So, I opened up the Boston Globe this morning and there was Peach Fuzz, right on the funny pages.
And it was tiny. Teeny tiny. The Globe runs their comics small, but they allotted a decent amount of space to Peach Fuzz. The problem is that much of it is taken up with a flowery border and “Amanda’s Journal,” a narrative addition that runs down one side.
Naturally, I picked up the book for a side-by-side comparison. I immediately saw why “Amanda’s Journal” was necessary—the two-page spread in the comic strip consists of pages 1 and 6 of the book, with no transitions. So without the “journal,” the story makes no sense.
Perhaps anticipating that the strip would be shrunk down, the creators redid the lettering, which is now much larger. I know this makes the strip more readable, but it also makes the tiny panels look really, really crowded.
(Off topic, but interesting, is this livejournal discussion of the differences between Japanese and OEL manga, which includes commentary on lettering size. I hadn’t paid much attention to it before, but now I’m more aware.)
Overall, I don’t think the Sunday strip does justice to manga and may even turn some people off because of these deficiencies. The format simply doesn’t lend itself to the design of manga. On the other hand, it may inspire a few people to check out the real thing.
I know the manga-to-funnies transition is old news, but for those of us with eggnog-induced amnesia, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, has a nice background story.
