Fables and Fairy Tales in Pop Culture Taken from the Example of Japanese Comics

Abstract

Manga is a fascinating product of contemporary Japanese culture. Strongly rooted in tradition, inferred from art, associated with literature, it has become an inexhaustible source for researchers who wants to explore the achievement of sequential art. Everything is interesting about manga, starting from the artists themselves, ending with the transition from idea to effect. Japanese artists creating comics draw a lot of inspiration from literature and world art. Much comes from myths, legends, fables and fairy tales, both domestic and from around the world. They can be found in the text layer, but mainly in the iconic layer. Among them three main groups can be distinguished: one dealing with the scenario, the second and third will focus on the image, while the third will provide a single borrowed illustration from a particular theme or in a convention.The aim of this paper is to outline the issues relating to Japanese comic books on selected examples, including: trying to determine the potential audience of manga, which were based or only used themes from fairytales, trying to define the role of the artist as a modern-day equivalent fabulist, and pointing out an indication of the most popular topics and methods of presentation.