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Forum - View topicBridging the Gap between US Comics and Manga with Kodansha USA
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MajorZero
Posts: 359 |
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Strange, weird and new is not something I would call AoT or 99% of other manga published in US. The most popular things are generic shounens and fujioshi bait crap like Black Butler. |
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WashuTakahashi
 Posts: 415 Location: Chicago, IL |
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They really hit the nail on the head for why most people that prefer manga to comics do. It changes each and every time. It's not another retelling of Batman. As someone who was not even in existence when American comic books were becoming popular, it seems impossible to get into comics now. Where the heck would I even start? Just grab the most recent retelling of Batman? Or go all the way back to the beginning, if that's even available online or something since those ancient comics are collectors pieces nowadays. And then on the other hand you have manga. Pick up volume 1 of absolutely anything and you don't need any background knowledge to enjoy the story (minus some series that rely on more culture knowledge of Japan, of course).
Still, despite not being interested in comics or AoT, I'm curious to see how well this collaboration will go. |
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Shenl742
Posts: 1524 |
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Here's the thing: In superhero books, continuity is transient. It matters all the time except when it doesn't. There are plenty of runs and story arcs which you can read with having zero knowledge what soever, and also plenty where they're virtually impenatrable, without prior knowledge. Both of them have their plus and minuses with. On the one had having a complete, accessible story with a beginning, middle and end is nice. But also having something that's very interconnected and continuity heavy can also be nice, as it make it feels like it's more like a big, living breathing universe. And if something doesn't work, it's not uncommon for writers to just pretend that didn't happen, which can be a cop out sometimes, but others is just for the best. Characters themselves can be transient, as some things will always remain the same, but a good writer can put in a great amount of creativity and change everything. People chide comics for never changing, but Frank Miller, Denny O'Neil, Scott Snyder, Paul Dini, and Grant Morrison's take on Batman are all VERY different, and yet all special and important in their own unique way. And that's another thing about comics: anything can be made good. A very terrible run, or a character who nobody really cares about can be made into something amazing transformative. Who would've thought that Swamp Thing of all characters would change the face of comics? A bad manga is bad forever, but a bad comic book can be made good if the right team gets a hold of it. And as for back issues, with A LOT of older stuff is getting released in trade-paperback format, so having to break the bank or go hunting for overpriced back issues isn't really a problem anymore. Finding "Masterwork" or "Essential" runs isn't that hard. But of course, a lot of stuff still hasn't been re-released and probably never will, usually because of rights issues or lack of interest. I mean, John Ostrender's Suicide Squad JUST finally got released in collective form. Then again, a lot of it probably isn't stuff you would want to read anyway. But then AGAIN, some back stuff you'll want to read but won't be able to unless you resort to...certain methods. |
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MajorZero
Posts: 359 |
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That's actually the biggest advantage company owned franchises have over creator owned comic books, especially if we compare long running series', just look at how stale can be manga from Jump or other shounen magazines which run for more than 5 years. |
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WashuTakahashi
Posts: 415 Location: Chicago, IL |
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Thanks for that explanation Shenl742 :3 I'm not overly interested in the superhero genre, but it does make more sense now why people would be willing to follow a series for so long even when it gets tossed around between different artists/writers so much.
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sunflower
 Posts: 1080 |
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I don't even try to get into American superhero comics now because each character has a history that's like a Gordian knot. You never know which past is involved. Japan has its Gundams and such too that I can't be bothered with figuring out, but those seem the exceptions in anime rather than the standards of American works.
But again, I really can't wait to see the collaborations they're planning. |
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Guile
Posts: 595 |
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I've read American comics on and off for around 30 years now, and transient is a great word I would agree with to describe my interest in them. The shift in creative teams causes my interest in them to only be temporary, compared to a manga written by one person which can keep my interest for over 20 years in certain cases such as Detective Conan.
Sometimes it feels as if comics are written that way on purpose. One minute Catwoman is a single mother, and another we're pretending her child doesn't exist. Never let something linger for too long or you might confuse newer fans. Unfortunately, I'm a bit OCD about that. When the new Female Thor popped up and stirred a lot of controversy, my primary thought was " Don't we already have quite a few female Asgardians that could be Thor? Valkyrie? Sif? Do we really need a new one?" but then I suspect most people who jumped on to read Female Thor, and I might dare say even writing it, might not even know who those characters are. Sometimes I get the feeling my 30 years experience works against me rather than for me when it comes to comics. |
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Shenl742
Posts: 1524 |
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But the new Thor is spoiler[Jane Foster], right? A character who has quite an enormous amount of history with Thor. Why would you assume that the writer (Jason Aaron, who HAS written a run on Thor in 2012) wouldn't be knowledgeable about its characters? |
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Guile
Posts: 595 |
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I'll admit I haven't read the new Thor for more than a few issues, so I never stuck around to see who they actually are or how they ended up tying it into everything. That's an odd choice, I must say. I can't help but feel the movieverse had a hand in that given the bigger role she had in the Thor movie compared to the comics for a long time. Movies shaping the comic universe is nothing we haven't seen before though. I personally feel it should be the other way around, but the money has the last word I suppose. I take back the comment about introducing a new Asgardian then, I just assumed she would have been Asgardian.
