This article in the Chicago Tribune* is a manga primer for the unhip. We learn that manga appeals to girls as well as boys, the plots are more complicated than in superhero comics, and, yes, the characters have big eyes. What caught my eye, though, were these figures:
Sales of manga reached $125 million in the U.S. in 2004, according to ICv2, a publishing company that tracks retail sales of items including action figures, collectible card games and comics. That’s up from $100 million in 2003 and $55 million in 2002, according to ICv2’s publisher, Milton Griepp.
Later, we are told
“Manga had been just about doubling in growth every year since about 2003,” Griepp said. “Compare that to American comics, which are growing only in the single digits.”
But the figures he just gave don’t bear that out. In fact, it looks like the rate of growth is slowing: From 2002 to 2003, sales increased by $45 million, or 82 percent. Not bad. But from 2003 to 2004, they only increased by $25 million, or 25 percent. (ICv2 didn’t provide any figures for 2005.) Unless he’s comparing apples and oranges somehow, I don’t see any doubling.
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