Why Is Manga Dominating American Comics?
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- Опубликовано: 2 июн 2024
- Manga are dominating American comics worldwide and on their own home soil. The real question is, why? Manga is essentially the same thing as American comics. But there are 4 key strategies Manga are employing to lay waste to American comic books. Market leaders Marvel and DC Comics have not discovered a single strategy to compete with Manga. Wes and Aaron Sparrow discuss the utter dominance of Manga over American comics and why this won't change anytime soon. Why is Manga dominating American comics?
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#manga #dccomics #marvel 
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The answer is simple. They dominate because they are better.
as a DC kid for 50+yrs, you are correct.
this right here.
I'm old enough to remember when this wasn't so- even as late as ten years ago, manga artists and writers could MATCH their American counterparts' quality, AT BEST- but Marvel and DC Comics got complacent. American comic book EDITORS dropped the ball, stopped demanding the best quality from the artists and writers under them, stopped vetoing bad ideas like "Make a character that has been consistently portrayed as HETEROSEXUAL for DECADES, gay!" Disney and Warner Bros., which own Marvel and DC, didn't impose strict social media policies to prevent employees from posting, "All Republicans are N4Z1s!!!" and stupidly insulting 50% OR MORE of their own customer base.
American comic book readers didn't just turn to manga; American comic book companies drove them the way someone with a whip will drive away others. The irony is NOT lost on anyone.
@@longtsun8286 manga has been better, at least, for 30 years, most gringos had not bothered to give it a chance because they were too locked in their own media and I'm their discourses of superiority, believing that because manga is foreigner is inferior. Just now, because your media changed for the cultural war, leaving comics book fans without option, are starting to look at manga and anime. But manga has been superior for a long time, you just noticed it.
different, not better
Manga: Focuses on creating stories and characters fans want to read. Mainstream American Comics: Sacrifice the story quality to tell a message.
facts
We don't see bad characterization that we see in comics. The mangas protagonists usually stays true your core essence until the end.
More like those are the ones you only pay attention too
It's inevitable when comic writers hate fans.
I think the actual biggest reason is accessibility. You start with chapter 1. This is why the most succesful American comics tend to be indies or AU's because they are self contained.
Manga companies also do everything they can to make their stories as affordable as possible both physically and digitally in order to get as many eyes on their stuff as possible.
Its much, much easier to find and purchase manga because it's easier for stores to carry them. Those stores will be happy to sell Saga, Walking Dead, Sin City, Bone, Preacher, Transmetropolitan, Fables and Scott Pilgrim alongside manga.
With manga the story is a straight line and plots are simple. There aren't any altered worlds, multiverses or numerous deaths. There's one creator with a team or by themselves, they work to the bone to perfect their stories and it shows.
Personally I am extremely tired of one story being spread out over 16 different titles. Shit is exhausting and confusing. It's gotten out of control and I can't be bothered anymore. Especially when half the books are complete dog shit and the other half are simple forgettable.
100% comics are hard to follow or get into. I spent a couple hours trying to figure out where to start acomic series. IMAGE comics does this really well creating original stories that follow a nice linear story
Actually-theres-mangas-like-that-too,-Go-Nagai-Verse-for-example-he-have-all-that:-multiverses-time-travel-clones-etc.-But-he-have-a-timelime-thats-the-principal-and-is-not-affected-by-any-of-that,-you-be-surpised-how-easy-is-to-read-and-comprehend-all-his-work-considering-thas-been-57-years-of-the-Nagai-verse
Even when they use the comics formula of franchise, they are doing it better. This formula is still not as established, but it could grow for their biggest IPs. We see manga creators leaving to other or sharing duties (not in a traditional team of assistants/mangaka) in the main creative process. DB Super has a different artist with Akira Toriyama still as writer. Boruto had basically both different artist and writer before the original mangaka came back to steady it. Still they aren't rebooting crap, they keep moving the story forward.
This isn't necessarily true.
A few years ago, I heard France is the biggest manga market outside Japan. The population of US is nearly 6 times bigger than France, and it means the manga market in US can explode further (at least 3 times bigger than now).
It is also worth pointing out that the manga industry is highly competitive compared to what we see in America, which encourages writers and artists to constantly improve and innovate, or they risk getting their stories outright axed by the publisher. Masashi Kishimoto, the creator of Naruto, a series that has been running since the late '90s, had his recent work canceled due to a lack of interest on the part of the readers.
It is truly an industry that values merit and quality over ideology.
boruto got cancelled? i'm actually surprised. though yeah, as a naruto fan i didn't follow boruto as i just didn't like him as a character nor his friends.
@@Tone_Of_Dialsah. thought by how they'd spoken it was boruto that got cancelled. not surprised this samurai 8 got cancelled as i've not even heard of that one.
The reason why manga is dominating is because of they tell good stories that people want to read
Manga has been crushing Comics since the 90s. Comics barely sell out of North and South America, while Manga has ALWAYS sold world wide, and it has a market specifically designed for girls and women, that alone kills Comics. Marvel and DC at their PEAK, COMBINED were still SO SMALL compared, that Manga never noticed. This has always been a bad argument.
Lol why are you lying? Stuff like Mark Waid's World's Finest or the most recent action comics run by Philip johnson is some of the best storytelling in comics right now
Even the current Hellblazer like come on
Cool video on this Wes. What makes manga better is that they have heart, comparied to comics that are written today's stories.
I second the emotion ✋
Another big reason is that Shonen (the male targeted series) continues to aim for their target audiences. They don’t try to turn Shonen into Shoujo (girl targeted series). Unlike marvel who wants their superhero titles to now be slice of life stories and aim for an audience that isn’t the targeted one.
