I’m no longer surprised when I run into someone who doesn’t understand how to read comics. I’ve learned that, what comes naturally to me after years of reading comics, doesn’t come as readily to someone who doesn’t have that same familiarity with the medium. Even now, I’ll see a friend or relative read through one of my strips and go from one word balloon to another, completely out of sequence, driven by a logic only they understand. This confusion has led a lot of people to avoid comic books and strips altogether, and that’s a shame.
If you’d like to read about the language of comics and maybe some theory about exactly what a comic is, i can’t recommend Scott McCloud’s book, Understanding Comics highly enough. It’s a must-read for anyone who enjoys comics (or “sequential art” as Scott calls it) or wants to be an artist or writer of the medium.
Haha–nice one, Jeff. Groo is still my all-time favorite.
thanks, man! yeah, Groo’s awesome – just finished the Hogs of Horder series and gotta say: Aragones has still got it!
oh, and these are yours:
😎
Hey! I got the first post in! Advantage to living on the East Coast I guess.
Oh and going back to Groo, Jeff, I think the Cornfather and Groo should have a contest for skinniest legs in comparison to thick torso 😉
ha! i think Groo might win that one, JM. 😉
and all this time i thought everyone just instinctively knew how to read a comic book. 🙂
I honestly thought that, too!
Well, until I showed a funny comic to my mom and she had to ask how to read it.
ha! i run into this scenario with friends all the time, Jaeh!
you’d think that it would be instinctive, Oddbody, but it’s surprising just how many people are confused by the comic book format.
I KNOW to read comics and mangas!
Yay me!!
*evil laugh of doom*
Bwuahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!
I think victorian goths know this stuff by default!
8D
Poor Michael. But… Jefbot deserved the proverbial “book-slap” in the face.
*runs away laughing maniacally*
heh. yes, i think victorian goths are born with the ability to read comics and manga, Sonitan. they’re also born with the ability to laugh evilly/maniacally, methinks. 😉
Odd. I was born with the ability to laugh maniacally, but I’m not a Victorian goth and I had to LEARN to read manga.
Hehe looks like someone doesn’t have any patience! I love what you did with the colors in this strip, they just seem to really work well together. (Plus I got a good giggle out of this strip.)
I for one have always been able to read comics. How? I have no idea. (Kinda like: who taught you to blow out your Nintendo cartridges? I have no clue. 😛 ) But I do know of those who don’t know how to read comics, and that in turn leads them to stray away from comic books as well as web comics. (And they just stick to reading books.)
My son was the person to inform me that you read manga back to front. (Which I think is super spiffy.)
This was cute, but I have to ask: Where are Mu, Cel and Abraxas?!? I miss them!
thanks, Spanky! glad you liked the colors and got a giggle from the strip. 🙂
i, too, have no idea how i learned to read comics. i do remember a friend telling me you never have to read the “square” boxes, only the balloons. thank the gods i got out of that habit – there’s lotsa info in those squares!
funny with manga, they used to have a warning on the inside left cover saying, “Stop! You are reading this the wrong way!” and then giving instructions on how to read it “in reverse.” now, a lot of manga just assumes you know how to read it, and don’t have a warning or instructions anymore. i’m sure many new readers are going to be confused.
Mu, Cel and Abraxas will be back! i miss them too!
hehe , I gave my friend a manga to read once, he have opened it and (because he opened right at the last page, like a normal book) there was written: “Stop, this is the back of the book!” he looked at it and with completely straight face said: “Well that was short” closed it and put it down.
after that I have explained to him how to read it, but that first moment i was laughing like a maniac 😀
Let me guess, Trigun?
No, The Scary Book. and i guess you know it was Maros 😀
ha! awesome response from your friend, Eddie. at least he saw the warning and didn’t read the ending, first. 😀
Ok I admit it….CF and I are on the same page. All the weird directional stuff annoys me in comics. I’m not saying I don’t have a couple that are collectors editions, jut that I don’t really get into the.
I’m more of a Web Comic kinda girl *wink*
there are a couple of comic book writers that really play with the medium and have you read their books in ALL KINDS of ways – making you turn the comic on its side, read the panels out of order, etc. some can do it well, and some just make a mess out of it.
this is why you’re one of my faves, Pixie. yay, webcomics! 😀
Ah. When I first started reading manga, I could say I got as frustrated as CF.
Eventually I got the hang of it….
Then I met the online manga, which screwed me ALL up again! Heh!
yeah, it is kinda tricky at first, Rinthia, and then you’re brain just kinda “gets it.” i haven’t read much online manga. how different is it?
It’s like readin anga pages that were rearanged to go in order, but you have to read the panels like traditional manga. It completely messed me up…
Pluto. Nice. 😉 I love Urasawa.
