Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Eike Exner

@eikeexner.com

1.5K followers 280 following 2.5K posts

アイケ・エクスナ Striphistoricus writing on Japanese comics and the history of the comics medium. eikeexner.com/books - Comics and the Origins of Manga (Rutgers UP, 2021) - Manga: A New History of Japanese Comics (Yale UP, 2025)

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Eike Exner @eikeexner.com · Aug 12

I wrote a post for the Yale University Press blog on how the stereotypical "manga face" came about and became mainstream.

This was something I could not find much information about in secondary literature, so I figured it might be a topic of interest that a new history of manga should discuss.

Large Eyes, Pointy Chins, Pointy Noses: How Manga Became Manga - Yale University Press

Author Eike Exner explains how the figures in manga, the globally popular Japanese comics, came to look the way they do.

yalebooks.yale.edu

2 32 94

Eike Exner @eikeexner.com · 1d

Meant to read this in time to cite it in Manga: A New History, but better late than never (^-^;

Cover of the book The Early Reception of Manga in the West, by Martin de la Iglesia

3 12

Eike Exner @eikeexner.com · 1d

Eiichi Fukui died before the Japanese copyright extension cutoff, so all his work is public domain today, hence no copyright notice.

1 3

Reposted by Eike Exner

weeder @weeder.bsky.social · 2d

So Hulk Hogan, why are you a great candidate for the Administrative Assistant position?

Hulk Hogan:

An app icon of a printer/scanner combo and the app name "brother iPrint&Scan"

23 360 2.1K

Eike Exner @eikeexner.com · 2d

If we look at this for the DK book, "amount" would probably weigh in DK's favor, as only a tiny fraction of each individual work is reproduced. But the others would likely weigh against it, so DK would likely lose a lawsuit, in my non-lawyer opinion.

Eike Exner @eikeexner.com · 2d

Note: do not publish copyrighted images and get yourself sued based on these posts of mine. This is not legal advice and I'm merely pointing out that the law allows for some cases of publishing copyrighted images.

Eike Exner @eikeexner.com · 2d

The jurisprudence on this is vague and not all that extensive, afaik. In theory anyone can sue anyone for anything and win. There are four established criteria used for evaluating fair use in US law:

Measuring Fair Use: The Four Factors

Unfortunately, the only way to get a definitive answer on whether a particular use is a fair use is to have it resolved in federal court. Judges use four factors to resolve fair use disputes, as ...

fairuse.stanford.edu

1 1

Eike Exner @eikeexner.com · 2d

I should've already added the standard disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer and this is not legal advice. I'm only speaking from my own personal experience in dealing with this stuff as an author. There are no guarantees when it comes to fair use.

2 1

Eike Exner @eikeexner.com · 2d

For example, all the copyrighted images in Manga: A New History are used based on fair use, but the cover art is by permission, because it's obviously primarily decorative (though the image was chosen based on the book's argument for Tetsuya Chiba's immense historical influence on manga)

Eike Exner @eikeexner.com · 2d

Yes, and I do think it should be easy for them to pay Japanese rightsholders to license the images. I'm just saying that I don't think the laws are the issue in this case, because it's almost universally agreed upon that you can't use others' for primarily decorative purposes.

Eike Exner @eikeexner.com · 2d

The issue in that case is less the law but that many rightsholders are reluctant to license images or simply don't grant permission at all. (When I discussed potential cover images with Yale UP and looked into different options, Kodansha was by far the most progressive in this regard btw)

1 1 3

Eike Exner @eikeexner.com · 2d

The images in the DK book, based on the publicly available sample pages, appear to be primarily decorative (they're generally not discussed in the text, which may have led DK to conclude that the risk of a lawsuit (and losing it) would be too high.

2 3

Eike Exner @eikeexner.com · 2d

"Tezuka and gekiga used cinematic effects" and perhaps something like "shojo manga uses dreamy illustrations" are often the extent of visual analysis, so if the book is about manga as a *cultural* phenomenon, what's the argument for why it needs images?

