漫画と小説の書き方
最近、漫画界の重鎮、浦沢直樹が描いた「モンスター」（全１５巻）を読み、漫画と小説の書き方の異差について考えた。
１．顔つき・体型
漫画も小説も、登場人物は一人一人が独特の体型的特徴を持っていなくてはならない。小説では体型を「がっしりした」「痩せた」「丸顔」「垂れ目」「禿げ頭」などと表現するが、漫画では体型を言葉で表すのではなく、描かなくてはならない。「モンスター」の登場人物は独特の顔つきや体型をしているので、読者はその人物を見たとたん誰だかわかる。例えば、主人公ドクター天馬を追跡する警部は逆三角形顔で禿げ頭、目が鋭くて、つり上がっている。
２．服装
小説家は登場人物が何を着ているか言葉で説明する。「擦り切れた上着」「黄色い長袖シャツ」「茶色のブーツ」「金色のブレスレット」「白い帽子」等。漫画家は登場人物の身なりについては頭の天辺から爪先まで全てを描かなくてはならない。帽子を例にとれば、材質・形・大きさ・デザインなどだ。小説家は登場人物の身なりを全て事細かく書く必要はない。必要な特徴のみ書けばよい。この点、漫画家の仕事は大変だ。
３．場面描写
小説家は話の場面を言葉で説明する。例えば、「古くて湿った暗い部屋」「半月が雲に隠れた」「木製の玄関が朽ち果てている」など。漫画家は場面を描いて見せなくてはならない。例えば、主人公がある家の前に立っている場面なら、その家、門構え、屋根、屋根瓦、生垣、樹木、草、空など全て場面にふさわしく描かなくてはならない。小説家は場面を全部書き表す必要はない。もし場面を言葉で全部表そうとしたら何ページあっても足らない。
４．心理描写
小説家は登場人物が何を考えているか言葉で読者に伝える。例えば、「次郎は嬉しそうに見えたが、心では悔しくて泣いていた」「貴子は静かに語っていたが、激しい嫉妬でワーと叫びたいほどであった」とか。漫画家は登場人物の心の状態を説明することはできない。できるのは、心理状態に合った顔を描くことである。眉毛の形、目の表情、顔や額の皺の寄り具合、唇の曲がり方などだ。漫画家は、ダヴィンチのように、顔の表情筋を全て熟知していなくてはならない。ここは漫画家の腕の見せ所だ。
５．ページの見え方
小説家がページに関してできることは、論文のようにぎっしり言葉を書きこんで読む気を挫けさせるか、対話や改行を多く使って余白だらけのページにするか、その中間かの何れかである。あまり余白が多いと、ページ稼ぎのためだと思われかねない。また、小説家はひとつの文の文字数を多くしたり、少なくしたりできる。ただし、一文があまり長いと読む気がそがれる。逆に短いと文が軽く感ずる。ディケンズの「ニコラス・ニクルビ」を読んだことがあるが、一文が２０行ぐらい続く文があり、窒息しそうになったことがある。
漫画家はページを自由自在に分割できる。枠の数や大きさは勿論、一ページ全部をショッキングな場面に使って、読者がページをめくった途端びっくりするような仕掛けもできる。また登場人物が枠からはみ出すのも立体的なインパクトがある。アクション漫画で「ギャー」とか「ワーッ」とか擬音を漫画的に描けるが、その量と形も考えなくてはならない。
６．プロット
漫画も小説もプロット（出だし、コンフリクト、クライマックス、結末）は最も大切だ。漫画の場合、プロットが巧くできていれば読者は次の展開を知りたい一心で、少しぐらい登場人物の外見、服装、場面描写が変でも気がつかない。小説の場合は、文字を追っていくのがもどかしいほどのプロットがいい。
プロットは読者の心を引っ張り、動かし、考えさせるものが良い。
Comics and Novels
Recently I read a series of comic books titled Monster written by Naoki Urazawa, a prominent Japanese comic writer. As I was reading them, I realized similarities and differences between comics and novel writing.
1. Appearance
The appearances of the characters must be distinct from each other in both genres. Each character has to have his or her peculiar bodily characteristics. In novels, the writer depicts them by describing their bodily features like: stout, skinny, round faced, big eyed, or bold headed, while in comics the writer does not have to explain their features in words but must draw them. Each character in Monster is so skillfully drawn that the readers can easily identify each character the moment they see them in the page. For example, the police officer who pursues Dr. Tenma, the protagonist, has an inverted triangular face with a bold head and sharp sloe eyes.
2. Clothes
The novel writer describes what the characters are wearing such as a black jacket, yellow long sleeves, dark boots, golden bracelets, or white hats, while the comic writer shows the characters’ wears from top to toe such as the shape, size, and design of a hat. A novelist does not have to show all the details of the clothes. All he has to do is to describe their striking features. In this respect, the comic writers have to pay more attention to the details of the clothing. However, the novelist must choose what to describe and what not to describe. Unnecessary description confuses the reader. The novelist must know that even a slight description of the clothes can play the role of foreshadowing.
