The Sunday papers include two more attempts to explain this manga thing to a bewildered public.
The Baltimore Sun weighs in with a fairly short article that mostly gets it right. Reporter Elizabeth Lange focuses tightly on shoujo manga and talks to readers and librarians, which gives a little fresher take:
“Eventually the whole superhero thing gets to be very predictable,” says Kelsie Cooper, 17, a senior at Roland Park Country School and a founder of the school’s anime and manga club. “It’s all about their weapons and their costumes. Manga focuses more on character. A lot of kids are into The O.C. and One Tree Hill [TV shows]. A lot of the shojo stories are similar, but more realistic.”
“Sometimes you feel girly,” adds her friend Allie Simmons, 17, about shojo’s appeal. “It’s about feelings, and it’s so easy to read. It’s like sometimes you want to eat ice cream and watch a chick flick.”
Lange can talk about manga style without getting stuck on big eyes and big boobs, and the kids she interviews are reading fairly sophisticated books. Here’s a list of manga mentioned in the piece: W Juliet, Boys Over Flowers, Sugar Sugar Rune, The Wallflower, Fruits Basket, Sensual Phrase.
By contrast, the Somewhere In Pennsylvania Patriot News article falls flat. It might help to read the lead paragraphs of the article, but the website chopped them off. The reporter’s byline is also missing, but whoever it is managed to talk to lots of manga professionals without gleaning any insights deeper than “Manga has intricate story lines” or that some manga have naughty bits but others don’t. Manga mentioned here: Sailor Moon, Peach Fuzz, Van Von Hunter, Naruto, Fullmetal Alchemist. Nothing out of the mainstream.
The package is redeemed, however, by the sidebar on the impact of manga on local comics stores. I thought this was kind of interesting:
“Right now there are about 3,000 to 3,500 comic shops in the U.S.,” said Comics Journal editor Dirk Deppy. “That equals to about one shop for every 30,000 miles. It’s as if American comic shops don’t count almost.”
It’s a valid point*, although it ignores the effects of density. There are quite a few comics stores in big cities, for instance, while there are most likely none in the Mojave desert. Still, even here in the greater Boston area, comics stores are thin on the ground. The sidebar also mentions cost as an issue:
“What we found was that online sellers and then … the big chain stores, up to and including Target and Wal-Mart, would have retail prices substantially lower than ours, due mostly to their enormous purchasing power,” he said.
I’d say that’s more true of anime than manga, because they don’t have much manga at Target (I never shop at Wal-Mart so I can’t speak to that). It is true that manga is cheaper online, but shipping costs often wipe out much of the difference, and in our house, we’re all about instant gratification. But given that the price difference between Barnes & Noble and my local comics store is only a dollar a title, I’d opt for the LCS if it had a better selection. In fact, we’ve already switched from B&N to Borders for pretty much that reason, even though it’s more money and a longer drive.
Finally here’s Deppey on the American comics industry:
“American comics went into retirement,” he said, “catering more and more to hardcore fans. It’s a one-genre medium, and the books have become more arcane.”
Deppey’s point is that comics stores limit themselves to that market, and I’m not sure how true that is. In fact, the owners of the comics stores say they like manga and see it as a way to grow their customer base.
It’s a good idea. There’s a comics store in the next town over from me, and despite the fact that I will drive on the expressway to get to the big Borders, or fight Cambridge traffic to go to the Japanese mall in Porter Square, I have never bothered to check it out. Advertising probably wouldn’t hurt. In fact, if a bunch of LCS owners got together and ran an ad in Shojo Beat, with a list by state of their locations, my eagle-eyed daughters would probably spot it and insist that we go there.
*UPDATE: No, it’s not. The area of the U.S. is about 3.5 million square miles; divide that by 3,500 and you get one comics shop per 1,000 square miles. Deppey is off by an order of magnitude. Thanks to the MangaHusband for pointing this out.
