Tag Archives: publishing

Do We Need More Manga Micropublishers?

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A Zoo in WinterI’ve been reminiscing over A Zoo in Winter and rereading my small collection of Jiro Taniguchi manga lately. Taniguchi is a fantastic draftsman, and has some truly remarkable comics under his belt. Sadly, there are not a lot of these comics published in English.

Western comics and manga can live together peacefully, if not joyously, but there are certain business models that work better in a land without translators and licensing fees. One of these is the micropublisher. Now, to be fair, all comics publishing is essentially niche publishing, and art comics like Fantagraphics are an even smaller niche. But the micropublisher is phenomenon that goes beyond publishing as a business. It looks at publishing as an art form, and the publisher, often one or two people, decide to publish a book. They may only have two or three books under their banner.

The Voyeurs, By Gabrielle Belle

A good example that comes to mind is Uncivilized Books, with 16 titles to its name, most of which are the work of Jon Lewis or Gabrielle Belle.  Another is Koyama Press. The powerful thing here is the relationship between the micropublisher and their writers. These publishers, because they are so small, can have an intimate connection with their creators in a way that a Penguin Group could never have.

This is very difficult with Japanese media. With translations, licensing fees, and the like getting in the way of that intimate relationship, we see much fewer micropublishers that work with Japanese comics. Even if there is a person who would like to create micropublishing work with Japanese comics, going through the licensing and translating would likely scare off or present a high barrier to entry to all but a few dedicated publishers.

The essence of the micropublisher (to me) seems to be the almost archival nature of the business. The idea that something is worth the money to be printed and distributed for sale and consumption is powerful. And we see this mentality in some of our smallest publishers, like Ponent Mon/Fanfare, Vertical,TopShelf and Fantagraphics. These publishers have a history of choosing titles that are both archival worthy and representative of the art they believe should be available to American audiences.

A question is: does this selection of publishers really present the content that you want to read?

My own answer is no. These publishers have released amazing content. Without them, I wouldn’t own copies of Wandering Son, Ayako, A Distant Neighborhood,  or AX. But there is a lot of josei manga (which typically does poorly in the wider bookseller market) that I would like to read, and while Vertical has done a good job picking very “Vertical” josei titles, I want more.

Your own answer could vary. I want more geikiga, more historical manga, you might say. I want to read garo or experimental/avante garde manga. I want to read more sports manga. Mecha manga, cooking manga, etc. What do you want published that isn’t published right now?

Micropublishing is a labor of love. And sometimes it is hard business. But, another question: If you aren’t satisfied with the manga output in the US – why not do it yourself?

News: Digital Manga Suspends Print Offerings

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Today, Digital Manga Publishing‘s president, Hikaru Sasahara, made a rather unexpected and troubling announcement:

From: Digital Manga Inc. Blog

Today we would like to announce that effective January 1st 2013, the print editions for our DMP, June Manga, DokiDoki and 801Media imprints will be placed on a temporary hiatus. Please be advised that none of our licenses are cancelled, simply postponed. We will be resuming the distribution of our print editions in June, 2013. This hiatus will allow us to coordinate our production schedule for 2013 and temporarily shift our focus to our digital publications.

DMP has continued to push a digital-forward publishing strategy, expending resources to push their content into digital arenas both popular and fringe. While this announcement isn’t exactly stunning news for the company, at this point it appears that they haven’t gone out of business. The announcement does put a significant delay on some of DMP‘s popular titles, including Tyrant Falls in Love, Vampire Hunter D, and my personal favorite, Itazura na Kiss.

The majority of DMP‘s content falls squarely into the microniche of yaoi manga, which, while having a very consumerist attitude, does not capture the majority of manga readers. DMP has taken a very sidelong gaze at the manga market and gone a much different path from industry “titans” Viz and Kodansha, but this path seemed up until recently to be doing fairly well for them.

While my conjecture is certainly not any more worthwhile than another person’s, I do suspect that DMP has spread itself a little thin. With a multitude of digital platforms, the Akadot retail store, Japanese tours, YAOI-CON, and a relatively new foray into both spec publishing and print hentai manga, it may be that there are too many ingredients in the stew. DMP might be using their digital only time to consolidate their business model, trimming up a bit of the fat, and working on products for 2013 and beyond. While the print gap gives the company a bit of breathing room financially, it will be interesting to see what happens after their content returns to print in July 2013. While some fans may wait for their releases, it is likely that those people waiting for print offerings will continue to wait, and their discretionary income will be spent in other places.

Of note, Kickstarter campaign items will still be released at their planned release dates – this is likely because these items are paid for with Kickstarter money. I suspect there would be a pretty unhappy fan group (myself included) if these releases had been delayed.

Frankly, this news is at the very least troubling and awkward. Certainly it is not a good sign of the health of the company. The hope is that these 6 months will give DMP the ability to survive in the long run – but the risk to their sales due to the delay could very well lead to losses and an eventual downward spiral.

