Dororo is Vertical Inc.'s latest translation project from the massive life's output of Osamu Tezuka. It's a straight-forward adventure story. An ambitious father lets 48 demons have a piece of his child in return for political gain. Although the child is sent down the river to die, it survives, and eventually builds a battery of compensating, deadly skills. This first volume tells the back story of that character, Hyakkimaru, that of the boy-thief he meets, Dororo, and details their first few adventures together as budding demon hunters.
Although the narratives prove rather old-fashioned in the sense they depend on formula and the outcomes are never truly in doubt, the tremendously atmospheric cartooning makes this an entertaining effort no matter how you feel about this kind of work. The designs nearly quiver under the burden of their own awesomeness; they're the kind you see on the page holding ideas in how they're drawn that you can't believe anyone was loopy enough to execute. That so much here seems lurid -- there are moments of wet, nasty horror, and instances of psychological trauma and some scary violence -- says a lot about how well grounded Dororo is in positive elements. The story is frequently funny, the relationship between the two characters never feels forced any more than the dictates of convention demand, and there's a theme that I think we can now say was a definite 20th Century cultural point that incompleteness in character and body can be healed through devotion to duty, a kind of vocational transformation that's touching and sweet.
This isn't necessary work, and it lacks the "where the hell did that come from?" charm of past previous Tezuka comics from Vertical, but it's easy to see how this might have been an audience favorite and a fruitful source for cross-media exploitation.
Fantagraphics Signs Exclusive With Diamond For Direct Market, DBD For Canadian Book Distribution By Tom Spurgeon
Fantagraphics has signed a deal with Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc. for that company to be its exclusive distributor to the comics direct market (DM). According to Diamond's announcement today, the distributor "has cemented an exclusive distribution deal... to exclusively distribute their products to comic book, game, and specialty store market outlets worldwide."
In addition to the company's high-profile both within the industry as its largest art comics publisher, Fantagraphics was the most visible non-exclusive publisher to be directly involved in the mid-1990s maneuvering that led to the current, Diamond-dominant marketplace. As such, their decision to go with Diamond should raise eyebrows and invite scrutiny as to the state of the market that led them to this decision.
Some of the more pertinent points of the deal as best as CR has been able to ascertain from the two agents include:
* exclusivity to the North American direct market marketplace.
* as such, the deal will have no effect on the company's book distribution partnership with WW Norton, a company-saving arrangement when it was made with which Fantagraphics continues to be happy.
* it's through Norton that Fantagraphics is able to supply retailers with books through Ingram or Baker and Taylor, so those options remain available to comics retailers, as will starting an account with WW Norton.
* the company will no longer sell direct to comics shops but will ask those accounts to go through Diamond on what has long been a healthy re-order business. This will correspond with an upgrade on the material the company has Diamond keep on hand, going from about 1/6 of their available titles to, apparently, all of them.
* they have grandfathered in their relationships with Last Gasp and Bud Plant, both of whom do business with DM retailers. Eric Reynolds of Fantagraphics told CR that these were the last two DM distributors with whom Fantagraphics had a relationship that wasn't Diamond.
* the individual sales agent Tony Shenton will no longer be able to sell Fantagraphics products to stores.
* Fantagraphics will get a better percentage from Diamond. Retailers ordering Fantagraphics material through Diamond will receive a better discount (moving from the F discount, described as "lower of 45 percent or Standard Discount, to the E discount, described as "lower of 50 percent or Standard Discount"), and, Reynolds says, better shipping rates. The deal is designed to allow for quicker verification on availability.
* Fantagraphics will now be able to design its own Previews section.
* in what some may see as a surprising move and a development that was not part of the initial rumor, Diamond Book Distributors will take over Fantagraphics' Canadian market book distribution from Raincoast. Reynolds estimates that the company's current business north of the US border accounts for less than five percent of their total sales. DBD has been the Eros imprint's distributor for a while now.
As for why Fantagraphics made this move, the fundamental reason is likely to be found in what they describe as the declining fortunes of the DM side of their overall business and what they as a small company with limited resources is able to invest in that side of their business in order to give it the best chance running smoothly and perhaps enabling it to grow. While that department at the comics publisher saw a slight boost in cost-efficiency moving from Greg Zura to Jason Miles -- at least one would assume this, given Zura's long-time tenure at the company -- the new deal frees Miles from physically taking retailer orders and accounting for them in favor of the salesmanship and support aspects of his position. Designing their own catalog section has to have some appeal given the nature of their books compared to most of what's available in the DM and the relative skill of their design staff as currently constituted Both should aid Miles in his attempts to drive retailers to the company's books.
