While in a bookstore this weekend, this author had the chance to hear a very personal and one-sided remark from someone in the graphic novel section. This young man was staring angrily at the manga section across from it and said quite plainly despite the people looking at the manga, “That Japanese stuff is ruining American art.”

This comment got this author to thinking. Could the influx of Japanese culture, including manga, be ruining American style when it comes to graphic art and graphic novels? What exactly does ruined mean? Does it constitute just a change in style, or an absence of classic American art whatsoever in current books produced by American artists? This singular remark made me angry for a few moments, and then I took a look at the source. While he might have been the next up-and-coming artist, he was also just someone in a bookstore, just like I’m just someone writing a web column. Thus, I thought perhaps I should look at both sides of the matter.

On one hand, one could argue at how the integration of manga into main stream comics has broadened the horizons of the graphic novel world. New art styles, new storylines, new artists, and new authors abound in the new world opened up to the existing genre of graphic novels. While the artwork is much different, is has a beautiful, streaming quality to it, like a gentle wave coming in on the shore. Traditional graphic novel art can have the same characteristics, but has them in a very different way. Rougher, thicker lines, or no lines at all depending on the artist have softened, and emotive eyes have become more commonplace, things which are not bad what so ever.

Looking at the other side of the argument, the rough drawings and the hard figures of comics are what make American comics distinctly American. Those who love American graphic novels love them for the straightforward storylines and the intrigue, which can be hidden within the convoluted storylines of manga. There is also the fact that a manga series can run on for huge numbers of books, and while there are certainly thick volumes of graphic novels, they are not on volume number forty four and counting, as some manga are. Let us not forget that manga has also brought us such gilded pills such as Naruto and Pokemon, which take up bookshelf space and lead to a mass marketing frenzy that takes up clearance shelf space a year later.

In all, there is no good or bad side to take in this particular argument between how manga has helped or hurt the American graphic novel world. It truly is for the reader to decide, and perhaps, not for him or her to voice in the middle of a crowded bookstore full of manga fans. I certainly hope he gets that stuffed domo-kun out of his ear some day.