More Thoughts on Kickstarter

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Earlier this week, Digital Manga Publishing (@digitalmanga)’s UNICO Kickstarter fund hit its $20,500 publishing goal. This means, without snags or any unforeseen problems along the way, DMP will be publishing UNICO at the end of 2012, and will likely be publishing Tezuka’s A•TOMCAT in March of 2013 if the project meets its $26,000 funding goal.

As it was last time, voices have come out from the blogging community (Chris Butcher, Comics212, Johanna DC, Comics Worth Reading) questioning the use of the crowdsourcing platform Kickstarter. Last time we discussed the use of the Kickstarter platform, it was about the use of Kickstarter and its emotional heft, the use of guilt and marketing, my thoughts on the fan’s ability to commission work, and it eventually led to a fantastic discussion on Manga Out Loud with Digital Manga’s own Ben Applegate.

Christopher Butcher made some very pointed remarks in regards to the use of the platform for publishing that Johanna echoed:

- The basic acts of publishing are printing and promotion. If you are a publisher but you can’t print or promote, are you still a publisher? Some very smart people say yes, and I’m honestly not sure, because you’re unable to fulfill your basic roles and are counting on others to do that, and that’s where my conflict is.

As I, and many other more eloquent people of mentioned, the act of publishing a Japanese comic is not merely printing and promotion. the act of licensing the book, translating the original language into English, lettering and cleaning the art, quality control, and project management are all a large part of what a publisher does with a manga project: this is just the stuff that is apparent to me, someone who is not a part of the industry.

The question again comes back to what was originally posed in our original debates – if the “publisher” does not accept any of the risk associated with the printing of material, are they actually a publisher? To get to my answer, we need some background information.

Kickstarter plays by a completely different set of economic rules that the regular capital market. In the “old” publishing world, a publisher takes a risk on a property and decides to publishing it. Depending on the format, the author might get an advance on royalties and the publisher has to print the book; in the case of manga, there is an upfront licensing fee, all the costs to adapt the work for an English-speaking audience, and a printing fee. The publisher fronts the risk on this property and hopes/expects to get their money back from sales on that property.

Kickstarter changes the math significantly by changing the initiating question. In business, we ask the question, “Will this sell?” Kickstarter has no qualms about selling or not selling. Kickstarter’s question is, “Do enough people want this to happen?” This difference impacts the entire process of publishing. The change in question manipulates the model in such a way that we are moving from a supply and demand style economic system to a commission-based system.

I think that any person who is focused on “what a publisher is” or “publisher’s responsibility” or who has said anything like, “I don’t think DMP should be using Kickstarter because they are an actual publisher,” misunderstands the basis from which Kickstarter is working from and the fundamental change in monetary need. If you are working on Kickstarter, you are no longer working in the direct market model.  You can pull books back into that model later, but once you are in a Kickstarter, you are operating outside of  that model for as long as you have pledges to fulfill.

I’ve had my words about commission-based systems before, but for publishing, I will put it simply – while the Kickstarter system isn’t the most ideal (there is a lack of consumer protections, for example) it is a form of commerce that has existed for thousands of years. Consumers are still purchasing books; the publisher is still printing books. The format of how money exchanges hands changes, and how risk is applied changes, but that direct relationship, where the publisher creates a bound book, and I buy it, does not change. As long as that relationship is intact, and with the other duties that a publisher must perform (as previously mentioned) I feel it is downright silly to say that a publisher isn’t “real” because they are using Kickstarter.

TL;DR – a publisher using Kickstarter as its funding source? Still a publisher.

This is not even mentioning Kickstarter’s other potential uses for a large company, such as potential for publicity/marketing, research, community outreach, etc., which I don’t have the space to get into today.
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However, this isn’t the only content bouncing around the web right now.

To complicate things, some publishers have also voiced their opinions about the Kickstarter platform:

While Manga University’s opinion originally seemed to be just a bunch of sour grapes, after a bit of thinking, the line of thought is very valid. Twitter right now is a veritable tweet-storm of content regarding DMP’s efforts to get UNICO published and all the fans ticking down the dollar count. Certainly there is no storm of attention surrounding the release of one of Manga University’s “How to Draw Manga” books.

I think that the reason for this is the way fans currently interact with properties and artists that they love. Fans of a specific manga (say Negima! for example) have the ability to interact with other readers via chat boards or forums online, interact with the writer in some cases by sending letters or fan mail; they can manipulate the content by writing or drawing fan fiction; they can meet up with other fans at conventions to discuss the series. They can buy merchandise, buy the manga, buy anime spin-offs, and even buy a second manga spin off if they so choose. They can try to interact with the publisher by sending letters or meeting them at big comic conventions.

