If most viewers are familiar with the concept of “manga”, which goes hand in hand with “anime”, then only those who are keen on comics in general and visual culture, in particular, have heard about “manhua”– Studio Mosspak.
Manhua literally translates as “free drawing”, and denotes a comic strip, which, incidentally, has an ancient and rich history. Not so long ago – in the 90s – Manhua was in a deep crisis and could not compete with Japanese manga, which occupied the market. The authors took serious literature as the basis for the plot of the comic, thereby limiting the circle of readers. And the artists did not consider illustration to be art. They preferred to bypass it, so as not to tarnish their name.
But everything changes since the beginning of the 2000s. The government was concerned about manhua – copyrights and investments, which immediately paid off. Not only interesting stories appeared for different categories of the public, but also a high-quality picture, which even contributed to the spread of comics abroad.
Despite the Japanese manga model, manhua still has distinctive features – color images, clear frames, lack of focus on details. The focus on the lives of the characters within modern society, which represents in the comics by its best sides.
The Moss Studio
One of the major creators of Manhua today is the Mosspak studio, founded in 2010. It got its name from the head of the Moss studio, who became famous after participating in the Golden Dragon competition in the Best Original Comic category. Together with two other artists – Old Xian and Tang Tszyu, who also won the Golden Dragon award several times – they represent the backbone of the studio. Illustrators have more than one joint project, for example, “Heat Capacity of Love” and “Joker Denny” by Old and Moss. The artists are so involved in the creative process that they even created their own animated characters as alter egos. Moss portrays himself as a white-haired guy with a small horn on his forehead. Old is an artist guy in a black rabbit mask, and Chan is a blonde gamer guy.
Among the most popular solo projects of artists, it is worth noting “Once” by Old from the collection “19 days”. A story writes in the genre of shonen-ai, both about love and friendship between guys.
In a similar genre, Tang Tszyu’s work “Their Stories”. Only as the main characters here are girls – manhua for lovers of shojo-ai.
Another artist of the studio is a student of Moss Amen, known for stories about the raccoon Amen (again, a kind of alter ego). Who daily helps people who find themselves in difficult situations. Ji Chuanliu is also among the newcomers. But she has already delighted the fans of the studio with the comic strip “My older brother is an idiot”. A story about the relationship between older and younger children, partly a biographical one. In addition to the above, there is one more author in the studio, although he works “remotely”. Ray lives in the United States and, in addition to Manhua, creates illustrations for computer games.
Works Of The Mosspak
The artists of the Mosspak studio create in the Manhua canons. The stories that they actualize are extremely sensual and emotional, complemented by the image, they do not leave the reader indifferent to their heroes and the events taking place with them.
The works of “Mosspakov” illustrate the achievements of comics in recent years. You should pay attention to them if the comic is interesting in general. If you were tired of Japanese manga, or maybe you just want to learn more about “Chinese”.