Assuming a number of aspects about the deal that have since been announced, Brian Hibbs of Comix Experience feels the deal will be an overall positive. "... the impact on retailers should be minimal, and probably positive; the impact on FBI, depending on what they're giving up to Diamond, should be neutral to slightly positive," he wrote to CR.
Negative reaction to the deal seems likely to arise from both a general antipathy towards Diamond and a belief that Diamond's inability to restock Fantagraphics' titles over the last decade or so will continue despite the new arrangement. Past history dictates that there are real fears regarding the ability to restock books from a company like Fantagraphics, a vital part of the equation in these days of conservative initial orders, particularly from companies not the two big mainstream publishers. While it's hard to track the veracity of such claims on a case by case basis, Diamond has less than a stellar reputation in many circles in terms of always and reliably stocking its suppliers, including some of the exclusive ones.
"We really wish that Fantagraphics had consulted us as their retail partners before they made this move, because we would have said 'Good God No, Don't Do It,'" Chris Butcher of The Beguiling told CR. "We're very sympathetic to the general indifference of the Direct Market to good comics, including those that Fantagraphics publishes, and we understand the reasons they made their decision." Butcher points towards being able to order directly from the publisher as a key concern. "Speaking from our point of view though, we like the opportunity to deal directly with Fantagraphics, because if Fanta has a book in print, then they will have it in stock. That is not the case with Diamond. Even on the largest publishers that have moved their Direct Market business exclusive with Diamond, publishers like Viz and Tokyopop, our fill rates on in-print books are less than adequate. We hope that Fanta knows what they're in for on that front."
Fantagraphics staked out a significant position against Diamond back when most companies were signing exclusives with the distributor, a position in which some took heart because of what many felt was an outright unfortunate outcome to the mid-1990s distribution battles -- a virtual monopoly held by a company with unpopular policies and operating philosophies. Butcher went on to claim that companies holding exclusives has been bad for holding Diamond responsible for change.
"Not to put too fine a point on it, but as The Beguiling we're fortunate enough talk to reps from a large number of publishers, great and small, and many of them really aren't happy with their exclusivity deals with Diamond. No one will go on the record about it of course, because regardless of exclusivity or not they're still going to be working with Diamond going forward and being openly critical of Diamond is not the best way to get good service from them. So, no one talks about how things are not going the way they had hoped, and everyone re-ups for another few years hoping things will change because hey, everyone else is doing it. Worse still, we're worried about the sort of 'chilling effect' that goes on whenever a publisher signs an exclusivity deal. Fantagraphics better than anyone (thanks to reportage in The Comics Journal) the havoc that exclusivity agreements caused direct market retailers, particularly with regards to Image and Dark Horse deciding on Diamond after DC had made their deal. Has the consolidation of the direct market to, effectively, Diamond Comics Distributors, shown a noted increase in stores, sales, or market strength over the past 10 years? Particularly for any company that isn't Marvel or DC? Not at all, and yet the consolidation continues, leading many publishers to believe that there's no other way to do business and succeed -- or at least stay afloat -- in the market."
Hibbs points out another potential outcome. "This makes it, in my estimation, less likely that another viable distribution choice can come into being to challenge Diamond in the DM."
Eric Reynolds summarized his company's position in an e-mail early today. "One of the areas we've struggled in the last few years despite overall growth has been in the Direct Market, and this new relationship will invariably strengthen our relationship with the Direct Market and allow us to serve it better. It will result for retailers in a better discount on average, better shipping rates, and better availability / information / fulfillment on all titles. We will have better information at our disposal all the way around. It also means lower overhead for us, and enables us to devote less time to accounting and order-taking and more time to actually focus on providing useful sales and marketing tools to retailers," he wrote.
CR Backlash: Readers' Thoughts On Comics Maybe Being Too Darn Expensive
Here's a sampling of the e-mail and links I received on this essay, about the expense of comic books given the presumed primary consumer experience in buying them.
