Manga Explains NASA Mission 139
YetAnotherName writes "Anime fans working with NASA? Yes. Tokyopop has the scoop on planetary scientists who made manga to explain a NASA mission, complete with spandex-clad, big-eyed lead character and robotic dogs. You can also download the manga in color or black/white PDF files. (Disclaimer: my spouse is one of the authors.)" If you sit through the talk about dogs, it's actually pretty interesting.
And we're all like... (Score:5, Funny)
And I'm like... (Score:1, Funny)
Re:And we're all like... (Score:1)
Now that I've drawn a Hitler smiley, can we invoke Godwin's law and end this thread?
Dr. Marc explains it all (Score:2, Interesting)
Is it "manga" or not? From a purist standpoint it's not "manga" since it's not drawn or written by anyone who is Japanese. OTOH we did deliberately ask Erik Lervold (our artist from MCAD whom I met at MCAD's Schoolgirls and Mobilesuit anime/manga workshops) to make the artwork manga-like and he came up with something that's halfway between US style and Japanese style. So y
mirror of the color comic (Score:5, Informative)
should withstand a decent slashdotting..
Re:mirror of the color comic (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:mirror of the color comic (Score:2)
in theory, it shouldnt be a problem.... but this is slashdot.
Re:mirror of the color comic (Score:2)
huh? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:huh? (Score:5, Informative)
Whether you accept it or not, the word comic has become synonymous with superhero comic among the masses (and to a lesser degree, bad superhero comics
Re:huh? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:huh? (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:huh? (Score:2)
I thought a "graphic novel" was distinguished by a more complex story line; with a beginning, middle and end, and of a book-length, say 100 pages or so (often published in parts). There is no implication about the drawing style. Conversely, there are manga graphic novels, and manga shorts, and interminable manga soap operas.
Re:huh? (Score:1)
In any case, I find it ironic that we're panicking over the misusage of a Japanese word, when Japs have been seriously bastardizing our language for decades. Only fair :) Or you can consider it some form of flattery.
Another way to look at it is how Japs got the term "anime
Re:huh? (Score:1)
Re:huh? (Score:2)
Re:huh? (Score:1)
Those are the funnies.
Re:huh? (Score:2)
Re:huh? (Score:1)
Re:huh? (Score:2)
Re:huh? (Score:2)
Manga is from Japan. Even by the Japanese definition (anime, on the other hand can refer to any kind of animation).
Re:huh? (Score:2)
Because they wouldn't want to confuse this "manga" about a spndex-clad voluptuous female android who flies through space with her pet robot dogs with that "super hero rubbish".
Re:huh? (Score:1)
Re:Yes, I blame them (Score:2)
Yeah, that's what I said, only with a negative bent on it. This is done as a way to avoid confusion with those superhero American comics. Someone who won't even look a superhero comic, might be more inclined to look at a "graphical novel" or "manga." You don't like it? That's fine. I on the other hand won't pick up "superhero v23.1 saves the day again" and the word manga allow me a large selection of comics that aren't the superhero gar
Re:Yes, I blame them (Score:3, Insightful)
Perhaps it's just me, but aren't all the popular manga and anime - Ranma, Inu-Yasha, Lum, Tenchi, Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Dirty Pair (yeah, I know the manga is drawn by Adam Warren, but it's still as manga as can get), Caravan Kidd, Outlanders, Drakuun, Sailor Moon, Dominion Tank Police, Slayers, Excel Saga - about superheros (o
Re:Yes, I blame them (Score:1)
What makes this interesting is how it relates to the American psyche. There's a huge parallel between this and the Cold War, from its proto-origins in the 20's and 30's, hitting its stride in the 50's and 60's. Hell, look around at what's going on now.
Peter Parker, Bruce Way
Re:Yes, I blame them (Score:2)
It also bears noting that people in Japan are very fond of adapting English to their own use as well. Nothing wrong w/ sharing a few words -- we all have plenty to spare. And as for the g
Re:huh? (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:huh? (Score:2)
Japan Fad (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Japan Fad (Score:3, Insightful)
Woody Woodpecker? (Score:2)
Oh... wait...
