Even a Monkey Can Draw Manga

    (Viz, 2003)
TM and (c) Viz Communications, Inc.

One of the more endearing features from Pulp magazine, Koji Aihara and Kentaro Takekuma’s “Even a Monkey Can Draw Manga,” has been collected in trade-paperback form with uneven results. This probably can be attributed to the fact that the feature was clearly designed to be serialized, rather than consumed in a single serving. It’s like colorizing a black-and-white film; no doubt, the creators would have acted differently with a different medium in mind.

The gags are no less funny, but, when presented en masse, the formula suffers. The mentor (Takekuma) tells the protégé (Aihara) what they will study that day. Aihara — and the audience — are stunned to see that the “secret” of a genre or technique is not at all what was expected. Humorous examples are provided, then we are “one step closer to achieving our dream,” i.e., world domination through manga. But a six- or eight-page strip that’s 30-40% talking heads is different from a 150-page book that’s 30-40% talking heads. Therein lies the difference.

The cover offers no clue as to the contents, even that the work is humorous. Why did they go with a straight portrait of the authors rather than their trademark chin pyoro suponn pose?

The book is standard comics size, rather than the smaller-format typically favored by manga trade paperbacks.

— Jack Abramowitz
Jump to issue:
  NotesWriterArtist