3. Background scenery
A novelist depicts the background scenery of the character by writing some of the characteristics like: George was confined in an old dark room, The moon above him began to hide behind the clouds, or The wooden front door was decayed, while the comic writer shows them. Sometimes the comic writer shows the whole background scenery in detail. For example, if the character is standing in front of a house, the comic writer draws the whole house including the windows, walls, roofs, roof tiles, fences, grass, trees, and the sky. The novelist, however, doesn’t have to describe all the details of the background. If the novelist describes them, he has to spend pages and pages. Effective description is expected of a novelist.
4. Psychology
A novelist describes what the character is thinking like: Tom looked happy, but at heart he was crying with vexation; Nancy was talking quietly but she just wanted to scream out of jealousy. The comic writer cannot describe the character’s state of mind. All she can do is to show the character’s psychology by drawing the character’s face paying attention to all the muscles on his face: the shape of eyebrows, lips, eyes, and wrinkles in the forehead. She should draw them so well so that the reader can grasp the character’s psychology at a glance. This requires skillful technique.
5. Appearance of the page
All a novelist can do about the appearance of each page of his book is to fill it with many words or not. Some novelists fill each page with so many words like academic papers that the reader doesn’t feel like reading it. Others leave so much room by writing a lot of dialogue and using many line breaks that each page looks like a blank page with scattered words. The reader of such a scant-word novel might suspect that the novelist is trying to earn the number of pages.
Another thing a novelist can do is choose the number of each sentence. Some writers prefer a long sentence embedded with commas, semicolons, and hyphens. I remember I was suffocated by reading Charles Dicken’s Nicholas Nickleby because there were a lot of sentences, each of which lasted more than 20 lines. The skillful writer knows the right number of words in the right situation.
The comic writer cannot use such a technique. She uses the page effectively. She sometimes draws the whole one page with a shocking scene on a new page aiming at the reader’s surprise as he turns the page. She can also divide the page into any number of frames, some big, some small. Sometimes the character pops out of the frame to give the reader a three dimensional feeling. In this point, comics are more dynamic.
6. Plot
The plot is the most important for both novels and comics: the beginning, conflicts, the climax, and the ending. If the plot is superb, the reader is, without even noticing, involved in the story and turns the pages to satisfy the anxiety to reach the ending as fast as possible. While the reader is turning pages, he pays little attention to the characters’ appearances, surrounding sceneries, or the look of the page. Whether a comic or a novel succeeds or not depends on the plot, I should say.
最近、漫画界の重鎮、浦沢直樹が描いた「モンスター」（全１５巻）を読み、漫画と小説の書き方の異差について考えた。
１．顔つき・体型
漫画も小説も、登場人物は一人一人が独特の体型的特徴を持っていなくてはならない。小説では体型を「がっしりした」「痩せた」「丸顔」「垂れ目」「禿げ頭」などと表現するが、漫画では体型を言葉で表すのではなく、描かなくてはならない。「モンスター」の登場人物は独特の顔つきや体型をしているので、読者はその人物を見たとたん誰だかわかる。例えば、主人公ドクター天馬を追跡する警部は逆三角形顔で禿げ頭、目が鋭くて、つり上がっている。
２．服装
小説家は登場人物が何を着ているか言葉で説明する。「擦り切れた上着」「黄色い長袖シャツ」「茶色のブーツ」「金色のブレスレット」「白い帽子」等。漫画家は登場人物の身なりについては頭の天辺から爪先まで全てを描かなくてはならない。帽子を例にとれば、材質・形・大きさ・デザインなどだ。小説家は登場人物の身なりを全て事細かく書く必要はない。必要な特徴のみ書けばよい。この点、漫画家の仕事は大変だ。
３．場面描写
小説家は話の場面を言葉で説明する。例えば、「古くて湿った暗い部屋」「半月が雲に隠れた」「木製の玄関が朽ち果てている」など。漫画家は場面を描いて見せなくてはならない。例えば、主人公がある家の前に立っている場面なら、その家、門構え、屋根、屋根瓦、生垣、樹木、草、空など全て場面にふさわしく描かなくてはならない。小説家は場面を全部書き表す必要はない。もし場面を言葉で全部表そうとしたら何ページあっても足らない。
４．心理描写
小説家は登場人物が何を考えているか言葉で読者に伝える。例えば、「次郎は嬉しそうに見えたが、心では悔しくて泣いていた」「貴子は静かに語っていたが、激しい嫉妬でワーと叫びたいほどであった」とか。漫画家は登場人物の心の状態を説明することはできない。できるのは、心理状態に合った顔を描くことである。眉毛の形、目の表情、顔や額の皺の寄り具合、唇の曲がり方などだ。漫画家は、ダヴィンチのように、顔の表情筋を全て熟知していなくてはならない。ここは漫画家の腕の見せ所だ。
５．ページの見え方
小説家がページに関してできることは、論文のようにぎっしり言葉を書きこんで読む気を挫けさせるか、対話や改行を多く使って余白だらけのページにするか、その中間かの何れかである。あまり余白が多いと、ページ稼ぎのためだと思われかねない。また、小説家はひとつの文の文字数を多くしたり、少なくしたりできる。ただし、一文があまり長いと読む気がそがれる。逆に短いと文が軽く感ずる。ディケンズの「ニコラス・ニクルビ」を読んだことがあるが、一文が２０行ぐらい続く文があり、窒息しそうになったことがある。
漫画家はページを自由自在に分割できる。枠の数や大きさは勿論、一ページ全部をショッキングな場面に使って、読者がページをめくった途端びっくりするような仕掛けもできる。また登場人物が枠からはみ出すのも立体的なインパクトがある。アクション漫画で「ギャー」とか「ワーッ」とか擬音を漫画的に描けるが、その量と形も考えなくてはならない。
６．プロット
漫画も小説もプロット（出だし、コンフリクト、クライマックス、結末）は最も大切だ。漫画の場合、プロットが巧くできていれば読者は次の展開を知りたい一心で、少しぐらい登場人物の外見、服装、場面描写が変でも気がつかない。小説の場合は、文字を追っていくのがもどかしいほどのプロットがいい。
プロットは読者の心を引っ張り、動かし、考えさせるものが良い。
Comics and Novels
Recently I read a series of comic books titled Monster written by Naoki Urazawa, a prominent Japanese comic writer. As I was reading them, I realized similarities and differences between comics and novel writing.