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Agent355
 Posts: 5113 Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready... |
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They're so forward thinking and flexible for what I would've assumed would be stodgy old businessmen. I love that they want international manga to become popular in Japan! That's more future focused than many North American fans! Also, yeah, they should totally reprint colored Akira comics in collected editions, since Otomo worked so hard on them.
I understand what they mean by perennial favorites like Star Wars and Batman, but The Walking Dead is brand new compared to those properties--it only started as a comic in 2003, and it represents a new type of American comic book storytelling that resembles Japanese manga. It has one writer, it's creator owned, it has a tv show adaptation, and the comic tells one continuous story. As Image and other indie publishers get bigger, so will these types of multimedia comic successes. |
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H. Guderian
Posts: 1255 |
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I found it funny how they were marveling at how die-hard Western fan preferences could be. Part of Anime/Manga fandom requires "Keeping up." It just doesn't feel like keeping up and interacting with peers is all that big for Western fans outside of Cosplay groups. I'd like to examine the differences more. Like they say each side has it's own merits. Though I do like the way Japanese fans will get together and do thigns more frequently. Look at those Touhou people. "No one made an anime for us....so we as fans, will!"
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residentgrigo
 Posts: 2442 Location: Germany |
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I read all forms of international comics and American one´s are my favorite due to the world wide pool of talent but on the point. The US comic marker somewhat recovered during the last few years as numbers moved up but the customer based changed a lot too.
Instead of customers who get a few dozen books a month you now have way more people, who only buy 1 or maybe a few more books but the tend to stay loyal too. The average reader age is also way higher than with manga and the products are also drastically more expensive. The biggest gap in the marker are kids and teens and the US manga market has them cornered and then some. You see the phenomenon immediately when looks on a comic vs manga bestseller list. The American one has Snyder´s Batman, The Walking Dead, Saga and so on reign supreme which could´t be more child unfriendly. The Simpsons and so on though are selling like crap (that comic is huge over here). The manga section on the other hand will usually have all the big Shoune series and ocasioanlly mass marker friendy adult titels as Tokyo Ghoul in the top ranks. Vinland Saga and so on though are selling like crap and even Berserk was out of print for a while... Shudder. Child focused books obviously make way more money so Marvel/DC/Image wold commit murder to have their product sell as much is the one´s from Shogakukan or Shueisha. Sales below 15k are normaly the cancellation point for monthly US books by the big 3 and Marvel´s new (and amazing) Star Wars line is lastly this year´s bigest seller by far. The Comic Conspiracy podcast went over the 2 drastically different and bare intersecting markets a few time and the current US industry change so listen to it to learn more how life behind the counter of a comics store is. |
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johnnysasaki
Posts: 930 |
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even Gundam is self-contained most of the times.Sure,the Universal Century stuff has plenty of stuff that forces you to watch them in the right order to get the story better(like the original Gundam and its Movie trilogy compilation,which has become more canon than the TV version;Zeta Gundam,Gundam ZZ,the Char's Counter Attack movie and the recent Unicorn OVAs.There's also Victory Gundam,but it's so distant in the future that is barely connected to the previous series,and also Turn A Gundam,but explaining how it relates to the other entries would be a HUGE spoiler.There's also many spin-off OVAs showing those events from points of view of different casts). But besides those,you could totally watch series like Gundam Wing,G Gundam,Gundam X,Gundam Seed(Seed Destiny is its direct sequel,but the title already gives you that away so you don't get lost),Gundam 00 and etc. without worrying about having previous knowledge of anything else since they are all contained in their own respective universes. EDIT: it's interesting how they mentioned Avatar.Assuming it is the cartoon show,and not the unrelated James Cameron film,nobody cared about the show in Japan.They cancelled the dub after Season 2,so they never even got to see the ending,supposedly because the Japanese felt that the Fire Nation,the main villains,resembled the Imperial Japan. |
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yurihellsing
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Ok read/skimmed most of the article(s) and I have a question what do they mean by "Bridging the Gap" exactly?
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Alan45
 Village Elder Posts: 9875 Location: Virginia |
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yurihellsing wrote:
They want to expand beyond the normal market for manga and sell Kodansha titles to traditional comic book buyers. That is, they want to sell more and make more money. |
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