Glossary

#
A

• Anime - pronounced on this side of the Pacific as ann-knee-may (but, you know, say it faster than that), “anime” is a Japanese word (a shortened form of “animation”, which is itself derived from the Latin, animae, “lifelike, lively, moving” so we come full circle) for cartoons, as in animated movie & TV cartoons. Any discussion of manga (Japanese comics) will inevitably bring us to anime (Japanese cartoons) because well, they’re both Japanese, but also because one format feeds into and supports the other, even more so than similar industries do here in the States.

B

• The Big Two - Marvel & DC, natch. These two companies (or subsidiaries) have been in control of the American comic book landscape for nearly half a century. Their editorial missteps dictate the direction of superhero comics today. They have generally shown a disregard for non-superhero fare, thus alienating approximately 99% of the American population.

C

• Capt. Superhero - Not an actual comic (so far as we know) but a shorthand way to reference mainstream American comics that often feature a spandex clad hero fighting super villains in conflicts that threaten the whole world, universe, multiverse, et al. The nature of the comics is such that the story never really ends, though as readership lags, publishing companies are looking for ways to “reboot” their “flagship” properties. Though we disparage Capt. Superhero, we recognize that some of the best work in American comics have come from short, self-contained works that use the mythic iconography and readers’ familiarity to tell new, engaging stories. (ref. Miller, Dark Night.)
• Cosplay - fans have been dressing up in costume for ages. What differentiates today’s “cosplayers” from the 108th Stormtrooper Battalion of Van Nuys and the crew of the Klingon Warbird Dr’kth is that these kids grew up on today’s anime and games, rather than Roddenberry, Lucas, and a whole mess of action figures from Kenner. The word cosplay is a Japanese conflation of two English words (not surprisingly) “costume” and “play.”

D
E

• ep - plural eps. Matt’s shorthand for the more cumbersome word “episode”. He thought the abbeviation would be obvious, but apparently it had to be defined for some folks. (feel free to use it yourself: an ep is one iteration of a show we all like, an “episode” is something Blanche has in Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire… see the difference?)

F

• Fan service - one of the things you love to hate about manga is the inexplicable insertion of things meant to excite the fan base that do nothing at all for the narrative, action, or character development. Usually the term is a direct reference to semi-nude or otherwise revealing depictions of female characters, but bad in-jokes, references to other properties, or even movie cameos can all count as “fan service”. Some notable non-anime-or-manga examples of this are Bruce Campbell’s appearances in the Spiderman movies, the stormtrooper named THX-1138, Stan Lee showing up in Kevin Smith’s Mallrats, or (from the T&A side) Sigorney Weaver’s Ripley taking up quite a bit of screen time while stripping down just before the last scene of Alien. Anything that thrills the fan base or garners a knowing smirk from someone-in-the-know can be considered “fan service” — though of course, in manga (& when Matt is using the term) we are almost always considering inappropriate artwork. While the term is often used in an insulting manner to disparage manga (as opposed to mainstream comics) not one word has crept into the debate–yet–about 50 or so years of female superhero costume design.

G
H

• Honorifics - Mr. Miyagi called the Kid Daniel-san. (Though other Japanese speakers likely would have called him Daniel-kun, or even Daniel-chan since he’s such a pansy ass; I don’t know if Miyagi was just particularly polite, or being ironic.) -san, -kun, -chan, -sama, and quite a few other suffixes are honorifics [wiki], a part of polite Japanese speech and an artefact of a highly stratified society (medieval Japan) where one’s relationship to others is even reflected by how one is called. We’ll try not to use them in reviews, but a discussion of manga adaptations to English might reference how honorifics are handled and translated.

I

• Info dump - a plot device used to set up the premise of a story. It is often a block of text that is there for the sole benefit of allowing the reader to get their bearings. In its worst incarnations, in violates the storyteller’s charge to “show, don’t tell.”
• Inkwork - shorthand for not just the inked outlines, but also the crosshatching, speed lines, stippling, and other hand-drawn effects, as opposed to applied color or screen tone.

J
K
L

• LCS - Local Comic Shop/Store. Given the monopolistic nature of American comic book distribution, this is most likely where you buy your comic books. It is typically a cramped space smelling of old paper and nerd-sweat. Your LCS may also offer such items as collectible card games, overpriced figurines, or board games with the rules printed in a foreign language. Nearly everything reviewed on this site should be available at one of these, so we include a handy-dandy shop locator on the right-hand side of the front page.

M

• Manga - “Manga” is just another world for comics, folks. Hate to burst your bubble, but that’s all it is. It’s a Japanese word, I’ll give you that, but there is no extra weight that can really be applied past the country of origin. The pronunciation–at least around here–is mahn-gah, as opposed to meng-ga; who was a henchman of Ming the Merciless in the old Flash Gordon serials. or something.
• Multiverse - The lack of tight editorial control over the various properties of the Big Two has created conflicting storylines that have generally been explained away through the existence of multiple universes. DC Comics has a love-hate relationship with its multiverse, as they repeatedly cause it to wink in and out of existence.