I guess it’s just that I started reading manga so young, but I can actually read it more easily than Western-format comics now. And I have unrealistic expectations for friends I try to get to read manga. “Just get through the first one and you’ll know how to do it!” “Riiiiight…”
Longtime lurker, etc. Spiffy comic, Sir Jeff.
i’ve only read the first volume of Pluto and already LOVE it, Miri!!! SO GOOD. also picked up a couple volumes of Urasawa’s 20th Century Boys but haven’t gotten to them, yet.
i think i read manga with about the same ease as western-format comics (maybe a little slower), now. SO happy publishers have decided to keep the japanese layout, so we can get a truer sense of the original comics.
thanks for the comment! you’re quite spiffy yourself there, Miri. 🙂
Kudos for reading PLUTO. I love Urasawa’s work. 20th Century Boys is simply fantastic, as is Monster. If you haven’t read them yet, you definitely should. 😀
20th Century Boys is on my reading pile, Mankelor! can’t wait to get to it. 😀
It may indicate the nerdiness of the crowd I hang out with that I have never heard anyone complain about this before. I have read things out of order before, of course, but it never occurred to me to be more than momentarily annoyed that I wasn’t paying more attention to the way the panels were arranged.
I’ve always thought of manga and comics as a good way to introduce people who don’t like to read to the idea of reading since it cuts down on the amount reading that actually needs to be done.
definitely sounds like the nerd-level of your friends is quite high, Sharra. most of my friends know how to navigate a comic page but every so often, someone will have difficulty.
yes! manga and comics are great ways to introduce people to reading. now with Free Comic Book Day every year there’s no excuse for people to not give them a try!
Well…when someone sets the word bubbles in a logical order, it’s easy to follow. Sadly that is not always the case. But mostly I see this with online comics rather than print. There is an art to showing your art 😉
very true, TheBean – i come across strips that care nothing about layout or balloon placement which make them very difficult to read. some people just don’t “get” your last statement, that “There is an art to showing your art.” 😀
F-ing hilarious! Thanks for the PSA, Jeff!
heheh. anytime, Stan! 😉
Hehehe, they see us readin’, they be hatin’.
And it’s not confusing at all, it’s very easy.
Manga is even easier. So C.F, don’t be hatin’ what yah can’t understand, just know that Jeffbot is better~ SO ARE ALL MANGA READERS! WAHAHAHAH!
ha! manga readers are pretty awesome, Z! and judging by the growing manga section at my local comic shop, more and more people are joining the club as we speak. 🙂
I love reading comics. But If I read too many manga then try to read a regular book I end up turning the page the wrong way. ><
but that’s what I get for owning like 2K in manga…
wow!
I started collecting them when I was fourteen and I have two years of subscriptions to shonen jump in there. XD
ha! you must be reading a lot of manga then, DJ! i generally do the opposite – manga takes a few minutes to adjust to after i’ve been reading western books or comics awhile.
And here I thought Cornfather was a geek… What geek doesnt know how to read comics?
I find it fascinating how fast Manga got to the world. And more than that it carried on its back other asian comics. They actualy divide it acording to country of origin for some reason.
Anyway american comics ilustrations are still the best in my opinion. If artwork sucks, no matter how good the story is I find myself get irritated with it and stop reading it. That happens pretty often with manga and such but almost never with american comics – poor or unoriginal story is more often the trouble there. And thats not often.
Maryz, unfortunately I am not well versed in geekdome as I would like. In fact, I met jefbot when he came and saw me in Patrick T. Gorman’s, “The Star Wars Trilogy in 30 Minutes.” He thought I was a geek. But I was just in the same class as Patrick at the USC School of Theatre and could do a really good Jabba the Hutt.
Dude, look up “the dark knight strikes again” the artwork is totally terrible. and I like the art in most manga series, but no so much in western comics, but one think i loved was the totally awesome, sort of psychadelic look of Serious house on Serious Earth. That was really something, thats called ARTwork.
The scary truth about you is, you tend to like wierd things. But I agree with both your opinions on *DK strikes again* and *SHoSE*. In second case the story is on par with artwork.
Speaking of batman, dude you have to see this vid, like the best parody of dark knight i have ever seen.
“are you speaking ‘bat’?” ha! 😀
ha! totally agree with you, Eddie – while i LOVED the artwork (and story) in The Dark Knight Returns, it took a major step back with The Dark Knight Strikes Again.
and dude – Dave McKean. ’nuff said.
