It's an outgrowth of fanfiction.

I guess it's cheap? Besides, the perception of "manga" in occident is a caricature (no pun intended) of the original concept. Most of the effort in these creations is being focused into being manga-ish, instead of originality or quality.

But yeah, it could be said then that it's an outgrow of fanfiction.

The worst part is the character names: Instead of japanese, or japanese sounding names, they're given names like "Jake" and "Sally". WTF?

>>2206
They do sound stupid, but if they gave them japanese names, we would say that english manga should have english names. I know I totally would.

>>2208 Hmm, you're right. If they tried to give them japanese names I would end up thinking they're weeaboo.

>>2209
Wait... what.

OEL manga sucks because it's wasting most of it's energy on being "manga" than actually being a good comic book with a decent story and characters. Every halfway decent artist can make a plausibly looking "manga" drawing, but not everyone can tell a good story.

tl;dr - It's trying too hard.

>>2640
Hm. Like Megatokyo!

>>2641 Indeed.

>>2643
Megatokyo is one of the good ones, IMO.

>>2645
http://badwebcomics.wikidot.com/megatokyo

>>2646 What makes me the most sad about this is that I found bookmark at the library with megatokyo characters on it, and it was sponsored by some library association. It was even copyrighted under his name.

>>2646
Because if someone on the Internet doesn't like something, then you shouldn't like it either!

Seriously, Megatokyo has it's flaws (lots of em) but I think people should give it a rest already. If someone likes it, telling them "But it's baaaad how can you like it if it's bad!?!" won't really change their opinion of it.

>>2649
Oh my god, what the hell are you doing? That kind of reasonable and mature talk doesn't belong here, it's either "Megatokyo is the best thing ever" or "It's utter crap". Choose one.

>>2650
Fuck off, I'll be as reasonable as I want to be!

By the way, I started looking trough that website (Bad webcomics wiki) and I like it quite a lot. Most of the articles actaully try to keep a civil tone and not just take the easy road and go for the "aw man this shit just sucks so much balls" like...well 99% of people who review things they don't like do. It's quite refreshing, to be honest.

Megatokyo might be good if it wasn't for the fact that fred learned how to draw from a "how to draw manga" book, which, I can tell you from experience, is filled with half-manga half-cartoony westernized shit that looks like totally spies or martin mystery.

And if he actually cared about PLOT. Or at least funny jokes.

>>2652
No jokes, at least keep em to the minimum. It's been obvious for years now he has a problem with writing humor, so he should just keep it out. Since he wants the comic to be a drama anyway, might as well keep it like that.

Personally, my biggest problem with Megatokyo isn't the sketchy art OR the plot. I can deal with em, and honestly I like it at times. No no, my biggest problem with Fred is the fact that this guy can't even put out one page per fuckin' week. Seriously, I'm friggin lazy and I can probably do more pages than this guy. (Especially if it was my fucking job to do that, like it is with him.)

>>2653
I agree, and really the jokes were a lot more of Rodney's deal, so I don't mind if it's not funny. Not everything has to be hilarious. I'm also not one to criticize art style sine that's pretty subjective, but really. Fred doesn't have much else then drawing a couple panels a week and yet he manages to fuck that up with so much consistency that it's almost like he's TRYING to fail. So many other comics update daily or even more, and never miss a day and still manage to keep reasonable standard of quality and story progression. It is a part of goddamn life, adhering to deadlines. Most people are capable of this. Not Fred, though, and watch the rabid fanbase come to his defense if you dare to point that out.

Aside from trying to hard, they all look like they where sketches taken out of the old How to Draw Manga books from the early 2000s or Clamp.

Felipe Smith's MBQ and Peepo Choo have been the only "OEL" (even though PeepP Choo was originally printed in Japan) that have actually been good, due to them just being good comics with a manga slant.

Hell, part of MBQ's story is the main character wanting to be a professional comic book artist, but breaking away from the preconceived styles of both American Comics and Japanese Manga.

I liked Flipside.

It doesn't really count, though, seeing as it's a web comic which is sold in volumes at conventions by the author.

You cannot compare amateur manga and professional manga.

I have to agree with Anonymous 09/10/06(Tue)12:41 No.2202 being a comic book artists myself, the problem comes from trying too hard to fit the label instead of making something good, for example take a look at what is being made in Europe, they don´t care if it looks manga enough as long as it fits the required quality editors ask for.

I really enjoyed Dramacon, more than I enjoy most shoujo manga. The story seemed to flow from the characters.