What can American comics learn from manga success?

[nolan]

I'm curious.


What I see:

1. Diverse stories aimed at differnet ages and genders of readers.
2. Kinetic, fast paced action.
3. Longer stories, more bang for your buck, even at a higher price.
4. Authorial voice. Though American comics are doing better in this regard.
5. Marketing.

[jayvee]

American comics are losing for one reason: serialization.

Satisfying stories always include a beginning, middle and an end. You'll never truly find an end in serialized fiction so the stories you can tell in that genre will never be as satisfying as stories in other genres (manga) that do. Characters need to grow, change and reflect changes. Remaining static is American comics' undying enemy--though things like CIVIL WAR go a long way to remedying this, it's still the underlying problem.

[jstevenson]

jayvee said:

American comics are losing for one reason: serialization.

There's one minor detail missing with that statement. Manga graphic novels here are mostly collections of previously serialized fiction. Lots of manga get their start over in Japan in phone book sized anthology books (with different books containing different genres). They even sell these big books in vending machines for people to pick up on their commute (and can toss them into recycle bins when they get to their destination). It's like the Sunday paper... read the ones you like, skip over the rest, and recycle the whole newspaper when you're done. The series with the best responses from readers usually get collected into stand alone volumes... and eventually those volumes make it over here.

[jayvee]

I understand all that.

I mean serialization in a different sense: the tenacious clinging to of the idea that a character needs to remain the same through decades in order to appeal to the same kind of demographic that character appealed to at the time of his origin, the demographic that made him or her famous. (See: Joe Q's professed disapproval of the Spider-Marriage.) I mean that superheroes don't age, rarely do they carry impact or lessons from encounters with supervillains; they remain in a static state of unevolving limbo, supposedly timeless. THAT'S the serialization I'm talking about.

[nolan]

jayvee said:

I understand all that.

I mean serialization in a different sense: the tenacious clinging to of the idea that a character needs to remain the same through decades in order to appeal to the same kind of demographic that character appealed to at the time of his origin, the demographic that made him or her famous. (See: Joe Q's professed disapproval of the Spider-Marriage.) I mean that superheroes don't age, rarely do they carry impact or lessons from encounters with supervillains; they remain in a static state of unevolving limbo, supposedly timeless. THAT'S the serialization I'm talking about.

I think of that as continuity, not serialization.

[jayvee]

The use of the word came from strips like PEANUTS, where the characters remain perpetually the same throughout their entire printed careers.

It's a LACK of continuity, if nothing else.

[geneticfreak]

...but I'd put over Peanuts over most comics, manga or American. It's one of the best and a true work of genius.

[jayvee]

Sometimes it was.

Sometimes it was just Lucy with the football.

[geneticfreak]

What's Karma in these boarsds? Why do you have one already jay?

[nolan]

Type exalt and you add a point of karma.

No idea what it does.

[jayvee]

I think it's just a fair gauge of how other posters like you.

[libby]

nolan said:

2. Kinetic, fast paced action.

This ignores all the popular shoujo out there that have very little action at all. Fruits Basket is one of the best selling manga in the country, and it's almost entirely characters talking to and thinking about each other.

[nolan]

LIbby, that would go to diverse content.

I never said ALL of them had to be true every time.