“The Manga Guide to Electricity”, part of “The Manga Guide” series by No Starch Press, is a novel approach to the old problem of getting over the initial mental block when trying to learn electronics.
We decided to compare this book to another introductory text: “Getting Started in Electronics” by [Forrest M. Mims]. [Mims]’ book is a handwritten masterpiece of electronic literature. The writing style is friendly and concise, the examples are simple, and the drawings are excellent. It also makes sure to keep the learning process as application based as possible. Unlike other books, it doesn’t bog the reader down with math and theory that is only useful to advanced students. Since its original printing in 1983, [Mims]’ has become the de facto standard for beginner electronic literature.
“The Manga Guide” attempts to walk the beginner through the very basics of electronics using the interactions between [Rereko], a resident of planet Electopia; [Yonosuke], a transdimensional robot cell phone; and [Hikaru Yano Sensei], an electrical engineering researcher at a Japanese university. [Rereko] is apparently very bad at electricity, and is sent to learn the basics from Hikaru over the summer by her professor.
“The Manga Guide” is a lot of fun to read. The interactions between the characters are lighthearted, and the whole setting has a sort of quirkiness about it that makes you keep reading just for the joy of it. It covers most of the basics thoroughly and with excellent examples. The art is a very well drawn, playful style of manga.
Unfortunately, in order to keep the story going, a lot of little but important details were left out of the manga. To compensate for this, there are mini chapters of what can be politely described as some of the most dry electronics text ever written. We found ourselves skipping over this text often to get back to the manga parts of the book. Another disadvantage to this book is that it is hard to go back to previous pages in order to reference things since one subject may be spread across several pages of story. This is just an unfortunate side effect of the manga format. A book like [Mims]’ has the advantage here because the information is denser and easily indexed.
In conclusion, this book is a great addition to any library, but not to be relied on for learning. While “The Manga Guide to Electricity” introduces you to the basics very well, unless you want to suffer through the mini chapters, you will be no closer to building a circuit at the end than when you started reading. [Mims]’ book, on the other hand, leaves you with all the skills to begin experimenting with, building, and designing your own circuits. Luckily, at the price range of this book, there is really no reason not to pick it up and give it a read.
No Starch Press has provided us with two copies to give away. Just leave a comment including the words “I want this book.” and you’ll be entered in the random drawing. Please only use the phrase once or you’ll be disqualified. Entries will close 12PM PDT Thursday August 6, 2009. Congratulations to our winners [daniel n.] and [Fiach Antaw].
I want this book.
I want this book, but I suppose I am too late.
I want this book.
I want this book.
i want this book ….
I want this book.
I don’t want this book. I have betters at home.
I’m curious if that’s a bot pushing seo rank on this article..also why hasn’t hackaday taken this article down? solicit much?
Japanese have been using manga for education (at least self-education) for years already. They have the art of passing the information in a funny and entertaining way on many many subjects. Unfortunately my japanese is not as good as I would like to be, so I want this book.
The Art of Electronics is a fantastic book, but it is not a beginner intro text. Mims is accessible to everyone regardless of technical skill. The Art of Electronics requires quite a bit more technical knowledge.
We actually debated over which book we were going to pick out of the two, but Mims won for being 100% anyone’s beginner book.
Oh what the heck, i’ll bite. I want the book
I want this book.
“I want this book.”
Just to be sure I included the quotes and the period
Light and fun reading the teach you something? I’m in.
Best regards
I want this book.
i want this book
wtf? Is this 4chan now?
(not because of the manga, because of this “I wnat this book” shit)
I’d rather want “The Circuit Designer’s Companion” and “The Art Of Electronics”
i want this book more then the last 238 people :P
I want to hook.
err, opps i mean
I want this book.
Actually, i changed my mind. I don’t really want the book
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woah! I want this book.
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Manga approaches to classic texts are mostly fun. Manga shakespeare (http://www.mangashakespeare.com/) is worth a look as well.
i want this book
For the love of God, please get these kidiots off here. If you need something to be presented in a cartoon, you’re probably too stupid to really try to learn it.
This is to say nothing of the pointlessness of manga (and all anime). Broad styles exist like this because too many people aren’t creative enough to do anything really different. If you aren’t creative, you aren’t an artist, it’s that simple, and whatever you create- no matter how appealing to whatever your target market is- isn’t art.
Art- By the very nature of the roots of the english word!- requires both skill and creativity. Manga can have at most one of these; either you are skilled in copying or you are creative enough to have invented manga, which requires little skill.
i want this book
I want this book, please?
Hi,
oh yes, for sure :
I want this book.
Please it could became the starting point of something great , trust me …
Have a nice day
Please, i’m in holiday this evening …
I want this book.
Thank you very much
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Please may I have this book
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Thank you :)
I do _not_ want this book.
I want this book.
um i want this book? do i? what book and why am i typing i wan this book
Crikey this has to be the most comments ive ever seen on a hackaday thread!
i want this book
i want this book
i want this book
I want this book.
i want this book.
I have a BSEE degree and really wish I had something like this as a child to peak my curiosity and let me know of the types of things available once I obtained the higher education. Now, I want it for my children!
“For the love of God, please get these kidiots off here. If you need something to be presented in a cartoon, you’re probably too stupid to really try to learn it.
This is to say nothing of the pointlessness of manga (and all anime). Broad styles exist like this because too many people aren’t creative enough to do anything really different. If you aren’t creative, you aren’t an artist, it’s that simple, and whatever you create- no matter how appealing to whatever your target market is- isn’t art.
Art- By the very nature of the roots of the english word!- requires both skill and creativity. Manga can have at most one of these; either you are skilled in copying or you are creative enough to have invented manga, which requires little skill.
Posted at 4:00 am on Aug 6th, 2009 by Choscura”
Oh, just STFU. Find some other place to post your sanctimony.
i want this book.
i want this book.