Manga Vs. American Comics

[evilomar]

So we all know that in the last 3 years manga has been kicking the crap out of American comics in sales. Specially at Amazon and Barnes and Nobles....I thought this link was funny, it features Marvel chief editor Joe Quesada and well you'll see, just scroll down till you see the article called O' Heartless Spider.

http://www.silverbulletcomicbooks.com/rage/index1.htm

I've been reading comics for 20 years and Manga for 16, I hate to see the comic book industry hurting again, reminds me of 1995, probably the worst years for comic book stores. However I am glad Manga is finally starting to get the respect it deserves here in the states.

[WandererX12]

That reminded me of the old Spider-Man and X-men mangas they had years ago. I don't remember too much about them, other than Spider-Man liked to kill. I only read a few issues, but I think he managed to kill more than half of the vilians I saw him fight. And not that fake "Oops he fell in the river we can't find his body" kinda dead, but the "Hey here's his corpse, anyone want to poke it with a stick" kind. Of course I could be remembering it completely wrong. If if wasn't such a pain I would pull them out of storgage and check. Maybe next week.

[Cidien]

I'd like a manga where Wolverine really kicks some ass. =P I havn't read comics in years really. I should dig out my collection.... I know I have at least 50 I havn't read yet. Like 8 years ago a comic store here had a sale and almost everything in the store was selling for a dime. Of course being so young I couldn't afford too much, but I got about 100 comics. =P

[Zagatto]

I'm trying to figure out how Manga is kicking the crap out of American comics.
I just checked the direct sales figures online http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/n...gi?id=1675 and the first manga title doesn't appear till number three in the top 50 graphic novels and number 102 in the comic book section.

Now this doesn't take into consideration the sales from book stores such as Barnes and Noble because they don't participate in the direct comic book sales market. They only sell graphic novels or collections of comic books (along with a very small selection of newsstand titles in the magazine section).

Marvel is still top of the heap when it comes to comic books and Joe Quesada has done an excellent job since he took over as director at Marvel. Thanks to him we've seen a massive increase in the quality of comic books coming from Marvel. He's made sure to hire top talent and put them to work making some of the best comic books in a very long time.

And I do remember those Marvel Manga titles. They fall into the category of being produced for a target audience rather than a well crafted comic book.

I will admit that the link to the parody in evilomar's first post was pretty funny. I can totally see something like that taking place in a board room working things out with financers.

[evilomar]

The overall sales from Bookstores count as a big chunk. For a while Shonen Jump was selling 500,000 copies a month. I agree I think Quesada has done a great job specially bringing JM Strackenzky on Amazing Spider was great for until his recent arc, Whedon on Astonishing X-men, I haven't enjoyed a book that much in 10 + years. I think he is on the right track with small digest size comics for $7.95. Unfortunately Manga gives people more of a variety in what they choose to read. Just see how many chicks, not just any, hot chicks read manga. This site alone should be proof of that, and see how many read comic books, its a huge difference. What books do you read Zag-man?

[Cidien]

Yes, your source really doesn't show a whole lot Zagatto. I wouldn't even think about going to a comic book shop to buy manga. I'd go to barnes and noble or the book store in the mall here.

[Zagatto]

What my source does show is the direct sales for comic books, which is where most comic book sales happen. It doesn't track newsstand sales or subscription sales.

I guess it shows that the manga market and comic book market are still seperate entities at this time. Not many people would think to go to the mall to buy most comic book titles.

I've cut way back on my current titles that I get at the comic shop. The titles I'm still getting are Strangers In Paradise, Ultimate Spiderman, Books of Magic, Promethia, Concrete and anything that Neil Gaiman or Scott McCloud happen to write. Oh yeah, I'm also getting Samurai Executioner... it's my only manga title I'm currently picking up. I was getting Shonen Jump for a little while there but dropped it due to finances (I know, it's the cheapest title out there per page but I just wasn't getting enough value from it... I found I was only really looking forward to Hikaro No Go and the rest of the titles kind of bored me).

And I know bunches of hot women that read comic books too... as well as watch anime and read manga. I guess I've been lucky with the number of intelligent women I've met in my life who share hobbies with myself.

[kakoi_sugoi_yama]

Astonishing X-men is one of the best written X-men comics ever.

[Cidien]

Astonishing X-men is one of the best written X-men comics ever.

Never even heard of it. How old is it?

[evilomar]

It came out last July, its the way all comic books should be written: smart, funny, and heroic. Joss Whedon (Buffy, Angel, and Firefly) is the writer on it, and you can tell he loves the characters. The art is top notch and you can buy the first trade for $10 through Amazon. I defintely recommend this title. My girlfriend is a highschool English teacher and she is doing a comic book lesson, and that is one of the books she is using as a perfect example of what comics should be.

[Andromeda18_]

Some years ago I used to buy American Comics massively. I'm not much into what I like to call "heroes in tights" , although I have read some, so mostly I bought comics like The Witchblade and Crimson. In the beginning all of them were very cool but as more and more numbers were published the pencilers kept changing and the writers clearly run out of good ideas. They just didn't do it for me anymore and since at that time I also bought manga I began to think about how many more titles I could buy with the money I spent on the American Comics. This is why nowadays I don't buy them anymore. I read some of the comics my boyfriend buys, the ones I think are good, but that's about it. In my opinion the quality just dropped over the years which is why I no longer feel like buying them.

[rav96]

only American Comic that stood its test of time with me is Spawn..i just like antiheroes and not the "heroes in tights"

thoughh i must admit it did take soem dodgy directions but the stories premise is awesome