Saitama found American comics boring after he defeated them with One Punch. Alucard drained American comics of their blood, Eren chewed them up and spit them out, while Kaneki chewed on the leftovers. Vegeta is still reading OVER 9000 manga. Shinji would rather get into the EVA, than get into current DC and Marvel. USA comics make Pokemon faint. Luffy has not found One Piece of decent DC nor Marvel.
Which Alucard the Hellsing or the abridged the latter would be funnier as he crack wise while doing so.
Demon slayer won't hold their breath for decent American comic. Shojo manga doesn't Skip Beat. Jojo's bizarre adventure makes more sense.
Mangas are one and done stories, depending on stories 12/13/24 volumes on most part.
Things like berserk/one piece/dragon ball and z and super are the exceptions
Start at issue 1 and that is it with manga, western comics have got so convoluted with so many variations of one character for example past few months Spiderman had so many
Superior Spiderman
Spiderman 2099
Spiderman Unlimited
Ultimate Spider-man
Amazing Spiderman
Miles Morales Spiderman
Spiderman Quantum quest being just a few not to mention retcons, stories spreading over many different comic series. With manga you have the same people working on so you do not have these massive variations with peoples own takes on characters.
I know there's a few Spider-Man manga with their own tales, but I would love to see Spidey's traditional adventures like fighting Green Goblin, Mysterio, maybe even Big Wheel in a manga setting. Straightforward, beginning to end, no multiverse BS. But I can dream...
@@veggsbacon1891 oh yeah I saw one where it was about a regular person trying to be Spiderman as he had gone and that was a interesting, but yeah u are right make a western comic but doing it the manga way.
and dont' forget all the variations of one character.
web of spiderman
amazing spiderman
spectacular spiderman
just to name a few. and they do this with any big character
I Remember when DC used to have a tagline at the top of their covers on their comic books: holding the line at $1.99 !!!
Hey, they're holding the line at $4.99 now, er, $5.99 if you want the other three varients.
I remember when they printed a letter of apology/explanation for raising the price to 25 cents.
I've spend hundreds of dollars on Manga over the past year. Once you pick up a title you like, it's impossible to stop buying the next issue, and the next issue, and the issue after that. A couple of advantages beyond content - each issue gives you a good amount of content to dig into (whereas a floppy comic is read in 10 minutes) and you get to follow the same story through a long arc.
For the US people, $10 may seem cheap per the number of content pages you are getting but it is very expensive for us English readers in developing countries ( it felt 3 times more expensive to purchase power-wise on average in SEA). If you think $10 is cheap have a look at the original untranslated price in Japan, a manga book typically only costs between 400-700 yen which is 2.70 USD - 4.70 USD (simpler maths less than 5 bucks heck most cases 3-4 bucks). Some learned Japanese would buy the original manga copies or for the English version we will handpick the ones we want to keep, other than that it's mainly pirated manga viewing plus buying merchandise to support although manga is the best way to support the author then again Western translation just cost more, the Chinese version of the manga is also way cheaper for the same official manga. I have not known a single person who buys DC/ Marvel comics people only watch the movies here
I know this might be disagreed with but, i think its because manga has the balls to let long term investment in plotlines play out. American Comics for the most part long abandoned anthology stuff back jn the Silver Age, but since like the 2000's they cant commit to forward progression anymore. Manga Allows you to feel, for the most part, like your investment matters because even if you don't like a certain choice an author makes, they usually arent walking it back or if they do it leads to something. Alot of the big American books eill rrally just dead end, reboot, blos up the world, and kill its characters so casual its just hard to genuinely care anymore. I prefer comics tbr, i just like american comic book characters more most manga characters, but its hard to feel like that investment matters these days. Whats the point in buying the books because your invested in say, Batman getting married if it just ends with it never happening, it just feels like a waste of money these days to sypport these kind of tease and rug pull endeavors. I think Elseworld books have become my compromise, i think while i dont always like choices or character treatment in them i feel, depending on writer, being unconfined from a status quo makes them more desirable.
I might go on a tangent but i hate Ghostmaker and everything this character adds to the Batman mythos. Were going to tell Batman origin one more time, but with another person there who followed this 100 year old character around and has all the same skills. Its textbook one of the worst ways to write a new character, especially when the outcome is hes just Batman, but, he kills people because killing people is so great- hng. This is beyond the worst way to write and add to a world. But thats all alot of new characters and new stories are these days, in a microchasm. Just side progressing stuff, it feels like a waste of time and money.
I guess this comes back to new characters being crap but this whole sitch started in the 2000's beforr the politics became incolved. I think they should have rode out stuff like Dick being Batman, Peter being married, and Wally remaining Flash and ease people further down the lane. Walking everything back over and over again has just harmed the desire to follow the universe. I know im mostly talking about DC because they really have been guiltier of it, but this problem definitely extends to most of the American Comic Industry. A desire to keep things frozen in time feels like something without vision, why engage actively in something like that.
The Big Two American comics industry is a bunch of writers who can’t write worth a damn and even if they could write well are only interested in writing stories no one wants to read.
Marvel and DC Comics got complacent. American comic book EDITORS dropped the ball, stopped demanding the best quality from the artists and writers under them, stopped vetoing bad ideas like "Make a character that has been consistently portrayed as HETEROSEXUAL for DECADES, gay!" Disney and Warner Bros., which own Marvel and DC, didn't impose strict social media policies to prevent employees from posting, "All Republicans are N4Z1s!!!" and stupidly insulting 50% OR MORE of their own customer base.
American comic book readers didn't just turn to manga; American comic book companies drove them the way someone with a whip will drive away others. The irony is NOT lost on anyone.
