I hate posting /. stuff to here, because I don't want memestreams to become just another slash, but this was a link from there that I found interesting. One funny thing... Japanese Manga consumers purchase thick, black and white, cheap digests to read on a long train commute and dispose of them when they're done. American comic consumers purchase expensive, thin, full-color pamphlets to read on the toilet and then save them in boxes forever. Ok, so who's been spying on me? Anyway, I think the most important thing to note here is that the US comics industry was in the position that the current Japanese Manga industry is in today - but for the US it was 50 years ago. In 1954, Dr. Fredric Wertham published a book and went before Congress to talk about the ill effects of comics on America's youth. At that point, single issues of some comics exceeded the million copies per month mark. That's more than the New York Times has ever had its circulation. Then Congress threatened the industry - either regulate yourself, or we'll regulate you. Half the publishers closed their doors on the comic book industry. Even though this happened, though, the 50s changed America's culture to one of sitting on our asses in front of the tv, so while one could say the decrease would have happened, anyway - just as the Japanese are facing a decline due to video games - it did have a heyday of its own. The article/interview also makes a good point in that Manga is a disposable media while here in the states comics are mainly a collectible media. Many of us consumers have been discussing the fact that comics are falling further and further into the niche of collectors only and that there is rarely a mainstream product that comes along to attract new consumers. I don't think the answer is in creating disposable media, but in exposing others to the great stories available in comics. The article agrees and mentions the need to lower prices and achieving an economy of scale, but doesn't point out the geographic advantage that Japan has - it's much smaller. Distribution adds an incredible amount to the price of comics here in the US, especially since the industry has switched to common carriers (UPS, FedEx). Until a few years ago, Diamond Distributors ran trucks across the US, but it's just so friggin' huge that it cost too much - even more than having 100 lbs. of comic books shipped via UPS to you each week. Anyway, I could go on about this forever. Many of you who know me IRL can attest to my total comic book geekiness. Post Script: OK, I'm going to post this information as a followup since at dinner I got some looks of "your numbers are beer induced hypotheticals." In reality, my numbers really are way off... they're low. From The Comic Book In America, by Mike Benton, published by Taylor Press, First Printing. p. 41: By 1946, comic-book reading was an established habit - some might say an addiction - among almost all children of the time. Nine out of every ten children between the ages of eight and fifteen read comic books regularly. ... There were now approximately forty million comic books being published every month. The "Comic Magazine Publishing Report" listed 157 active titles in 1946... 1946 wasn't the peak of circulation, by the way. pp. 51-53: Three significant things happened in 1954. Dr. Frederic Wertham, a long-time vociferous critic of the comic book industry, published Seduction of the Innocent... the U.S. Senate Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency held public hearings on the deleterious effects of comic books on children... comic-book publishers established the self-regulatory Comics Code Authority... Before the Code was established at the end of October, there had been six hundred fifty titles published this year - an all-time high - with an amazing one hundred fifty million issues published every month. The industry was enjoying an annual revenue of ninety million dollars on a product that cost ten cents. For those of you bad at math, that's 150,000,000 comic books every single month. I know Manga is huge, but just look at the numbers involved here. US Comics had a profound influence on our culture at one time, but has since fallen into a niche and is far from climbing out of that hole. I'd love to see US Comics increase in quality to the level of Manga, but I fear that the good days are over. Dolemite Why does Manga succeed where US comics fail? | 
