the media of “comics” and suggested “graphic story” or “graphic novel”. Gravett claims that both Eisner and Kyle arrived at this term on their own (Gravett 38). This shows that not only authors and artists can change the media but also that the readers can have a great impact. This new concept of comics gave authors more freedom because of the possibility of an unlimited number of pages they could explore stories which could not be explored containing more mature topics and themes and even experimenting with the media. The comics began to be taken more seriously and not only as something created for children or young teenagers, who would later grow up from this phase. Compared to graphic novel the comic book has a format of a magazine. These magazines are “usually between 30 and 50 pages…contain one serialised story and are published monthly” (Dreamland Japan: Writings on Modern Manga 22). Typically, when one says comics, one would think of such comics as Superman or Batman and other similar hero comics, popular in America. American, as well as European comics, usually have vibrant coloured covers but the stories inside the book are also coloured. Hilary Chute states in her book. WHY COMICS?: From Underground to Everywhere that the term comics encompasses formats such as the newspaper comic strip which appeared in the United States in the 1890s, the comic book which appeared in 1930s and the graphic novel (Chute 6). Manga, on the other hand, has not only a long tradition, as it evolved from traditional Japanese art, but also a distinctly different format. Schodt states in the book Dreamland Japan: Writings on Modern Manga that “individual manga stories are … first serialised along with many other stories in omnibus-style manga magazines and then compiled into their own paperback and hardback books.” (Dreamland Japan: Writings on Modern Manga 22). Each such magazine is about 400 pages long and contains around 2 20 individual stories and episodes. Other magazines may even have around 1000 pages and contain around 40 stories. Later the manga stories are compiled into a series of paperback books which are published, each about 250 pages long. Schodt further states that manga books are not meant to be collected but instead after they are read by fans and readers, they are thrown away because the most popular are manga are often available to readers in permanent editions (Dreamland Japan: Writings on Modern Manga 23). Unlike American or European comics manga are published in black and white, except the covers and sometime the first few pages of story which are often colourful, with bold titles. Graphic novel, comic book and manga share some similarities but at the same time they are also different. One such difference may be the formats in which they are published, and another difference might be the diversity of topics which the artists can explore. Another difference might be the graphic rendition and the style in which they are drawn. However, graphic novels, comics and manga also influence and inspire each other and therefore the lines between each media can be blurred. This thesis focuses on Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas’ Red: A Haida Manga for two main reasons. First is the artist’s choice to name his work manga instead of graphic novel or comic book as well as the reasons he might have had to make this decision. Therefore, attempt will be made to examine to what degree and how the medium of manga influenced Yahgulanaas while creating Red and to what degree Yahgulanaas deviates not only from western comics tradition but also from the tradition of manga. To better understand the ways in which manga might have influenced Yahgulanaas while creating Red it is also prudent to describe the background of manga and its predecessors. However, since manga is Japanese form of comics and therefore uses some elements that can be found in western comics or graphic novels, some of these basic elements will