Totally.

Back in the 80’s when the only manga available in the US was imported Japanese versions, a handful of companies in the US put out English translations, in American comics format. Where were they available? ONLY in comics stores.

Crying Freeman, Robotech, Xenon, Mai the Psychic Girl, Akira, Star Blazers and others were available from publishers as diverse as Eclipse, Marvel, a new company, Viz (whatever happened to them?), and one or two others I may be forgetting. While manga didn’t catch on immediately outside of a niche market, it seems to me as though the transition to the manga-style paperbacks was mostly ignored by Diamond and many comics stores* when they started coming out in the mid-90’s.

It was (and still is, to many) viewed as a different *product* than comics, instead of a different *delivery system* for comics.

At the time manga started to appear in small doses around the country, I was running a store for Waldenbooks. One of my goals there was to have the best selection of graphic novels** in town. I achieved this goal, partly because of aggressively ordering everything that was available to me from the company warehouse and Ingram, and partly because I ended up having pretty much the *only* manga section in town.

I think there’s HUGE potential for manga readers to become US comics readers, and vice versa. I just don’t know how to DO it.

*I am speaking anecdotally here. None of the comics stores I visited in the mid to late 90’s carried any manga, and much of the recent discussion about it by retailers (and customers) online has indicated that few retailers carry significant quantities of manga currently.

**Also, RPGs, and Sci-fi/ fantasy novels.

Is this really a bad thing? That’s a huge source of profit for both companies. Hell, if I was a stockholder, I’d feel the same way.

I’m not particularly surprised that they are still mining the past. It’s hard to convince creators to develop properties and surrender them to Marvel or DC. Unfortunately, neither company has developed a new model to deal with a more savvy creator.

However, as of the August order form, I am only ordering manga that has been pre-ordered or special ordered, no more copies for the shelves. Why? Because the big boxes have trained the manga-reading customers to shop ONLY there, and several very vocal members of the American comics community stand fast in their belief that “Manga aren’t comics” and are quite vocal* about it.

I’ve done several things to get the community aware of our manga selection, including a *very* profitable booth at the local FSU Anime Club’s annual convention, where every purchaser (nearly 100) got a business card AND a bounce-back coupon. ONE coupon came back, and that was used on American comics products. That’s despite hearing over and over again, “I didn’t know this was out!”, “You have stuff I’ve never seen before!”, and the like. My sales from the section are tiny, and I can’t afford to buy what I can’t sell.

The manga audience is entrenched in the bookstore chains, and most of the sales are going to be there, for the foreseeable future. Manga will never be on the Diamond sales charts unless this changes.

*Is there a web-equivalent of “vocal”? “Prolific” doesn’t seem to cover it for me.

Actually, both Sgt. Rock and Jonah Hex are currently being developed as movies (covered in my blog).

Exactly what Marvel Editorial has said and I heard it from Grant Morrison about DC Comics as well. It’s ‘dusty’ with the legacies of old characters and franchises.

And while I’ve heard nothing but good things about the new Jonah Hex, I’d like to see new projects and ideas from the big two rather than revivals of old projects.

It’s not my thing, but maybe the Minx books are a step in the right direction?

Even so, self published comics can do as they please and are free to pursue any genre or material they like. Taking a walk through the aisles of MoCCA is truly inspiring.

I don’t know, does Diamond handle distribution of manga? Is this the list of just companies they handle, or just a sales list?

Editorial doesn’t want them. Marvel and DC only want properties they can own and try to make movies out of.

Well, Marvel could have given him Captain Marvel

But that’s the choice he made…

The terms aren’t mutually inconsistent, as long as they form a unified whole and aren’t simply a collection of several unrelated short stories. Charles Dickens’ stories were first published as serials, but I don’t think anyone would seriously dispute that Oliver Twist is a novel.

IN case anyone doens’t know it, Smith has started a NEW creator own and published book, called Rasl. He debuted a preview in SD.

The bit where kids are dancing in shoes that make music.

Even better is that the new breed of creators don’t even have to think about Diamond or any distributer for that matter.

It’s astounding to see horror, sci-fi, westerns and war comics represented there.

Across the street, Marvel was at one time experimenting with Epic Illustrated, a line of darker edgier sci fi comics by writers like Peter B. Gillis in an attempt to hold onto the sophisticated readers that were outgrowing Daredevil and Uncanny X-Men where they cut their teeth on good storytelling.

While I yearn for the pre-Crisis days of DC Comics, and the early Jim Shooter days of Marvel, the current landscape just does not support such comics, or else editorial doesn’t want them.

There are indie monthlies that have enjoyed long years of success (Bone), it’s just that many of the creators behind them are now working for the big two on franchise projects (Shazam). And who can blame them?

While I do miss the diversity of genre comic books, as long as superhero comics are well-written, I don’t really see a problem. The main flaw with 93-99 was how poorly the books were put together. It was an age of almost unreadable comics.

Oh and the books listed above are almost entirely trade paperback or hardcover collections of monthly comic books, not graphic novels.

It’s okay to call them comic books.