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NEWS: Dark Horse Founder, Eisner Award Judge Interviewed




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SharinganEye



Joined: 01 Feb 2005
Posts: 402
Location: Les Etats-Unis d'Amérique
PostPosted: Mon Jan 07, 2008 8:40 pm Reply with quote
I was reading the librarian interview, and remembered what happened at B&N just this past Saturday.

Should manga get more of a free pass for gratuitous violence and sexism. If so, why?

There was this woman trying to buy some comics for her son, and she approached one of the help desks, one that happened to be right next to the manga/graphic novel section, and one close enough to hear for me to hear the woman talk to the worker.

"Excuse me, do you have any comics here?"
"Yeah, they're right over there." (Points over to the section)
"Yeah. . . Do you have stuff for kids? Not like that anime books?"
"Uh, well, let's see..."

I don't know if the worker was humoring the mother or not, but they went away for half a minute, then came over to the manga/GN section.

"Yeah... I don't want this Nay-roo-toe and... other stuff."

She had a particularly nasty way enunciating "anime books" and "stuff." And a snubbing look for them too.

"Do you have Star Wars comics?"
"Yeah, they're right over here."

The lady looks through some Dark Horse publications, picks one out and flips through it in about 2 seconds and says, "Yeah, this'll do."

This lady had just systematically categorized the entirety of American comics as sweet and innocent and kids-stuff while at the same time contemptuously resigned all manga as "violent and sexual."

Funny story.
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Carl Horn



Joined: 09 Jun 2005
Posts: 90
PostPosted: Mon Jan 07, 2008 8:45 pm Reply with quote
I can only hope they were Dark Horse's Star Wars manga.
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GATSU



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 15564
PostPosted: Mon Jan 07, 2008 8:49 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Of course we now have several shojo titles that are doing very well. We've just signed a deal with Clamp and that's a huge arrangement for us. Oh My Goddess! is the longest running series in America, so the impressions are not always accurate.


Oh! My Goddess isn't shojo!

Quote:
I think it's no secret that the prime customer for shojo is teenage girls, and obviously they're going to outgrow that particular market and hopefully new people will come in as the existing market ages.


Um, they are the new people.
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SharinganEye



Joined: 01 Feb 2005
Posts: 402
Location: Les Etats-Unis d'Amérique
PostPosted: Mon Jan 07, 2008 8:51 pm Reply with quote
GATSU wrote:
Quote:
Of course we now have several shojo titles that are doing very well. We've just signed a deal with Clamp and that's a huge arrangement for us. Oh My Goddess! is the longest running series in America, so the impressions are not always accurate.


Oh! My Goddess isn't shojo!


The seinen label doesn't exist in America. It's all just girly-fluff. Rolling Eyes
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seichan80



Joined: 14 Dec 2003
Posts: 40
PostPosted: Mon Jan 07, 2008 9:17 pm Reply with quote
I wish they had gotten Fruits Basket.
I look forward to their CLAMP mangettes.
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Moomintroll



Joined: 08 Oct 2007
Posts: 1600
Location: Nottingham (UK)
PostPosted: Mon Jan 07, 2008 9:50 pm Reply with quote
GATSU wrote:
Oh! My Goddess isn't shojo!


I don't think he meant to say it was. I think he was pointing out that, despite their reputation, not everything DH publishes is dark seinen material like Crying Freeman or Lady Snowblood. They also publish shojo stuff and interminable shonen romances... Wink
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AstroNerdBoy



Joined: 03 Feb 2004
Posts: 413
Location: Denver, CO
PostPosted: Mon Jan 07, 2008 11:52 pm Reply with quote
seichan80 wrote:
I wish they had gotten Fruits Basket.


Oh, absolutely not. Fruits Basket is one of the best-done titles in the TokyoPop library, preserving the Japanese perspective. Dark Horse hasn't quite embraced that contact though the re-translation of AMG is much better than the original. I don't think Fruits Basket would have done nearly as well in Dark Horse's hands as it has in TokyoPop's.
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Craeyst Raygal



Joined: 30 Apr 2002
Posts: 1383
Location: In the garage, beneath a 1970 MGB GT.
PostPosted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 12:33 am Reply with quote
I have to disagree with you, AstroNerdBoy, because I'd gladly swap a few -chan's and -san's for good proofreading and higher print quality any day.

Some of my older Tokyopops (like my first printing Initial D volume 1) are really starting to fade and yellow, while my Dark Horse Oh! My Goddess's and Gunsmith Cats which predate those are still holding up exceptionally well.
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Celes



Joined: 11 Jan 2007
Posts: 223
Location: Madison, WI
PostPosted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 1:32 am Reply with quote
I also wonder what it would have been like to get Fruits Basket by another publisher. I've read all of the english Tokyopop releases and it just seems poorly edited. Do none of the Fruits Basket characters like to speak in complete sentences without a bunch of one-worders and .......'s?

