[Discussion] Why do we hate words?

[chopstickchakra]

Look at this and think about it for a second. This is the 1st page of the 1st Daredevil comic from 1964:

You are looking at the entrance to Fogwell’s Gym on New York’s Lower West Side. It is here that our story begins a story different from any you have ever read before. In a dingy room above the gym, four men play a game of poker, little dreaming of the shock that awaits them. Come on Porky, We haven’t got all day. The Fixer may be here soon. Keep your shirt on, Sam. I don’t rush for anyone. Who do you think you’re kidding you know when the Fixer snaps his fingers we all hop if we wanna stay healthy. Sam’s Right, Anyhow I’m bushed. Let’s knock off for a while until, hey. What’s that noise? For the luv’a Pete what do ya call that? You’re in the wrong place, Buster. We don’t use costumed wrestlers here. I’ve seen nutty getups, but that one takes the cake. But look at his build, hang around fella, maybe the Fixer can use you. I intend to do just that, when I’m through with the Fixer he’ll never be able to use anyone ever again. Hey that guy’s here lookin for trouble. The Fixer won’t like that.

That is 194 words, on the FIRST PAGE, and if you have the page to look at you will see there is still an exceptional amount of art shown. That's not even the most writing on a page in the comic either. Now I take you to today's typical piece with an average word count of, and this is being generous, 70 words per page. Which is why for me, Togashi's recent Dark Continent arc has been one of the best arcs in any manga for awhile. It's like some authors have forgotten how important words can be to a story(Kubo not looking at you or your chapters with less than 100 words or your pages with no words *cough*)

I couldn't find a picture of that page but here's a similar one:

Spoiler

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Why does today's generation seem insistent on reducing our vocabulary? I can't tell you how many times I've heard or seen people say things like "I don't wanna start reading this it has too much done already" or "Why was this chapter so much talking and no action" It's fine and normal to feel like that from time to time but to those who perpetually live their life under that pretext, shame on you for encouraging the degradation of our collective intellect.

 

[Venomous Cobra]

tbh i don't understand , humans complain about every single thing in life ,it's natural and i wouldn't practically use the word "hate" since most of the people avoid long paragraphs since the majority of them could be summarized with 4-15 sentences

 

[Desiigner]

Why does today's generation seem insistent on reducing our vocabulary? I can't tell you how many times I've heard or seen people say things like "I don't wanna start reading this it has too much done already" or "Why was this chapter so much talking and no action" It's fine and normal to feel like that from time to time

I agree with this though. But not everyone likes reading, I guess.
Since I was a little child my dad told me that I should always read books.
He came from Africa to Germany, so he said he couldn't teach me that much, because he himself doesn't have that much knowledge about European standards, politics, etc. So he told me to always read books.
Until this day, I constantly read books, manga, news, etc. I am glad he "forced" me to read books.
It really can help you out a lot, even reading fantasy books, not only "informative" ones.
FFS, books even help you to learn grammar and stuff because when you always see where an author puts an comma, or capitalizes the first letter, you get used to it.

 

[Arian]

since im doing my own manga, ive heard of this. my problem with this many words on this few panels is the fact that it kinda seems like the artist is lazy. whenever i dont feel like drawing 4-5 panels i just make one with a huge ass text in it.... the less text the manga/comic has, the more fluid it seems. the more text the manga has the fewer pics you have to draw....

my personal opinion bassed on my experience though....

 

[chopstickchakra]

since im doing my own manga, ive heard of this. my problem with this many words on this few panels is the fact that it kinda seems like the artist is lazy. whenever i dont feel like drawing 4-5 panels i just make one with a huge ass text in it.... the less text the manga/comic has, the more fluid it seems. the more text the manga has the fewer pics you have to draw....

my personal opinion bassed on my experience though....

This is a valid concern but there definitely used to be a balance it just seems as if it's been disregarded in recent times. The pic I posted has quite a lot of art still in th pages and pretty decent detail as well.

