Friday, October 24, 2003
In other news...
Jump goes Scholastic: Thanks to Dirk for the link to this article on Shonen Jump. A couple of interesting things in here. First was the statistic that they printed 500,000 copies of Jump in September, and hope to reach 1mil a month by 2005. The other news, which seems very big to me, is that they got a deal for it to be included in Scholastic's book club! This is exactly the kind of thing I'm talking about when I say that the manga companies seem to be doing a better job at marketing themselves than many US companies...
Alan DD gets a shock: I hate to admit it, but after seeing Dirk's link today, I realized I had no bookmark to the new ADD blog and haven't checked it since it first started. He even has a link to my blog, so I feel even more guilty. I really need to update my sidebar tonight if I can remember, along with other new stuff like Comicopolis.
Anyway, I've been keeping an eye on the various book and media stores for a while now, so changes aren't aren't as shocking as they were to Alan, but it can take even me by surprise, like the sudden move in Media Play yesterday. Like Alan, I really am getting impressed at the variety that is coming into these stores of late. There's no way to know for sure if it will continue to grow, but things certainly look promising lately.
I read through all the archives and something else that caught my eye was this one involving Nyx and his wife. I haven't read it yet, but it did look interesting. The issue pointed out is a good one, I think, though. Sure a lot of superhero comics have branched out into other genres and themes, but they are still superhero comics. If all you want is a regular drama, it can be very disconcerting. A personal example would be reading the first Books of Magic GN from the library. It was generally enjoyable (even though I felt like a little too much was stuffed into one place. We could have had more revelations about the nature of the universe later on), but I was SO jarred out of the story every time a superhero was mentioned like Superman. In a story like this (magic under the real world), I WANT to believe that the real world is like this. That one day some people could show up out of nowhere and bring me on a magical journey. I don't want any reminders that it is taking place in some OTHER world where aliens regularly save and attack the world and various other strange occurances happen every day... Considering the nature of the DC universe, I'm actually pretty surprised that the main character even has skeptisim over the existance of magic in the world...
Not to be too much of a manga pimp here, but if she enjoys Optic Nerve and a story involving kids in trouble, I'm pretty sure she'd enjoy some of the manga titles out there. Plenty of stories are out now involving no superpowers or anything supernatural at all. Something like Flowers and Bees, Mars, Paradise Kiss, Between the Sheets, and maybe even GTO might be right up her alley. There's enough different kinds of stories packed into those 3 sections of Borders (but still not as overwhelming as a full comic shop) with helpful blurb descriptions on the back, that she might find some titles on her own that sound interesting enough to pick up. Obviously, I make no garuntees, but it is certainly worth a shot. There's a good reason why manga companies says 60% of their readers are female...
Tsunami soaks direct market: Ok ok, my puns are getting worse, but anyway... Dirk says he has some insider info. which confirms that the manga-sized volumes of the Tsunami line are indeed a go, and that they really won't be availible to the direct market.
While I am really glad that they are going with this format (and I may actually buy some of them, even though I haven't gotten a Marvel comic in years), it seems like they've botched the marketing and implementation in about every way possible. They cancel the trades and mention nothing of the manga volumes, which creates rampant speculation. This may have been their intension, but if so is a pretty low move to do. They also cut the DM out of it for what good reason? To encourage more regular comic readers to visit bookstores? Out of spite? I suppose they may just want to not give the large discounts associated with Diamond since they think most of the market is in bookstores anyway, but really about all this is going to do is make people mad and make things harder on DM stores. Sure they can order from Ingram (and probably should anyway), but why make it harder on them?
Also, what's up with not having them show up in places like Amazon yet? And not having any advertising in publications like NewType USA? And not having any press releases at all for that reason? If they really do intend to have these things out in November, they sure haven't gone out of their way to inform people. One mention in a Publisher's Weekly article isn't exactly going out of your way to get the word out. They'd better have some sort of standup cardboard display at the very least in bookstores, if they are half-serious about this. In the end, I'm just glad that these things will be availible (and if they sell well, may keep the series from getting cancelled entirely), but Marvel sure is being idiotic about how they choose to do marketing..
Dirk finishes his multi-part editorial: Dirk gave his latest installment about bookstores and the DM today, and I continue to very much agree with him. Is the bookstore market the answer to everyones' problems? No, of course not... Is it helping to grow the industry a lot? Yes it is...