Of course, that could just be the writing style of the original. I have no idea. But I don't really enjoy the way all the characters trail off in their dialogue, and the grammar for the most part is awful. And I've seen way too many spelling errors too.

I really don't mean to bash FB, it's an ok story, but I guess I wonder if Tokyopop feels the need to hire more copy editors.
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Rei Sentoki



Joined: 18 Jul 2006
Posts: 56
PostPosted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 3:39 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Well, as a supporter of the creator's right to see his vision in comics exactly as he intends, we're against censorship.


Except, of course, when they're not. Unheard of. Certainly not us.

But honestly I'd rather they inquire as to why Dark Horse regularly blows past release dates on their manga products. Richardson makes the point with some evident pride that Fujishima Kosuke’s Aa! Megami-sama is “the longest running series in America”, but some of those same works are years beyond their initial street date.
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GATSU



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 15564
PostPosted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 6:18 pm Reply with quote
Rei: Technically, that was Studio Proteus, so I'm wondering if they're gonna re-release it unedited under the DH label.
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The Xenos



Joined: 29 Mar 2004
Posts: 1519
Location: Boston
PostPosted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 8:26 pm Reply with quote
Wait... is the new version of Gunsmith Cats censored? geez. It's already shrink wrapped. Plus they release Berserk and MPD Psycho uncensored. It'd be pretty stupid if they censored Gunsmith Cats now.

Anyway, I love Dark Horse. They are one of my favorite manga publishers. They're one of the few to tap into the seinen demographic. If only Viz would bring back some of their old Pulp titles. Though Viz does have Monster currently.
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LostPhrack



Joined: 10 Dec 2007
Posts: 40
Location: Mass.
PostPosted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 2:28 am Reply with quote
The Xenos wrote:
Wait... is the new version of Gunsmith Cats censored? geez. It's already shrink wrapped. Plus they release Berserk and MPD Psycho uncensored. It'd be pretty stupid if they censored Gunsmith Cats now.

Anyway, I love Dark Horse. They are one of my favorite manga publishers. They're one of the few to tap into the seinen demographic. If only Viz would bring back some of their old Pulp titles. Though Viz does have Monster currently.

The new editions of Gunsmith Cats are unedited... mostly. There's a thread about it at AoD, but basically all the art is unedited with any cut sequences put back in. Most of the dialogue that had been altered has been reverted as well. Most. There's apparently a few instances in the second volume were Rally's age is back to the original edited age, and there's a bit of dialogue involving May and her "condition" that may be in an altered form still.
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petran79



Joined: 10 Jun 2006
Posts: 122
PostPosted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 2:20 pm Reply with quote
What distinguishes manga from comics and graphic novels generally, in your opinion, other than their generally Asian origin?

To my mind manga cannot be separated from their country and culture of origin. Everything about them, from the way creators tell stories to the symbols and gestures involved are created with a Japanese audience in mind. Those outside Japan can learn all of the sound effects and references, but most readers will not instinctively understand every joke or implied meaning simply because the story comes from an environment we didn't grow up in. That being said, there are elements that make manga markedly different from the comics and graphic novel titles here (now on to the sweeping generalizations!).


But what if Japanese manga artists and European or American comic artists collaborate to create manga together?

http://www.boilet.net/am/nouvellemanga_manifeste_1.html
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SharinganEye



Joined: 01 Feb 2005
Posts: 402
Location: Les Etats-Unis d'Amérique
PostPosted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 4:04 pm Reply with quote
petran79 wrote:
What distinguishes manga from comics and graphic novels generally, in your opinion, other than their generally Asian origin?

To my mind manga cannot be separated from their country and culture of origin. Everything about them, from the way creators tell stories to the symbols and gestures involved are created with a Japanese audience in mind. Those outside Japan can learn all of the sound effects and references, but most readers will not instinctively understand every joke or implied meaning simply because the story comes from an environment we didn't grow up in. That being said, there are elements that make manga markedly different from the comics and graphic novel titles here (now on to the sweeping generalizations!).


But what if Japanese manga artists and European or American comic artists collaborate to create manga together?

http://www.boilet.net/am/nouvellemanga_manifeste_1.html


Then it's a collaboration effort, aka la nouvelle manga. La nouvelle manga is generally French bande dessinée with a fusion of the Japanese focus on everyday life IRRC.

I support efforts like these, fusion creates fun stuff. What I don't like is appropriating terms for use as commercial purposes.
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