*****
"My wife and I live on the combined salaries of a teacher and a writer. We own two cats. We pretty much never buy anything more expensive than clothes at Target, CDs and DVDs from Amazon, or meals at Grand Luxe Cafe, but we do enjoy doing those things. We're buying a house. We'd probably like to have a kid. With all that in mind, I stopped buying comic books regularly when I lost my job at the A&F Quarterly back in 2003 and stopped altogether once I started working at Wizard and was able to read them all for free, and great googly moogly, there is no way I'd ever start again. What a waste of money! Trades and GNs and manga volumes are cheaper for more, and more complete, entertainment. Multiple expenditures of $2.99-$3.99 for 20-something pages of story every week? You're off your chum." -- Sean T. Collins
Tom Spurgeon replies: This is exactly what I'm getting at. It isn't just about whether or not an individual comic is worth the money spent on it, it's about the purchase of comic books generally -- that's two different things. In theatre terms think of it as paying to go all the Tom Stoppards as opposed to developing a habit of seeing plays; in movie terms it's the difference between targeting very specific films you like and being in the habit of hitting the movie theater or joining Netflix. Here we have someone who likes comics, who likes reading comics, but still opts out of the system as currently constituted. It's too easy for too many people that might otherwise spend money on comic books to spend that money elsewhere, and feel better about doing so. There's no reason why any effective comics market should be allowed to go obsolete, let alone be forced into that direction because of price and value issues.
*****
"The price of comic books does seem disproportionately high (I'm 47 years old and paid 12 cents for my first comics) compared to the inflation rate for other commodities. However, I think you were right too when you once wrote that the only comic too expensive is a bad comic book. Three dollars feels equitable for an issue of Speak Of The Devil with Gilbert Hernandez's always wonderful storytelling and pretty characters. Criminal includes Ed Brubaker's text pieces and extras (kind of like Neil Young putting the bonus cuts on the vinyl release). Omega The Unknown is a visually interesting looking comic book that makes you glad you own the single issues. In the mid-'80s I remember two dollars seeming expensive for some comics. William Messner-Loeb's Journey always seemed worth the cover price for the great story and how beautiful the art looked on the baxter paper.
"Three dollars does seem too expensive for an average comic book. Ed Brubaker's Daredevil is a good comic but not a stellar one. It reads as well or better in a trade paperback. What I miss these days (with the higher cover price and other changes) is the casual nature of the comic book and comic buying experience." -- John Vest
Tom Spurgeon replies: Yeah, I miss that casual nature, too. I do think there are plenty of titles that reward singles purchase -- in fact, for a lot of comics, it's my preferred way to buy them. I can't imagine wanting to buy an Omega trade, for instance. I really do think there's something to be said for a market the drives people to buy single-issue comic books that are priced the way they're currently priced. The problem as I see it is that there's a disconnect in this market between the way things are priced and the presumed consumer experience.
*****
"I've been thinking about this issue a lot lately. I think an interesting parallel is the crisis the music industry has been in for the past five or ten years. That industry has almost completely imploded for a variety of reasons. The chief one seems to be that their delivery methods were unable to meet consumer demand -- a potential customer in Georgia with an internet connection had a much better chance of illegally downloading the music he wanted than finding it in a store. The Internet allowed listeners to search out and find so much more music that it became impossible for stores to stock everything their customers found out about. Being able to research new artists and bands on the internet allowed the customer to become just as knowledgeable about music as the retailer, and in many cases more so. It became easier to obtain (illegally, still) music online and at first the fact that it was free became a kind of side bonus.
"But the very fact that it was free allowed a music listener to try out more and more music, to the point where most every music fan I knew was downloading far more music than they could ever pay for under the old model of $15 per CD. By the time the music industry caught up to the delivery method fans had created on their own, the listening habits of music fans had changed to the point where paying 99 cents for every song they downloaded would be impossible. For instance, it would cost about $33,000 to fill up a 160GB iPod with legally purchased mp3s from the iTunes online store. It's gotten to the point in the music world where it seems the only system that will be viable for companies and customers alike is a sort of subscription service that allows the customer to continue to sample the amount of music he or she wants and still be able to afford. Whatever your thoughts on the ethics and morality of legally buying music online versus illegally downloading it, the very fact that the illegal/free option has changed consumer habits and expectations is unavoidable. "Customers" expect vast amounts of material available, whatever the price structure is. I think this is something we've come to expect because of the internet/information era, 400 channel cable tv, etc, as well as the online music industry.
"The music industry, at least the old model "record label", is dying because it saw the fact that people wanted to listen to as much of their product as possible but was unable to pay for it as a threat to the distribution network they had created 40 years previous. Had they seen this as a tremendous opportunity could things have played out differently?
"I think comics stands on a similarly dangerous precipice. How many comics fans would read everything Marvel or DC or Fantagraphics published if they could afford to? I know quite a few and I bet it would be possible to find a lot more new readers if they could read anything and everything they wanted in the same way a music listener can listen to anything s/he wants (still illegally because the music industry has failed thus far) or a sports fan can watch anything s/he wants or the same way a movie/television fan can watch pretty much anything with a Netflix subscription.
