Forum - View topicINTEREST: Fact Check: Did Demon Slayer Really Outsell All of American Comics?
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mangamuscle
Posts: 2658 Location: Mexico |
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If you re-read my comments, it is clear that what I am trying to say is: 1) We can't compare the support thru synergy that manga/LN publishers (which pump every season new anime, with the accompanying moans from some people that always say "it is all trash") to the wimpy counterpart this side of the pacific. Over here it is basically an afterthought, their is no constant releases on the calendar, if anything published outside of the big two gets a cartoon, tv series or similar is a rare event. which does not change that. 2) The reason the article is so interesting to many, is due to the possibility that we could have a repeat of the japanese car invasion of the 1970s. If you think Dog Man (and the like) will be the next big thing in a decade or two, be my guest. But from my perspective, there is a big comic market demographic that is being neglected in the USA and is clearly being serviced from abroad. How was it ... Oh, and there we were all in one place A generation lost in space With no time left to start again |
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Alan45
![]() ![]() Posts: 9931 Location: Virginia |
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mangamuscle wrote:
You mean in addition to those who already are anime/manga fans? Nah, that group is simply not there. Those people have no interest in comics or cartoons at all. A surprising number do not read anything for pleasure. Those people are all hunched over their phones or gaming consoles. To the extent that there is an audience for superhero films, it is because they are action movies with great special effects. Most of that audience has no nostalgia for superhero comics. The movies have not notable increased the sale of comics. When I was a kid every news stand, every Woolworth, every mom and pop corner store had racks of newspapers, magazine and a couple dozen comic series for sale. Those are all gone now, the convenience stores that replaced the news stands and the mom and pop stores sell only tabloids and puzzle books. Bookstores along with comics, magazines, newspapers and books are slowly dying. There are decades of Americans who never developed a comic book habit and are not likely to now. TV/Cable mortally wounded reading for pleasure and now it is succumbing to the internet. It is a brave new world out there. |
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mangamuscle
Posts: 2658 Location: Mexico |
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I meant that the teen/young adult demographic is better serviced atm by anime/manga and said demographic is growing, while adults into american comic books are dwindling. How do I know? I have no hard cold data, but I do know was a fan of comics. But nowadays I can no longer get into them even though they are the titles I liked back in the day. But I have read about old time american comic book fans discovering modern manga and falling in love all over again. Give it a try, smack some old time comic book fan with the first volume jujutsu kaisen and tell me they don't get hooked.
I think this has already been addressed. You can watch an anime and continue reading right where it ended most of the time, with a handful being complete separate plotwise. With american movies and comics it is the opposite, those that closely follow the original material are the exception. So it is no surprise that there is no increase in comic sales, they are not only different plots, but even have different tones to the stories they portray in the movies.
You might not realize it, but that is basically the plot of Pastel Memories. Said anime is not very good to be honest, but it shows us what would have happened if manga stopped being interesting, hint: it would have died and it would seem that no one is crying its demise. I don't remember the exact quote, but I think what one editor in Bakuman said about "comics only need to be interesting" is a simple truth that evades big executives. Disney/Warner are going to suck dry the golden goose that superhero movies represent to the same extent Marvel/DC did with comic books, it is only a matter of time, which might be measured in one or two decades of diminishing returns. |
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Alan45
![]() ![]() Posts: 9931 Location: Virginia |
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@mangamuscle
You missed my point. Yes, anyone who has a desire to read comic books is very underserved by the mainstream comics from DC and Marvel. However, most of the people you envision are not interested in comics or light novels in any form. Most of them are watching TV (cable or streaming) watching Netflix, playing video games or just messing around on the internet. It is not that they don't like superhero comics, they simply don't like to read for pleasure. Why pick up something that requires you to concentrate when it can just stream past your face, complete with sound, motion and color. Yes, I agree, manga is much more interesting than most US comics. When I first saw manga some 24 years ago it came as a revelation. I read for fun and this was something new and different. But I am not typical. I actually enjoy reading, it is my default leisure activity. But there just aren't that many of us around. My comments about where you could once buy comics was about access. Comic books used to be available everywhere. Now you have to seek them out. In the US you usually will not find them anywhere but book stores and comic shops, and those are dying businesses. Manga moved into book stores some twenty years ago. Since then it has been as available to anyone who wanted it as superhero comics are. If there was a much larger audience for it, they would have found it years ago. |
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Beatdigga
![]() Posts: 4514 Location: New York |
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I would also point out that this sort of thing is exactly why digital manga, Webtoon, etc, is a thing, with the idea of delivering content specifically for mobile devices instead of expecting people to pick up paper.