Wrong order (Score:1)
-- dbg
Re:Wrong order (Score:2, Insightful)
This is because most manga's are created in Japan. Not America. "English manga's" (which I'll just call manga's even though they might not deserve that name) should be left to right, as they're audience are people in English speaking countries, which have the left to right feature in their written language.
The only time a manga created outside of Japan should read right to left is wh
Dreaming (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Dreaming (Score:3, Insightful)
I'd say that it's at least as useful to convince people that science is fun.
is this some sort of parapsychological collective? (Score:4, Funny)
in the style of the movie cliche wino who sees godzilla and then stares at his bottle in disbelief and then throws it, running hysterically,
i now purge slashdot from my bookmarks and rss and close the wind#@~@!" - NO CARRIER
PlanetEs (Score:5, Informative)
A more serious and utterly fantastic manga about life in outerspace in the pre-warp universe.
One of the best mangas, and best sci-fi for that matter, that I've read in a very long time.
It's what Enterprise *should* have been.
Re:PlanetEs (Score:3, Informative)
Re:PlanetEs (Score:2)
Re:PlanetEs (Score:5, Interesting)
That would have been exciting. "Going where no man has gone before."
Ensign: So where are we going Captain?
Captain: To the Klingon home world.
Ensign: But that's 20 light years away, it'll take us 40 years just to get there!
Captain: You're right Ensign. And we only have 7 years before we're canned. Alright. We'll go to Jupiter station.
Ensign: Oh boy, that'll only take us several months!
Don't think that would have worked somehow.
For those that don't want to shill out $10 (plus shipping and handling) US for a comic they might or might not like (unfortunately the preview didn't really tell you much) here are a bunch of sci-fi comics that don't rely on a fad (and are free too) that you might enjoy:
* Storm Corps [stormcorps.com]
* A Miracle of Science [project-apollo.net]
* Kismet: Hunter's Moon [webcomicsnation.com]
* Mozhaets [gutterflycomix.com]
* Nine Planets Without Intelligent Life [bohemiandrive.com] (WARNING: Humour)
* Twilight Agency [twilightagency.com]
* Freefall [purrsia.com] (WARNING: Humour! But it is hard sci-fi. Confused how humour could mix with hard sci-fi? Read it and find out).
* Where Am I Now? [whereaminow.org]
Some more SF web comics (Score:2)
* A Mad Tea Party [jonathondalton.com]
* Among the Chosen [amongthechosen.com]
* Boschen & Nesuko [anelnoath.com]
* Bulletproof [rydia.net]
* Crackling Silence [keenspace.com]
* Indavo [comicgenesis.com]
* Level [levelmanga.com]
* Midnight Gurl [cherigirl.net]
* Mondo Mecho [ragathol.com]
* Monica Furious [leadsalad.com] * Reman Mythology [felaxx.com]
* Seraphic Blue [seraphicblue.net]
* Terinu [terinu.net]
Padding text to allow this to post.
I have isolated the city-experience within me and have examined it closely. The idea of a city fascinates me. The formation of a biological community without a functioning, supportive social community leads to havoc. Whole worlds have become single biological
Re:PlanetEs (Score:2)
I also share your opinion on Enterprise. I was excited when I first heard the concept. But it just turned out to be another silly and generic Star Trek.
Space debris awareness (Score:2)
This is really weird... (Score:3, Funny)
Oh, and we need some quality Japanese art in here... mouths inexpecably small while closed... unbelievably HUGE when open! And she needs green hair, and robot boots. And her head needs to be shaped like a bean.
(credit to Strong Bad here)
Re:This is really weird... (Score:1)
I like space-girls... (Score:4, Informative)
The character design is hardly different from any Dark Horse comic containing teen-chicks, so that can't be what makes this manga. (Granted that Dark Horse employs some artists with some Japanese inspirations, but skinny chicks with big-eyes hardly defines a manga.)
Seems alsmost like buzzword compliance...
Re:I like space-girls... (Score:1)
Re:I like space-girls... (Score:2)
Granted that not all manga feature character design modeled after Leiji's work in the 70s or Rumiko's prolific work... but you have to admit that SD is a pretty common feature across a wide spectrum of modern Japanese illustrated work, if at-least in marketing there of. The lexicon
Re:I like space-girls... (Score:2)
This on the other hand ia crappy American drawn wannabe stuff. Shrug and mock it is the usual end result.. the "cool kids" they try to appeal to will laugh and go back to the fansubs they are watching.
