Why Manga Publishing is Dying

[LateWhiteRabbit]

I think comics are dying because of the lack of marketing.
I mean, the only reason manga is surviving is because of the sheer amount of manga being released and showcased in bookstores and libraries.

That's a good point. American (monthly) comics are really only available from specialized comic shops, and those are few and far between, and relatively hostile to women and newcomers. American comics will never see the numbers they once did unless they go back to making comics available and visible everywhere. I mean, everyone knows about Spider-man from the movies, but if you where to go in search of a Spider-man comic it would be VERY VERY hard to find one unless it is an old collection hardbound for $40-50 dollars in a bookstore. Certainly it is nearly impossible for most people to find a current issue.

Manga and comics need to be cheap, and they need to be in places that kids can find and discover them accidentally.

[Mink]

^I'm assuming they should also be child appropriate, if they're going to be readily available for children. <x< (That seems to be an argument among comic fans lately: people for things that are a general audience VS people who want things that are more specifically for adults. Why both can't exist, I don't know)

You guys, I read American comics. I'm aware they can have crap anatomy, too; I kind of thought that went without saying. ^^;

Edit: on that note, I could get into what problems I do have with (mainstream) American comics, but I'm sure no one wants that wall of text.

American comic books may have actually run into trouble recently by going the OTHER way from crap anatomy. The American comic field certainly still has its Rob Liefelds, but there has been a massive push from the consumer side for comics with realistic anatomy and art, and those are the books that sell the best. Artists like Cassaday, Alex Ross, Adam Hughes, and Joshua Middleton.

The problem is that kind of art can't be produced on the traditional monthly schedule like the public demands, meaning that most of those artists are regulated to doing mini-series or covers. Unfortunately the public demands that kind of quality inside the book as well, and it is just impossible to do in a timely manner. A lot of titles slip and slip on meeting deadlines and get pushed back months, which surely hurts the medium. Only collectors and fanatics stick around 6 months for the next 20 pages of story, and especially not children.

There's manga releases that have that problem too; a volume is released, and six-nine months later the next one is released. It seems like everyone is just dropping the ball with putting things out in a timely manner. Actually, Deb Aoki was talking about that some time ago.

[PyTom]

I mean, everyone knows about Spider-man from the movies, but if you where to go in search of a Spider-man comic it would be VERY VERY hard to find one unless it is an old collection hardbound for $40-50 dollars in a bookstore.

That's not true, though. For example, you can get the first 22 issues of the Amazing Spider-Man for under $20. That's about .37 cents a page, which compares well to manga, which is often at 4-6 cents a page.

More modern stuff like JMS's run is closer to 5 cents a page - more expensive, then the older works, but not by much, and stll competitive with manga pricing.

Bookstores have a large selection of comic compilations - not as big as manga, but they're evening out as the manga section shrinks to make way for more vampire porn. There are a few big problems with the comic industry - individual issues are too expensive, and hard to find. It's really difficult to get started in a new series with issue 1, and hard to find issue 1 once the series is popular.

But the back issue collections are surprisingly reasonably priced, especially given the production quality. (Compare the paper used for comics and manga collections, and the cost per page of each.)

[AlexisPius]

This business model is just sitting there waiting to be seized upon, if only manga publishers would enter the 21st century and embrace technology in adapting their old business models.

Yes, but businesses are too resistant to change. It's much easier to blame outside forces for your problems than to see what you are personally doing to cause them. So it seems that companies would rather bemoan their current position and blame scanlators or pirates or whatever scapegoat they're currently focused on, rather than trying out new things to fix their problems.

[DaFool]

It's kinda sad because comic-making was always my dream (still is) and it's what I have the most experience with, and it really is a lot different than making a kinetic novel so I have to say the comparison there is unfair. A good, well-drawn comic places everything on the page strategically, not just for print purposes but for emotional impact and aesthetic, making use of various angles and frame sizes and negative space etc. which would be more time-consuming and tedious when trying to replicate that effect in a computer program (and if you try to automate the artwork like tracing/filtering over 3d models and whatnot, it loses its "soul"...). Kinetic novels are essentially just novels with visual (and audio) aids.

Kinetic novels don't always have to be those Onscripter things with typewriter text and few pictures. To me, kinetic novels are any form of digital narrative linear storytelling. I consider motion comics as an advanced form of kinetic novels, if they have narration.

Though I don't have experience what it's like to be a comic artist, I think it is still possible to keep the strategic layout from print and place it on screen. I didn't say to use the computer to automate the artwork... each panel will still be made the same way, with love and care. It's when displaying it... instead of placing them from left to right, top to bottom on a page, you let the computer sequence the order the panels will be displayed, separated by clicking to continue (or automatically timed).

edit: Quartett says hello

The whole point is that I think waiting 6 months to get 20 pages of story (which is actually barely any story) is ridiculous. There's more than a few comic artists here who seem to find the VN/KN format at least slightly less stressful in that they can tell more story with less art.

[dramspringfeald]

Same reason DVD Anime and Newspapers are dieing. It's too slow and people have other sources. hell if the "Scannulation teams" would donate the $ to the artists that we donate to them we could in theory take out Viz or Funimation while leaving the things we love alone. :/

[AlexisPius]

By the way -

Whenever someone says that a particular kind of media is about to die, it's best to doubt them. Because understand that that has happened exactly zero times in the history of media. People predicted that radio, magazines, books, comics, and so forth would all die, and that has not yet come to pass. Media tends to evolve, not die.