Comic arts are highly collectible and they’re not cheap. For instance, the original concept art of Wonder Woman by H.G. Peter dated 1941 was sold for $75,000.00 at Comic Link.
The same should hold true for Japanese comics, right? Maybe, if there are manga artworks being traded. Well, there really are manga artworks listed for sale at Mandarake but not from bigshot names like Akira Toriyama and Inoue Takehiko.
So, why are original manga arts not for sale? I found the answer at Masters of Manga.
Basically, in Japan, when a mangaka sells his work, what he’s really selling are the contents. He retains ownership of the materials that hold the contents, which means retaining copyrights. So selling the original artworks is akin to selling the contents, therefore relinquishing ownership.
Here’s a more detailed explanation from Kenshi Hirokane, mangaka and president of Manga Genko o Mamoru-kai (Association for the Protection of Manga Originals):
Last year, Yoshihiro Togashi’s HxH was put on hiatus yet again due to some undisclosed reasons (most likely due to the mangaka’s illness). ..but not for long. Anime News Network reports that the manga will resume in August!
Chapter 311 will continue with the Chimera Ant arc. I hope this arc ends soon (it’s awful) and proceed with the real hunt of Gon’s father and the Spiders.
More than a week ago, I watched the anime Tekkon Kinkreet. It has the most interesting animation/character design/illustration styles.
Since then, I practiced drawing the Taiyo Matsumoto-way…in vain. I can’t seem to capture the activity of his illustrations and the vitality of his characters. I did manage to copy the basic shapes of Black & White.
But every time I start to craft my own characters, I went back to drawing the old way (with volume & depth), which I now consider archaic. (Opps…). It’s frustrating…a few thousands of hours more and maybe I’ll improve.
Note: Surprisingly, Naruto is showing some hints of this style. (Take note of the differences on how clothes are drawn in the early chapters and the later chapters of naruto)
I completely forgot about Bakuman for months and I have no idea why. Maybe it’s my pre-occupation with American sitcoms (Community, Modern Family, Raising Hope, 30 Rock and Big Bang Theory).
