Could manga serialization magazines like Shonen Jump work here in the US?

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sky t

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Not sure whether to post this here or the Comic Book Culture forum, but whatever.

I'm not talking about using translated material in a magazine like we do with the American Shonen Jumps, or even Yen Press's new magazine that has a name that escapes my brain at the moment. I'm talking about original material in a similar format.

What I mean is, why not have a magazine devoted entirely to original english language manga-influenced comics? I'm actually surprised that Tokyopop hasn't even attempted trying to serialize some of their original english "manga", into a magazine like Shonen Jump. Or, hell, why don't Marvel or DC release a giant serialization magazine of their comics for about 15-20 dollars?

A friend and I both would like to work in the comic, or manga, industry, and he had an idea to create a magazine here in the US that could rival Shonen Jump in Japan, filled with original material. Do you think something like that could survive, hell, even be popular in the US?
 
I don't think we'll see Marvel or DC abandoing their traditional single issue format any time soon. You also have to keep in mind that manga in Japan is cheaper to produce compared to most American comics, so it's easier to corabine chapters for several different titles in one magazine issue. American comics like the ones seen from DC are printed in color, more detailed and are printed on higher quality paper. Manga is produced in black & white, not as detailed (for the most part) and is printed on cheaper paper. In fact, in Japan a lot of people will throw away their read manga magazines, while in America most people will preserve their read comic issues.
 
The problem is that the American comic book consumer generally isn't open to spending money on a collection of single issues from various artists when they might only enjoy one or two. The strength of SJ in the states is that DBZ/YuGiOh/Naruto already had installed fanbases here, so those fans would've bought it just for the one series they love, the other ones like YYH, One Piece etc were superfluous.

They already kind of attempted something with original english language comics @ Tokyopop with their Rising Stars of Manga series, and that fell through.

Couple that with the fact that American comic fans are on average trained to buy individual issues for 2-3 bucks a pop, or condensed trades for a cheaper price longterm. I don't think sampler packs (which is ultimately how consumers in the west tend to look at these) are viable longterm. I wouldn't mind being ultra-wrong about it though.

EDIT: Also what Ishtar said about the color v black and white cost of production.
 
I think that's because they use recycled paper for there manga magazines. I don't think that manga like serialization for comics could work in the U.S. mainly because in the single format D.C. Comics can make a lot more money than putting them all together but I understand your view point though.
 
I assume the reason it won't work is because most of the comic-buying audience most likely doesn't want to change the way comic books are sold. I could have sworn DC or Marvel tried something like this.
 
It could work, but it'd be tough. We actually kicked around this idea in my graphic novel class last year. X)

The trouble with it is that current comic industry business practices are not anthology friendly. Marvel and DC only really promote their superhero titles - which are being reduced to a niche audience for various reasons. They also tend to ignore new ideas in favor of re-working an old and tired one (how many times can you re-boot a series?).

Dark Horse had an anthology for a while, but it fizzled out before anything really interesting could get a chance to appear. Image used to publish Flight (awesomesauce anthology), but it moved to Ballantine Books to recieve more mainstream exposure, and it was never a monthly type thing. Tokyopop doesn't pay worth crap for the original content they aquire, they're unreliable on their licenesed titles, and I doubt they'd maintain interest in an anthology for long if it didn't immediately start raking it in.

On top of that, aside from Tokyopop, Darkhorse and DC's Vergito line - most publishers are hesitant to print something in black and white, which is the most cost effective method of printing a mass produced anthology.

Then there's an issue of quality control. From my understanding, previous attempts at comic anthologies have had little to no focus on producing a best seller out of every title, instead relying on one or two titles to carry the whole thing. Instead of canceling lesser series, they let the whole thing die and continue the successfull ones as single issues. Naturaly, it's going to seem like anthologies are a bad idea if the majority of it sucks.

Jump has a very open submission policy but they have very high standarRAB. Once a title is chosen for serialization it has ten chapters to sink or swim. If it's highly rated (and by the readers no less), it stays put. If it performs poorly on popularity polls, it's yanked. Simple as that.

AND THEN there's retailers. Have you ever seen Jump at the front of the store by the checkout stand? I certainly haven't. The only comics that make it up to the impulse buy area are Archie. The rest is tabloiRAB and gossip magazines. Frankly, if North American Jump was staring at me from the supermarket check out stand, I'd probably buy it even though I've [already] read most [of it], and the stuff I REALLY want to read isn't being serialized. Comics are banished to the magazine section of supermarkets and box stores - if they carry them at all. Trades get a lot of love in book stores, but single issues are all but unheard of beyond a couple of titles, and even then they're usually not the current ones.