I would also point out the money thrown at web comic portals and manga’s success in adapting is far more notable than the efforts of the Big Two, which suffer from the debilitating issue of 1:1 pricing (aka you pay the same amount for 22 page floppies you do for digital). |
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LastPage 3
Posts: 206 |
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So where is this magical balance where politics does not overwhelm everything else exactly?
If writers were putting activism first, they wouldn't be working as artists, they'd be working as activists. There's this weird tendency where people believe that people who work in the entertainment industry shouldn't be allowed to express opinions. Also, writers being politically active is nothing new. Stan Lee was calling out racism in the 60's. The only thing that has changed is the medium. Instead of boxes on the back of comic books, writers talk about this stuff on Twitter.
How are you being treated differently because a writer espouses politics you don't agree with? |
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mangamuscle
Posts: 2658 Location: Mexico |
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The problem is nothing new. Heck, I remember reading a Spiderman comic where J.J. Jameson angrily said to Robbie Robertson no one wants to buy newspapers anymore because they can view the daily news for free in the stupid box aka broadcast TV. The issue was from the late 60s/early 70s,
The thing is that the exact same problem exists all over the world. One would think "but in japan it is different". I know statistics must be taken with a grain of salt, but by the looks of it, the problem is worse in japan. https://irisreading.com/how-many-books-does-the-average-person-read/
I agree and it boogles the mind that nothing has been done to address this problem. This is the opposite of synergy, we have publishers openly neglecting the outlets where comics are sold. With disney and warner owning marvel and dc I would expect some kind of big deal to give new comics shelf space of some kind so kids can easily buy at least a select list of titles. Maybe it is because comics have become so expensive for kids to buy that no effort is being made; but hey, they are printed in color in quality paper unlike manga that is printed in cheap paper in black & white </sarcasm>
But manga is not only in the comic book store, I can read the latest MHA chapter online for free, they are adapting faster imo. |
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El Hermano
![]() Posts: 450 Location: Texas |
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It's going to be different for everyone, but I'd say some stories are obviously more nuanced and level-headed than others and it's generally pretty easy to tell them apart. Not every "racism is bad" story says the same thing.
That's a standard practice for multiple mediums. Digital video games cost the same as physical releases as well. it's done to appease retail stores who don't want digital to be the cheaper option and syphon away too much business. And since certain industries like video games and comics rely on physical stores as a crutch, they have to oblige their wishes. |
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mangamuscle
Posts: 2658 Location: Mexico |
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I think this question is the wrong way to solve the problem. This is not a food defects standards like issue. The problem is about the quality of the product being created, but many people confuse said quality with the moral quality of the creator. In crass terms, if an illustrator or writer delivers a scheduled pamphlet smelling of cigar & piss and is known to cheat a legal partner (or similar unsavory but not illegal behavior) but creates a popular comic, that is all that publishers should care about (unless said cheating goes public AND affects the sales of said product). But IMO what we have atm in the usa comic industry is a system where many writers and illustrators are hired as cronies gauged on their wokeness level and when sales dive, they blame the readers *facepalm* Yeah, this answer wont please anyone on both sides of the peanut gallery, because on one side, if a (extremely) woke comic is popular (as in, has lot of sales of monthly issues and trade paperbacks), then more power to it. On the other side, all the people that clapped when Vic got his pink slip would be furious to know there might be unsavory people working in the comic industry "because giving good results is not a good enough reason". So yeah, I do not expect to see this problem solved at all, imo it is time to jump ship or sink with the vessel. |
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EmbraceMe
![]() Posts: 2017 Location: Growing old and jaded. |
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I'm a bit late to the conversation but isn't there also the issue of constant reboots? Didn't DC lose a lot of fans because of New 52 and then saw sales increase during Rebirth? I haven't quite followed comics as much since the middle of Rebirth but seeing the return of legacy characters (i.e. Wally West) was huge to a lot of Flash fans. Replacing legacy characters usually doesn't bode well and sometimes the way or who they're replaced with causes outrage or people to stop following the series. As for Marvel, I am not a fan of a lot of the current writers although I only really read Spider-Man (big dislike of Dan Slott's run but there were good arcs). Nick Spencer's Secret Empire run for Captain America had a good start then fell off for me and I think that was the last time I followed Marvel or maybe it was Chip Zdarsky's Spider-Man Life Story series. |
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Errinundra
Moderator
![]() Posts: 6561 Location: Melbourne, Oz |
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We're straying from the topic & people are soapboxing. Let's get back to how good the Demon Slayer movie is.
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kakugo complete
Posts: 73 |
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Yeah I came across that Toriyama quote in a Youtube video but I wanted to be 100% sure if he never said anything else about it. It definitely struck me as an unsubstantiated rumor though. Been reading that for decades & never came across a source. |
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