Something that is missing from this list that Kickstarter allows fans access to? The ability to impact the publication of the final manga. This allows fans to get into a whole new level. They have the ability now to pledge to help their favorite (or even not so favorite publisher) get a book they want from concept to the printer. They have the ability to get cool backers-only rewards. There is a feeling of direct involvement in the project even without having a say in the production values or images or anything of that nature.

DMP has actually stepped it up by allowing a select number of people to be on the UNICO and  A•TOMCAT Steering Committees, which, for all intents and purposes, allow fans to become even more entrenched in the workings of the publisher. This is hands-on in a way that most fans can only dream of, and it stands to reason why some people are very excited about these Kickstarter projects.

Ed Chavez, from Vertical, pointed out that his issue stemmed not from the Kickstarter platform itself, but rather from the content:

One could easily argue here that DMP has essentially been exploiting the hard work that Vertical has done for the past 7+ years bringing quality Tezuka products to an English speaking audience. Indeed, Tezuka’s works are generally thought to be good enough sellers that they could be sold using the regular publishing model.

But this brings up the differences between two publishers, and an area of speculation I don’t really care to walk into; the way that Vertical does business compared to the way DMP does business is fascinating, but ultimately, the decisions they make are theirs.

Ed seems to be making the point that Kickstarter is a fine platform for works that are tenuous, risky, or have the potential to fail, but Tezuka is none of those things. I tend to agree, although DMP may differ based on their financials or printing estimates. That being said, Tezuka is a powerful brand. His work commands an amount of attention only held by three or four other mangaka in English-speaking countries right now. It seems to me that any book published with the Tezuka name would sell a decent number of copies. What is less clear is whether most companies would take a “traditional risk” on a majority of these titles. Ed has gone on record saying Vertical would only like to publish another “half-a-dozen Tezuka titles,” meaning that something like a Kickstarter campaign from DMP might be the only way to get a Tezuka fix in the near future.

I think that what DMP is doing with Tezuka titles here is great. But, as some have mentioned, DMP runs the risk of killing the goose that lays the golden eggs if they continue to run Kickstarter campaigns focused only on Tezuka material. I would love to see DMP utilize Kickstarter for josei and seinen projects outside the scope of Tezuka, and hope to see that in the next Kickstarter campaign.
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Kickstarter is a fantastic tool; but as a tool for publishers, it is one that if not used properly, could fall by the wayside. I think that the newness of Kickstarter campaigning and the strength of the Tezuka brand have a lot to do with the recent successes of current Kickstarter programs. It is certainly not something that will fix all the ills of the manga publishing industry, nor will it be the tool that revives all of the long lost licenses still stuck in limbo. It may offer a solution to some publishers in order to print a select number of products, and it hopefully will allow publishers to explore less traditional content. I am looking forward to a less well known manga series being presented in a Kickstarter campaign before I make any longer-term prognostications about its use long term in the industry.

A Discussion on Crowd-Sourcing and Digital Manga’s Barbara Kickstarter Campaign

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This weekend, I learned that Digital Manga Publishing had started a new Kickstarter project to publish a previously unlicensed unpublished manga in English. The work is Barbara, one of Osamu Tezuka’s adult-oriented works that have been the source of much of Vertical Inc.’s manga success. While the project has funded itself very quickly, there have been some skeptical voices, including Lissa Patillo at Kuriosity.ca.

I respect Lissa quite a bit for her work in manga blogging, and we’ve had the opportunity to talk about manga on Ed Sizemore’s Manga Out Loud podcast. The business of publishing is something Lissa and I both have a lot of interest in, and Lissa has essentially revealed herself as an “old soul” of publishing mentality in our podcast, while I consider myself more progressive, at least in matters of digital publishing. Lissa has been an excellent community member, and has done me a great service in multiple occasions by helping me get copies of comics from Canada that I would not otherwise have access to in the United States.

Why do I preface my entire article with all of this? Because while I think that Lissa is a great person and a wonderful member of the manga blogging community, I absolutely and vehemently disagree with her entire argument against Kickstarter campaigns, and I want to present the opposite argument without offering any personal insult.

What I want to argue in this article is that there is a stark difference between what the use of Kickstarter actually means for manga fans and the perceived attacks on fandom that have been presented by Lissa’s article. I feel that the bulk of Lissa’s argument is predicated on the idea that the traditions of analogue publishing are the only correct way to publish content, or that the publisher has an obligation to the traditional methods of licensing and publishing content in English. I disagree.

The Barbara Kickstarter campaign offers manga fanatics and Tezuka appreciators the ability to commission the translation and print of a volume of manga currently not published in English. I use the word commission because this is really what is happening with the Kickstarter campaign system. DMP is essentially saying “If you give us X dollars, we will do this project, and we can give you access to our process and input into the final product.”

Commissions are a vital part of the art industry, and comic publishing to a very large extent is a system of commercial art that does not run on this system.  There have been recent Kickstarter campaigns, such as Womanthology, Ashes, the Transmetropolitan Art Book, and The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath and Other Stories, to name a few, that have challenged the idea of comic publishing as an industry with traditional methods of content delivery.