Manga style (Score:2)
me:
you: That doesn't define manga at all. It defines the mass market manga we see translated. Theres a lot of different styles where the eyes arn't huge and such, but unless a fanbase picks up they never get released.
I guess we're agreeing. Thanks for taking the time to let me know you agree. Possibly relevant, but not directed at you personally: http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=164683&cid=137 47886 [slashdot.org]. Sadly
It was cool and all... (Score:5, Funny)
Was that Episode 15 or 16? (Score:5, Funny)
So in other words we've built a giant battle cruiser with an ultra powerful partical beam cannon as its primary weapon that can be used as a last resort and can also launch transformable combat mecha which can only be piloted by nubile 16 year old girls clad in tight environmental suits that leave nothing to the imagination against a vast armada of souless automatons at 20:1 odds bent on wiping out the last vestiges of humanity from the universe?
God, why didn't we fund this sooner!?
Re:Was that Episode 15 or 16? (Score:1)
liek... (Score:3, Funny)
But seriously. What do space dogs and NASA have in common? What scares me more is what will happen when people start doing fanfics of this.
Well, you see, a secret pact between Nerv and the State Alchemists used a special alloy called spacedogium to help create a weapon using ancient space energy to fight off Shonen Bat. Eventually it went spacebound, and the process created Space dogs. And now Johan Leibert is the head of the android dog catching squad, and will slowly take over the multiverse. Throw in a tenticle monster from the schema world and we're set.
iPineapple (Score:1, Offtopic)
Re:iPineapple (Score:1)
"What this Comic Strip needs more of is SCIENCE!" (Score:1, Informative)
Contact me when... (Score:2, Funny)
Comprehensive and fun (Score:1)
not a manga. (Score:5, Insightful)
manga is the japanese word for comic, so by definition its a manga when its made by japanese people, as well as manwha if its made by koreans.
putting that aside, its not even drawn manga-style.
putting that aside, its not even funny or entertaining.
Re:not a manga. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:not a manga. (Score:4, Funny)
"The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary."
Re:not a manga. (Score:2)
So Japanese polluting english is like two poly-STD whores having sex.
Re:not a manga. (Score:2)
Japanese is even more so - they have a whole second syllabary(*?) with the same sounds as the normal one, which is used to write foreign words. That's pretty hard core.
* = not sure if this is the proper term. Japanese characters are syllables instead of individual letters.
Re:not a manga. (Score:2)
That's only partially true; there are two syllabaries (hiragana and katakana), alongside the two thousand or so kanji (chinese characters) that make up modern Japanese. Almost all foreign loan words are indeed written in katakana (e.g., 'those spiky letters'
Re:not a manga. (Score:2)
Of course not. It's educational.
Re:not a manga. (Score:2)
Re:not a manga. (Score:1)
In Australian schools we were taught that our country was Federated on the first day of the 20th Century on 1 Jan 1901 -- and yet our Mint and government still cocked it up and called 2000 the beginning of the 21st Century. What on earth can ya do when innumeracy is so prevalent, eh?
Re:not a manga. (Score:2)
And 'anime' is the FRENCH word for 'cartoon'. So why are we calling japanese cartoons 'anime', mmm?
Re:not a manga. (Score:2)
Re:not a manga. (Score:2)
My point's still valid, though - the term in current use is of french origin. Regardless of the roots of the term 'manga', US artists are using it to mean 'japanese-influenced non-superhero comics'. Still confusing, in my opinion.... but the only US comics I read are all written by writers in the UK. So.
Re:not a manga. (Score:2)
Wonderful non sequitur... If manga is the Japanese word for comic, then by defenition manga = comic. That is all. The defenition says nothing about the country of origin.
If you're going to insist that you're right anyway, what's the word for American style comics? "Comic" is a word from the English language, so by your logic it's only a comic when it's made by English people. There could be no American ent
Re:not a manga. (Score:2)
Re:not a manga. (Score:2)
A bunch of university physicists and rocket scientists write a comic to explain the science of the ionosphere to 11 year olds by inventing a story of electrically charged robot space-dogs (who vomit "energy biscuits") and the first thought in your head is "that's not manga - it was written by am American!".