They're simply better written and illustated most of the time and easier to follow since they have (usually) one writer/author with a consistent vision. they aren't dominated by politics and although they've had characters of different ethnicities, orientations, etc. they don't make these things the character's entire identity and don't preach to their audience.
To the core of the issue is the quality of the stories and the variety of genres and interests covered in the respective mediums. Price and accessibility are huge factors too. Even in the face of extreme amounts of piracy for the last 25 years, manga/anime continue to boom in sales and general popularity.
Why can't there be good new characters? Superman, Batman, Spiderman, X-Men, these are many decades old characters and they are *still* the flagship characters? This makes them overworked, overused. The stories are all over the place, origin story #29, reboots, version from the multiverse next door. One Piece is a gold mine, it's going way longer than most manga, but that story will definitely end at some point, no reboots, no multiverse, that's never in doubt.
Dog-man and Captain Underpants. Spin off comics from the 2010s cartoons : Adventure Time, Bravest Wariors, Hasbin Hotel. I think Steve Universe has one.
Well, the Biggest Presence in Comics in the Netherlands is Donald Duck, longest non-stop running weekly of the world, FOR STARTERS... Nothing wrong with a good old flagship character with its own magazines, which can serve as the Carrier from which many new characters can take off for their maiden flight over the ocean of Public Opinion...
I'm really starting to get sick of gaming and comic book journalists using the term "accessibility" since it's almost never used sincerely. They usually use casual fans, people with disabilities, minorities, etc. as meat shields for any backlash against their stupid opinions. "Fromsoftware games NEED an easy mode because disabled people can't beat them. Oh, wait. Here's some dude with motor skills issues beating Sekiro. We still want that easy mode. For disabled people, of course."
Manga takes itself seriously at every level where as Comics is wishy washy with everything.
What do you mean by “wishy washy” specifically?
The way the comics are named making them hard to follow. The way they reboot the worlds so the storylines are constantly starting over making it hard to follow. The way characters replace other characters or are remade/rebooted...making it hard to follow. Or stay invested.@@gameframeinc.3389
And I love comics. I worked at a shop for 11 years. Things have just really changed in the industry. Look at Comics Matter w/Ya Boi Zack, hes been making video about how comics industry slid itself into oblivion. Though the new Ultimate Spider-Man looks hopeful.
I shared this before Dante D's comic channel, and on your past videos on the same topic. Mangas kicking American Comics butt because they have a more unique narrative, a flowing story, and don't give into the crazy, wild, new takes writers are currently doing with American comics. Manga creators aren't trying to deconstruct the character to the point of being unliked or for some stupid agenda.Also, most of the artwork is fantastic from the manga-ka, and they are stretching different genres in Creative unique ways; leaving few American Comics to even be able to compete with that. The big two certainly can't hold a candle to what demon slayer, one punch man, or even my hero Academia in its own genre of superheroes. There's plenty of other classic manga as well, that are getting the Spotlight to shine( Akira, Ghost in the Shell, etc.) but it's getting sadder and sadder that American Comics can't get that creative flow except-for a few individuals or get the right kind of artist to draw attention( outside of alternative covers)!
Recognizing how bad comics fumbled their opportunity to keep their storylines, relevant and important to the people consuming the product. There’s no more obvious than looking at how well Manga is using their product and trademarks and storylines.
Why Manga is dominating? It's because of "severe competition between creators". It's like 300,000 manga creators are making their own manga, dreaming their manga are actually published under the major manga magazines (Shonen Jump is one of them). Only 0.01% of those creators can publish their own manga after the severe competition. The number of creators = number of leading characters (heroes, etc). In American comics industry, with far smaller number of creators without a severe competition, the fans have to see the same heroes such as Superman, Batman, etc. I think you might need to read Manga "Bakuman". It's a manga of average Japanese high school boys becoming successful manga creators. It's a good manga if you want to learn about Manga industry.
I've been saying this since day 1, I'm a aspiring production studio who want's to create a DC based anime. Like it's about time someone comes in and fixes the problems
Suicide squad isekai
They had so many options and they went with something no one's gonna care about. Dc is oversaturating suicide squad@@DNEWS-kw3id
When i sat down to watch attack on titan and it went on break, i immediately looked up the manga that picked up where it left off to continue the story to completion.
Marvel/DC will have me looking for whatever story is still in continuity. The book should sell the show and the show should sell the book.
Besides manga has something for every one, good storytelling, no political messaging. No lame and gay.
There's a lot of gay in manga
@@6pathuser344 for those looking for BL GL there’s manga for it still not lame as they go for story.
They don’t aim for marvel or DC way, make it lame make it gay.
@@6pathuser344 and they are very good unlike the comics.
Manga publishers know their target audience and provide them with the entertainment they demand because it makes them money. Everybody wins.
This is rather easy to explain to anyone besides those in charge of the main stream comic industry.
Manga is pretty much everything comics wants to be as when talking about diversity. Since they managed to combine that with financial success. What also helps is that the best succeed, and those that can't cut it end up getting canceled and will struggle to get another series.
Now the price for Manga helps an lot, but if they sold terrible Manga then it would not sell either. Manga has quality control unlike what you see at DC and marvel.
Now have to give them an bone with the fact comics aren't sold in most places. Which is weird as in Europe you find plenty of European comics in bookstores. It just American comics that seem to always be in those back alley stores rather then say in the supermarkt.
Now the Reboot problem has bin an problem people bin saying for years. So glad to see that journos have finally caught up to the rest of the world. However it would also help if like Aaron mention was that the stuff you say on the small and big screen also what you get in the comics.
