Right to left, really?

[eishiya]

I don't like comic sans font. The best font is trying to use your own handwriting, it fits more with your drawing style, if you have a good handwriting.

[url]Lettering isn't handwriting, it's drawing letters. If you draw your letters, your lettering probably won't look like your handwriting[/url] (whether your handwriting is good or bad), and it'll be consistent and legible. Anybody can learn to letter, their handwriting has nothing to do with it.

As much as I love hand-lettering and seeing hand-lettering in other comics, I don't think it's necessarily the "best." Some comics have art/story styles that work best with typed lettering. I definitely think that it never hurts to at least consider hand lettering, and a lot of the time it really is the most fitting option.

Ops, sorry, i didn't knew that. On some magazine i read they talked about 'writing' and 'having a natural firm handwriting' .

Unfortunately, "published" doesn't mean "good" xP
Technically, handwriting can still be thought of as lettering, but it's not the normal way. Very few people can letter effectively with their handwriting. Some can, of course. In some cases, drawing letters actually takes over one's handwriting, those people end up "lettering" everything they "write" xP Looks odd usually, since lettering and handwriting have different purposes and are done so differently.

I've had to tell people to draw their lettering instead of writing it a lot of times, so it's a very common mistake. It's something the pros take for granted, and there aren't many good resources on lettering, so it's hard for people starting out to learn these things. I'd love to do a tutorial that touches on all the basics like that, but I don't feel qualified yet. One day!


As for L-R: I'm pretty much with you (Nordlys). When it's done for an audience that naturally reads in R-L, it's fine. I suppose if one's target audience is "people who read mostly (translated) manga and are thus more used to reading R-L in English than L-R", then L-R in English is acceptable (even though the flow does clash). Not something I'd do or read, but I'm also not in the target demographic.
Some people in this thread mentioned being able to read R-L easier than L-R, and I wonder how accurate that is. I've never had significant issues reading one way or the other, as long as the text flows the same way. When it clashes, I get confused, frustrated, and quit.

[HanaYume]

On the first page of my comic, I accidently drew the second panel as if I was doing right-to-left. (I subsequently changed the layout to read left-to-right.)

I read a lot of manga, but I rarely read Western comics. So I did that without thinking because I'm so used to it. I'd say that's why some people do it - because they're used to it.

I really couldn't care less which direction something reads as long as I know.

[Pochi]

I feel like if the comic artist is good with paneling/narrative than the reader should automatically be able to adjust between left to right or right to left.

Just my opinion though.

I never consciously put much thought into this topic though, for me I just switch unconsciously.

[smeagol92055]

Hating Comic Sans doesn't make you a bad person.

That makes you a person with at least a little bit of taste. Congratulate yourself on this.

[Lynelle]

Hating Comic Sans doesn't make you a bad person.

That makes you a person with at least a little bit of taste. Congratulate yourself on this.

^YES, YES, YES.


Sometimes I read an American comic right to left by accident and get confused, and I'm not sure why. You'd think it'd be more obvious to me than that. It's probably only a matter of time until I accidentally draw the panels that way too. And it will be on a full color, intricate page, and I won't notice until I scan it.

[amymist]

Personally, I like when people use a font based off of their handwriting. It has the benefits of both!

[hyeonmu]

Some people are more comfortable going right to left. Like someone who enjoys reading manga a lot; they might be more comfortable making panels go one way.

What I find REALLY irritating though is when panels go EITHER way and the flow of the page is ruined. For example, a page that is supposed to go left to right but has panels that go right to left better.

[jjfresh]

Wow. I understand your curiousity. I think people want imate the style but sometimes dont always know how to. Just like I seen many stories with made up Japanese names that arent Japanese names at all. For some reason, I get little annoyed on inside. -_- . One I saw I think said Korynta or Kiryta. Dont remember but sorta like that. It almost seems Japanese at first but looses Japanese. You want to imitate off of what you think you know when you really know not any at all. But, for meself, I like right-left because I got too used to it (even though Manhua is left-right, I read mostly manga.) When there something I dont nkow, I look it up. I didnt know how schoollife at Korea is like, so I learned on internet they have school six days a week all day except for last week of month, they have Saturday off. I would not make story about school in Korea unless I knew faCTS. But many dont want to look up facts. Always look up facts!
Maybe, for some, you can TRY to read right-left, but if its very confusing, you can always ignore it.

[InnocentGuillotine]

As a general rule, making a comic flow in a direction that goes against the flow of your native language is a bad idea. I've noticed that a lot of native English-speakers who draw comics meant to be read right to left wind up making the art go left to right, which interferes with the flow which in turn can act against the tone. In and of itself it isn't a huge issue, but it's kind of like a persistant cough in that it can be a symptom of much worse problems. Problems that I'd rather avoid. Thus, I tend to avoid right-to-left comics if they weren't translated from a language that natively reads right to left.

So basically what a ton of other people have said.

