Face Banking is a term used for a technique that Fujio Akatsuka utilized in some of his high-profile manga serializations, starting in the mid-1960s. It was most notably used with Osomatsu-kun, but also popped up with other titles during the height of its usage.
Overview[]
A "face bank" was first devised for Osomatsu-kun as a way to provide ease on having to draw six identical characters every time; Akatsuka would draw heads with different expressions, and they would then be put through a copy machine to create several copies of sheets of these faces so he would have them at hand to use whenever needed.
This would mean that Akatsuka would only have to draw the bodies of the sextuplets and the assistants would only have to ink them. The faces could then be easily pasted on depending on the type of moods that were required in a scene. However, this would also result in the faces being of a different and thicker lineart quality than the body. Manuscripts and copies of such also show that the pasted heads would be on aged, browner paper than the same quality of paper that were used for the comics.
After some time, the face bank was discarded as Akatsuka found that it became too much of a hassle to keep up with despite having created it to ease such troubles. Some form of it did, however, get use within the 1987 Comic BomBom revival and the TV Magazine launch, with it even being used to copy and paste entire sextuplet bodies/poses for easy layout.
Even with it being infamously used for -kun, there are other series of note where such a technique was used to cut down on production time.
Manga that Relied on Face Banks[]
- Osomatsu-kun- Despite Akatsuka's own admission that the practice was eventually discarded in the title, usage of the pasted heads could still be seen late into the irregular, longer chapters that were serialized in Weekly Shonen Sunday.
- Akko-chan's Got a Secret! (late Ribon run, revisions of Ribon chapters for Mushi Pro)- Akko and Moko tended to be face banked, along with Akatsuka using this as a way to paste on the redesigned face for Kankichi in the later revisions.
- Leave it to Chota - As Chota was of the same base design as the Sextuplets, save for some differences, Akatsuka seemed to utilize this for him as well. Telltale thicker lineart and poorer quality heads can be seen in later chapters of the title.
- Otasuke-kun- Chapters around 1964 (particularly "The Company President's Wife?") and on have evidence of face banking for Otasuke, as well as Ichiro and other characters.
- Nonsensical NO.1- Face banking can be seen to have been utilized for Bokeo and his parents later in the first run, as a way to save on having to draw certain expressions over and over.