uclick: Good but Expensive Comic iPhone Apps

The publisher uclick has many graphic novel apps. Be aware that some of the apps are just for one chapter, therefore, making the total book as expensive as the physical book. Some are for the graphic novels loved for ages 8-12, for example, Bone. Each panel is in excellent full color, slide page turn, and very easy to read. However, you do not get a look at the total vertical page and you end up with 6 or 7 icons on your iPhone representing each chapter. In a pinch it is easier especially when traveling than dragging around the physical book.

They also have the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and Ghostbusters. Many are $0.99 per chapter, but some are the full issue. Read carefully before you download. Chapter by chapter takes up a lot of app space. When your iPhone apps are on page 11 as is mine, you have to really want the book to allow it to take up your precious space.

You can get Manga on the Kindle for the iphone through Amazon.com, but it is also expensive and not that easy to read. Download the first chapter or so for free just to see how it works. It's tricky to zoom in to make the print readable. If the young ones have to have Manga, the get light Manga such as the Oz series available on iverse. The horizontal display makes it easy to read. For those who want serious Manga, there are companies such as Digital Media Productions working on making Manga displays easier to read on the iPhone, but right now it's a work in progress.

New Hardbound Manga

In one of my early posts I reported I was unable to find hardbound Manga for elementary. That is no longer true. It's limited, but there is some. Perma-Bound has come out with editions of Manga. Manga for grades 2-5 is represented by the 8 volume series Avatar: the Last Airbender by Tokyopop which was shown on Nickelodeon TV for a few years. Cine-Manga from Tokyopop ages 3-6, includes Enchanted, and Suite Life of Zack and Cody. Also for that age from Tokyopop is Kilala Princess Vols 1,2,3,and 4. Kilala Princess for this age is a mini version of the original series. There is a Manga Literary Classics Series for ages 4-7 which includes Gulliver's Travels, Little Women, and Treasure Island. Perma-bound has more manga for middle school and high school. Naruto has become a big middle school favorite with youngsters since it became available in the United States as anime on the cartoon network in 2005. Elementary students ask for it, but it's not appropriate for elementary students. Beware of the new manga's coming out for elementary students. They could be really bad versions of the original art form. I am not saying they are bad. I am just saying take a look first if you can. I would not order many copies of any of the manga titles until I see the actual books.

Anime vs Manga

What is the difference? According to Wikipedia, anime is animation either hand drawn or computer assisted. Anime was an art form started in Japan about 1917. Modern Manga is often considered an offshoot of anime evolving into a new comic format. However the earliest manga was a picture book published in the 1700's. Modern manga and anime often feature big wide eyes and have a cartoon art form. They both exploded in popularity after the war. Anime and manga are not genres. They have many genres within the art form.

Manga means comics in Japanese. Manga is mainly a paper culture although there is an increasing amount of manga online. Manga is sometimes scanned and put online by fans. Leading companies like Tokyopop and Viz have their own online manga. Tokyopop has an online player that works fairly well so that that the reader can read online. It looks just like a book with a colored cover, black and white inside, and the pages turn. Online manga is usually not for young children.

Anime is television, films, video, internet, etc. Anime is colorful. Traditional manga is black and white. but this is changing as manga goes global. Often both feature the warrior traditions of the Japanese culture but defined in a pop culture or futuristic setting. Japanese societial mores regarding nudity, gender roles, violence, and even roles of students in schools are often depicted. These roles are much different in the United States. There are anime for children. Adult anime is often shown in the middle of the night on American television. Although the art form is cartoon, the content is not for young children.

There has been a huge globalization of manga and anime all over the world. Pokeman was originally a video game, but the brand is marketed in toys, books, and videos all over the world. Anime movies have won many global awards. In the last few years United States bookstores have developed increasingly large manga sections. Many elementary school age students have favorite manga authors or series.

