Forum - View topicNEWS: Dark Horse to buy Studio Proteus
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GATSU
Posts: 15578 |
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That's weird. I always thought Studio Proteus was already a subsidiary of Dark Horse. I guess it more like a distribution thing.
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Beatdigga
 Posts: 4610 Location: New York |
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Well, it's a subsidiary now... |
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Craeyst Raygal
 Posts: 1383 Location: In the garage, beneath a 1970 MGB GT. |
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But we all know what the real question is...
Does this mean Dark Horse will speed up releases? |
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GATSU
Posts: 15578 |
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I don't really care about speed. I just hope that Dark Horse will subsidize some of the costs running Studio Proteus, so I can get my manga cheaper. Plus a re-release of their back catalogue at lower prices would be nice.
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Craeyst Raygal
Posts: 1383 Location: In the garage, beneath a 1970 MGB GT. |
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That's for certain.
Lord knows that Oh! My Goddess would make a huge sales comeback if they rereleased it at $9.95. Dark Horse has always had the titles, it's just that you have to jump a bit at their cost. |
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LordRobin
Posts: 354 Location: Akron, OH |
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My gut feeling is that the manga market and Studio Proteus had gone their separate ways. The industry standard has become compact books, unflipped artwork, 180+ pages for about $10. The fans like it, because the artwork is authentic (often even the sound-effects are left alone), the books are cheap, durable, and easy to carry around. The publishers like it because the books are cheap to produce (little or no artwork modification means less expense), and their small size and attractive price means Borders and Barnes & Noble will stock plenty.
Meanwhile, Studio Proteus stubbornly continues to release comic books, a market that has been in a downward spiral for years even as the manga market has exploded. They spend time and money flipping the artwork and translating the sound-effects, when the market has proven that readers don't care. When SP does publish trades, they come very slowly, and are larger and more expensive then the standard format. When Dark Horse made the deal with Digital Manga and began releasing unflipped, industry-standard trades, like those gigantic Trigun volumes, the writing was on the wall. Dark Horse wants to jump on the gravy train before it leaves the station. Every other major manga publisher has gone to trades-only -- for Dark Horse to continue to tie itself to the comic market is bad business. I will be stunned if we don't hear in the next few months that Dark Horse plans to drop all manga comics (except perhaps Super Manga Blast) and go to trades-only. I have the greatest respect for what Toren Smith accomplished with Studio Proteus, but I really think he lost his way. Again, this is just my gut feeling, but I'd guess he stuck with the old-fashioned format because of his love of the artform. Shrinking the art to the more portable new standard means the details are harder to see. And not translating the sound-effects means that many readers will simply ignore them, which means they may not get the full impact of the story as intended by the artist. If this was his postion, then he failed to understand the consumer. The readers are willing to give up a little detail if it means they can slip the book in their pocket without folding it in half. They like the large serving for only $10, and the purists love the untainted artwork. Studio Proteus began as the most fan-oriented manga publisher, but in the end, they weren't giving the fans what they wanted. ------RM (One more thing: I remember reading on SP's website a long time ago a letter from a reader griping about Super Manga Blast's slogan. Something like "the most manga for your money". The reader pointed out that Shonen Jump and Raijin Comics had a better pages-to-dollar ratio. Smith shot back something along the lines of "okay, we'll change the slogan until both of them are cancelled". Raijin's had its problems, but I believe Jump is selling around 300,000 copies a month...) |
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Stueypark
Posts: 116 |
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Part of the problem is with Oh My Goddess, they have an established fanbase dating back close to a decade. Changing formats on an established, and comfortable, consumer base tends to result in lower sales. Luckily many of their older succesful titles have completed and could be re-released with little problem.
It's like a TV network putting a show in the wrong time slot. It may do better at a different time but if they move it not everyone will follow. |
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king_micah
 Posts: 994 Location: OSU |
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Bah, I am waiting until they fix it to buy more. I am still miffed at the renumbering in earlier volumes.
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Mohawk52
 Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
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I've been trying to get DH and SP to re-issue Outlanders for some time now. The anime was licenced by US Renditions but since they went bust it's disappeared into oblivion. Mostly all of the manga is still available except Volume 1 which DH said they might re-issue in the future but not now. Shame really as this is a right diamond of a story that has been overlooked for far too long.
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isaacada1
 Posts: 779 Location: Snohomish, WA |
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What's the status with studio proteus titles that were done with Viz(Nausicaa)? Who's going to lead SP now? How will it be operated under Dark Horse? What the press release didn't say is what this is going to do to the manga titles that SP does for Fantagraphics/Eros? To many questions more then answers with this press release.
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Mohawk52
Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
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