Michael’s more of a geek than he lets on, Maryz – but he does have problems reading comics and comic strips on occasion.
growing up with manga, i can tell you, it took a lot longer than you’d think. except for a handful of titles like Akira, Fist of the North Star and Dragonball, manga was hard to come by when i was a kid. now it’s everywhere, and so is anime, which also used to be scarce and expensive.
not sure if i prefer american or japanese comic illustrations. both definitely have their strong and weak points. i could serve up a list but it’s just too huge a topic to cover in one reply. 🙂
Jefbot has been trying to teach me how to read comic for years. I always tell him it’s like taking the S.A.T.’s. Sometimes, I have to have him “act out” the jefbot strips for me. 😉 I love this strip. Aside from it being extremely entertaining, it is also a very useful guide to reading comics. I’ll have to bookmark this page as a reference. Great job, bot. Although, it did take me a few minutes to read this one in the right order. 🙂
my favorite strips to act out are the ones where The Cornfather gets hit in the face or stomach, MC! 😉
and i wondered when someone would point out the irony of a comic strip explaining how to read comics. heheh.
Ha! I laughed out loud! It’s so true… In fact, until you Jefbot, I just didn’t read comic books or webstrips- So you were my first! …and still my favorite! Outstanding job! Love the color and detail, and the explanation is perfect!
glad this strip could help out with your comic reading habits, Funnyshaffer! 😀
It would be OK if it /were/ left-to-right like Jeffbot says, but I regularly come across mangas where some pages go left-to-right, some go right-to-left, and some seem to mix both together on the same page. It’s especially confusing when the panels are different sizes (e.g., one panel on the left the same size as 2 panels on the right: reading order may be left-panel, top-right, bottom-right; top-right, bottom-right, left; or top-right, left, bottom-right).
Add on top of that, that in a lot of manga you can’t tell what’s going on from the drawings, and that characters may be addressed using different names or honorifics from panel to panel, or drawn in a completely different style to indicate emotion, and that the underlying story might not make sense even if you DID figure it out, and you have one hard-to-read art form. I’ve been reading it for years, and still struggle to figure out what order the panels go in.
that sounds horrible, shagbark! i would have trouble reading something that disjointed! must be due to a rushed layout or uncaring publisher since i’ve never come across the format changing like that. weird!
manga is definitely harder to read than “western” comics. as explained in that book i mentioned in the blog, Understanding Comics, eastern artists use more symbols and visual shorthand to convey meaning in their drawings, whereas western artists tend to be more straightforward. the more manga you read, the easier it’ll be to understand. 🙂
Ha! My first thought when I got to the second panel was “…unless you’re reading manga.” I guess I’ll never grow up. LOL.
glad we’re on the same wavelength, Alana. 🙂
Back before I could really read, my mom would read the newspaper comics to me. So later on, when I got into comic books, it really wasn’t hard to transition what I already knew.
What gave me trouble were those Goosebumps books where you went to the bottom of the page, picked an option, and proceeded the the page it told you to go to. Since the bottom of the pages in books USUALLY just have the title, I completely ignored it and read the book as normal, and then didn’t understand how I got “THE END” six times in one story.
Also, I totally have that book and it is so amazing, for anyone who wants to make comics, read comics, understand comics, or just figure out what the heck is going on. It explains everything in detail without getting into complexes only masters could ever understand.
never read a Goosebumps book, Takla, but i get what you’re saying. sounds like a Choose Your Own Adventure book – which would have been totally incomprehensible if i read one in consecutive page order! ha! you must’ve thought books were really weird. heheh.
yeah, Understanding Comics is pure brilliance. 🙂
Choose Your Own Adventure book – I have one of those at home. In slovak localization even. Space Hawks I think the original was named. Sorry Im too lazy to find the book right now.
oh boy… i totally feel cornfather on the manga thing. I wasn’t that into comic books but I still have my fair share. I had to work an extra shift at my job, and they told me it was a quiet post, so I brought a bunch of stuff and my stack of comic books to keep me company 😀
nice! i wonder if my boss would mind me bringing in a stack of trade paperbacks? hmmm… 😉
I love manga. People look at me like I’m weird when I read it though
they just don’t understand, IDTMRB. too bad for them. 🙂
non comic book people…just don’t understand!!
it’s true, t_d. i still get weird looks sometimes if i’m playing my DS while i’m out in public. not as many as i used to get, tho. geeks seem to be becoming the norm.
Just for the record…. Pluto is full of win!!
most definitely, Sker! i was completely blown away by the first volume and can’t wait to read the rest of the series. 😀
control the geek bot, lest it control YOU! lol, mangas kick ass
it cannot be controlled, Animie fan! my geekitude yearns to be FREE!
thats what the military channel is for. lol
well, what may not come naturally to one while reading a manga or comic book comes naturally when reading your strips, as they are quite easy to figure out in which order to read. what manga is that you were slapped with in the face?
aww… thanks, Shain! i do think about the layout when putting these strips together so the balloons and panels flow together in a logical way.
and got the slap from Pluto, vol 1. read it. it’s good.
Haha! Yeah I didn’t have anyone to tell me how to read my first manga….I was so confused 😛
the first time i read a back-to-front manga i was like, why would they do this!? but i got used to it and now i love it, Eptha!
