Having two people working on a series increases the chances of it getting canceled because one of them did something terrible... It has happened a few times already...

Mods are asleep, time to declare that I always fold my sandwiches like a taco. (jk)

About the negative effect of one man teams: on the Global/US/English side of LINE Webtoon, there have been cases of established authors who ended up self-publishing a webcomic adaptation of their own works after learning how to draw. Some of them ended up getting officially published because obviously the premise of authors doing this is very lucrative for the company. Think of the pre-existing fanbase, easier licensing, future prospects, unlimited creative control. But that last part ended up becoming a problem, especially for the readers. The authors would constantly rewrite, retcon, and "reinterpret" their story to no end. As readers you're supposed to let go any kind of expectations because these practices would go on until the last second right before a series gets officially published. When the Originals version drops, the story is finally set in stone, but it's going to be a Story of Theseus situation where you can't even call it an AU because of how little it has to do with the original.

Most mangaka work with assistants so the art is technically the latter's. The basic style is maybe the author's and the assistants are simply drawing in that style.

The rest that don't are usually newcomers and their art are usually rough around the edges at the first couple volumes or so (or in their first couple works if they didn't make a hit immediately). If you've noticed art changes in authors, that usually means they got better and/or more assistants.

Of course, not all of them. Sometimes there's no difference between the art quality in the Twitter releases and the serialization, but I find that's a very few minority.

Anyway, that's why I answered 'No'.

The early bird may have caught the early worm, but the late worm survived!!

Idealism says One Man Team is best for preservation of the canon story without reinterpretation.

But in practice, the workload is just too much unless the author has a large team to draw the manga while he remains on the plot and text of the story. Even Oda of One Piece has a team of people he himself hires and 3rd party people such as Shueisha's editor assigned to Oda for oversight. That editor has been furnished with the ending arc information so that inadvertent retcons OR contradictions don't occur with the current existing story contradicting or not supporting the future ending arc. There are so many facts and items to wrangle that a one-man team is going to have a lot more mistakes than a team of people that provides not only a sounding board for ideas, but oversight management.

From a business perspective, having a separate artist is also a generally better approach. The story author is relieved of the tediousness of drawing the artwork in a one-man team. The time savings can be spent not just on improving future ideas for the story, but in other lifestyle activities such as getting along with the spouse and kids. After all, gotta take the kids to go see Riddick:Furya

There are absolutely manga I have loved that have had a separate author and artist--Death Note comes to mind at the forefront, but as for ongoing things, both Akane-Banashi and Ichi the Witch have duos that seem to be remarkably in-sync, the kind of dream teams that the in-universe pair in Monochrome Days dream of being.

There is also tons of sloppy garbage that comes from a singular manga-ka with a really poor vision for entertainment.

But on average, yes, I would say it's better if they can be one person. Murata demonstrates the exact issue with a difference in "vision", as although he is a phenomenal artist and did some great work on Eyeshield 21 with Riichiro Inagaki, I find his manga adaptation of One-Punch Man to be a less entertaining read than... the shittily drawn webcomic original by ONE.

There is a faction of people that insists that every single "change" in the manga is personally directed by ONE, but it is fundamentally obvious that there is a difference in vision and that ONE is just such a Murata fanboy that he rubber-stamps any suggestions Murata has even if the quality of the product suffers as a result.

So yeah, many multi-author series suffer for the same reason anime filler is usually unbearable. Even if you're working day in and day out on the same product, if you don't have the exact same vision for the story and characters, you're going to make something... "uncharacteristic" happen. It's less egregious in a manga than in an anime filler but only the writer TRULY knows how they imagined the character to be drawn when they write a scene, the artist just has to do their best.

It all depends on their skill.

If someone is a good writer and a good artist, then of course that is going to be preferable, since they alone can make the vision in their head come to life better than anyone else.

However, if someone is a bad writer but a good artist, or a bad artist but a good writer, then it would only make sense to team up with someone to help with their shortcomings. This approach can still give us something that is even better than many works with solo mangaka, but it just requires better teamwork and cohesion in order to do-so.

Basically what I'm trying to say is that skill levels being equal, a solo mangaka can often produce better results. However, a really talented mangaka team can also often beat out a mid-tier solo mangaka.

Since there's so many variables at play, I voted "I don't know"

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::End of Transmission::

Quote from dreamaway

Most mangaka work with assistants so the art is technically the latter's. The basic style is maybe the author's and the assistants are simply drawing in that style.

Interesting point...
Nevertheless, an author who is also the artist, with having several assistants, is still a notably different thing, to an author and a separate artist. (with or without assistants)

@Naeko Those are some good and valid points, but...
I don't think they are actually relevant.
Having a good editor, is a good help/support for any author, but I don't see how that relates to this question: Editors guide, support, suggest, and advise.
They do not decide, write, or draw.
The same is true of any other people, who serve as a sounding board.
It's a very significantly different thing, to having a different artist.

Stuff like having a good editor, assistants, people to act as a sounding board...
Those can all be quite helpful, but they are also actually very much separate and different issues, to the issue of having a separate artist.

The story author is relieved of the tediousness of drawing the artwork in a one-man team.

...or they could have assistants.
Ideally, you should have the artist doing all their own art (I'd argue that would give the best result, though arguably making it too slow), but...

Assistants draw what the person they are an assistant to, tells them to draw, and draw it in that persons style.
They do not create the style, nor make decisions regarding the art. (well, I imagine some might be allowed to do some minor decisions, but...)
Assistants allow the artist to output more/quicker art and/or have more time over for writing (and/or research or whatever), thanks to a lot of the art technically being done by others, in accordance with their decisions and style.
A separate artist, on the other hand...

This is one where it seems like the answer should be yes. If the author has the skills to draw then they will more likely be more likely to draw in a style that matches their stories. And I think most of the time them being the same works well. Even if there is an artist who would be the absolute best for a story that doesn't mean what the author drew isn't great itself.

Overall I think there is something that can be gained by having the artist and author focus on one aspect more then having to split. But if the industry wasn't so hard on mangaka and they could have more time that itself would help.

There are some authors who shouldn't/can't draw and some artists who can't write. Overall though I think that most series are perfectly fine with the author being the artist. So it's not a "of course it's yes" but "it works pretty well yes.'

There are definitely series out there that benefit from different artists. The one that comes to mind is "Bad boys, happy home." The author teamed up with a artist with a different style to their own to make it. And I think that does add to it. Would it have been bad if they drew it themselves? Probably not. The different art really hits different though.

Quote from RubyDi

But if the industry wasn't so hard on mangaka and they could have more time that itself would help.

👆