Japanese Manga- A Graphic Storytelling Art Lesson

Manga (Japanese comics)  is very   popular with the kids. So having an art lesson that involves Manga will be  high interest in an art class.

Most of the kids are familiar with American comics. And a lot know all about Japanese Manga. Comparing and contrasting art work is one of our State Art Standards.  So I start out the lesson comparing and contrasting Japanese Manga to American comics. The kids get a good review all the differences and similarities of how two different cultures handle graphic literature. 

Here is my hand out below. You can print it 

out if you'd like.

Japanese Art vs. American Comics

The requirements of the project are to have at least 4 panels, with a story that has a beginning, middle and end (literacy!). As you can see in the student samples, some of the kids chose to add more than 4 panels to their stories. Woo Hoo!
Another requirement is to make up your own characters. A lot of the kids know the Japanese Manga characters and want to use them in their project. But I don't allow it. They have to make up their own characters. (Sometimes its hard to keep track of all the Manga characters, they'll try to sneak some in with out me knowing, aaargh!)

They also have to have a margin around each panel. The margin is done by measuring with a ruler. So there is little bit of a math piece  involved with this lesson also. (Yea! More integration- also in  the State Art Standards.)
The kids can chose the style they want when setting up the panels. If they chose the American way- you read the story from left to right. Or they can set the panels up the Japanese way- read the story from right to left. You'll get a lot of both styles.

What do you think of this art lesson?  Would it work in your art class? You can comment below.