Also the genre thing is once again that we have bin saying for years. Japan does not want to put every genre in one book. An person who likes mha will maybe not be into sailor moon for example because it two differents genres with it own aspects that draw people in
You're comparing the bad years of American comics to the good years of Manga. If you flipped the scenario the exact same thing could have been said about manga 30 years ago. Both have been around long enough to see this play out in real time. If it wasn't true, the two most identifiable characters ON THE PLANET would not be Batman and Spiderman. They would be Berserk and Goku. This not a bash on Manga, I'm glad they are doing what they are doing. But there needs to be more perspective on this type of longstanding argument rather than just looking at the here and now.
Also the genre thing doesn't really work since Manga encompasses almost all of Japan's comic style media. People like to relegate the term American comics to mostly superhero comics and take out books like Dogman, Archie, Calvin and Hobbes, or even the Disney comics of old. This allows Manga to seem like a magical powerhouse, but it's dishonest to a degree. Because Manga counts all of their books including kids books and various other types of titles.
@@nemesiscomix
Actually that has nothing to do with the comics, but more the movies and TV shows. I am comparing the scene as an European, and well did say the American comic scene dropped the ball didn't I.
European comics are doing pretty great. Not sure how well they do in the rest of the world, but they avoided making some of the mistakes the American comic industry did. Also how long did it take for batman and Spiderman to become part of the cultural mainstream. Batman was created in the late 30s, and Spiderman was created in the 60s. Dragon ball was created in the late 80s.
So yeah 30 years ago goku would have bin an new thing that was barely know sincr it was just created. Doubt the whole world knew who batman was in the 50s
@@arnoldtettero8470 I actually wish the European comics were more accessible here in the states. I'm enjoying this conversation. To the point though, American comics 30+ years ago were making the right moves. So much so that Image was able to be created solely off of the namesake of the artists that created it. The problem is they split the industry with an alternative that didn't pan out the way it should have. Marvel and DC started chasing after the crowds they were losing by going into more obscure stories dealing with multiverses and rebirths to try and recapture their audience. This in turn made the stories so convoluted that they started losing new readers. Meanwhile a lot of the larger Manga books that we know and love today were just starting. Frustrated readers turned to them due to the simplicity of the stories compounded with fun characters and new stories. Something new is always more fun than something old.
To summarize the Manga industry capitalized on the failing market of comics, but as they grow they are starting to run into the same problems as far as unique stories that feel new and unused. They are still growing at present but it will be interesting to see what happens in ten to twenty years with them as well.
BTW, what are some good European comics to check out? I know a few big ones, but would be interested in learning about more European titles.
@@nemesiscomix
True that Manga is running out of ideas, but unlike main stream comics the folks who do the best get the most chances. So you don't get an tiny Howard (likely messed up the name) who just keeps failing, but gets another shot. Japan especially you mostly get one shot as the main author to make or break it.
As an result you got the a list series. The one piece and mha so to speak while series like campfire coming in another world and bofuri can just sell decent numbers as the bigger titles keep the industry going. With each successful Manga that is of the decent to good that ends another will take it place. It not even the same genres that do well, but they do follow an trend as isekai for example is an genre that has an lot of stuff these days
Still Manga and anime are an team up as for example titles you have not heard of get a boost from it. Meanwhile comics and tv/movies don't really help boost the popularity of each other. Especially tv/movies seem to be more damaging the helpful.
As for helping with European comics well sadly can't really help as I mostly read tintin, suske and wiske (no clue what the English name is) and w.i.t.c.h which got an Reboot if I recall
@@arnoldtettero8470 This is true, much like the late eighties and early nineties with Jim Lee on Xmen or Todd McFarlane on Spider-Man. They were proven goods so they carried the industry while they tried out new properties such as New Mutants with Rob Liefeld. They werent starting new stories but they were given the oppotunities because they were the respective best in the industry. I agree that today, that most certainly isnt the case. But it was in the past.
You do bring up one point that Manga does decimate American comics with though. Their shows work as companion pieces rather than separate entities from the books. This is a major advantage. One reason it is so easy to do so is because Manga tries to make their books almost like a film reel rather than a comic book. This was established by Osami Tezuka who wanted to create books that felt like Disney cartoons rather than books. Letting the reader feel the motion in the panels. A brilliant approach. But even as far as back then you can see how the industries have borrowed from each other over the years.
It will be interesting to see what happens when American comics finally reject the political nonsense and start making good books again.
I wonder how much they will borrow from Manga and if the cycle between the two mediums will start all over again.
Oh and thanks for the recommendations.
I think it's crazy that there aren't commercials for comics at the theater for these superhero films. Marvel and DC are losing millions in free advertising by not sharing screentime. Dummies!
A ton of reasons why Manga is dominating. Too many writers and way too many versions that is confusing. After watching Invincible it was so easy to jump into the comic, but when it comes to DC and Marvel, where the hell do I start. With manga I can just jump right in from volume 1 and go from there. Now I am reading webtoons or korean comics more than manga.
For marvel you should start with Marvel Zombies and for DC just start with DCeased awesome story about the dc universe becoming zombies , DC Vs Vampires has alot of twists and turns really good story and Injustice if you played the video games you will love the comics,
Heres also another problem i recently had just the other day. I came to a local comic/game store and just strolled in as a new customer and the owner kind of seemed annoyed after i was asking if they had some products and whatnot. He then told me that he prioritizes his longer customers over the newer ones for trying to preorder items and felt annoyed that i even asked if i could preorder a product. I feel like some comic shops also lack some soft skills that engage and introduce new customers to a friendly environment.
4th and 3rd point are huge. I just got introduced to a story about a kid how has to try and rebuild society from a handful of people into a scientific one to destone all of humanity. I used to go to a comic shop who hosted card games stuff every day after school but trying to get into the books was so confusing. It was nearly a decade or more since graduating high school that I bought any comic book and it was because of this and Perchs channel
Even without the extreme ideology in comics, the jumping on point is just over complicated.