I do think specialty stores are important. I also think they are slowly changing. There are some great stores in this area (like my much recommended Modern Myths) which carry GNs, manga, indy, etc. On the other hand, many stores out there continue to close. Personally, I think what is going to happen is more traditional shops will continue their decline. The better run shops comic shops will continue to do ok, and if comics continue to be popular, more people will copy that format and follow suit. I think as time goes on, we'll see more and more shops that seem like specialty bookshops.
However, it'll probably get worse before it gets better. There are a lot more of the super-small shops out there, and even if we get dozens more good shops, the loss of hundreds of others will be a blow to the market.
I think of it this way... Yes, bookstores will cater to what they think can sell and be less likely to sell truely offbeat and smaller works. Like you probably won't see mini-comics at a bookstore ever. However, the DM also caters to what is popular in their market, and there are just a lot less of them than the bookstores. We still need good DM stores to carry the highest variety of titles, but bookstores are shifting the focus of what is really mainstream.
For all the comics that might not make it in a bookstore, there are plenty of others that are finding themselves suddenly on equal or greater footing with the Big Two. Oni Press seems to be doing quite well with titles like Courtney Crumbin and Blue Monday. Electric Girl sells insanely better in bookstores than the DM. The thing is that there are many comics that SHOULD be selling much more than they are currently because they can appeal to a mass audience, but are hampered by the regular DM audience. Some comics will never have mass appeal and these are the ones that really need the DM to survive, but other comics are finally getting to the mass audience that they most appeal to and have deserved all this time.
There's also the aspect of big sales helping to support smaller sales. For a company like DC, the big sales of their superhero comics enabled them to experiment and produce the Vertigo line. But for companies that have decided to forego superheros, they didn't have this help. But with companies like Fantagraphics and Oni now having big sales of some titles in bookstores, it lets them survive and produce smaller works that can then be purchased directly from them online, or off-line in the DM market.
I'm hoping that eventually the popularity and diversity of the bookstore market will filter backward and more and more good comic shops will open and be able to stay open. Once this transition happens (and maybe even a chain of specialty comic shops will open some day), we will be in a good spot. The most popular stuff will be in bookstores, but everyone will know they can go to local shop to buy the same comics and more, while supporting a local retailer. That is how I hope things will turn out, but it could be a very messy transition until that happens. For now, the DM just isn't enough for many companies and the bookstores are becoming a more and more important facet of the industry...
Alan DD gets a shock: I hate to admit it, but after seeing Dirk's link today, I realized I had no bookmark to the new ADD blog and haven't checked it since it first started. He even has a link to my blog, so I feel even more guilty. I really need to update my sidebar tonight if I can remember, along with other new stuff like Comicopolis.
Anyway, I've been keeping an eye on the various book and media stores for a while now, so changes aren't aren't as shocking as they were to Alan, but it can take even me by surprise, like the sudden move in Media Play yesterday. Like Alan, I really am getting impressed at the variety that is coming into these stores of late. There's no way to know for sure if it will continue to grow, but things certainly look promising lately.
I read through all the archives and something else that caught my eye was this one involving Nyx and his wife. I haven't read it yet, but it did look interesting. The issue pointed out is a good one, I think, though. Sure a lot of superhero comics have branched out into other genres and themes, but they are still superhero comics. If all you want is a regular drama, it can be very disconcerting. A personal example would be reading the first Books of Magic GN from the library. It was generally enjoyable (even though I felt like a little too much was stuffed into one place. We could have had more revelations about the nature of the universe later on), but I was SO jarred out of the story every time a superhero was mentioned like Superman. In a story like this (magic under the real world), I WANT to believe that the real world is like this. That one day some people could show up out of nowhere and bring me on a magical journey. I don't want any reminders that it is taking place in some OTHER world where aliens regularly save and attack the world and various other strange occurances happen every day... Considering the nature of the DC universe, I'm actually pretty surprised that the main character even has skeptisim over the existance of magic in the world...
Not to be too much of a manga pimp here, but if she enjoys Optic Nerve and a story involving kids in trouble, I'm pretty sure she'd enjoy some of the manga titles out there. Plenty of stories are out now involving no superpowers or anything supernatural at all. Something like Flowers and Bees, Mars, Paradise Kiss, Between the Sheets, and maybe even GTO might be right up her alley. There's enough different kinds of stories packed into those 3 sections of Borders (but still not as overwhelming as a full comic shop) with helpful blurb descriptions on the back, that she might find some titles on her own that sound interesting enough to pick up. Obviously, I make no garuntees, but it is certainly worth a shot. There's a good reason why manga companies says 60% of their readers are female...
