An interesting panel discussion on Western manga and it’s chances at commercial success took place at the Anime Expo 2009 in the US. Read this report: 7 Reasons Why OEL Manga Falters in the U.S. and come back for some thoughts from me.
The discussion covers a lot of ground and stirs up a lot of thought. I’ll just focus on one for this post. Reading this really brought home to me that Japanese manga and Western manga cannot go toe to toe, for economic reasons if not aesthetic ones.
Manga fans may complain that Western manga is of lower quality, but even if it was just as good as Japanese manga, and exactly the same as Japanese manga, it would still be far less profitable for a publisher to produce its own home grown manga than to import from Japan.
It’s no surprise there’s not a lot of publishers looking for original Western manga. Importing Japanese manga is so much cheaper, and there is so much more of it, that it doesn’t make much sense to take the risk.
Western manga-ka cannot play the same game as the Japanese and win.
For Western manga to be successful it has to be different. It has to have its own appeal and its own audience. Slavish copying, of style, subject matter and storytelling, is doing something the Japanese do better – or at least faster and cheaper – and it’s a losing proposition.
I believe Western manga has one very important advantage however, something you might call the this was made by someone like me effect. However much some readers may be in love with Japan, there’s still no place like home.
Recognisable locations, real stories about the drama in English (or US) schools, the dilemmas and doubts faced by people in this culture – these are the things that make Western manga worth reading. Of course, not all manga fans may be interested in that. But given a fair wind, we may well find that people are interested who would not read any other manga.
Finding these people and getting them to read comics may not be easy, but I believe they are the key to a healthy market for Western manga.
For a lengthy but very interesting discussion on this subject, check this thread on Sweatdrop forum, the UK manga hub.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Well, I’ve been saying this for years- but when you can’t hold a candle to the Japanese industry, your best bet is to move that candle slightly farther away into a darkened room. What does the Japanes industry not cover?, or rather, what does the translated japanese industry not cover?
I think (by my own idiocy) people misinterpreted me in that thread as meaning- “don’t draw manga set in Japan”- but what I was suggesting were things like Jamie Hewlett artwork. HEAVILY manga influenced, highly mainstream and stylised, but stylised in a way that the Japanese aren’t known for in the west.
That’s all you need. Then you can tell your manga story with all your fave manga devices, plots, locations and characters- but you’re bringing something new to the table. This makes sense with trying to sell manga to a non-comics reading market too. Perhaps keep the style the same but shift the target audience or subject matter. Manga Shakespeare was a heartbeat away from Japanese Shojo romances, as was Dramacon, but that heartbeat was enough to justify its existance VS japanese imports.
Would I advise an artist to cynically fill a niche market with their work? Probably not- that’s YOUR job, Willie, as a publisher out to sell a product. Otherwise, why would anyone BUY itch products when there’s Naruto for five quid one shelf over?
The sorry secret behind OEL is that we all suck compared to Japan. We need to deal with it if we want to make money from the manga we love to make.
~John~
We all suck compared to Japan. Yes, exactly.
As for cynically filling a niche market, I wouldn’t suggest that either. I think actually selling out is harder than you think. Getting people interested in that thing you do is hard enough when your heart is in it and you really love what you do. Doing it when you secretly think it’s crap is even harder, and a lot of people can smell that.
But I do think artists and other creative folk have to make choices about what idea they’re going to work with or persue. Do I want to go with this idea or that idea? I would consider the question “who besides me will care?” to be part of that decision making process.