With the Barbara Kickstarter campaign, DMP is essentially asking for a commission for a book. This is unorthodox considering what the traditional publishing model is (the publisher licenses material, translates, edits, typesets, and prints it, then sells it to bookstores and hopes to recoup its costs and make a profit). Just because this system is unorthodox does not make it bad. In fact, being able to have input in the way that the industry works and makes decisions offers fans the direct ability to be involved and get something that they want.

As publishers of Japanese content continue to dwindle in the United States, DMP is making a small move from the traditional publishing model to a commission model because commissions are what work for microniche consumer materials. We are at a place in the anime and manga industry that is stressful for publishers, because one flop, like Bandai’s overproduction of the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya product, could lead to the failure of that company. DMP is readjusting its game plan to determine what markets will bear prior to taking the intial risk by asking consumers – something that no manga publisher has truly done before. This is a smart business move.

The idea of crowd sourcing risk has been a standard practice in the wider business community for a long time. The crowd-sourced model that DMP has adopted is a much more open and malleable process than the standard operating procedures of the banking, credit, and private equity industries. Also, unlike those systems, where you take on the risk without being explicitly made aware of it, you are being made aware of that risk when using Kickstarter.

Lissa makes some strong arguments about the role of publishers in the market. She states that Kickstarter is a program for individuals without corporate backing, and that traditional publishers should continue to publish manga traditionally. I have two issues with this statement. The first is that this argument denies the publisher the ability to experiment and change the relationship between producer and consumer. Experimentation, trying new business models is one way that microniche publishers like DMP can stay ahead of a recession economy, and continue to publish.

Second of all, as a rule, companies do generally take risks and hope that these risks lead to sales and a positive income. Just because that is what happens now, does not mean that is what DMP has to do. They do not NEED to bear the risks of a new title because they are a traditional publisher. They are under no obligation to do so. If DMP has a program that allows consumers to decide whether they want to pay for a possible license, it is perfectly fine for them to do so. This tradition of “risk to profits” in business only exists because it was the only way business could be done until the past 2-3 decades. If you as a consumer do not like the model that the publisher uses, then you do not need to purchase their products. But it is not an obligation for a company to take risk.

In fact, many other small businesses are using Kickstarter to produce content. Small Box Games is a great example of a small board-game publishing company that is using Kickstarter to fund games like Omen of War – and other companies are doing projects like this more and more frequently as time passes.

Lissa takes crowd-based risk a little personally, I think – she states that because the impetus to publish Barbara is left to the fan, the fan is accountable for the failure of it to meet its goals.

“There is definitely excitement and enthusiasm from fans fueling this drive, but it also feels like driving the pledging frenzy is the underlying sense of guilt and worry. After all, if you don’t pledge, you may never see the book. If you don’t pledge, it means you don’t want the manga at all. If you don’t promote this book you’ve likely never read and this initiative you only have on a promise will deliver, there will be no book. If Digital Manga Publishing isn’t able to create and print this book it is your fault.”

I think this is a gross overstatement of the relationship between the publisher and its customers. Never in a million years would DMP blame customers for not supporting a Kickstarter campaign. That’s the easiest way to go out of business that I can currently think of.

You have no obligation as a manga reader, consumer, or even as a Tezuka fan to purchase or fund Kickstarter campaigns. If you have doubts about the system, that is your chance to not purchase, not make that jump. If you decide not to buy from Kickstarter, you have made your choice as a consumer. That’s your right.

The idea that guilt is an emotion that should be considered in the use of Kickstarter projects is farfetched. In no other industry is there guilt associated with not buying an item because the manufacturer or project will fail if you don’t. This is antithetical to the idea of modern business – if the project/product does not succeed, it is not your failure as a consumer. It is a failure of the business to meet the wants/needs of the consumer.

Feeling guilt about not buying into Kickstarter because you think the project will fail is equivalent to the false guilt for allowing certain titles like Gintama die. Gintama didn’t succeed as a business venture and was cancelled. If you didn’t buy it, it was because you didn’t want it. Why should you feel guilty if the product is discontinued? Neither of these is a rational view on the relationship between a consumer and a producer.

I have discussed my thoughts on traditional publishing with Lissa and many of the manga blogging community, but as a restatement here, I feel that traditional publishing is becoming antiquated in this largely digital world. There are certainly products that can exist without direct consumer input, but in a microniche world, this is becoming less and less the case.

The way we license product from Japan is an antiquated system that is being threatened in a small but significant manner.  As we move forward in the next 10 years, it is my hope that licensing and publishing in the United States continues to grow out of the system created in the 90’s and in a more open, more consumer-oriented way. For this reason, I fully support the Kickstarter campaign that DMP is running and will continue to support these projects provided that the product they are offering is something I want to buy.

And if I don’t buy? Well, I won’t be feeling guilty about it.

Kickstarter: The New Model of the Micro-Niche?

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While I was busy preparing to host the Natsume Ono Moveable Manga Feast,  Digital Manga Publishing Inc. announced a Kickstarter project to bring about another print run of Osamu Tezuka’s Swallowing The Earth, a one-shot tome of early Tezuka work from 1968 that had received a very short print run due to publishing costs. The book has been praised by many in the blogosphere, and its short-printed status means that currently, a first print copy of Swallowing the Earth will run you somewhere in the neighborhood of $60 USD – that’s double-plus MSRP (originally $24.95 in 2009). This is actually cheaper than it was 6 months ago, before the Kickstarter was announced – a “new” copy of Swallowing the Earth in March was running more around the $75-80 mark. Which is frankly absurd. But Tezuka fans will be Tezuka fans, and I, being one of those fans, had been building up a small budget for the book, until the DMP announcement.

Other bloggers have talked about Kickstarter – Johanna Draper Carlson being the most prominent, having voiced her opinions about the platform multiple times. While I agree with some of her cautionary words, I also am interested in crowd-sourcing as an idea, and the idea brought onto the consumer’s stage by DMP is the idea of niche-publishing.

Ben Applegate of DMP has gone on the record in this Kickstarter video, saying:

So in order to get [Swallowing the Earth] back out there, to let people read this really important book, not only in the history of Osamu Tezuka, but in the history of manga as well, we’ve come to Kickstarter as a new way to fund manga publishing in the United States. If this Kickstarter is successful, and we’re able to get this book back out in to people’s hands, you’re going to see more, not only reprints of older titles, but also possibly even new titles coming over from Japan aimed at a niche audience in the United States that would never have been brought over by a publisher otherwise.

The emphasis here is my own, but I think it is safe to say that Digital Manga has high hopes for a Kickstarter-like crowd sourcing model. I have high hopes for it too, which is primarily why I backed the Kickstarter (as you may have noticed from the image of the site above.) Kickstarter is a unique tool that allows a publishing company with ties in the Japanese manga business to attempt to bring manga to the United States in a way that puts relatively little risk on the publishing company. I can understand why this is important – small companies like DMP that have small operating budgets need to invest in titles that can sustain a business. For Digital Manga, that means the niche audience of yaoi, and the occasional non-yaoi comic.

As a person who reads more independent and niche manga (Bunny Drop, A Bride’s Story, Velveteen and Mandala), I am interested in seeing more content from Japan that meets my tastes and expectations. I would love to see more josei manga printed in the United States, and am willing to put my money where my mouth is. Digital Manga if you publish josei manga on Kickstarter – you have a loyal customer in me. I understand that josei is a micro-niche of manga – but this is the type of content that can thrive in  a crowd-sourced publishing system, where those that want it can buy into it, and create that opportunity for publishing that so many josei titles have been missing.

Now, I think it’s a fair criticism to ask- if you aren’t going to publish a book using your own budget, do you really need to be a book publisher? The answer here is a resounding “not necessarily.” With the appropriate contacts and contracts, it is within the realm of possibility for me to license and sell manga through the platform of Kickstarter. The thing that Digital Manga brings to the table is an honesty and a reliability as a company that has and continues to publish quality manga.

Also safe to say here that DMP‘s views on crowd-sourcing are not necessarily the same as my own. They may use Kickstarter to fund reprints exclusively, or print more yaoi manga. But my hope is that the company lives up to Ben’s words and uses the success of this first Kickstarter project to fuel the licensure and publishing of underrepresented content.

Digital Manga Publishing is on the bleeding edge of publishing. The Kickstarter initiative, in addition to the Digital Manga Guild, are two projects that may not succeed in the long term – but this type of innovation is bringing content to readers in a way that no other publisher is trying, and it is this sort of innovation that may become the new and best model for the micro-niche in years to come. I am looking forward to the results.

Especially in February of 2012, when I get a brand new copy of Swallowing the Earth shipped to me because of this Kickstarter pledge.

Talking Points: Shifting the Conversation to the Publisher

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I had another talking point subject that I wanted to discuss with you today, but in light of a conversation I had with Sean (A Case Suitable for Treatment) Gaffney yesterday morning about the ending of my Sasameke review, I thought it might be prudent to talk about the role of a reviewer and how we interact with publishers (and to a lesser extent, artists).

In case you missed my review, I panned Sasameke pretty hard. I really didn’t like the book at all, and in most places, I have seen fairly negative reviews of the book, so I know I am not alone.  As part of the end of my review, I asked Yen Press to not publish the second (and final) volume of Sasameke, because I believe that the content would be a loss, financially.

After reading my review, Sean pointed out that he did not think it was very prudent to ask publishers to cancel a series. I thought about this for a while, because I was interested in the idea of the relationship between manga publishers, who source series for licensure, license, and then print books from Japan, and the customers who read and sometimes review published work.

Reviewers often act as the mouthpiece of a community of consumers. We talk about what we liked and disliked, and many reviewers do so with the intent to tell other readers if they believe the reviewed work is worth purchasing. This is, and will always be, the way that I write reviews for Manga Widget. I enjoy analyzing a piece of work with a more critical eye, but oftentimes I feel that does not support my core audience, the people who are looking for a yea or nay vote on a book they might be considering for purchase. They are looking to spend a portion of their entertainment budget on a book, and I feel that it is a reviewer’s duty to inform (and hopefully entertain) the consumer so that they can decide whether or not that purchase will provide the entertainment they are looking for.

Being a part of that community is exhilarating, for multiple reasons, but the reason in contention here is that being a reviewer or a critic gives a person an amount of power to sway public opinion.  If I pan Sasameke, there are people out there who might read my review and decide not to purchase that title. Others might discredit my review and decide to purchase it anyway. Regardless of the outcome, that voice is power.

Does the power that comes from influencing consumers extend to the companies creating the goods which those consumers purchase? The ending of my review of Sasameke turned away from the normal reader of my content to send a message to Yen Press about my thoughts on the financial success of a second volume of Sasameke. My intent for this part of the Sasameke review was not to gain some sort of personal satisfaction from attacking Yen Press as a business or publisher, but rather to express my thoughts about canceling the second volume of Sasameke as a monetary measure. Printing books is fairly expensive, and to print a book that I didn’t feel would sell would be a waste of money that could be used to license, translate, and print books that might do better. This is my opinion.

I am not involved in the business of manga publishing; I do not know the specifics about the Sasameke licensure agreement, nor do I have an intimate knowledge of how much it costs Yen Press to publish a book. My thoughts about the financial success of Sasameke could be complete garbage. I merely review some of the content that Yen Press provides on a regular basis.  However, I feel that expressing the opinion about a company’s business platform is an essential part of the consumer process, regardless if I also review that company’s products.

For the record, I think that Yen Press does a pretty good job at producing comics for the manga consumer. Certainly the New York Times manga listing shows that they are doing things right, with multiple volumes of Black Butler hanging out in the top 10 list week after week. In this niche market, they are also producing material that has a passionate fan-base but offers little monetary gain; this is evident in a series like Bunny Drop, one of my favorite series in print.

Still, do I have the right to tell Yen Press what I think they should do with their money, including canceling a series? In my mind, absolutely.

Are they free to ignore me? Absolutely.

These questions are not what really matters though.  The question that matters, at least for reviewers, is whether or not that right should be invoked during the review process.

Ultimately, I cannot decide. There is a part of me that says that my blog is the way that I interact with the readers, writers, and publishers in the manga niche. Posting my thoughts here at Manga Widget is probably the best vehicle for my opinion, and presenting those opinions during a review of the work is probably one of the clearest ways to do that. Another part of me says that perhaps that message would have been a better presented as its own topic, that while I have the right to question the business sense of publishing a second volume of Sasameke, that the right to say “don’t publish another volume” does not have a place within the review process.

What are your thoughts on the matter? Do you feel that asking a publisher to stop publishing a certain series is bad form? Do you think it can be a valid part of the reviewing process, or not? Or is this issue something that is different for every reviewer? I am interested in your thoughts.

(Thanks to Sean for bringing the subject to my attention!)

It’s Not All Gloom and Doom

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These past few days, I’ve been speculating about the state of manga as we roll into a new year. Although a lot of my talking has been about the bad things that are going on and may happen, that’s not the entire story.  I want to impress on everyone that while I think things are going to be fairly rocky, I don’t think that things are going to be terrible.  There are some amazing things going on in the world of manga right now; I’ve got a few things to get excited about, even, for the new year.

In the Viz Media powerhouse, Naruto and Bleach are doing quite well, and newcomer shonen manga Rosario + Vampire previews for volume #4 have been positive at worst. The series is picking up fans, and is constantly showing itself in the top novels of the month. As more volumes are released, I expect this to pick up in popularity. The amazing basketball manga Real will also continue into the new year, with the 3rd volume hitting stores January 20th, 2009.  Also, beginning in February, Naoki Urasawa’s Pluto will begin its print run here in the states along with 20th Century Boys. Viz has a powerful line of shonen titles that will drive its publication this year,  and with a few series from manga greats,  the young adult male demographic will be practically giving their money to Viz this year.

Del Rey is also doing fine, and with a few exciting releases also coming down the pipe. Most important to the manga community is Moyashimon, and for good reason. This cute manga about a boy who can see microorganisms has won critical acclaim in Japan, and it’s safe to bet that it’ll fare well across the Pacific too. Del Rey also has the power of CLAMP behind their product line, with xxxHOLiC and Tsubasa, RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE continuing their state-side runs. Also, let’s not forget the pervy power of Ken Akamatsu, my favorite manga-ka and writer of the popular Negima! Magister Negi Magi series. Things look to be getting more intense starting with the release this month, and new story arcs normally correspond with increased sales. Del Rey is playing the game a bit conservatively, but with Kodansha still backing Del Rey’s releases, expect to see good things coming their way.

Dark Horse has a good thing going with a few titles, namely Gantz (which should be picking up fairly soon, I think) and the Blood + manga and novels. They’re also rerunning the Oh! My Goddess mangas unflipped (like they should be) so if you haven’t had a chance to pick some of those up, now’s a good time to start. I was also extremely impressed with The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, and new volumes of this quirky horror-humor mix will be printing next year. Dark Horse has its other properties to work with too, and its Star Wars and Conan graphic novels tend to do fairly well. Dark Horse has some manga must haves in print, and it looks like they’re going to have another good year.

Yen Press is going to continue publishing Yen Plus, and starting soon, the series they’ve been publishing in the magazine will be available in tankobon format. With new properties and diverse liscencing contacts, Yen Press has a foundation that’s only going to get stronger with time. I extolled their virtues earlier this week, but suffice to say, I’m excited for what’s coming down the pipe.

I think that the blogging community sometimes takes a sometimes overly pessimistic view of the manga publishing industry, and over the past year, it’s understandable to see why, with the closure of publishers and T-pop’s restructuring. At the same time, despite our misgivings, there are plenty of things to be excited for this year, and I’ve only scratched the surface.

What are you excited for?

Haves and Have Nots

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As the year begins to wrap up and people ready themselves for the Christmas season, I think it’s appropriate to look at the current goings on in the manga world as a sort of turning point for the manga publishing industry here in the US. With yet another publisher throwing in the towel, the crew of manga publishers is getting smaller and smaller. The death of Brocolli Books has had me thinking for a few days, and it’s not good thinking, friends.

As I mentioned in my Brocolli editorial, we’re seeing a continual battle between small, sometimes niche publishers and the big guns like Viz, Del Rey, and Tokyopop for shelf space in the consumer’s home. With a slowed economy, manga readers have begun focusing on core series and have been limiting purchases. Competition between all publishers is at a high in this depressed economy, and Brocolli’s departure is an indicator of what may be to come.

Hopefully, what is coming down the pipe is not all that terrible, but it certainly isn’t the most upbeat. Publishers are going to have to focus on core lines, perhaps produce less books, and allow some older series to run out of print. We can see Viz pushing almost all of its efforts at Naruto right now as its hit manga,  as they try to catch up the US market with the Japanese market. ( I wonder what will become of all the other series they’re working on? Will we see their printing slow down?) The anime has done surprisingly well here in the states, and Viz has what it takes to make a sweet success story with their upcoming books.

And that’s really my thought; at this juncture in the manga publishing business here in the US, It’s really a battle between the Haves and Have-Nots. Large companies like Viz get dibs on the best series and titles like Bleach, Naruto, Death Note, and more. With business partnerships that create licensing choke holds and the ability to print large runs of books and keep collections in print, the Haves are squared away to weather any economic storm. The little guys may not be so lucky. Without blockbuster hits, or at least a moderately good showing on their books, publishers may have problems staying in business.

Still, some publishers have really shown the potential to change their fates. Yen Press is, among other measures, printing a relatively new anthology and has licensing contacts outside of Japan, pulling on Korean manhwa as well as OEL like Maximum Ride. As Yen Press starts to build a bigger presence in the manga market with the upcoming The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya light novels and Hero Tales manga from the author of Fullmetal Alchemist, it may be that there’s a ray of hope for the small guy after all.

I don’t necessarily have a remedy that’s a cure all for the comics industry right now, but I do know this: better communication with fans and readers will undoubtedly increase sales, and giving readers something to care about is one small step in the right direction. As a publisher, you can’t do like Seven Seas has done in the past, promising one thing and delivering another.  Most importantly, manga publishers must focus on consumer demand and opinion.

My manga Christmas wish is that publishers keep publishing, and books keep selling (and I’d also like the entire Monster series! :D ); but it’s going to take work on the part of both the consumer and the companies that publish manga to make it happen.

Questionable Content

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One of the more interesting questions that I’ve been asking lately about manga goes something like the following; “Why is it that certain manga are not (or probably won’t be) supported by publishers in the American market?” When I say this, I’m thinking specifically about books like Saint Young Men (Amazon), and more generally some of the BL titles that are out there. For a variety of reasons, these books are not being supported by publishers, or in some cases, are being published, but aren’t being carried by major book sellers.