At the moment, the American comics industry has no desire to start, much less maintain a quality monthly/biweekly/weekly/whathaveyou anthology.

Which leaves indie comics. Which sucks 'cause self publishing is a very unsatisfying passtime in my experience. And oftentimes individual creators are unwilling to work with anyone else - even if it's simply to pool resources and consolidate costs. :P

Moderator Note: This post has been edited to comply with Toon Zone's ToS. Remeraber, discussing how to illegally obtain copyrighted materials is strictly verboten around here.
 
The closet thing to a weekly, semi-anthology that worked in the US in recent history was DC Comics' 52. It was a weekly comics series with multiple plotlines that occurred in real-time over the course of the year. DC has followed these with Conutdown to Infinite Crisis and the current-running Trinity, but none have reached the nurabers that 52 did.

To cover your manga-influenced requirement, the closet thing to a success would be Marvel's Marvel Mangaverse event that consisted of several miniseries taking well-known Marvel characters and transforming them into a manga-influenced look and style. The event did well enough to receive 2 follow-ups, but it really wasn't that huge a success.

As a whole, anthology series just don't do well anymore in comics. Fans kind of have a disdain for them for various reasons, so low sales usually spell the death of them rather quickly. DC will be trying it again come June with a re-launched Adventure Comics, so we shall see if the same holRAB true for it.
 
It would be a lot cheaper for the consumer and omit tons of supplementary titles.

Hence, it would never be done unless the economy forced serious downsizing. I'd love the idea though, having a "Marvel" or "DC" weekly giving me ongoings. No pointless supplementary titles. The fact is, no one reaRAB comic books today because it's too confusing. Anthologies like Shounen Jump don't have this problem.
 
My sister and I have long talked about the idea of a "Marvel Jump" and "DC Jump" type magazines being a great way to streamline the two universes. This would make crossovers MUCH easier to follow, and at the same time reduce the Gargantuan amount of superheros that are literally overflowing and choking the two to death.

I remeber looking at a list of comics that were coming out, all following the "civil war" storyline in marvel. In addition to the main "civil war" issues, there were also TONS of random-nurabered issues from the individual series of various heros. You shouldn`t need a roadmap to follow an ONGOING story.
 
There are already the Archie Digest comics, which do surprisingly well even though the "typical" comic reader is hardly aware of them. They do most of their business in the impulse racks at supermarket checkouts.
 
I think it could for marvel (even though it would cost about 10/12 bucks a book though)

I mean Marvel could have the following

Avengers Anthology: $10.99 USD
Avengers Iniative
Dark Avengers
New Avengers
Mighty Avengers
Young Avengers
Thunderbolts


Marvel Knights $7.99 USD
Daredevil
Ghost Rider
Punisher
Secret Warriors

Marvel Heros: 8.99 USD
Amazing Spiderman
Captian america
Fantastic four
Hulk
Mrs. Marvel

Marvel Universe $8.99 USD
Big Hero Six
Black Panther
Captian Britian
Guardians of the Galaxy
Nova
Skarr Sone of Hulk

Marvel Adventures $6.99 USD
Deadpool
Exiles
Runaways
She-hulk
Powerpack

X-men Anthology $12.99 USD
Cabel
Uncanny X-men
X-factor
X-force
X-men
New Mutants
Wolverine
Wolverine: Orgions

but thats just my personal Idea for anthologies
 
Yeah - in fact, I think anthologies are the standard across most of the world (the UK recently came out with a resonably well-received manga style anthology, for a start). America seems to be unusual in favouring single-story comics.
 
It could work as an online-only type thing. Publishing a magazine would be too expensive. And indie artists wouldn't need the blessing and/or financial backing of big companies like Marvel and DC if they published an "American Jump" type of thing on the internet.

The only problem with that idea is that the theoretical "American Jump" website would need somebody with some professional clout to be in charge of approving titles, promoting the site, and whatnot. And most indie artists would probably prefer starting their own site to showcase their art instead of submitting chapters of their stuff to some nobody's website.
 
