Thursday, December 12, 2013

Fables (and Manga)

Fables

This is pretty much comics part deux. My favorite comic series are the Fables by Bill Willingham ( one of the best Comic creators- ever!!). 


The premise is basically that some characters from our favorite fairy tales like snow white etc have been in exile from fable land since the 1700s and have been living in new York since. In plain sight but disguised among us non magical non fable Mundy's (A bit like Once Upon a Time- but totally different- WAY better)
At war with the guy who exiled them. Super super fun and frankly it is FABULOUS!!!
Some of the main characters are of all the options -  the big bad wolf and snow white for two!!,

I really am not doing justice to the series - but try them!

When I think about it - I think it's so great that people can make a good livelihood doing something like this - writing and illustrating Comics. How and when did it occur to them to choose this as a profession?

Coming from India I was actually quite limited in my thoughts. Saw only the standard options. I'm sure if I had thought of something cool I could have pursued it but coming from where I did - it just didn't occur

I think that's one great thing about the USA- You can seriously pretty much follow your dreams and if you are good in whatever it is that you are pursuing you  can make a living off it.

Also in the USA though there is a lot of materialism there are SOOOOOOO many people who have options and still pursue career choices that will never make lots and lots of money - like teaching kids, or social work etc.  But I know so many wonderful people who have done just this and so well!!

I find that a lot of people in the USA really get passionate about what they like and really follow it- like running, crafts or whatever it is. One way of gauging if a society is like this to see the number of specialty stores they have and the USA have them in all genres!

Another society like this is the Japanese. 

So a lot of my exposure to the Japanese society is through their ...............     COMICS!!!

Japanese comics are called Manga. Now a lot of people associate manga with porn. While some of it is (because it can be sold with less restrictions as it drawn and not photos) - most of it is not. There are many many genres within manga called Shonen, Shoujo etc etc aimed from Pre teens to teens to grown men and women. 

Some of my favorites have been (They have mostly had Anime and Movies made from them) I actually really dislike Anime- the voices are so squeaky and the movements so jerky- it sort of takes the coolness out of the story. I won't even get into Cosplay and all the other things that have come out of Manga!!

Nana- meant for grown women - about a rock band



Nodame Cantible- meant of teenagers. About classical music and a prodigy 



Skip Beat- meant for tweens - about this girl who gets into acting to win the love of her life- or so she thought.



One Piece- for pre-teen tween boys - about - what else - pirates! Yo ho ho - the pirates life for me.


 Fullmetal Alchemist- Fantasy for Tween Boys- all about fighting- has the 7 sins in it- as people!!




They can run into 20 - 25 volumes! Thankfully the public library close to me has them - they can be quite expensive as a hobby otherwise

Anyway - from them it really seems like People get very passionate about one thing and dedicate their lives to it. 

Another thing that sort of proves this is the documentary "Jiro dreams of Sushi"




Very interesting award winning documentary. Obviously about sushi! - duh

About a guy called Jiro who had a Michelin 3 star (the highest rating- probably the only restaurant without a private bathroom to get it!!!)- restaurant and has spent over 70 years perfecting the art of sushi and for him it is ART!

Worth a watch- This is a link by the makers- you can watch the movie for $2.99 J

Again - interesting how I enjoyed it despite being vegetarian- when all they do is figure out various ways of eating various sea creatures - RAW!!!

Anyway - over and out! (like a fused bulb :))






No comments: