Forum - View topicPR: Square Enix Manga & Books Team Up With Penguin Random House on Comic Partner Initiative To E
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mdo7
 Posts: 7012 Location: Katy, Texas, USA |
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Wait a minute, I thought most comic book stores (the one I've visited so far) already have manga in stocks and in their catalog and also on display. Are there LCS that doesn't sell manga at all despite it's already been acknowledged that manga outsell comic book/graphic novels in the US?
I mean I thought it's common knowledge for comic book shop owners to display and sell manga to attract customers, or did I missed something else?
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Alan45
 Village Elder Posts: 10142 Location: Virginia |
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They would have to draw in an almost completely different group of customers. That is there is not a lot of people who buy both American comics and manga. In shops where they get a lot of foot traffic, that is in the surviving malls or right outside a college campus it is worth trying to carry both. Keep in mind that they are in competition with the remaining bookstores for manga sales. If a local comic shop wants to add a new line of merchandise, something related to the comics they already sell is better.
Comparing sales of manga volumes to sales of American comics in trade paperback form is a bit comparing apples to oranges. The bulk of American comic sales is still in the form of monthly comic books. A lot of people do not see a need for the collected volumes since they already have the content in "floppy" format. Manga hasn't been offered in comic book format since the early 2000s. (the last to be offered in comic book format was Dark Horse's "Blade of the Immortal" in 2007) Square Enix has been distributed by Penguin Random House for some time now (along with Seven Seas and Marvel) This is likely due to the death spiral of Diamond Comic Distributors. |
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mdo7
Posts: 7012 Location: Katy, Texas, USA |
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I understand, and thank you for the clarification but the reason for my OP is because if you look at the headline of the PR article: Square Enix Manga & Books Team Up With Penguin Random House on Comic Partner Initiative To Elevate Manga Awareness in Comic Shops Nationwide See the part I bolded, it make it sound like that manga are not mainstream in the US nor they outsold comic book/graphic novels in the US since they've already been outselling them since mid 2010's I believe. Hence why my OP is like that And look at what the PR article said:
The part I highlighted in red makes it sound like that comic book stores have never sell manga which is impossible because most of the comic book stores I've visited do sell manga alongside comic book (floppies, and trade paperback) and graphic novels. So that's why I was confused this PR article from Square Enix. Again, manga sales are keeping comics business in the US so that's why I was scratching my head when I was reading the PR from Square Enix. |
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Alan45
Village Elder Posts: 10142 Location: Virginia |
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@mdo7
Seeing the writing on the wall, last year Square Enix moved their distribution from Diamond to Penguin Random House. Marvel Comics are also distributed by Penguin Random House. As a result a lot of local comic shops do business with PRH. I suspect that PRH has pointed out to Square Enix that a lot of those local comic shops are not buying SE manga. SE is a relatively small localizer of manga but their catalog has a lot or really good titles and they want to know why they are not selling to everyone. You say that in your experience all comic shops already carry manga. But if this were true for the entire country the above would not be correct. Lets just say in a contest between PRH's sales statistics and your experience, or mine, I would trust PRH hands down. So why the discrepancy? According to your profile, you live in shopping distance to one of the largest cities in the country. Lots of people means more customers and more cash flow. These shops can afford to experiment with manga. Those that get a lot of foot traffic past their doors can probably pull in manga customers to buy the stuff. Comic shops operating outside of major cities don't often have that advantage. Also, even though I live in a fairly small market, my local Barnes and Noble has a wall six or eight shelves tall and about 30 feet long with nothing but manga and even with that they have trouble keeping up with new releases. Unless a comic shop is able to devote at least that much display space to manga they are not carrying a full range of manga. Manga sales are supporting manga in America. They are not doing anything to support American comics. Actually there are two separate comic industries. American comics and manga have different publishers mostly. They are sold in mostly different retail locations and have very different customers. Almost the only place they meet is at the wholesale distribution level. Most manga is sold to a demographic ranging from middle school to late 30s. The old farts like me a few and far between. Local comic shop customers range from middle age to much older. Young customers are a small part. It is a dying industry that will be gone when their last customer enters a nursing home. Manga sales are not supporting American comics and their shops, they are replacing them. Trust me, local comic shop owners are well aware of manga sales. They would love to get a part of that pie, but as Square Enix noted there are a lot of barriers. Display space, money to buy stock, knowledge to know what the hell to buy and the process of attracting a whole new set of customers to name the obvious ones. Oh, and for American comics, shops have mostly only other comic shops to compete with, for manga they have the surviving book stores and online retailers as competition. |
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mdo7
Posts: 7012 Location: Katy, Texas, USA |
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Just a bit of a disclaimer Alan45: I used to live in Washington DC/Montgomery County Maryland before I moved to Texas in 2018 (I lived in the east coast for 30 years). So most of the comic book stores I've visited is not only in Texas, but also in MD/DC and Northern Virginia. And if you include all the comic book stores I sometime visited within the US continent on vacation, then yeah, a lot of the comic book stores I've seen and visited throughout ever since I joined the anime/manga fandom, they do sell manga alongside comic and graphic novels. Sometime on front display alongside comic book and graphic novels. Local comic book stores know how valuable manga are in the US, and they don't pass down on that opportunity.
I'm aware of that, but that doesn't mean that the comic book industry also relied on manga sales. Hell, I've already said this in the past Alan45, you got US comic publishers that want to get in on the manga licensing and publishing in the US. And I'm not only talking about Dark Horse Comics, I'm talking about Alien Book (a subsidiary of Valiant Comic) licensing and publishing manga back in 2023. You also got Titan Comics licensing and publishing manga titles too in the US. So how are you so sure that hmmm let say Boom! Studio won't open up a manga publishing division given that their parent company Penguin Random House acquired them back in July and given that Random House has launched a publishing division to publish manga and manhwa, how are we so sure Boom! Studio could end up helping license and published manga to help and aid Random House? IDW Publishing could end up setting up a manga publishing division for the US market given that they did published a manga 18 years ago. The market and environment has changed and I think and probably could see IDW could joined the manga licensing and publishing again for the US market. Given that their Godzilla comics/graphic novels get translated and released in Japan, and the Naruto/TMNT crossover comic that came out. They may see an opportunity to open up a manga/manhwa publishing division to not only sell manga, but do more west meet east crossover comic book. I can see other western publishers may joined the manga licensing and publishing game too like probably Image Comic (or it's subsidiary, Top Cow Production) to license, translate, and publish manga for the US market. And I've said in the past why they could probably do that.
Well, wait until we see comic book publishers like Boom! Studio, IDW, and Image Comic open up a manga publishing division and we're probably going to see a lot of more manga alongside comic books/graphic novels at local comic book stores. As I said, beside comic book stores, publishers that create and published comic book would love a big piece of the manga sales in the US. Alien Book, and Titan Comics know how valuable manga are in the US market, and I think they know about manhwa/webtoons. |
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