Should comics and manga be well drawn?
Let’s talk about the poorly drawn mega-hit Mob Psycho 100.
I always liked comics that had detailed art. Even as a kid, I was annoyed when faces were not given details if the characters were a bit further away, or when other shortcuts were taken in a comic book or manga. I was also against the Chibi heads used in many manga series for comedic relief (you know, the big balloon heads and the huge sweat drops). For me, it broke the immersion and it felt cheap – similar to how the forced comedic elements of Marvel movies (that try to tackle serious themes at the same time) ruin the overall quality of these films for me.
Yet, when I read the story of the famous manga artist ONE and his poor/crude drawing style, I was inspired rather than annoyed. ONE started out by publishing his first manga online, on a webcomic site – he wrote and drew this manga himself. The art was very simplistic, looking more like the drawings of a child than that of a mangaka dreaming of a professional career. This turned out to work in his favour, because many discovered his manga as a result of the unusually “bad” drawing style and ended up loving the story. He started releasing this series in 2009 and it’s still running today (which is quite impressive). In fact, it has become one of the biggest franchises of manga history – One Punch Man.
From webcomic to a traditional publisher
Of course, the One Punch Man that many are familiar with is not ONE’s webcomic, but the manga that’s being released on the Tonari no Young Jump website by Shueisha (the publisher of the famous Weekly Shonen Jump magazine that introduced the world to Dragon Ball, Naruto and One Piece). This version follows the same story as the webcomic, but is drawn by a professional manga artist and has a “high-quality” and detailed art style. The artist, Yusuke Murata, reached out to ONE after the webcomic gained some popularity in Japan, and offered to work with him on a version that would be released by a traditional publisher.
To reiterate the point I made earlier: ONE’s story is quite inspiring. Under pressure from his family, he decided to work a year in an office and save as much money as possible, so that he could quit and dedicate the following year to making manga. He promised his family that he’d go back to working the office job if he didn’t succeed in that one year. Despite his amateurish art style, he never had to go back to that office and is now one of the most famous mangaka in the world. There’s an element of “anyone can do it” to his story: if he was able to succeed with that art, so can you, and so can I. As writers trying to build on audience on Substack, we know it’s not that simple, but the inspiration factor is there nonetheless.
Telekinesis, parody and bad art
Inspired by ONE’s origin story, I decided to buy the first volume of a different manga he made: Mob Psycho 100. There were other reasons behind my purchase as well: a very cool cover art and design (one of the best covers I’ve ever seen) as well as an intriguing premise – awkward and unpopular student has telekinetic powers in a modern Japan.
I’ll try not to spoil the story, so I’ll only write this much: it’s semi-serious, functioning partly as a parody of certain manga tropes. At times, the parody elements annoyed me, since I was hoping for something a bit darker, a bit more weighty. However, as I progressed through the pages, some of the comedy began to feel like serious critique or observation of society wrapped in funny packaging. It became a bit like a comedy-drama, which I liked. Plus, the plot has a number of surprising twists and turns, so overall I’d say volume 1 of Mob Psycho 100 has a pretty interesting story.
Nonetheless, after finishing the book, I decided I didn’t want to continue the series. You guessed it, the main reason is the art. While reading this manga, I was constantly annoyed by the simplicity or crudeness of the drawings. Not super annoyed, but a bit annoyed, yes. After all, comics are a visual medium: most of the reading entails looking at the art. So, if I don’t enjoy looking at the art, I basically don’t enjoy most of the book.
A matter of taste
Not all people think like me, of course. Some don’t care much about the art, and focus more on the story instead. Others enjoy ONE’s crude style – they find it endearing perhaps, or funny, or relatable. None of that is wrong, and I’m not here to argue that manga and comic art can only be categorised as good or great if it’s detailed and highly skilled. At the end of the day, preference in manga and comics is a matter of taste. Everyone should consume the stuff they like and there should be something for everybody – that’s the beauty of publishing in the age of the internet.
But I began second guessing myself after finishing Mob Psycho. Should I really stop reading this, even though I found the story interesting? I’m still on the fence about it, to be honest. Manga and comics cost money and my wallet isn’t endless – a part of me feels like I should allocate my resources to buying only the ones that I enjoy, both in terms of the story and the art.
I’m curious, what do you guys think? Is the art very important for you when reading manga or comics? Does it put you off when artists take shortcuts or simplify characters for comedic purposes? Or do you enjoy goofy and crude art? Let me know in the comments and let’s have a discussion about this!
So inspiring. I really admire ONE'S dedication. He put in the work for a year so that the next year he could put in the work for what he loves. So glad it paid off despite his drawing style. I am just starting to get into manga, I used to read more Webtoons. I'd say I prefer it when the art style is visually aesthetic to me ☺️