I think a full, not a new 52, but a full start from scratch.
I've dropped my comic pull list and haven't really cared about anything the big two have been doing since Immortal Hulk ended..I just pick up the new Transformers comic now every month and that's about it, but I've also gotten into one manga and that's Berserk.
I pick up a couple volumes every month and it never let's me down. Absolutely action packed with a brutal yet very satisfying story and I'm on vol 18 right now and can't wait to read more!
There's a lot of quality manga out there right now. Comics can compete, but they gotta step up their game. Learn from the competition. Just like comics, there's ton of crap manga as well. Essentially shovelware for people riding subways and trains. It's just mainstream comics have fallen so low in comparison.
People worship manga like they're their God or Angels & there's no bad quality storytelling in manga. It shows how arrogant and delusional manga fans are who can't admit that they also have so many trash manga stayed in the library cell no one really cares about. Manga fans judge manga by popularity, not quality. They think manga like mid-slayer, Gojo-kaisen, Trash hero academy, One fraud man is a masterpiece.
Heavenly Delusions is currently my favorite book.
Thank you for mentioning all the different genres of manga. American comics (by which I mean the Big Two) will only publish something if it's superhero realted. You do get more variety at the independents, but all together, they don't have Marvel or DC's pull. Nobody seems to mention this.
People will say its the stories, its not.
Its the culture, the quirkiness, and the incredible art.
Seriously, its like every manga artist is Dan Mora.
Because BlackRock doesn't finance their anime?
because in manga they have something for everyone no need to force or destroy old characters
Not always true. Some long time anime and manga are running into that issue like Dragon Ball Super.
They dominate because they have far superior distribution with a good price point.
Contrary to popular belief, better distribution is much more important than quality… quality just amplifies the effects of good distribution.
Its not just manga. Its also manhwa is also starting to really kick off. I mean look at Solo Leveling it does everything american comic books wishes they could do but better. It has anamazing story, chracters, setting, etc. You also get fully colored pages, great quality paper and all start at volume 1 and end in volume whenever the story ends. I think its still ongoing. But yeah Solo Leveling is a great story i really recommend it. Same for Tower of God.
There is something for everyone, know your market, know your audience. Even niche titles can get a consistent number of audience if the story is done properly. Medium is just one but genres are many. Then there's demographics; you can have a magazine targetting from elementary school kids to young adults. If a story isn't your cup of tea, this is where there is something for everyone comes in. Hence why the magazines showcases multiple works from multiple talents, as it gives you freedom of to choose a story you wanna read or find something that pique your interest.
Due to its highly competitive nature, companies such as Shueisha uses ranking system in Shonen Jump magazine. A manga can be cancelled if there's lack of readers or sales. So, better come up with something that makes money and keep that momentum till the end. Keep in mind, one's biggest rival can be someone who's isn't from a rival company but WITHIN the company.
Even in my country, there are artists whose art style influenced by anime and manga. One of our biggest publisher is under Kadokawa.
I havent read alot of comics since I was a kid but I was looking to actually read the comics a few years ago cause admittedly alot of my knowledge of these heroes are from the 90s cartoons,I still had comics but those cartoons stuck in my head much more. I was looking into reading old comics a few years ago but as you said its just so hard to know where to start theres so many different runs and different this and that it makes it hard and I eventually just listened to some of those longer comics explained videos instead for awhile.
I know I bring up Invincible everytime I comment but the way its so easy to get the whole story made it alot easier for me to jump in and start reading. The compendiums are expensive but ya just buy those three books and ya get it all pretty much as far as I know. Ive got book 3 coming friday and I cant wait, I dont know how Invincible compares to alot of other stuff as I didnt even hear about it til the show but god damn im loving the comics and im guessing book three is going to be even more wild
Sad for comics but congratulations to Manga👏💖
Great great great spiel on the beautifully organized narratives of Manga vs the haphazard quicksand of Comics ♠️♥️♦️♣️🎭
I went into Forbidden Planet in London the other week. First time in there in about five years. Talk about a role reversal. Manga has totally taken over where the US comics used to be. Us comics now in a much smaller section. There were quite a lot of teenage / early adult people in the shop, and they were all in the manga section.
I first got into manga because Naruto 1-25 was in my school library. Crazy that you can’t find Western comic books in American libraries.
Not having the comics work with the movies is the biggest marketing misstep Marvel and DC could have possibly taken. At least the manga and anime have the same characters and work together.
First of all, Manga is NOT killing American comics, actually, Manga is rather helping American comics survive. I mean, I read an article that Manga is helping more Barnes & Noble bookstores survive. Barnes & Noble have American comics too. Manga is helping more physical bookstores survive means Manga is helping American comics more available. My point is, considering Manga as "enemy" is not a good idea. Looking for the ways to thrive together with Manga is the answer. More collaboration of Manga and Marvel or DC is needed.
Because there's something for everyone and it's all separate. You like super powers and action? It's there. You want gay, slice of life, coming of age stories? It's there. And even better, they don't try to overwrite one with the other, and end up with shit nobody wants to read.
hey wes love your content whats the best way of contacting you for a potential podcast appearance
Via email at wesdigscomics@gmail.com.
thank you@@Wes_From_TC
The problem is with the main stream comics is that Batman is different in six different comics. Batman needs to be similar the A type and B type. This is why character development and character bios are needed and should be enforced heavily. The stories need to be more exciting than eating dinner for 32 pages.
But this always a problem since the Pre-Crisis Era.