1. Appearance
The appearances of the characters must be distinct from each other in both genres. Each character has to have his or her peculiar bodily characteristics. In novels, the writer depicts them by describing their bodily features like: stout, skinny, round faced, big eyed, or bold headed, while in comics the writer does not have to explain their features in words but must draw them. Each character in Monster is so skillfully drawn that the readers can easily identify each character the moment they see them in the page. For example, the police officer who pursues Dr. Tenma, the protagonist, has an inverted triangular face with a bold head and sharp sloe eyes.
2. Clothes
The novel writer describes what the characters are wearing such as a black jacket, yellow long sleeves, dark boots, golden bracelets, or white hats, while the comic writer shows the characters’ wears from top to toe such as the shape, size, and design of a hat. A novelist does not have to show all the details of the clothes. All he has to do is to describe their striking features. In this respect, the comic writers have to pay more attention to the details of the clothing. However, the novelist must choose what to describe and what not to describe. Unnecessary description confuses the reader. The novelist must know that even a slight description of the clothes can play the role of foreshadowing.
3. Background scenery
A novelist depicts the background scenery of the character by writing some of the characteristics like: George was confined in an old dark room, The moon above him began to hide behind the clouds, or The wooden front door was decayed, while the comic writer shows them. Sometimes the comic writer shows the whole background scenery in detail. For example, if the character is standing in front of a house, the comic writer draws the whole house including the windows, walls, roofs, roof tiles, fences, grass, trees, and the sky. The novelist, however, doesn’t have to describe all the details of the background. If the novelist describes them, he has to spend pages and pages. Effective description is expected of a novelist.
4. Psychology
A novelist describes what the character is thinking like: Tom looked happy, but at heart he was crying with vexation; Nancy was talking quietly but she just wanted to scream out of jealousy. The comic writer cannot describe the character’s state of mind. All she can do is to show the character’s psychology by drawing the character’s face paying attention to all the muscles on his face: the shape of eyebrows, lips, eyes, and wrinkles in the forehead. She should draw them so well so that the reader can grasp the character’s psychology at a glance. This requires skillful technique.
5. Appearance of the page
All a novelist can do about the appearance of each page of his book is to fill it with many words or not. Some novelists fill each page with so many words like academic papers that the reader doesn’t feel like reading it. Others leave so much room by writing a lot of dialogue and using many line breaks that each page looks like a blank page with scattered words. The reader of such a scant-word novel might suspect that the novelist is trying to earn the number of pages.
Another thing a novelist can do is choose the number of each sentence. Some writers prefer a long sentence embedded with commas, semicolons, and hyphens. I remember I was suffocated by reading Charles Dicken’s Nicholas Nickleby because there were a lot of sentences, each of which lasted more than 20 lines. The skillful writer knows the right number of words in the right situation.
The comic writer cannot use such a technique. She uses the page effectively. She sometimes draws the whole one page with a shocking scene on a new page aiming at the reader’s surprise as he turns the page. She can also divide the page into any number of frames, some big, some small. Sometimes the character pops out of the frame to give the reader a three dimensional feeling. In this point, comics are more dynamic.
6. Plot
The plot is the most important for both novels and comics: the beginning, conflicts, the climax, and the ending. If the plot is superb, the reader is, without even noticing, involved in the story and turns the pages to satisfy the anxiety to reach the ending as fast as possible. While the reader is turning pages, he pays little attention to the characters’ appearances, surrounding sceneries, or the look of the page. Whether a comic or a novel succeeds or not depends on the plot, I should say.
I always thought that comics and screen plays had a lot in common as well. That might explain why so many comic books have been turned into Hollywood movies recently. Also, I think dialogs on comic books and novels are very much the same most of the time.
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