Narutaki over at Reverse Thieves, however, has figured out a significant piece of the puzzle: screentones. This is, of course, a broad generalization, but in the analysis, Japanese creators tended to use their screentones primarily as backdrop, where western creators were more inclined to use them heavily in shading and patterning for both foreground and background.
I point out that it's a generalization because, as Narutaki mentions as well, there are plenty of exceptions to this-- mangaka frequently use screentones for certain kinds of patterning or other dramatic effect, and there are surely manga-inspired American artists who use screentone minimally. But I thought the ideawas kind of interesting.
We have a few artists out around the site-- any thoughts on this?
It's an industry thing. Comic artist who see screen tone used in manga immediately think to try using it for an OEL 'manga' -- but it'll be a few years more before they independently discover all the tricks and applications that most Japanese artist have absorbed from years of reading (or learned the hard way while slaving away as some other artist's assistant.)