Spending too much on comics, then talking too much about them
There’s an audio interview with Guy Delisle up at BBC’s The World about his experiences in North Korea and his graphic novel, Pyonyang: A Journey in North Korea (Drawn and Quarterly).
Delisle’s Shenzhen: A Travelogue from China arrives in comic shops today.
There’s interesting stuff in this week’s Publishers Weekly Comics Week.
Calvin Reid covers Rich Johnson’s move from DC to Hachette and the publisher’s contemplation of a possible graphic novel imprint. Most interesting is the snapshot the piece provides of where publishers are now in terms of adding graphic novels to their output. This snippet really caught my eye:
“Over at Random House, comics seem to be everywhere, including the flagship graphic novel line at Pantheon and a burgeoning Del Rey manga line. Del Rey is also planning for more titles, more genres and original comics publishing.”
Original comics publishing? Tell me more!
I’m not a gadget geek at all, but I did enjoy Reid’s piece on Sony’s E-Reader. Prose and graphic novel publishers are apparently staring hungrily at the new gizmo, and some (Tokyopop and Harlequin, most notably) have already taken the plunge:
“Mary Abthorpe, Harlequin’s v-p of new business development, says a selection of its Harlequin Pink shojo romance line, No Competition, Jinxed and A Prince Needs a Princess, are available for download to the Sony Reader.”
It’s interesting that they’re starting off with the books that are targeted at a younger audience. I’m sure the undoubtedly sizzling Violet titles won’t be too far behind.
I’m the type that usually waits until for the second or third iteration of some new technology, partly because I always assume there will be bugs to work out, and also because I’m cheap. My partner is a gadget geek (and much less of a pack rat) and stares at my groaning shelves of manga with increasing concern, so he might be more of an early adopter than I am. Still, I’d rather wait until more publishers get on board and there’s a wider range of material available.
Another point of concern for me is what this will mean for the bathtub reader. I’m not about to take a $300 E-Reader near a tub of standing water, much less one altered with circuit-damaging bath salts, so I’d never be able to abandon paper completely.
Last but not least, PWCW takes a stab at a combined monthly best-seller list. I wish they’d offered more information on their methodology and sources in the debut installment. Looking at the list, it seems like the Direct Market contributes a drop in the bucket, as the entries line up pretty closely with BookScan numbers. I could be wrong, obviously.
In my occasional wanderings through the wonders of Lexis-Nexis, I’ve found an article on Kyoto Seika University’s six-year-old manga program. It’s appeared in both The Chronicle of Higher Education (“Mad About Manga,” July 28, 2006) and the South China Morning Post (“Magic Manga Mania,” Sept. 23, 2006). Neither version is available for free on line, so let’s hope I don’t violate the Fair Use principle too badly in quoting from Alan Brender’s work.
Several universities in Japan have started similar programs since, but KSU was the first, graduating its first class in 2004 (and granting someone a doctorate in manga this spring):
“About 10 percent of them now work as professional manga artists, while others hold jobs in related fields such as illustration and advertising. [Manga artist and KSU instructor] Ms. [Keiko] Takemiya says the fact that some graduates were able to immediately find work bodes well in a low-paying field that still relies heavily on proven talent and graduates of technical schools.”
One thing every manga program seems to need is a name: a professional manga artist to lend credibility to the institution’s academic offerings. The manga-ka-in-residence also influences student demographics:
“About 80 percent of the students in Seika’s program, for example, are women, to whom Ms. Takemiya’s work seems to appeal the most. The majority of students at Takarazuka [University of Art and Design] are men, drawn to Mr. [Reiji] Matsumoto’s macho characters [from works such as Galaxy Express 999].”
Despite somewhat limited job prospects, enrollments tend to be high, and new programs are popping up all the time. And they’re drawing significant interest from international students:
“About 10 percent of the students at Seika’s manga school are international students, mainly from South Korea and China. There are no Americans in the program, but Manabu Kitawaki, director of the international office, says he receives several serious inquiries every week from the United States.”
This is all fascinating to me as someone who works in higher education marketing. It can be worrying when a discipline becomes a bandwagon program (it’s hot, and everyone has to have one, even if the graduate placement rates aren’t great). But arts education isn’t known for the vast majority of its graduates working in their field of study (as my dust-covered theatre diploma will attest).
But the selfish part of me hopes that someone from the United States does enroll in Seika’s program. And then starts keeping a blog.
Queenie Chan follows up on some issues and clarifies others raised in her excellent LJ post of the other day. She raises some additional excellent points about consumer psychology and makes an argument about the kind of audience e-providers should be targeting:
“The holy grail of e-marketing is not capturing the money of the obsessed fans. It’s capturing the money of the vaguely interested people, in the hope that for a little money, they’ll find something that can convert them into paying fans. Because in the Internet age, if that ‘cheap alternative’ isn’t available to people, they’ll just download it for free.”
On the subject of products I probably wouldn’t even read for free, wow, Civil War #4 sounds just awful. And apparently Mark Millar strikes another blow against character diversity with a Nordic-clone death machine as his instrument. Yikes! (Spoilers abound at all of these links, obviously.)
