Reading The Basement Tapes at Comic Book Resources can be a one-step-forward, two-steps-back experience for me. It’s always pretty entertaining, but for every illuminating bit I take away from it, there’s something frustrating waiting around the corner. This week, Joe Casey and Matt Fraction talk about manga.
The frustration kicks in early, with the introduction, in fact:
“Inescapable, unavoidable, and impossible to ignore, the manga explosion is either going to go away-which is bad, as so many mass-market bookstores seem to be bulking up their comics supply based on manga’s lead-or manga will continue to grow-also bad, as the direct market scrambles to keep up.”
Who, precisely, is manga’s continued growth bad for, aside from the direct market? Is it bad for consumers, who have more choices? Is it bad for smart retailers, who can expand and diversify their customer base through the sensible incorporation of manga into their inventory? Is it even bad for the direct market, felt by many to need repeated and decisive kicks in the pants?
Casey gets on my nerves at first:
“I think what’s daunting about manga for most readers who are more comfortable with English language comic books (I don’t want to go so far as to say “superhero fans,” but you and I both know that’s what I’m talking about) is that there’s suddenly so much of it available. And such a wide variety of subject matter. Maybe too much for comic book readers who are used to limited choices. But if that’s the case, they’re certainly missing the point.”
Then he redeems himself in my eyes:
“I guess my general feeling is this: if manga is indeed still considered somewhat “alien” to mainstream American readers… it could only be labeled so because it’s getting it right.”
Fraction follows up with a delightful snapshot of the Promised Land, Japan:
“Giant stores with nothing but fat book after fat book, jammed elbow to elbow with readers of all stripes. Every single convenient store or subway stand sells twenty, thirty titles. People read them constantly, everywhere. Our inkling of manga, as an industry and economic presence, only scratches the surface of its penetration on its home turf.”
But I don’t know what to make of Fraction’s assessment of shojo:
“Shojo is like a smart bomb aimed at nervous, insecure girls. They’re some of the most emotionally exploitative, target-marketed, and demographically lethal things I’ve ever seen—[Chris] Claremont WISHES he could twist his little girls in knots like Mayu Shinjo can.
“The strange thing is that they seem so utterly without guile. The books don’t feel like the product of a committee, but if you’re an insecure girl with body and confidence issues, she’s got you dead to rights. If they weren’t so sweetly naive, they’d be cruelly manipulative.”
I’m not familiar with Mayu Shinjo’s work, but I have read some shojo, and I don’t think that’s a fair description of the genre (of some of it, probably; of all of it, no). It’s also a pretty insulting (and narrow) assessment of its audience. Let’s take a look at how Viz defines shojo:
“1. Manga appealing to both female and male readers.”
Well, that might be more of a marketing mission than a universal reality, but I’m positive that females aren’t the only ones reading shojo.
“2. Exciting stories with true-to-life characters and the thrill of exotic locales.”
That matches a bit better with my experience than Fraction’s take.
“3. Connecting the heart and mind through real human relationships.”
Again, accurate in my experience, and, if I were in a cruel mood, I’d suggest it’s probably a nakedly terrifying concept to a certain percentage of the western comic producing community. But I’m not, so I won’t. Moving on.
Towards the end, Fraction asks some very interesting questions:
“Manga has such diverse readership— it’s targeting the emotional and visceral subtexts of people outside of the 14-24 male demographic. There’s the question for the comics mainstream as it gnashes its teeth over the manga invasion: whom are you serving? What are you trying to resonate with inside your audience?”
I’d love to see Casey and Fraction tackle some of those issues in the future.