| JWeinCom said: I wonder if a big part of it is the fact that manga is black and white and (from what I've seen) generally printed on cheap paper. Comic books are a lot more expensive to make, and that makes publishers more risk averse. It also would I imagine make readers a bit less likely to try new or weird things. Comics are about $4 an issue for about 20 pages. Getting into a series can be an investment. Then there's also logistical difficulties. The US has a far more spread out population, and distributing books across 50 states again makes the process more expensive. |
Manga is also usually printed in magazines that bundle several different works at once. This leads to much greater exposure for new manga when it's included with something that is already popular. And, of course, it's cheaper for the publisher and means less of a risk. If a particular work is popular enough, it can be released in separate collections.
| Agente42 said: Did you read Will Eisner, Crumb, Harvey Pekar, Maus? Maus won a Pulitzer. Vertigo ? Alison Bechdel? She won the NY Times nonfiction award, man. Everything is American comics. We talked about mainstream comic books , Japanese and american it was limited. All comics have genre and are diversity, but what is bringing money, real money in shonen jump is a One Piece, was naruto in its time, etc. A cut in the Marvel / DC universe to say that American comics is limited is not knowing the same. Not knowing that it has a lot of horror comic, fantasy comic, cover and sword, independent etc. Sometimes one of them can reach a large audience, as with Japanese comics, but what supports the market, at least in Japan, is shonen, battle-oriented and humorous, not unlike American superheroes and comedy cartoons. |
You're talking about a completely different scale. Where would those comics show up on a sales chart? The level of exposure and public engagement isn't even close.
In Japan, Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii, a romantic comedy, is in the top 20 best-selling manga for the year. So is 3-gatsu no Lion, a critically acclaimed manga about about the life of a young Shogi player. Kimi ni Todoke, a slow and gentle romance manga, is in the top 40. Komi-san wa, Community-shou desu is there, too, and it's about as far from battle manga as you can get.
Chihayafuru would almost certainly have been in the top 20 with a higher output of chapters (it was #11 in 2016). It's an award winning Josei manga (intended for young women) that was popular enough to spawn 50 episodes of anime, three live-action films, and a short light novel spin-off.
Other manga intended for different demographics are spread out over the lower half of the top 50.
You're comparing two different situations and trying to present them as the same.
Last edited by pokoko - on 30 July 2018