 

[Arian]

This is a valid concern but there definitely used to be a balance it just seems as if it's been disregarded in recent times. The pic I posted has quite a lot of art still in th pages and pretty decent detail as well.

thats true it has 7 panels which is quite a lot for one page. i usually have like 4-6... but the fact that there is so much text slows down the whole speed of the story. as i said, imo its much more fun having a fight with many panels, but with few words, rather than long textes in every panel.

i read a lot, both comics/mangas and books. its not like i dont like text^^ its just that sometimes "having less is indeed more" if you know what i mean^^

 

[Desiigner]

thats true it has 7 panels which is quite a lot for one page. i usually have like 4-6... but the fact that there is so much text slows down the whole speed of the story. as i said, imo its much more fun having a fight with many panels, but with few words, rather than long textes in every panel.

i read a lot, both comics/mangas and books. its not like i dont like text^^ its just that sometimes "having less is indeed more" if you know what i mean^^

This can be true as well. (<- hint my Bleach Avatar xD)

 

[chopstickchakra]

thats true it has 7 panels which is quite a lot for one page. i usually have like 4-6... but the fact that there is so much text slows down the whole speed of the story. as i said, imo its much more fun having a fight with many panels, but with few words, rather than long textes in every panel.

i read a lot, both comics/mangas and books. its not like i dont like text^^ its just that sometimes "having less is indeed more" if you know what i mean^^

I agree in action moments, I guess it's cus I still pay for most my comics that I kind of feel cheated when I get a book primarily of action pictures rather than a story. Not always ofc but mostly.

This can be true as well. (<- hint my Bleach Avatar xD)

Yeah I love Bleach and I don't entirely mind his low words chapters I was in awe of oone of the recent ones that told a good story and they hardly used 50 words the whole chapter lol.

 

[Arian]

I agree in action moments, I guess it's cus I still pay for most my comics that I kind of feel cheated when I get a book primarily of action pictures rather than a story. Not always ofc but mostly.



Yeah I love Bleach and I don't entirely mind his low words chapters I was in awe of oone of the recent ones that told a good story and they hardly used 50 words the whole chapter lol.

i agree completely on that^^ im not one of those who only wants fights. thats why i never cared when we got a flashback chapter, or a talking/explaining chapter. imo thats just as important(maybe even more important) than any fights U_U i like text during flashbacks, during explanations and descriptions etc. but during fights not so much.

 

[NineSNS]

Maybe you are correct that people are too lazy to read, but a manga/comic is a different storytelling medium than a book.

Readers' preferences ultimately guide what gets published. Fewer words increases the number of panels required. More words might explain the plot/action better, but more pictures explain the characters and their personalities better imo.

I happen to prefer an uncluttered style with fewer words, but I also read plenty of other things.

 

[Jazzy Stardust]

I think it's more of a attention span thing than a hating of words. As the world gets faster so does people's attention spans, it's evident in everything.

Plus as time goes things usually evolve to be simpler just from familiarity of the concept of whatever it is.

 

[ultraChalk]

If I wanted to read 100+ words a page I would read a book.

I go to manga so I can be blown away by the art and illustration. Pictures to look at while I read with characters saying things. Not to be blown away by uber radical vocabulary words. Defeats the purpose of a manga if the page consists of more literature than art. At that point it's basically a book with pictures.

It has nothing to do with laziness or 'this generation'. It's just the difference between manga/comics which are literally GRAPHIC NOVELS than actual books, LITERARY NOVELS.

 

[-Punk-]

People are just reading the wrong thing. Just take a look at NB, 90% of the people here complain when there's no action in a chapter, they only want action and no depth, another problem is that some try to force themselves into reading -set story- just do they can have an opinion on it.

I personally don't mind words, I understand why it happens and don't complain.

 

[Avani]

This is a valid concern but there definitely used to be a balance it just seems as if it's been disregarded in recent times. The pic I posted has quite a lot of art still in th pages and pretty decent detail as well.

I never have a problem with number of words or lack of action-but the number of words are not the only thing make a work better. The writers back in days detailed more because they often get paid by the number of words they wrote. Some were able to pull it off while keeping it interesting and some made it tedious. It depends on the artist and how he expresses it and how much he can express in minimum words.

Some believe in detailing too much and some belong to minimalist school. As for comparing manga and comics..- mangas are often typically drawn by a single artist-the successful ones or the ones with a good break can afford to hire assistants but not all. Then there are those who are creating the chapter on weekly basis and some or monthly/ bi-monthly...