A Great Exhibition, And Thoughts on Hand-drawn Comics
Summer is here, and SoCal got its first heat wave.
Over the weekend, I took a day off and drove down to Orange County with a group of talented kidlit creators to check out Bower’s Museum special exhibit: Asian Comics: Evolution of an Art Form.
What an amazing collection of artwork! As many of my colleagues would attest to, I could barely contain my excitement over checking out the original artwork of so many comic creators I long admired.
One of the coolest things when checking out art exhibits with colleagues was the opportunity to discuss how the creators executed their work. What brush or pen do you think the artist used here to create this beautiful stroke? How did you think the artist make this blasting effect? Why did the artist choose to slice the panel here, as oppose to there?
Through these reversed-engineering discussions, not only did I grow as a comic storyteller, I also picked up and learned new skills from my colleagues.
As I wound down at the end of the day, I could not help but reflect on the overall exhibit. (Before I became a full-time author-illustrator, I was an exhibit designer.)
There were over 400 pieces of artwork on display, and the museum team had carefully chosen and curated everything. Many of the pieces shown were iconic.
But I was also looking at what was NOT there.
Namely, the majority of the manga bestsellers in the past 15-ish years.
I have a theory why this is the case. (100% my personal speculation only.)
Maybe the exhibit could not get the rights to borrow those original artworks for showcase. Or maybe there were simply too many artworks to chose from, and during the curation process, the contemporary manga bestsellers did not make the cut to the final presentation on this tour.
But I am leaning towards this theory: the exhibit did not have the later original artworks NOT because they couldn’t borrow them, but because these artworks simply don’t exist.
When I was looking at the original artwork of Gosho Aoyama’s Detective Conan (a.k.a. Case Closed), I knew these pieces came from the series’ early years of the 90s. (This manga series is still ongoing today.)
Not only was it obvious because Aoyama’s art style has evolved over the years, but also because I am a big Detective Conan fan, and I remember all the scenes, especially from the early years.
It’s the same thing with Masashi Kishimoto’s Naruto and Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece. The pieces chosen on display were from Book 1 of their respective series.
A few beautiful pieces from Taiyō Matsumoto’s Sunny were relatively contemporary, as Sunny was published from 2010-2014. But that’s still about 10-15 years ago.
I suspect, around 10-15 years ago, it became much easier for comic creators to draw digitally. Digital tools like Wacom tablets and Cintiqs became more affordable, and technology caught up to a point where it is much more common to go half-and-half (hand-drawn, scanned, and finished digitally.) Today, many creators create their comics fully digital.
So, fully hand-drawn original art pieces don’t exist – at least not the same way they were done in the earlier years.
Perhaps this is why we don’t see many contemporary art pieces. Every creator has gone digital!
It makes perfect sense from a production stand point. When I first proposed my series Monkey King and the World of Myths, I drafted and inked the sample pieces by hand.
By the time the project was green-lighted, I did a quick time management calculation and knew the only way I could finish on time was to go full digital.
There is not a which way is better type of argument. There is nothing wrong with creating artwork with digital tools. I continue to enjoy reading comics and graphic novels, manual or digital.
It’s just an observation and reflection of how time has changed the way we all work.
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For those who are in SoCal between now and September 8th, 2024, be sure to swing by Santa Ana to check out the show! It is absolutely worth it! :-)
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On a side note, I will be at ALA (American Library Association) Annual in San Diego this Friday, June 28, 2024 (5:30pm-6:30pm) at the Penguin Random House booth (Booth 1717) in the Exhibit Hall. There will be book signings and giveaways of my graphic novel Monkey King and the World of Myths: The Monster and the Maze!
Hope to see you there!
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AHHH! Original Doraemon pages!!! Loved catching this vicariously through you!
Seeing work you love in person is such a great way to get inspired! Just reading your post, without being there or knowing the work, is inspiring. :)