Publishers

A serious issue in obtaining library books for young students is the quality of the binding and the paper quality. Graphic novels/comics get a tremendous amount of wear. They do not sit on the shelves. They fly out the door just like the heros in the books. With American comics it is not a problem if you know where to get library bound books. Jeff Smith's Bone by Scholastic is one of the few paperbacks that is built with good quality paper. Most quality manga's are all ordinary quality paperback. Although in 2008 Perma-Bound has come out with a few elementary mangas. Paperbacks don't survive well. After about ten checkouts they are going downhill. I put more money on the American graphic/novels because they can be bought in library binding. When I have the money I invest in a few good manga's for the older students.

Spotlight is popular fiction in quality library editions. They are reinforced side-sewn editions. Spotlight is an imprint of ABDO Publishing. They have a few picture books, Dora the explorer, and a few Henry and and Mudge, but they really excel in their graphic novels/comic selections. They have Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Fantastic Four, The Hulk and Sentinel, Spiderman Team Up, Spiderman, Spidergirl, X-men, Archie, Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. I have these books and they hold up amazingly well.

Using various publishers Bound To Stay Bound Books have an increasing selection of graphic novels. They have Capstone's graphic history library such as the Boston tea Party and Rosa Parks. World Almanac Library's California Gold Rush and the First Moon Landing are part of this collection. The infamous Captain Underpants, Babymouse, and Scholastic's Bone series are in BTSB. They have Creating the X-men, Kristy's Great Idea (Babysitters), the Story of Spiderman, Wolves in the Wall, and many more high quality graphic novels. These are all hard bound with a good looking sturdy cover. For the very young students they have the Stone arch series books Tiger Moth and Robot Rampage .

What is Manga?

I am a total novice regarding comics. I am even worse figuring out manga. I tried to find out as much as I could about the genre. Scott McCloud an American cartoonist has published a book Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga, and Graphic novels. At the end of the book is a section on Understanding Manga. This is exactly what I needed. The following is a brief rundown on the history and nature of manga according to McCloud and Wired magazine.

There are two kinds of manga for ages 7-13, Shojo and Shonen. Shojo is mainly for girls under 12 and Shonen is for young boys. See School library Journal for more definitions. Young readers often cross over the gender barrier. Shojo often is romantic, emotional, and sometimes magical such as Sailor Moon and others. The action is shown in the expression of the faces and the reader is inside the characters head. In Shonen the action is more physical. A specific method of drawing shows the motion, plus the use of action words such as, wham, bang, klank make it appealing to boys. With Shonen the reader is inside the action. This is the difference between North American Comics (Captain America etc.) and Japanese comics. With North American comics the reader is an observer. In manga the reader is a participant. In Japan this has led to thousands of fanfic artists (Doujinshi) who make their own manga stories using preconceived characters and situations from sold books. These are made, discussed, compared, and sold at huge comic markets. Its an inexpensive enterprise because its all in black and white. Characters are scanned, changed, and recopied on a copy machine for limited distribution. This occurs without the interference of the Japanese comic industry as long as fans only scan a few and don't mass market them. They do have copyright laws but they are not enforced as long as the unspoken rules are not broken. According to McCloud the reason manga is loved is because the reader feels they are part of the story. It's all about participation. The fans become the writers. Some of the techniques used are large expressive eyes, details, use of wordless panels, and the use of streaked backgrounds to give the reader a sense of motion. By the way Making Comics is an informative book, of course it is in comic format. For eye opening information on Manga mores, styles, pitfalls, and titles for under 13's checkout Great Manga for Preteens.

Wired magazine (Nov. 2007) reports manga began with the animation market now known as anime which was television and movies of cartoon characters. Tetsuwan Atom (Mighty Atom) was the first weekly cartoon made for Japanese TV. It was sold in America as Astro Boy. The artist was inspired by our own Walt Disney. Go Figure.

Little known strange & weird facts according to Wired:
Hiroshima has a public library totally devoted to manga .
In the United Kingdom, the Catholic church is using manga to recruit new priests.
American teenagers can read graphic novels which each contain 300 words often found on the SAT and ACT: Warcraft, Dragon Hunt, Psy-Comm, and Van Von Hunter, manga titles published by Kaplan and Tokyopop.