Oh, I remember back when I started reading manga, I had a hard time figuring out what panel to start reading. Fortunately, in the third manga chapter I’ve ever read, the scanlation group added a page that made it easier to understand the layout. I believe every manga and comic book should have an explanation page as the first page.
i think so, too, NeoDarklight. while more and more people are familiar enough with manga now to understand how to read it, new readers are still getting confused. a simple page at the beginning is all that’s needed to fix this.
exactly how i felt when i was halfway through reading Full metal alchemist…
and then went onto some more western comics such us this or cad…
nice job once again JB 😀
after watching the original FMA i was totally tempted to read the manga, Leithal. how is it?
i just bought the first season of the Brotherhood blu-ray, which i hear is much more faithful to the comics.
thanks!
when i opened up the first one i read i thought it was just a story that was told like the movies that start at the end and go back to the front..after the first 3 i told my friend about the oddity and i was the laughing stock for a few days i felt stupid for almost a week and failed at almost everything for the rest of the week
HA! i bet on some level, your brain could make sense of the story, even in reverse though, Drakeye. you must’ve thought it was quite avant garde! heheh.
HA HA! I return, suckas~
I had a birthday on the 18th of May; turned 26. Fun stuff. Got me some vidga james and I’ve been playing them for a few weeks. Or rather they’ve been playing me as I had some catching up to do on not just your comic, BOT, but other comics as well! Don’t worry folks, I’ve got a beat on them now so hopefully I’ll be able to be active once more; posting comments and the like.
Did ya miss me? <3
seems that we share the same birthday. happy belated bday
Oh cool! Yeah I know a number of people who have birthdays in May, which is super awesome. Happy belated birthday to you too!
of course i missed you, Foxmouse! happy belated birfday!!! 😀
wish i could play some of them videogames, but my tv’s still at the repair shop. *single tear*
welcome back!
Thanks for the belated birthday wishes, mang!
And worry not, BOT. You’ll be reunited with your TV soon, and if Peaches and Herb have taught us anything, it will feel so good.
i usually get confused if i read a manga and western comic right after the other.
yeah, i have to recalibrate my brain a bit when reading manga/western comics back-to-back too, jf#300.
and, hey! happy belated birfday to you, too! 😀 you get that macbook yet?
Dude you nailed it, this is exactly the same sort of crap i get when trying to introduce new people to comix. As for Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics, my battered copy is on loan to an old girlfriend just now, (i strangely was unable to kindle a liking for them in her when we were an item,) and its condition owes a lot to the fact that i’ve loaned it out so many times. Having read comix for over 25 years now i find i don’t have any problems with any format, original manga vs. a flopped edition for example and beyond that following the artwork for the story has always seemed fairly natural no matter in which direction.
In answer to your question, i’d probably suggest the Legends series of Dune first. I comes first in the Dune chronology and there’s some interesting stuff for fans of Children of, and God Emperor of Dune. i did find the House (Atreides, Harkonnen and Corrino,) novels a bit of a chore. Looking at a bibliography now tells me there are few novels i’ve yet to read but that’s never bad news.
Glad to hear you’re interested in Iain M Banks, Consider Phlebas is a fantastic and at times disturbing look at a space living culture of humans not originating from earth. Keep an eye open for space vessel naming (very dark humor).
Oh yeah, the avatar is Tux in Goku costume. Tux is the official mascot of the Linux kernel and unfortunately not my design.
glad you love that book too, Deaconvorbis. seriously considering putting a permanent Amazon link on my home page to Understanding Comics, since i recommend it whenever i can. you need to get your copy back from the ex so you can continue spreading the good word!
thanks for the recommendations – not sure i’ll get to Brian Herbert’s novels, but if i do, i’ll know which ones to read first.
and Consider Phlebas is now in my wish list at Amazon, so when i’m feeling the need to buy a new book, it’s there for me. also noticed that Mr. Banks is a scotsman, which further moves him up my reading list. 😉
not into Linux much, but Tux rules! especially in a Goku costume. heheh.
lmao i have had to do that exact explination before but! i explained manga 1st then reg. comics i laughed watching ma frens try to figure it out, even thou its not that hard
I don’t know if it happens to someone else, but I always screw up when changing from manga to comic and viceversa, XD, I just fogot that I’m reading the other thing, and start reading it wrong, until I got that I’m just messing up, 😛
I do this so much. >_>
Ah, crazy backwards manga.
Is it bad that I-a British American-can read Manga easier than american comics-and like the manga style artwork better?
Is it bad that I-a British American-can read Manga easier than american comics-and like the manga style artwork better?
THIS IS NOT A DUPLICATE COMMENT, SHUT UP STUPID MACHINE!
or, it is and my computer’s sucking…heh! ‘:/