Let's face it, the people reading manga in America are often one or more of the following: female, non-white, lgbtq, and on the younger side, age-wise. All the demographics American comics claim they're trying to attract. And yet they're reading material that often depict extreme violence, fan service, impossibly built women, gore, homosexuality played for laughs, etc. All the stuff we're told is SO offensive in American comics. So why is there no outcry from these folks in regards to manga? Do they just accept it with "cultural differences" being the excuse? Did the American comics industry flinch at the threats and rantings of the very weird vocal minority which inhabits twitter (but never sets foot in an actual comic shop) one time too many? I'm genuinely curious about this.
Manga is very trope-focused and caters to certain niches, some manga are catered to girls, others to LGBT, a lot to boys and young adults, manga tends to be more visual too, dynamism in movement and "reading" trumps textual narrative, there's a kind of "manga flow" and it's why it's simply easier to blast through tons of chapters of a manga series than it is to do the same with western comics, I can't read more than a few comic chapters at a time, while with manga I could blast through a whole series in a day.
Awesome work guys
There’s a variety of reasons manga is doing great: price (Shonen Jump is $2.99 a month), timeless stories, variety, and I can put them on the bookshelf.
The characters development are better and they stay true to your main essence.and mangas have a definiive ending.
Yes, there is greater accessibility and easier points of entry but substantive content is what matters. MHA has an endearing cast of characters with an interesting, focused storyline. On the other hand, X-Men is used as a vehicle for the writers to advocate for their evil views. And what’s the actual story? Segregation/orgy island murderers having ghey fashion shows with cringe dialogue the writers think sounds snarky and clever? Yeah, pass. I think the American comic industry is in the last stages of extinction, because it will not adapt to reality.
mangas protagonist don't suffer the OOC problems that many comic super-heroes today. They stay true to your core essence.
I think there’s a few simple reasons. 1. They have other genres than just super heroes. 2. People working on the stories actually care about their stories. 3. It’s trendy, there’s a lot of posers who buy manga but never read them, just like what you had with comics during peak MCU.
Manga still mogs western comics even if they had other genres. Just look at dark horse
I tell you what, Wes has the best guests on all of RUclips. And has Aaron lost a little weight. Looking good Aaron.
You only have to watch Far East TV or films. The story telling is superb. The mixing of genres is really awesome into a single story.
Well, there is no reason why people can't like both! But I only have limited time and $$$ so I've no time for BS, fillers or agenda.
Manga just have consistently better content, is just that simple
Manga & japanese gaming are dominating
Nah. Japanese can't touch minecraft and gta in terms of popularity and selling. Unlike west, Asian countries are more into western games like COD, GTA, Minecraft, Valorant & Assassin's creed. Japanese games sell only in pawnshop in the east😂
@@androidtipstricks7860 That's bullshit
@@androidtipstricks7860 ever heard of dark souls?
agreed
Manga covers an amazing range of subject matter, but to focus narrowly, MY HERO ACADEMIA, MHA VIGILANTES, and ONE PUNCH MAN crush anything Marvel and DC have done if you enjoy epic, old-school superhero stories built around heroism and heroic action.
Yellow Peril!
I think making a new live action film of Marvel + One Punch Man will help more people get interested in American comics (because manga fans will watch the film). Hollywood's VFX / CGI + One Punch Man's popularity and sense of humor = great film for sure. Saitama + Genos + Sonic + Tatsumaki, etc from One Punch Man and most popular heroes from Marvel. Like that, making a live action film of a Japanese popular superhero manga + American comic heroes every year is good. I'll surely watch such movies!
It's mostly marketing, distribution and price that gives manga the advantage.
Wes, one other kick-ass AMERICAN comic has been "Heat Seeker" from Titan. It is a badass, spy, action/adventure series with a lot if intrigue and action and hot-as-hell women. Worth your money!
I'll check it out.
@@Wes_From_TC Also the new "Jennifer Blood" series from Dynamite is written by Fred Van Lente and drawn very beautifully. It's like classic Mike Baron/ Chuck Dixon Punisher.
there's no comic book store, there's only manga store.
Manga encourages unique concepts even when using tired ideas. American comics encourage conforming to the tired tropes and ideas.
Give us some unique stories and wacky situations and suddenly, sales would go up.
Apples and oranges. Manga is sold in bookstores to book people. Comics are sold in hobbie stores to comics people. Manga strenght is is serialization aka long stories. Comics strenght is in single volume stories aka graphic novels. Both manga and comics are mostly known to the general auidence for their lesser products, juvenile shonen and cape comics respectively..
In Japan, you can buy manga for 5 dollars. 10$ in America feels expensive.
Manga is way more diverse than you give credit. You need to read a good shojo manga like "Chibi Vanpire" or "My Love Story.
What about historical fiction? "Lone wolf and cub."
Horror manga is full of masterpieces. "Berserk" is a pretty hard core fantasy horror. But trust me. There are darker manga that makes Berserk feel like a comfort blanket.
Boy love isn't all ronchy. "My boss is goofy" is sort of a BL. It's about a bro-mance poking fun of bl tropes. No actual poking as far as I've seen.
How many problems in the comic book industry would be avoided if they just decided to ignore Brian Hibbs? I feel like that would have saved them a ton headaches in the long run.