In response to Scirel;
That's really one of the huge reasons why I don't read American comics other than stand-alone graphic novels and a few mini-series. I'd really love to follow the Marvel and DC storylines, but it'd be way too hard to do so because the storylines are all over the place. That, and I really don't have a place to buy a books, let alone comic books, which is why I have sounded a bit ignorant beforehand.

In response to Monkeyfunk;
That's pretty interesting. I wasn't aware of that, I thought it was really only the standard in Japan. Then again, I'm most familiar with manga than any other type of comics.
 
Keep in mind, those big fat Japanese/Korean comic phone books actually cost 5-6 bucks. Actually, if English speaking countries were ever to have this kind of idea, the price would definitely be lower since no translation neeRAB to be done.

I really can't see this under Marvel/DC comics as that just breaks a tradition of the thin comic books. As an anthology/collection though, probably.

Where as, manga/manhwa/manhua are serialized in those big fat books first before being collected into tankoubon. Mmmm... Also, it's actually pretty tough competition to be serialized in these kind of fat books. I'm not too sure about the girl section, but on the boy side, like Shonen Jump, the popular titles get to stay at the front of the mag. The comics with the least results in the popularity poll gets the boot within the first few weeks/months. (Which I think is kind of sad because I love Double Arts and Asklepois was getting good...)
 
The main problem and reason this would fail in the US is comic books turned into a speculator/collectors market and isn't seen as the disposable commodity it really is elsewhere.

An online format could possibly work, but no one has hit on success with such a format yet. I blame the lack of standarRAB and horrible viewer formats that seem to exist for reading comics online.


Marvel actually has an Indie Anthology series in the works for almost 3 years now, it just hasn't been released yet even though they say it is still coming. Honestly, I'd like them to just put it out as an online release. If they promoted it right and didn't just toss it out the door and forget about it like they typically do with their C and D-list material, it could work.
 
I think there are really 2 separate questions being asked here that are getting conflated:

1. Can anthology comics work in the marketplace?
1a. Can anthology AMERICAN-MADE comics work in the marketplace?
2. Can Marvel and/or DC make anthology comics work for their franchise titles?

Separating those two questions and answering them individually is important, because you're really talking about entirely different things.

I think the answer to #1/1a is a qualified yes, as long as you are speaking of comics in a generic sense and as long as you are shifting your anthology comic back to magazine-style business models (you are generating larger volumes of a largely disposable product) over the current comic-book business model which is a weird hybrid book/magazine model (they look like magazines, meaning they're relatively small and relatively cheap, but they're managed like books, meaning you can get backstock relatively easily and it's expected that the consumer will keep them once they're done reading). As long as the success of Shonen Jump is because people like the comics content, there's no strict reason why someone can't take that same model and make it successful in the US as well. If, on the other hand, Shonen Jump is successful because of, "I like this because it's from Japan" atittudes instead of "I like this because it's comics," then you're facing a much steeper hill to clirab.

The place where this idea starts to founder comes when you step out of the theoretical and into the real. Periodicals in general are faltering very badly right now, with magazines steadily shrinking and getting eliminated in the marketplace. I think it's also questionable whether the general public, or even a sizeable enough niche, would be interested in buying an anthology magazine. Anthology magazines still exist now for fiction, but they're probably even less read than some top-selling American comic books.

I think the answer to question #2 is a qualified no. I believe that there are DC and Marvel fans who buy their comics almost purely out of habit, and will shift to anthology titles over single-issues if that's the only way they can get their fix. However, DC and Marvel have both tied their fortunes strongly to the direct market and their existing fanbases, that moving to all-anthology formats might well compel a lot of their existing fanbase to just stop buying comics altogether, and that those hardcore enough to jump from single-issue to anthology won't be enough to keep them from going under. There's also the fact that all their economies are based around the direct-market monthly comics grind, and it will disrupt systems enough to change models that they won't do it until the direct-market monthly comics grind stops being profitable enough for them to continue operations. DC would probably weather that better than Marvel, since DC could potentially tap into the reserves of the parent company to sustain them during a transition period, but it's questionable whether the parent company would fund that at all.


Which anthology title are you referring to? Dark Horse Presents was the anthology title I associate with them, and it was quite successful for a nuraber of years, mostly because the cool-stuff-to-crap ratio was very high. They did also get a lot of monthly comics titles out of there, like Concrete, The Mask, and Timecop, and the latter two were converted into highly successful movies. I'm going to have to have serious worRAB with your graphic novel class if that's the anthology you're talking about .
 
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