November
19
A Manga Sales Jump
Comic book sales figures are a slippery thing. Publishers in the past guarded them with secrecy in order to keep their work-for-hire writers and artists unaware of how many copies their comics were selling, and, nowadays, to prevent embarassment at the low numbers.
Sales have been edging up in the specialty market of comic book stores, with Marvel and DC series generally seeing an increase over the past few years. Still, the number of titles that sell more than 100,000 copies a month is small, especially when you consider that a circulation of more than 200,000 was low enough for Marvel to cancel the X-Men back in 1969.
Then comes a report on ICV2 that the sales of Shonen Jump!, the thick monthly collection of translated Japanese manga, have grown more than 60 percent since midyear, from 190,000 copies to more than 300,000.
The manga phenomenon is fascinating to watch after so many years of languishing sales and tired, recycled superheroes in American comics. That publisher Viz can put out the monstrous Shonen Jump! -- each issue is at least a couple hundred pages for about 5 bucks vs. 32 pages for $2.25 for the average Marvel or DC comics -- shows that value and quality will get young readers interested in comics.
The challenge for U.S. publishers like Marvel, DC, CrossGen and Dark Horse is find ways to adapt the Japanese model to America, and change is something that comes with difficulty to the comics biz.
It will be interesting to look back in 20 years to see if kids have any interest in another Spider-Man movie, or if instead they'll be really hyped about a new live-action Dragonball Z.
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Five years ago our firm was one of five American companies picked to build titles for a new console gaming machine for the Japanese market. We were contracted to build titles around a TV cartoon called "DragonBall Z".
We were stunned to find out that Akira Toriyama, the author of DragonBall and DragonBall Z had sold over 100 million copies of his pen and ink graphic novels.
Although much of the Japanese output is of pulp quality, their best work is great. The greatest thing of all about the Japanese comic industry is their publishing tradition of producing good value for the money. The Shonen Jump comic being sold by Viz monthly has less than 1/2 of a weeks Shonen Jump in Japan; so they have more ammo if they need it.
The truly amazing thing is how long it has taken them to translate this work into English. We and hundreds of other have been begging them for years to put this content into English so people here could enjoy it. The stubbornness of Shueisha (Japanese parent of Viz) cannot be underestimated.
Posted by: Edward de Jong | November 20, 2003 at 11:45 AM
I would like to say i am a EXTREME manga fan and this article ha helped me for my report of which is about the incresasing sales of manga/anime. Manga is extremely popular and from ICV2 i found that 35,000 copys of the manga Trigun (great show) were sold within days of its release. I am stunned that soo many people in the U.S. are into manga like me scince i know almost no one else who is into it!
Posted by: Rather Not Say | October 27, 2004 at 06:53 PM
Hey you guys are great writters my favorite manga/anime would have to be ONE PIECE because i dunno it's just a great idea. Me myself being a hung manga fan when i am older makes me want to write and create manga/anime for everyone i'll come up with my own comic called Adventure X. But i cant tell you everything about it because who know one day it might be a huge hit well see ya later fellow fans. if any of u guys wanna talk anime or manga then post it up people will read they cant help but read what we fellow fans have to say. see ya.
scott paines...
Posted by: scott paines | July 22, 2005 at 10:05 AM
Edgar Allen Poe wrote a good novel the Tempest also written by his contempories, there's is a great store called forbidden planet shaftsbury avenue off Oxford street . . .
Thw weather's alright me and, a few fellow work colleagues enjoy to read Graphic art from the four corners of the globe . . .
Tranformer's was a great film the animation I think it was Dynix and Vista that produced it
also, a various few Japanese firms were involved in the production the cinematography was awesome in place's though deserving ridicule Silver screen prints are a rarity these days . . .
In all seriousness Baden Powell
49 Queens Gate South Kensington SW 7 5 JS is a
an Excellent facility where I studied IT/c Q
External H AQ Alliance
Posted by: Ashok A Ashton-Narayan | August 16, 2007 at 11:12 AM
hey!! i love manga and anime and i used some of this info on a portfolio piece thanks!! don't worry i sited this info so post something back i love this piece u wrote!!
Posted by: rather not say | October 02, 2007 at 03:03 PM