Tsunami soaks direct market: Ok ok, my puns are getting worse, but anyway... Dirk says he has some insider info. which confirms that the manga-sized volumes of the Tsunami line are indeed a go, and that they really won't be availible to the direct market.
While I am really glad that they are going with this format (and I may actually buy some of them, even though I haven't gotten a Marvel comic in years), it seems like they've botched the marketing and implementation in about every way possible. They cancel the trades and mention nothing of the manga volumes, which creates rampant speculation. This may have been their intension, but if so is a pretty low move to do. They also cut the DM out of it for what good reason? To encourage more regular comic readers to visit bookstores? Out of spite? I suppose they may just want to not give the large discounts associated with Diamond since they think most of the market is in bookstores anyway, but really about all this is going to do is make people mad and make things harder on DM stores. Sure they can order from Ingram (and probably should anyway), but why make it harder on them?
Also, what's up with not having them show up in places like Amazon yet? And not having any advertising in publications like NewType USA? And not having any press releases at all for that reason? If they really do intend to have these things out in November, they sure haven't gone out of their way to inform people. One mention in a Publisher's Weekly article isn't exactly going out of your way to get the word out. They'd better have some sort of standup cardboard display at the very least in bookstores, if they are half-serious about this. In the end, I'm just glad that these things will be availible (and if they sell well, may keep the series from getting cancelled entirely), but Marvel sure is being idiotic about how they choose to do marketing..
Dirk finishes his multi-part editorial: Dirk gave his latest installment about bookstores and the DM today, and I continue to very much agree with him. Is the bookstore market the answer to everyones' problems? No, of course not... Is it helping to grow the industry a lot? Yes it is...
I do think specialty stores are important. I also think they are slowly changing. There are some great stores in this area (like my much recommended Modern Myths) which carry GNs, manga, indy, etc. On the other hand, many stores out there continue to close. Personally, I think what is going to happen is more traditional shops will continue their decline. The better run shops comic shops will continue to do ok, and if comics continue to be popular, more people will copy that format and follow suit. I think as time goes on, we'll see more and more shops that seem like specialty bookshops.
However, it'll probably get worse before it gets better. There are a lot more of the super-small shops out there, and even if we get dozens more good shops, the loss of hundreds of others will be a blow to the market.
I think of it this way... Yes, bookstores will cater to what they think can sell and be less likely to sell truely offbeat and smaller works. Like you probably won't see mini-comics at a bookstore ever. However, the DM also caters to what is popular in their market, and there are just a lot less of them than the bookstores. We still need good DM stores to carry the highest variety of titles, but bookstores are shifting the focus of what is really mainstream.
For all the comics that might not make it in a bookstore, there are plenty of others that are finding themselves suddenly on equal or greater footing with the Big Two. Oni Press seems to be doing quite well with titles like Courtney Crumbin and Blue Monday. Electric Girl sells insanely better in bookstores than the DM. The thing is that there are many comics that SHOULD be selling much more than they are currently because they can appeal to a mass audience, but are hampered by the regular DM audience. Some comics will never have mass appeal and these are the ones that really need the DM to survive, but other comics are finally getting to the mass audience that they most appeal to and have deserved all this time.
There's also the aspect of big sales helping to support smaller sales. For a company like DC, the big sales of their superhero comics enabled them to experiment and produce the Vertigo line. But for companies that have decided to forego superheros, they didn't have this help. But with companies like Fantagraphics and Oni now having big sales of some titles in bookstores, it lets them survive and produce smaller works that can then be purchased directly from them online, or off-line in the DM market.
I'm hoping that eventually the popularity and diversity of the bookstore market will filter backward and more and more good comic shops will open and be able to stay open. Once this transition happens (and maybe even a chain of specialty comic shops will open some day), we will be in a good spot. The most popular stuff will be in bookstores, but everyone will know they can go to local shop to buy the same comics and more, while supporting a local retailer. That is how I hope things will turn out, but it could be a very messy transition until that happens. For now, the DM just isn't enough for many companies and the bookstores are becoming a more and more important facet of the industry...
