Wednesday, February 04, 2004
From ¡Journalista!:
"This is somewhere between 75% to 100% growth in just one year. To put it all in perspective, last year the same source estimated the entire graphic-novel market as being worth that same $100 million in 2002. Still think manga's a fad, kids?"
Geez, Dirk. That's fine and all, but I still haven't heard a good answer to this guy's concerns, which mirror my own often stated ones (from the Financial Times article):
"...As it is not at all clear to us that readers of manga go on to buy francophone bandes dessinées the manga phenomenon represents a grave threat to the whole European industry."
No one has ever given me hard numbers to dispute this, and frankly it's a real concern. Again, the FT story:
"Pocket-sized and printed in black and white on cheap paper, they cost less to produce than the lavish, all-colour hardback albums produced in France and Belgium. Margins on manga are also higher because it is much cheaper to pay a licence fee to translate an existing series than to commission an original work from a European artist."
And this...
"Titeuf, a sex- obsessed 10-year-old, will have to work harder for shelf space. Some new stores in Paris only stock manga."
Look, anyone who reads Dirk's blog or this one probably is more likely to cross over and read non-manga independent comics. So you're not the ones that need to be tracked. How likely are they to purchase non-manga? No one knows, but since people who are buying manga HAVE ALREADY shown an aversion to puchasing things in the direct market we have a hint. It's not like Fantagraphics hasn't been publishing for years.
And stop all the talk about fads - it's not about fads, that's a question that's confusing the real issue. How much did people make on pet rocks? Or beanie babies? You don't know if something is truely just a fad until it runs out of steam.
So regardless, once again I doggedly make the point that independent creators need to say goodbye to the graphic novel shelves. I said before that manga was a big business enterprise, that to a small, independent creator the rise of manga is not good news because there's no evidence that they're crossing over to read non-imported works - or even that they can find anything among the flood of superhero reprints.
Those shelves have been co-opted by large industries with lots of money and cheap product to flood the market. Independent creators need to seek out the readers who will be open to their creations.
That's why I'm going the route of traditional publishing, aiming for the mystery shelves. It might not work out for me, but it's a start.
Tell me what you think
"This is somewhere between 75% to 100% growth in just one year. To put it all in perspective, last year the same source estimated the entire graphic-novel market as being worth that same $100 million in 2002. Still think manga's a fad, kids?"
Geez, Dirk. That's fine and all, but I still haven't heard a good answer to this guy's concerns, which mirror my own often stated ones (from the Financial Times article):
"...As it is not at all clear to us that readers of manga go on to buy francophone bandes dessinées the manga phenomenon represents a grave threat to the whole European industry."
No one has ever given me hard numbers to dispute this, and frankly it's a real concern. Again, the FT story:
"Pocket-sized and printed in black and white on cheap paper, they cost less to produce than the lavish, all-colour hardback albums produced in France and Belgium. Margins on manga are also higher because it is much cheaper to pay a licence fee to translate an existing series than to commission an original work from a European artist."
And this...
"Titeuf, a sex- obsessed 10-year-old, will have to work harder for shelf space. Some new stores in Paris only stock manga."
Look, anyone who reads Dirk's blog or this one probably is more likely to cross over and read non-manga independent comics. So you're not the ones that need to be tracked. How likely are they to purchase non-manga? No one knows, but since people who are buying manga HAVE ALREADY shown an aversion to puchasing things in the direct market we have a hint. It's not like Fantagraphics hasn't been publishing for years.
And stop all the talk about fads - it's not about fads, that's a question that's confusing the real issue. How much did people make on pet rocks? Or beanie babies? You don't know if something is truely just a fad until it runs out of steam.
So regardless, once again I doggedly make the point that independent creators need to say goodbye to the graphic novel shelves. I said before that manga was a big business enterprise, that to a small, independent creator the rise of manga is not good news because there's no evidence that they're crossing over to read non-imported works - or even that they can find anything among the flood of superhero reprints.
Those shelves have been co-opted by large industries with lots of money and cheap product to flood the market. Independent creators need to seek out the readers who will be open to their creations.
That's why I'm going the route of traditional publishing, aiming for the mystery shelves. It might not work out for me, but it's a start.
Tell me what you think
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