Saint Young Men, for those of you who aren’t aware, is a comedy manga by Nakamura Hikaru that’s based on the premise that both Jesus and Buddha decide to kick the deity/enlightened spirit habit for a little while and become young adults living in a cheap rental place in a suburb of Tokyo. The premise sounds hilarious (and maybe a bit sacrilegious), and for that reason, the book is unlikely to gain any publisher support here in the States because of religious activism.

Not that the novel is particularly offensive, from what I hear. I mean, sure, Jesus and Buddha going to an amusement park isn’t exactly religious canon, but it’s not harmful either, is it? The manga-ka isn’t cursing the religions from which these two figures come from. Nakamura Hikaru is just taking them out of the past and the divine and putting them into the now, and seeing how they would interact with the world at a personal level.

We also know that the BL thing is still taboo for major booksellers. Barnes and Noble carries yaoi, but not some of the more graphic/pornographic volumes that BL fans are looking for. I’m not a fan of yaoi, but then again, not being able to get what it is you would like to read can be quite frustrating, especially when the books are translated, published, and already available in the market.

It seems odd to me that manga that focus on relationships (like the relationship of the divine to the world, or the relationship of two men who are lovers) are the books the market is not ready for, when books that portray violence, rape scenes, gore, and death, (Gantz, I’m looking at you) have already found their place in the American market.

One thing is for certain, at least as far as I can see it; as manga grows and becomes more and more a part of pop culture, boundries will be pushed, and limits will be tested. It’s up to the fans of these “troubling” manga to prove to the world that they aren’t terrible, sacrilegious, or otherwise, but instead, are stories that reveal something about humanity to all who would dare read them.

Yonkoma (4-Panel) Manga in the American Market

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After recently finishing the first volume of S. S. Astro Asashio Sogo Teachers ROom by Negi Banno (expect a review sometime at the end of this week), and seeing a bit of talk about 4-panel manga, and some news of of Yen Press’ 4-koma binge, I think it’s somewhat appropriate to consider what yonkoma (4-panel) manga has to bring to the table in the American manga market.

Yonkoma is an interesting creature. The most popular example of yonkoma in the American manga market is Azumanga Daioh, which, by the way, S. S. Astro bears a remarkable resemblance to. It’s done very well for itself, in both its manga and anime forms. The manga, however is what I’d like to focus on in this little discussion.

For those who have not read S. S. Astro, Azumanga Daioh, or any of Yen Press’ latest 4-panel offerings, let me explain yonkoma a little further. Each “strip” is four panels long (which is where the style gets its name, yon being the romanization of the alternate word for the number 4 in Japanese, and koma meaning cell). Most of the strips in yonkoma are humorous in nature, starting with a setup frame, two frames of exposition, and a frame for conclusion. While most strips are disconnected from one another, plot events can be carried from one strip to another, allowing a series to have continuity when otherwise it wouldn’t.

While some have stated that yonkoma is an emulation of the original American comic strip found in most newspapers across the US, the form of manga is more likely an extension of a writing technique called  Kishōtenketsu. However, the similarity between a yonkoma and the traditional American comic strip can not be dismissed, and it’s this similarity that is both yonkoma’s greatest strength and weakness.

Yonkoma, because of its format, is a perfect candidate for expansion into the American newspaper market. It comes in a format that’s already accepted by most newspapers that publish everyday comics such as Zits, Garfield, and Peanuts. In fact, some comic strips even run in the top-to-bottom format that yonkoma traditionally runs in. Since each volume of, let’s say, S. S. Astro is around 120 pages, and you can fit 2 strips to a page, you can get 240 (plus or minus a few) days worth of strips from one volume.  That’s quite a high volume of work from one book, and with translators and editors releasing a new volume of the manga every 2-4 months, you are almost never going to run out of content for that strip in a calender year, and with manga running in six or more volumes, the opportunities to run a yonkoma for multiple years is realistic enough.

Now, granted, this is quite a bit of a stretch. Manga publishers would have to get the rights to publish in this format, and obviously not every yonkoma release is “newspaper quality,” meaning not every manga can be read by many people and be enjoyed. Additional work would have to be done to make deals with newspapers across the US. This can’t be a completely universal transition, but for works like Azumanga Daioh, where the theme is fairly universal, a switch from a book, or even concurrent book release along with a daily serialized version, might have possiblities for the manga industry.

The downside to the yonkoma format is that while it is far easier for non-manga readers to interact with and enjoy, it also slightly alienates current manga fans. Many manga fans do not care for the yonkoma style, and many of the reviews and comments about vol. #1 of S. S. Astro called for a switch from the yonkoma format to the “regular” format. It reminds people of American comics, and as we’ve seen from the OEL debates, manga fans in America want manga to be “manga”. Anything that reminds people of American comics can cause a loss in sales because of its lack of “Japaneseness”, even when the title is quite good.

As a manga reader, I enjoy yonkoma, but I’m not sure that it’s found its place here in the American market as of yet. Yen Press seems to be pushing it though, and I’m waiting to see if they can do the style the justice it deserves.