1 2

Eike Exner @eikeexner.com · 2d

Your average manga history will be like, "manga started as political cartoons; at some point these somehow evolved into narrative comics; then Tezuka made manga cinematic; then the gekiga movement made them even more cinematic," and then it's mainly about how after that there's A Manga For Everyone.

1 1 3

Eike Exner @eikeexner.com · 2d

The problem with many books on comics (and I think this is true for manga especially), is that they rarely discuss visuals, which makes it a lot harder to claim fair use.

1 2 5

Eike Exner @eikeexner.com · 2d

The questions a publisher will ask themselves are: (1) what are the chances of a lawsuit? And (2) what would be our chances of winning that lawsuit? (And these questions are related.)

1 2 4

Eike Exner @eikeexner.com · 2d

You *can* legally publish a book on comics with images without asking the rightsholders for permission, both under US and Japanese law, which allow for "fair use" and "scholarly citation" of visuals. BUT there are important caveats:

Zack Davisson @zackdavisson.com · 2d

On another platform, @debaoki.bsky.social wrote a magnificent rant about how many of these books are killed by Japan's uncompromising image rights restrictions.

Comics are a visual medium. To properly write books discussing comics, you NEED visuals. But for Japanese publishers, the answer is no.

Zack Davisson @zackdavisson.com · 2d

This will go down as the most heartbreaking thing of my career. An absolute Mount Rushmore of manga scholars I was honored to be included with. Everyone included, such as myself and @okazu.yuricon.com did some of the best work of our lives. A brilliant book.

Now dead. Because of image rights.

2 7 18

Eike Exner @eikeexner.com · 2d

I've been wondering the same thing about the punchline, and I think that the foot is perhaps meant to be read as the man marching proudly with big steps after his successful courtship.

Reposted by Eike Exner

Eike Exner @eikeexner.com · 2d

Here's a little avant-garde manga from 1891.

1 6 24

Eike Exner @eikeexner.com · 2d

I've come across at least one other "feet story" like these from that period, so this appears to have been a popular fin-de-siecle mini-genre of cartooning. I wonder what sparked it.

teakagee.bsky.social @teakagee.bsky.social · 2d

1901 , French cartoonist Oswald Heidbrinck

Someone should draw the entire Liefeld X Force run but jut tell it through the missing feet

1 1 8

Eike Exner @eikeexner.com · 2d

One of our internet company oligarchs is making f'n *Bari Weiss* the *editor in chief* of *CBS News*

max tani @maxtani.bsky.social · 2d

David Ellison’s note to staff on Paramount’s acquisition of the Free Press

Eike Exner @eikeexner.com · 2d

Here's a little avant-garde manga from 1891.

1 6 24

Reposted by Eike Exner

Cristian Farias @cristianfarias.com · 3d

This video of Chicagoans intervening to save a man from being abducted off the streets by ICE is making the rounds on Instagram.

Community action works.

Source: www.instagram.com/reel/DPZL2AL...

3.5K 16K 44K

Eike Exner @eikeexner.com · 3d

So this is just our new normal now? Government thugs get to brutalize whomever they want, whenever they want, no more laws, no more rights?

A post of mine from yesterday about how we've given license to the most insecure loser men to beat up people who are not allowed to resist, just so that those losers can stop feeling miserable for a moment.

Eike Exner @eikeexner.com · 4d

After a while, the archivist wrote back that she'd found the cartoon! THE FIRST MANGA, REDISCOVERED!! Interestingly, it wasn't flipped in Japan, but only in NY! (Another mystery lost to time.)

In conclusion, an image may look like just another illustration, but behind it may lie hours of research.

Original version of the wordless four-panel queue-fishing cartoon.

Eike Exner @eikeexner.com · 4d

Turns out Texas Siftings was a moderately influential humor mag. Some issues have been digitized and I was excited to finally see the original. But: NOTHING.
As a last effort I contacted an archive with undigitized issues and sent them the cartoon and that the original should be from early 1891.

1 1