Continuity no longer matters why bother ruling good books with Continuity at this point just make separate ongoing series with different characters where the books don't exist in the same universe
Though you guys are right I really shutter the thought of comic characters looking the same as how they did in the movies, and to be clear Im talking about the movies casuals considered to be good. Cause those characters were hosed down and censored as well cause its part of the Disney formula not allowing certain things even when activism was the main factor. One thing I never understood from the entire entertainment industry is, why they never made product for their different age demographics, something every other consumer market does. As long as there is a demand so they wont loose decade old customers by changing something for younger people. Also if x-rated parody movies can gives really accurate looking actors, outfits and body proportions; than Hollywood should be able to do the same. As popular anime/manga is, there are still " zillions" of people who dont like that, so they are leaving so much money on the table. But western fans of Japanese entertainment need to be more vigilant as well, cause in Japan there also is cultural battle going as we speak. Since the majority of their money now comes in from the west, which is something most are missing or are just happy to ignore. Most even dont know the people Wes warned about about years ago that made the jump. Im glad Aaron is advocating for physical media, since most comic and gaming RUclipsr tend to shy away from the subject. Its actually hella deppresing if you think about how many threats global entertainment has been forced to face.
I only buy Manga, personally don't like the floppy comics format. To store you need longboxes that take a lot of space, it takes more work to make them look neat and given reboots could be a nightmare to organize. Tankobon fit on any bookshelf, the format allows to double stack and the uniformity makes it easier to look neat. Floppies are magazines and tankobon are books.
Manga is basically like japanese brand cars like toyota or honda. Theyre reliable, theyre accessible.
What do i mean by “reliable” when it comes to manga? Well we know the american publishers like viz n yenpress only take in manga titles thats already known in japan, n has a decent run. The american publishers wont take in an ongoing title that only has, say, 2-3 volumes available. They take in titles that probably has 5-6volumes available atleast. N since a tankobon is good for 160-180 pages as u say, ur looking at 800-1000 pages of content… thats reliability right there. Thats gonna keep the readers occupied on that title for a while.
N ofcourse, accessiblity. Bookshops, comicshops, department stores, amazon, the american publisher’s own website… places where u can purchase manga is waaay more widespread, like u said.
I did an excel list by combining what viz n yenpress has available right now. It was all on wiki, jsut needed to do some filtering… and It was pretty staggering: just these two major publishers combined have around TWO THOUSAND titles under their belt. Not tankobon “volumes”, but titles. Ie: Demon slayer has 22 volumes but its still only one title, and theres ~2000 titles available holy crap.
No one mentions that you can essentially get the manga for free, but have to pay for the American stuff.
Having attractive female characters sure hasn't hurt manga, I know that they have good looking male characters too. Yeah it that western comics, like the big 2, seems to think that they can't pander to men, much like a lot of other western entertainment, when they can pander to them and *other* groups at the same time. They don't have to choose one over the other. I'm not saying that all western comics are like this though.
Manga even does the LGB stuff better. Yuri (girl's love/lesbian) and yaoi (boy's love/gay) are entirely different genres of stories, told in different ways, with different types of characters. They found what works for the types of people who want those types of stories, and they deliver, just as much as any shonen action series does for _that_ audience. They don't try to turn My Hero Academia into Citrus, or vice versa.
Yeah manga makes something for everyone by making a wide range of comics, to appeal to all different interest and taste. While western comics want to make a single comic and force everyone to like it. Japan embraces different strokes for different folks. While western comics is, enjoy this or else.
Comics: "Look at me. I'm gay. I'm gay. I'm gay. Did I forgot to tell you that I am gay? Here's my pride flag."
Manga: "Yes I am gay, but that's not important. How can I help you? What seems to be the trouble? Let's go and see what we can do about this."
Good writing, interesting characters. The same stuff that has sold stories for millennia. There's nothing new under the sun, just good and bad ways to mix it together. Manga does what US comics did for decades, tells epic stories with epic characters and makes stories about everyday people and activities relatable and fun.
Most importantly the people writing Manga aren't bitter losers that hate Manga, Manga fans, and the very characters they're writing.
Im sure they're marketing strategies are useful but the entire reason they got a foothold here in the first place decades ago was because of geek word of mouth. We sought them out and had our LCS order us boxes of shit from japan when there was next to no american marketing.
Point being good stories sell themselves, even across the globe in different languages. Humans are social story based creatures, it's how we learn and teach the next generations, how we take things apart and look at ideas, and we all instinctively want to share what we consider the good, or most interesting, or most useful ones.
You can use marketing tricks to get a certain percentage of people to buy anything at least once, but you can't take advantage of the human psychology/tradition of shared storytelling if nobody wants to talk about your story ( positively 😉) after they read it.
Shit look at Tolkien, how many millions of books sold in how many different languages before we even had the old cartoon adaptations let alone the Peter Jackson films and modern mass marketing.
Fuck, we've been retelling and rewriting The Iliad for literally thousands of years.
Good stories sell themselves. Bad stories can be sold to someone with marketing, but they aren't going to share it and it's going to die after whatever flash in the pan hype you can generate wears off.
Just my opinion, I could be wrong. Have a good day guys.
I believe, if Marvel and DC are to succeed as publishers in the future, independent of the support they get from their parent companies (movies and lunch boxes), the must go back to the original Marvel method which was very similar to current manga.
Marvel skyrocketed to # 1 in the late silver and Bronze Ages because they were moving the characters and story forward with a coherent continuity/payoffs unlike dc which was in stagnation with the villain of the month model.
doing things the same will only lead to them being one trick ponies that are living off of the original ideas of basically a handful of creators from the early to mid 20th century. that might work with the small residuals of readers from the past and might bring in a small percentage of the young market. but for sure they won't be labeled "the big two" anymore unless they act as publishers and not custodians of golden/silver age IPs.
As they are now, they are failing, they have rootless pasts (thanks to continuous retcons), and pointless futures (because no end or resolution is in sight). A character in a manga has a journey. A character in a marvel/dc comic book has an appearance.
I say this as someone who is over comics but someone who is grateful for the joy they gave me when I did read them.
Most people are going to talk about woke this or woke that, but it's a mix of distribution, marketing and price.
