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.
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
. They do not accept submissions, so although they have been known to put out interesting, manga-esque stuff, they rank fairly far down on the list of places that could possibly publish you.