Man, you need to put down the comics and step outside for a break.
Re:not a manga. (Score:1)
- a bunch of scientists publishes a comic, which, given its scientifical nature, is not too bad, but lacking a certain entertainment value.
- a manga publisher who (as far as i can judge from what tokyopop.de, their german branch, does) so far has really published only manga and manwha links to it and calls it a manga
-
- i have a look, and find that its a comic, a not very good one, which doesnt even resemble t
Re:That's right, it's a comic. (Score:3, Informative)
Nudity (Score:5, Funny)
Hentai would be even cooler. A hentai NASA project could rock the geek world.
Didn't Jim find (Score:1)
Hm... A slightly off topic japanese revelation (Score:3, Funny)
I was doing a little research on Japanese words as they related to animation, history of anime, etc. and found this [wikipedia.org]
Shotacon () (also Shota ) is a Japanese and anime term for a sexual complex where an adult is attracted to an underage boy.
WTF! Couldn't they have picked a slightly better name for their organization?
Re:Hm... A slightly off topic japanese revelation (Score:1)
Letter replacement (Score:2)
"Lex" is only one letter different from "sex"! That's even less than the three letters that you had to change! Couldn't they have chosen a better name for their software package?
Re:Letter replacement (Score:2)
More like someone naming their software package "eratica" or somthing like that.
Re:Hm... A slightly off topic japanese revelation (Score:2)
The "to" syllable in Japanese is pronounced like the things on the end of your feet.
"Ka" is like the first part of "KHAAAAAAAAAAN!!!"
"Ta" is like the first syllable in "toddler."
"Ko" is like the first syllable in "Coke."
Note: the "shotacon" == "shotakon" because of the way the Japanese language works.
Shotokan karate and Street Fighter Alpha (Score:1)
Cronyism In News of Dubious Integrity (C.I.N.D.I.) (Score:2, Insightful)
That is the right buzzword for politics these days, isn't it?
Are you sure the the mission's android isn't instead an acronym for
C ronyism
I n
N ews of
D ubious
I ntegrity
?
Kidding, kidding! Okay, 85% kidding. But aren't the "smart kids" they want to reach with this project the ones who will see right through an obvious plot to make learning fun? A whole lot of kids I know would rather "call B.S." than actually learn when faced with being "tricked"
neat. (Score:2, Insightful)
Why can't there be about 100 times more science education like this out there? That would make me happy.
Re:neat. (Score:2)
Re:neat. (Score:1)
Go Tech Go! (Score:1)
Put Dan's work into this format... now that would be cool.
Electrons Want to be Free! (Score:2, Funny)
We must join with our Electron brethren and free them from the slavery they have been under since Edison figured out that light bulb thing! I will now free all the electrons in my hous-- (Read error: 104 (Connection reset by peer))
What, this isn't Slashdot news! (Score:4, Funny)
The Slashdot standards aren't what they used to be. *shakes head*
What's wrong with all of you? (Score:1)
Sure it's not up to par with what I expect from an "entertainment" product I've paid for, but it's definitely the type of thing that makes Science more accessible to kids.
And of course the dogs part was important. I'm guessing half of you just skipped over most of the text about the dogs and their charges.
while the idea of the dogs might be simplistic, once again it's accessible to kids.
I'm just glad there are people out there who want to make teaching fun and
Re:What's wrong with all of you? (Score:1)
the "space dogs" approach was exactly the "dumbing down"
that you complained about (I read it all). I was sort
of hoping that Cindi would be an anthropomorph of the
satellite itself. I favor the 1940's style educational
comic where the technology itself was animated.
I wonder if a target audience was selected. Certainly
this comic would be appealing for early-adolescent male.
Roberto, back in the lab, is a hispanic male, which has
NASA written all over it.
Hopefull
C'mon guys... (Score:1)
typo TYYyyyppPPPO! (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:1)
Re:Worst comic ever (Score:1)
It's sad really to have it still sitting on the ground. There are some really great combinations of payloads on this satellite that while budgeted as a miltary vehicle is really primarily a science vehicle.