(Most comic books) And for some reason Clark seemed like a robot. A machine programmed by John Byrne. It’s most likely beause of his awful dialogue and how everything was cliche.
And for some reason Clark seemed like a robot. A machine programmed by John Byrne. It’s most likely beause of his awful dialogue and how everything was cliche.
Comic Books portray our fears, our desires and ethos.
The Comic Book is one of America’s unsung contribution to culture.
Go, Look: The Best Comics Of 5769
Siegel Family Case Still Unresolved After Mediation; Judge To Leave Case
Jeff Trexler reports that a 9/11 mediation summit between the family of Jerry Siegel and the Warner Brothers’ owned DC Comics over Superman failed to resolve their differences. Further, the judge assigned to the case has announced his intention to leave the bench by mid-Fall. The first is important because it indicates there are some specific issues still in play, while the second is important because the entire tenor of the case could change with a new presiding authority.
Flipped!: David Welsh On CMX and Swan
By David P. Welsh
Since the recent announcement that DC Comics would become DC Entertainment, there have been several substantial interviews with incoming president Diane Nelson and outgoing president and publisher Paul Levitz, along with a flood of think pieces on what the change will mean for DC’s publishing philosophy and practices. I can’t remember any of them actually mentioning the fact that DC has a manga imprint, CMX.
The focus is instead on whether or not Nelson’s arrival will herald more focused and successful attempts to translate DC’s properties into other media. Movie development could certainly apply to the Japanese properties that DC is licensing and translating, but conversation hasn’t yet moved past whether or not there will finally be a Wonder Woman flick.
So manga watchers are left to conclude that DC’s apparent attitude of benign neglect towards its manga imprint will continue. This is unfortunate in the sense that CMX could really use some support in terms of bookstore penetration. DC has enjoyed certain successes on the saturation front. I can always find a copy of Watchmen in a Borders or Barnes and Noble. Unfortunately, I rarely seem to see copies of books like Emma or Gon. There are a lot of titles in CMX’s roster that are at least as engaging as any of the regular best sellers, but they can be difficult to find.
This brings us to the potential up side of benign neglect. If DC Entertainment isn’t inclined to heap resources upon its manga arm, perhaps it will also withhold editorial interference. The people who have assembled CMX’s catalogue have good, eclectic tastes. There’s real range here, from the eerie, arrhythmic mysteries of Astral Project to goofy, subversive romantic comedy like Penguin Revolution.
CMX also carries the distinction of being one of the only manga publishers to make any serious attempts to bring classic comics for girls to the English-reading audience. Two of their earliest titles are from this category, and CMX seems determined to see them through to conclusion, regardless of sales results. There’s Yasuko Aoike’s From Eroica with Love, the wigged-out caper comedy about a gay jewel thief and the hard-nosed cop with whom he is smitten. And there’s Kyoko Ariyoshi’s ballet epic, Swan.
Swan debuted in 1976 in Shueisha’s Margaret magazine, concluding in 1981 with 21 collected volumes. It was a blockbuster, and it’s easy to see why. Ariyoshi’s storytelling is as muscular as it is graceful, equally adept at dramatic sweep and psychological precision.
It follows the fates of promising young Japanese dancers given the opportunity to raise their homeland’s profile in the world of ballet. The opportunity carries terrible pressure, obviously. In Ariyoshi’s narrative, the Japanese have embraced ballet as an art form but aren’t yet known as practitioners, largely because of the lack of rigor in their training programs. The national ballet organization has taken ambitious steps to change that, opening an academy for the most promising young dancers.
There’s a nationalistic bent to the proceedings, but it’s not the same variety as is found in something like Oishinbo (Viz). That series makes the argument that Japan’s indigenous cuisine is as complex and enduring as any in the world, and only global ignorance and low self-esteem have kept it from getting its due. Swan posits that Japanese ballet’s disadvantage is not unfair; the art form had only been embraced over the last 60 years, a single generation, so their progress in such a short time is to be admired.
And it is admired by the world ballet community. Choreographers and instructors from around the world come to help the core group of dancers and invite them to study abroad. The dedicated Japanese aren’t viewed as interlopers to a great tradition but as welcome novices worthy of support and assistance to help them achieve their potential.
That global perspective is personified by Swan’s two leading ladies — bubbly neophyte Masumi and elegant, classically trained Sayoko. Country girl Masumi has loads of potential and an abiding passion for ballet, but she lacks the hardcore technique; sophisticated, urban Sayoko has technique to spare and finds in Masumi that intangible, missing thing that Sayoko needs to progress — a real rival. Rivalry is as common to sports manga as swords are to samurai epics — the promising young jocks size each other up, establish mutual loathing, and proceed to compete, compete, compete while motivating their own progress. They eventually establish mutual respect or even admit to a grudging fondness, but some initial degree of hostility is essential.
Not so in Swan. Masumi and Sayoko may compete for roles and opportunities, but they also enjoy a genuine friendship. Sayoko is a mentor to Masumi in the same way the Russians are mentors to the Japanese. She wants Masumi to excel because Masumi loves ballet and could contribute to its ascendance, to the celebration of it as an art form. That celebration and the desire to be a part of it is the guiding principle of all of the characters in Swan, though Sayoko and Masumi’s dynamic is most expressive of it.
If you’ve read anything about Swan, it likely related to Ariyoshi’s unmatched ability to illustrate dance, both its physical rigor and its ethereal beauty. I won’t bore you by repeating that sentiment except to say that I agree with it, but I will add that Ariyoshi does extraordinary, expressive work in representing the inner emotional states of her characters. When a dancer’s career is threatened by an injury, the ensuing inner turmoil is rendered with both rich visual imagination and almost savage emotional acuity. I see a lot of Osamu Tezuka’s influence here, not just in the cinematic effects and sympathetic character design, but in searing and expressionistic compositions from works like Ode to Kirihito.
I used the phrase “sports manga” earlier, and that’s what Swan is in a lot of ways — there’s rigorous training and high-stakes competition. Hell, the dancers of Swan sweat at least as much as the basketball players of Slam Dunk. Ariyoshi respects her characters as athletes, and she’s meticulous in portraying the strenuous regimes they undertake to excel. What differentiates it from a lot of sports manga is the absence of personal glory as a motive. The concept of winning is different here; it translates into honoring ballet to the best of one’s ability less than winning a role or bringing home a trophy. (Well, the villains, for lack of a better term, view it as a vehicle for personal glory.)
Heavy as it is with cultural implications, Swan is every bit as much about the specific characters and their dreams. It’s an ambitious balance of the personal, professional and even political. It celebrates an art form while making it specific to the people who dedicate themselves to it. It’s a thrilling comic, and CMX is to be heartily, heartily commended for bringing it to an English-reading audience. Now if that audience would only embrace it the way it deserves.
*****
* Swan, written and illustrated by Koko Arisyoshi, CMX, 200 pages, ISBN 1401205356, $9.95.
*****
* all images from Swan selected by David Welsh
*****
David P. Welsh has loved comics since his parents first used Archie and Casper to sedate him during long trips in the family station wagon.
He’s worked as a reporter and editor for daily and weekly newspapers, and later sold out for the glamorous world of public relations. Prior to relocating to The Comics Reporter, he wrote his Flipped column for Comic World News for just over three years. He’s written articles on comics for print outlets and a variety of other web sites.
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