Comics are empty because they have no end. . Manga has a beginning and an end, so this is a value in itself.
There were a period anime and manga had a short twilight period during mid 2000s which coincide with the twilight years of Japanese game industry as well during the PS3/X360 era. It was a wake up call for the industry and they re-adapted and after that dark period passed, they expanded. Community and manga/anime American companies stayed the course as well. In manga other companies raised and challenged the big boys of manga publishing companies. There are fierce competition in manga market.
In comics after the extreme era/collector's craze, comic industry just stopped innovating and just became propaganda tool for these corporations that bought these publishers. At best they are just IP holders. There is simply no care. It seems to me no other publisher is allowed to rise to the occasion. If they do, they may be just bought out. They aren't even competing among themselves, much less competing with manga. Hell they probably can't even compete with Korean and Chinese as well.
I am going to guess when he was doing localization. He was NOT changing the artists' work with social messaging. What an utter farce, manga is smashing western comics becsuse the writing, stories, and art is, for the most part, better.
no sheeeiiity politics/self inserts.
Comics mostly focus on superheroes while manga has different types e.g slice of life, shonen, isekai fantasy and more.
This is good, though I'm not a huge manga fan. I prefer to read the old comics.
I think Because events in Mangas matter and deaths mostly matter and they have anime promoting that should be on par with the manga otherwise you have a record of ragnarok where after the anime came out and was trash the hype fell and it didn't bring in new fans and it might have damage the manga sells.on otherwise you have an anime like jjk that elevates the manga it tripled the sells and made it a worldwide phenomenon.
JJK only sold the way it did because the anime. Everytime a new anime pops off the manga sales soar and those books just collect dust.
yeah. as speaking to my brother the western comics have no clear starting point. you jump in and have all this history you're supposed to know. i remember for years that hte comics kept having callbacks to other comics with notes of 'dan 24' for an issue mentioning venom attacking the clown or things like that and i'd be confused. manga doesn't have that. there's a clear issue 1 you can start from and build from. no need to jump in blind where several hundred adventures have already happened.
and characters have permanence. if a character dies it's rather unlikely they'll come back. they can build to a relation or marriage even and it won't be undone. while in american they're frightened like startled kittens when it comes to such things.
peter having kids? no!
catwoman getting married to batman? as if!
like how long did it take for rogue and gambit to confirm their relation and it was just a sidelined thing on top of kitty's failed thing. which is bullshit for gambitxrogue fans like myself. it should have been as big as scott's wedding but got fucked over. and i'm surprised they let them get married but then again a lot of it is shitting on gambit being a little bitch to rogue. so it's not what people want.
nah. there's a status quo in western and it can't be challenged. manga doesn't have this problem so the excitement with manga last more than western
Netflix has a big impact for manga to spread further all over the world in the next 10 years. After the big success of their live action films of a Japanese manga = Once Piece, Netflix have signed with some major Japanese anime studios. Netflix have been just broadcasting Japanese anime that Japanese anime studio made. Now, they have started investing, and it means, some Japanese anime studios will be able to make anime with a bigger budget, and it means, the quality of Japanese anime will improve with the help of Netflix.
Because manga give fans what they want. Comic pros give fans what Comic pros want.
Part of it is he variety of stories told as opposed to how Super heroes dominate Western Comics.
3:14 That’s horseshit. No new graphic novel from the big two is under $15. These journos need to stop covering for them. Just because Amazon prices them half off the day after release does not change the retail price every other store in the country has to charge.
Even the Mighty Marvel Masterworks are $15 for half the page count of manga. Manga will bundle three volumes for under $15 in the smaller format with cheaper paper. The highest selling manga are available in multiple different sizes. They are killing it with the Vizbig editions on better paper and again collecting the first 3 volumes. It’s almost an omnibus worth of content for $25.
So one thing about Manga that differs from American comics is that most of the very successful series all have one creative force on them. Hence why you get a series like One Piece that has over 90 plus volumes and counting, as its all one voice with one main creator. And that series can run for as long as that creator decides to keep going. With American comics its always been more important to recognize the character, thus the general notion was that no one person was more important then the character and we can always get somebody else to tell new stories. So it never became that important to have a series of trades continue from #1 and go on in chronological order since each new "voice" on the series became a new opening or closing for a storyline. Manga also rarely franchises its series so there tends to be only ONE series to focus on. These are not excuses, but reasons as to why its somewhat more difficult to promote Batman from the very beginning, then say something like Dragonball Z. Also the most popular Manga is nowhere near as old as Batman, Spider-Man, Avengers, etc so you don't have distinct eras where storytelling, artwork, or something else is gonna change over time. Having said all that none of that is an excuse for not being able to sell comparably with Manga. Remember Manga "died" in the early mid 2000's, and it took a decade for it to recover and get here. The publishers simply have to figure out a workable strategy (Marvel showing the reader trades they should be reading on the inside front and or back covers of their trades I considered a small but good idea) and execute it. Which also means letting bad stories die out and not be in print and use the money to ramrod their best stuff in front of the public. Also stop upscaling the prices on certain trades that don't warrant the HC treatment, keep them at solid affordable price points in softcover. And yes stop cow towing to the retailers about how you can't have same day digital and what not and do the things that in the long run will benefit all parties. I've been there before. It can be done. WTF20.
Mangas never died,they always were great.
Not directly referring to quality, but the fact that the American Manga industry went through a severe recession in the mid 2000's where tons of titles were canceled and sales tanked.@@EvandroACruz
@@natemachado9113 I'm not familar with the American Manga industry,but here in Brazil and several anothers country in Europe they always were successful.
If they can't put out weekly or bi weekly floppy issues then do away with them and just do trades