Two classes ago while we were talking about Little Nemo, we touched on how the topic of narration/description by way of narration. In the first few comics of Little Nemo, nearly every panel had text written under it describing what would be going on in that certain panel (or the story as a whole if text got cut off.) I brought up one of the differences in narration for Manga and Traditional American comics, that being that Manga typically doesn't have too much of it.

From what I've read, Manga is often very explosive, filled with action, and incredibly detailed (as detailed as a black and white picture can get, anyway.) This isn't to say that traditional American comics are all drawn carelessly, all we need to look at to reassure us of that is, in fact, Little Nemo. The comic in which the zoom-in of the gigantic elephant is drawn is rendered with amazing detail: http://www.comicstriplibrary.org/images/comics/Little%20Nemo/hs_Little%20Nemo%20-%201906-09-23.jpg.

Little Nemo can also be used as an example of the differences between the two countries' styles (along with Bleach as an example of a Manga.) In the first comic, the scenes are narrated below the panels, as I have already stated: http://www.comicstriplibrary.org/images/comics/Little%20Nemo/hs_Little%20Nemo%20-%201905-10-15.jpg When looking at Bleach, a manga, we see that the artist/author will usually only describe what is going on only relying on dialogue and the actual picture of events. Take Bleack 351 page 09: www.onemanga.com/Bleach/351/09/, in this one page alone, there is no narration from the author, yet all the events can be taken in by the reader to understand everything: Ulquiorra (the man with the wings for those who don't read the manga) threw a spear at Ichigo (the masked man with the devil horns and long hair) which missed (as Ulquiorra says.) Uryuu then is shocked that he can use the attack more than once, informing the reader as such. The artist also shows Ulquiorra creating another spear to emphasize that he can use the attack more than once.

Granted, Little Nemo and modern American comics aren't exactly the same, but the same usages of narration are still prevalent. The "little yellow boxes" used by the authors to narrate the story that appear in American comics have become iconic: Deadpool often points this out and makes a joke of it: http://media.photobucket.com/image/deadpool%20little%20yellow%20boxes/rwe1138/250px-DeadpoolYellowBoxes.jpg. Having said that, it's clear that the usage of separate boxes to narrate/usage of narration at all is much less in manga/Japanese style comics than traditional American comics.