Also, comic sans is an awful font and hating it is a sign of good taste. There are so many better fonts for comics out there, some even installed on your computer by default, and if you don't like any of those or they don't work with your comic... hand lettering exists for a reason.

[Alyxo07]

Personally, I'm so used to reading right to left that I sometimes find it confusing to read it the opposite way for the first few pages, but I completely agree with you when it comes to and English speaker writing a comic/manga for another English speaker. I mean, It just seems so odd to write it that way.
Anyway, I'll read it either way as long as it makes sense...
And I despise comic sans.

[phantasmagoriatheater]

I feel like this thread is really targeting and mocking manga fans at some parts. If the artist is native to a country where text and comics are traditionally done right-to-left, then they shouldn't be pressured to draw left-to-right even if the comic is written in english. It's kind of unfair to expect an artist who has been raised and taught in a country where it' more common for media to be right-to-left to reverse that. There are probably a lot of artists out there who draw that way because that's what they've been raised to do, and some of them might even enjoy anime style, but that doesn't make them a weaboo or mean that they're only drawing that way because they think japan is cool.
I'm not excusing people who do that whole "it's not real manga" idea or the whole 'japan is superior at everything and american comics suck' attitude a lot of manga fans have in regards to artwork.

Comic sans has no excuse. No matter where you are from or how you were raised, it is wrong. Horribly wrong.

[xX-DragonFairy-Xx]

I feel like this thread is really targeting and mocking manga fans at some parts. If the artist is native to a country where text and comics are traditionally done right-to-left, then they shouldn't be pressured to draw left-to-right even if the comic is written in english. It's kind of unfair to expect an artist who has been raised and taught in a country where it' more common for media to be right-to-left to reverse that. There are probably a lot of artists out there who draw that way because that's what they've been raised to do, and some of them might even enjoy anime style, but that doesn't make them a weaboo or mean that they're only drawing that way because they think japan is cool.
I'm not excusing people who do that whole "it's not real manga" idea or the whole 'japan is superior at everything and american comics suck' attitude a lot of manga fans have in regards to artwork.

Comic sans has no excuse. No matter where you are from or how you were raised, it is wrong. Horribly wrong.

I really don't think that this thread was ever meant to pick on Manga fans at all, the creator of the thread was simply curious why the layout was so popular, or at least thats what it seemed to me.

I think that yes, being raised reading right to left would be a notable reason for drawing comics that way, because thats the way your brain flows and processes things. but for the most part, the people who draw webcomics reading this way were not raised in an eastern country. I think that if it is an eastern setting than making it read that way would make a good deal of sense. If it's a manga style than I guess why not. What people are mainly saying here is that unfortunately these people who draw that way were raised reading left to right, and therefore thats how their brains work, no matter how much manga they've read. Making comic layouts is an art in itself, and moving against the way your brain is used to reading creates a cracked flow and wonky layouts. I'm not saying that this is all the time but it does happen for those who are attempting to imitate the layout.

But in some cases the layout is done appropriately and the work still flows nice. It just depends on the person.

[Beni]

I do mine in Right-to-Left because I only read manga and ... I just automatically did it that way :/ I didn't intend to insinuate I was a proper manga artist or anything (I draw my comic just to practice art everyday) its honestly just how I read comics ... I don't read American things and I don't honestly think its a bad thing whichever way it goes, you can still read it and still get the story don't you? ^^;

[Selidor]

I do mine in Right-to-Left because I only read manga and ... I just automatically did it that way :/ I didn't intend to insinuate I was a proper manga artist or anything (I draw my comic just to practice art everyday) its honestly just how I read comics ... I don't read American things and I don't honestly think its a bad thing whichever way it goes, you can still read it and still get the story don't you? ^^;

The trouble is, there's no consistency among English-language webcomics. Half of the right-to-left ones don't even say they're right-to-left, or make it a little note buried in the author comments, and you spend the first few pages or so trying to figure out which direction the dialogue is going in (especially if the artist doesn't know how to panel or position characters properly). Japanese comics (with the exception of some early English translated editions) are simple - everything is right-to-left because that's the way printed Japanese is formatted. Korean comics are left-to-right because Hangul reads left-to-right.

Personally although I read a lot more manga than other comics, I'd never put an English-language comic in right-to-left because I think it interferes with the flow of the page. It reads more naturally if the flow of the comic follows the same direction as the language used, and while I can excuse it in translated comics, I just don't see the point otherwise.

[Beni]

The trouble is, there's no consistency among English-language webcomics. Half of the right-to-left ones don't even say they're right-to-left, or make it a little note buried in the author comments, and you spend the first few pages or so trying to figure out which direction the dialogue is going in (especially if the artist doesn't know how to panel or position characters properly).

LOL --> Me XD;

I actually am surprised that people feel so strongly about this to be honest... Its just a direction. I would read anything if I liked it, regardless of whichever direction it went in. But that's just me XD
I think its perfectly fine for the author to pick which direction they feel comfortable drawing in. Just as they pick which style to draw in... I don't really think anyone can say which is wrong or which is right.