Anyone looking for a different flavour of art will have the opportunity to partake in the manga club at the Estevan Public Library starting Oct. 26.
Manga are comics created in Japan and are frequently turned into television shows like Naruto and One Piece.
Following expressed interest from local residents who were looking for a place to gather and discuss or produce manga-inspired art, Maureen Curtis, program coordinator for the Estevan library, decided the library would be a perfect place for a club like this to flourish.
“It was a need that was expressed and we just tried to come together, form a partnership and get something going,” she said, adding those who attend are required to bring their own material. People with no experience in manga are welcome.
The club is geared for anyone 13 and over, however, Curtis said most of the applicants so far are in their early 20s. She noted interest in manga titles at the library has also increased.
“It’s still a fairly new sensation here, but I’ve been ordering a lot more from other libraries,” she said.
Curtis is looking forward to the club’s potential evolution over time, as the interests within it branch out to costume designs and Japanese culture in general.
“It’s all about having fun, getting together with others who have the same common interest,” she said.
Chad Boudreau, owner of the ComicReaders store in Regina, said the overall number of manga titles we receive in North America is actually a small segment of the extensive manga content produced in Japan.
“We get a lot of their best-sellers and a lot of titles geared for teens,” he said, adding manga for adults is also available.
Boudreau noted the storylines found in manga often span dozens of issues, at times lasting years depending on the book.
“Character stories may last a few issues, but an overall story is continuously being told,” he explained.
The diverse artwork in manga, which is also reflected in its varied subject matter that ranges from science fiction, romance, action and martial arts, will appeal to readers and art enthusiasts simultaneously he said.
According to Boudreau, the rise in popularity surrounding manga began in the early 2000s. An overflow of product in North America, however, resulted in a market crash a few years later. The interest for the product never died and interestingly enough, with the help of the internet, many people discovered Japanese storytelling and its eye-appealing artwork through pirated copies or various online streams of popular manga-based television shows.
“Sometimes people will come into the store and ask me if we have a certain book that they saw online and I tell them, ‘that book actually hasn’t been released in North America yet,’” Boudreau said.
He said many rural towns that don’t have comic book stores are introduced to some of the characters manga contains through these online streams.
“Free content does hurt the industry to some extent, but it has opened up a lot of people to the medium,” he said.