N
O

• OEL - Original English Language (manga). For manga-style comics that are written and published in English. Some say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
• otaku - fanboy. Since it’s a Japanese word, as one might guess it denotes a fan of either Japanese origin, or one who really likes the anime and manga.

P

• Peoria - a town in Illinois. This is actually a winking reference from the days of Vaudeville [wiki]: sure, it plays fine on the coasts, but (as is occasionally cited here on Comicsnob) “How will this play in Peoria?” It would seem that creative endeavors have always had a little trouble cracking middle America, dating back for a century at least.
• Proxy fighter — an odd variant of tournament battle oriented manga & anime, though one uniquely suited to its younger target audience: instead of the characters beating up on each other (much too violent), each character trains a proxy to fight in the arena for them. Pokemon is easily the most recognizable, and likely the first, but many copycats have followed in this trainer-fighter mode. No matter what the conceit of the individual stories, it’s just a way to smuggle in horrendous (entertaining) violence into a kid’s comic, without actually putting the kid characters in harm’s way.

Q
R

• Reboot - when a comic continuity is flushed down the proverbial toilet to be started anew. Essentially, the writer/company disavows any knowledge of previously published storylines. This is typically a drastic measure, however is used with unnerving frequency, especially by DC Comics. This isn’t your father’s multiverse.
• Recycler - a disparaging term used for some types of anime. Because of cost constraints, particularly with earlier, pre-’98 anime, cels were re-used from episode to episode, occasionally with minor art changes but often taken in bulk (and in those instances may in fact be film edits rather than a re-shoot of cels). The advantages to the production company are obvious; you draw it once and show it in each and every episode, so you get 30 times the value from one weeks work of your slave animator and colourist labour. Common examples include transformation sequences, a “call to assemble”, a launch of mecha, or prolonged opening and/or closing animation (though these are cool, depending on the show’s theme music). The recycled animation is easily recognized by black or extremely stylized backgrounds (which can stand in for anywhere) and ironically, by a much higher production standard: since it is known in advance that the footage will be used over and over again, often the production company will go out of their way to make it look pretty. Since the reliance on these set pieces is taken as a given (to keep costs down) the plots also tend to repeat themselves: something along the lines of a gag intro for the ep, followed by a short sketch of the enemy and conflict this week, and then the confrontation (which will include several recycled bits, like “assemble”, “transform”, and “special attack”; we’re eating up a lot of minutes and don’t have to re-draw a lick of it), followed by a gag closing, perhaps with a pun or moral to cap the whole thing off. Quick, forgettable, cheap… and we used to eat this stuff up wholesale back when we were kids.

S

• Screen Tone - if you’ll forgive the bad pun, the world of black and white printing is full of shades of grey. Screen tone (or just tone/tones/toning) refers to machine generated and printed patterns and gradients, applied by an artist (or underpaid art assistant) to line art to provide contrast, fill, shadow, “color”, or interest. These are available in many different patterns and styles, and creative folks have found all kinds of creative ways to apply it. Antique, meat-space versions of screen tone are printed on clear, sticky plastic that can be applied directly to artwork with pressure, which can then later be cut or selectively rubbed off for effects. Modern variants can be used within Photoshop or your favorite flavor of digital image editing software. Either way, a lot of what makes black and white so effective for comics comes down to the skilled use of ink and tones.
• Sidebar - From the legal term for a short discussion off the record, the term “sidebar” is also used in publishing (magazines primarily) where it describes a separate, highlighted column or, um, bar along the (wait for it…) side of a story, a way to convey information related to the story but not actually part of the narrative.
• Splash page - (often just called a “splash”) is a full page of (non-narrative) artwork that is used as a title page or lead-in for the comic, or as a chapter marker or other divider within a comic. These can work like commercial breaks in TV shows, in that they often mark the passage of time, or at the very least, a mental break. If a page shows up out of nowhere to interrupt the narrative flow of the book, and it’s full of text, that’s a sidebar; if it’s a pretty full-page portrait of one of the characters, that’s a splash.
• Sturgeon’s Law - see Sturgeon’s Revelation
• Sturgeon’s Revelation - [wiki] “90% of everything is crud”. Not a defense or a counter, but a plain observation with the same impact as the sorts of ideas Newton had about falling apples (…to critics and creators, at least). According to Matt: “Sturgeon was an optimist; I think it actually runs between 95 and 98%.”

T
U
V
W
X
Y

• Yaoi - manga (and anime and a few novels) where boys fall in love with boys.  I probably wouldn’t have bothered with a definition, except for…
• Yuri - manga and anime (and light novels) where girls fall in love with girls.  Calling it ‘lesbian manga’ might be taking it a bit far, but that is the closest English approximation.  Matt is a fan, so a Yuri title will come up once or twice a month.  Often (unless one is looking at hardcore, graphic examples of the type) the Yaoi/Yuri component is all about subtext and innuendo and fan projection.   And the occasional hot kiss.  But that doesn’t mean anything.  I mean, after two drinks all the normal rules are suspended, right?

Z