Top 5 Brush Pens for Comic and Manga Illustration

What makes a brush pen different, how to choose, and the one to start with.

A brush pen is a self-contained tool — ink, reservoir, and a flexible tip all in one body. No dipping, no separate bottle, no setup. This makes it faster for production work and more portable for sketching. The trade-off is that the tip is not replaceable in most models, and the ink formulation is fixed — you cannot choose your own.

The five below represent the useful range of what brush pens actually do. They are not ranked. They are different tools for different purposes, and knowing which is which is more useful than knowing which is "best".

Pentel Pocket Brush Pen (GFKP)

The industry standard for expressive brush pen linework. The tip is a genuine synthetic brush — it produces a broad, expressive line range from hairline to bold, responds to pressure variation in a way that feels close to a natural brush, and is used by professional comics artists across Japan and Europe.

The ink is semi-waterproof — sufficient for most uses, though a heavy watercolour wash applied directly will lift it. Refill cartridges are available and should be purchased with the pen.

Best for: gestural illustration, expressive character linework, artists who want the character of a brush without the setup time of ink and a separate brush. The tip requires practice to control — the range of possible marks is wide, which means inconsistency is visible.

Note: the tip frays eventually with heavy use. This is normal. A fresh cartridge does not restore a frayed tip — the pen itself needs replacing at that point.

Pilot Shunpitsu

A hard-tipped brush pen with an almost instant dry time — approximately one second on standard paper. This is a specific and genuine advantage for left-handed illustrators, who typically deal with smearing as their hand moves across fresh marks. It is also useful for any illustrator working at speed in a production context.

The line range is narrower than the Pentel GFKP — this is a pen for controlled, consistent linework rather than expressive variation. Not refillable. Treat it as a precision disposable.

Best for: left-handed illustrators; fast production work where dry time matters; panel borders and architectural linework where consistency is more important than character.

Kuretake No.13 Fountain Brush Pen

A fountain pen in brush pen form. Fills directly from a bottle of any water-based dye ink, which means you can use it with Dominant Industry, Pilot Iroshizuku, or any other ink in the Inkwell range. This is the most sustainable option in this list — no cartridges, no disposable components, refill indefinitely from a bottle.

The tip is a synthetic brush similar in character to the Pentel GFKP but with fountain pen ink flow, which means the ink behaviour depends on what you put in it.

Do not use pigment inks, india inks, or acrylic inks in the No.13. The fountain pen mechanism will clog. This pen is for water-based dye inks only.

Best for: illustrators who want to use specialist inks in a brush pen format; the environmentally conscious practitioner who wants a fully refillable tool; experimenting with different ink characters in brush pen application.

Tombow Fudenosuke Hard Tip

A fine-tipped brush pen with modest line variation. The hard tip produces consistent, controlled marks — narrower and more predictable than the soft-tip version. The line range is smaller than either the Pentel or Kuretake options, which makes it less suited to expressive gestural work and well suited to detailed linework, precise character features, and lettering.

Widely used in calligraphy and hand lettering as well as illustration. If you are interested in both disciplines, the Fudenosuke Hard is one of the few tools that serves both usefully.

Not refillable.

Best for: detailed illustration work; lettering and hand lettering; illustrators who find the Pentel GFKP's range too wide to control in early practice sessions.

Kuretake Zig Cartoonist Brush Pen No.22

A medium brush pen with a tip character between the Fudenosuke Hard and the Pentel GFKP. The line variation is moderate — expressive enough for character linework, controlled enough for panel detail. The ink is waterproof once dry, which makes it genuinely useful for mixed media work where a wash will follow the linework.

Cartridge refillable.

Best for: mixed media illustration where waterproof linework is required; illustrators who find the Pentel GFKP too expressive and the Fudenosuke too restrictive; a useful middle option for panel-based comic work.

The one to start with

If you are buying your first brush pen and have no prior experience: the Pentel GFKP. It is the most broadly useful, most widely used, and most instructive tool in this list. Its wide line range means it rewards practice and develops sensitivity to pressure in a way that the more controlled options do not. The marks it makes when you are in control of it are genuinely beautiful. Getting to that point takes a few sessions and is worth the effort.

If you are left-handed, or if dry time is a specific practical problem: start with the Pilot Shunpitsu instead.