If only I were in San Francisco, I could cleanse the mental palate by stopping by tonight’s signing at A Different Light, featuring Justin Hall, Andy Hartzell and Steve MacIsaac. Of the three, I’ve only read Hall’s work (he was at SPX last year), but I liked his comics a lot. And I’ll just have to catch up with the other two, won’t I?
You probably aren’t hearing about this for the first time here, but you really should go take a look at Queenie (The Dreaming) Chan’s thoughts on different potential delivery vehicles for comics. (Found via MangaBlog.) There’s also some no-nonsense chat on the potential for anthologies, especially in niche categories, over at MangaCast.
Tina Anderson piques my interest in When Worlds Collide (Iris Print) by describing it as what would happen “if Antarctic Press, Oni Press, and Avatar got together, and sponsored a BL comic trimmed to manga size.”
There’s a thread over at Anime On DVD that asks if guys should translate yaoi. The consensus seems to be that anyone who will approach the material with respect, do diligent research, and try to capture the spirit of the original is a good choice for the job, though someone with all of those qualities and a thorough grounding in the category would be ideal. And Bill Flanagan stops by to offer his perspective. (Found via When Fangirls Attack.)
John Jakala has heard back from Dark Horse on the release schedule of Oh My Goddess!
I agree with Heidi MacDonald. Back-to-print announcements generally aren’t very exciting to me when they’re about 52 or Civil War, but it’s great to hear news like this about a book like Action Philosophers.
Over at the Print magazine site, there’s an early review of Tom Spurgeon’s Comics as Art: We Told You So (Fantagraphics). Speaking of which, folks at The Engine are responding to the lawsuit Harlan Ellison has filed against Fantagraphics.
At Newsarama, Gail Simone offers an update on the Hernandez family’s progress since the devastating fire that destroyed their home and rounds up the varied efforts to help out.
What is it with Marvel reminding me of Heathers? Anyway, when reading Ray Randell’s scathing summary of the final issue of Marvel Team-Up (found via Postmodern Barney), I couldn’t help but think of that funeral scene for the jocks. “I love my dead, gay son!”
That great black comedy rightly makes Entertainment Weekly’s list of the 50 best high-school movies ever made. Alas, Saved does not, which is just wrong.
To assuage me, EW provided a profile of the endearingly bitter Rachael Harris, who is set to appear in Christopher Guest’s For Your Consideration. The prospect of watching Harris improvise opposite Parker Posey makes me even more excited about the movie.
At Yet Another Comics Blog, Dave Carter provides the promised additional comparative data on Tokyopop and Viz release trends. In the comments on the first post, Jake Forbes notes another point of comparison: that Viz has a reliable source of longer manga series, while Tokyopop has to work with smaller publishers who tend to put out shorter stories.
Forbes, who provides fluid, literate adaptations for Fullmetal Alchemist and other series, weighs in on the alteration of a sequence in the eighth volume of FMA over at MangaBlog.
And thanks to Lyle for ensuring that the theme music from Paranoia Agent will be in my head for at least three more days. More, if I keep compulsively clicking on the video clip.
So what does everyone think about Publishers Weekly Comics Week’s coverage of retailer reaction to Tokyopop’s on-line exclusives?
As for myself, I think Calvin Reid did as well as can be expected. Short of developing telepathic powers or placing a mole inside Tokyopop, these seem to be the answers that the publisher is going to provide no matter who asks them or how often.
I do tend to agree with everyone who suggested that avoiding discounts isn’t a good way to get a realistic picture of what on-line sales will be. I’ve hardly ever purchased a graphic novel at full price from an on-line outlet, unless I didn’t have any other… HEY!
And I think that this quote from Mike Kiley…
“’It’s interesting that people are so fascinated in about 20 books out of the 500 we publish each year,’ says Kiley. ‘It’s not like we’re talking about Fruits Basket or Kingdom Hearts.”
… is not especially helpful. My first reaction to it was, “500 titles? No wonder there’s a problem with shelf space!” Because seriously, I don’t think I’ve ever been to a retail outlet, direct market or chain bookstore, that had room for 500 titles total, much less 500 titles from Tokyopop. And when you factor in the books that always seem to have a complete run available (the really popular ones), the problem compounds. (I vote for “Less is more” as the next big publishing theme.)
No direct quotes or attribution were available for this paragraph:
“While general trade bookstores are not quite as adamant as the direct market, several trade book retailers contacted by PWCW are nevertheless critical of any publisher selling direct to consumers.”
But I did get an anonymous comment from someone claiming to be a Borders employee who’s far from overjoyed.
Since I spent most of Monday sitting in front of the television watching TNT’s marathon of The Closer, I was interested to hear this piece on NPR’s Morning Edition. It’s all about the growth of original drama on basic cable, though it touches on stuff about branding and niche marketing that I think apply equally well to comics publishing. (I had no idea FX had used MySpace to promote Nip/Tuck, but the whole premise of the show makes me kind of squeamish. Too many scalpels.)
As for The Closer, I think the whole cast is terrific. I’m sure Kyra Sedgwick’s accent makes citizens of Georgia gnash their teeth, but I love her portrayal. And J.K. Simmons is always a welcome addition to any cast.
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