"I'm not sure how I feel about online delivery of comics. I like the feel of a page, I like the weight, I love smart book design, I like the rhythm of reading a book, I like subconsciously knowing I'm getting close to the end of a story by how many pages remain in my right hand as I read. Hell, I love all these things. But the ability to afford the amount of comics I want to read (or have to read to be considered a well-read comics fan) is prohibitively expensive. I simply cannot afford to spend the $400 in a comic store that I would like to spend on a monthly basis.
"The most distressing part of this equation is something you mentioned -- the prohibitive cost of the books I want to read means I rarely have any money left over for the potentially exciting new work by creators that I would love to know about -- and frankly it also means that most stores can't afford to stock this stuff anyway. Comics is going through one of it's most fertile, creative moments ever right now and it seems dangerously close to being a lost moment because too many people don't have access to great new books like Dash Shaw's Bottomless Belly Button or Jillian Tamaki's Skim or Ken Dahl's Welcome to the Dahl House or Lynda Barry's What It Is (and who knows what else I've missed). One problem is that people will not see all of these books in their local store, the other problem is that those books retail for a combined cost of about $80. What's more valuable -- to have 1000 people buy $80 worth of books or to have 400,000 people read them online somehow?
"Comics publishers are reluctant to let go of their semi-effective model because it still allows them to make a profit. But it seems like the opportunity is there to increase readership in a lot of cases, if only there were a dream online store somewhere. If I could have an online subscription service to read everything Jim Hanley's orders on a monthly basis for instance, how much would that be worth? $40 a month? How many people would sign up for that? Would it work if I could go to the Fantagraphics website and read everything they've ever published for $20 a month online? There must be a way to create an online reader that avoids piracy issues and works for both parties. People subscribe to Netflix and still go out and purchase the DVDs they love -- why can't a similar system work for comics?
"In some ways I'm playing devil's advocate here, because as I've said, I love books and I'm not even sure how much I could stand to read online. But it seems dangerously close to the point the record industry was teetering on a few years ago - people want to listen/read more than they can afford to buy. I think we're at the point where we can either investigate alternative distribution methods that allow a reader to read more content for less that could potentially explode comics to vast new audiences, or we can play in the same comfortable market structure that attracts a certain amount of new readers (usually when a movie comes out) and prices out others as they can't afford to keep up. I think the latter model will continue to function well enough for a while so that people will think this isn't that big a deal. And most people's proposed solution now is getting into bookstores and fighting over the two bookcases for comics in most Borders and Barnes & Noble stores -- but to me, as great as it is to open up comics to new audiences via the bookstore, you still run into the same price structure problems in a bookstore. And of course, the limited shelf space creates an even more watered-down selection of books.
"I think people want to read more comics than they are buying right now. I think this basic supply problem could be served on the internet with some sort of comic superstore that allowed me to read anything I wanted to read for a monthly subscription fee -- but it would have to have everything: Fanta, Marvel, DC, Darkhorse, D&Q, Top Shelf, AdHouse, Tokyo Pop, newspaper strips from King Features etc. It would require supreme vision and cooperation from the various publishers, but I think it could be done. If Netflix can work out a system where they allow people to rent a movie from Sony, Universal or Disney from their site, surely there can be a similar way to work out something where comics companies could do the same. It could even allow for more interesting stuff to be published and put on the same platform. Could Fantagraphics "distribute" via the website an up and coming mini they might not otherwise publish? Yes. There'd be almost no overhead. And, if the mini got a lot of views on the site, maybe it could be published in a traditional form. The online store would not preclude regular publication - more people than ever would probably buy comics collections of their favorite monthly titles from the internet, the way people used to buy Garfield or Peanuts or Calvin & Hobbes collections even though they got them for free in the paper every day.
"We're at an exciting point for comics, but also a potentially dangerous one. The product as its distributed now is too expensive to expand the audience. People fall in love with the content when they're exposed to it, as they once were on a daily basis to Calvin & Hobbes and the Peanuts, but the old delivery systems have failed. It's not as if there isn't a massive worldwide delivery method staring everyone in the face everyday though. Why can't there be a subscription based online comic superstore? Is it really too hard to work out the legal issues for the potential gains and continued sustainability of the art form? People will say, "yeah, but the web comix revolution, man!" or name some other online comic reader that's already out there. No. This is about getting the best content in the most peoples hands. I want everything published to be available in one massive online library that works as the amazon.com or Netflix or cable television package for comics. The fans are already here, frustrated, wanting more than they can afford. The potential for new fans at a cheaper entry point is massive. It would be insanely complicated to make this thing, but it's certainly not impossible by any stretch.
Dream on, right? -- Sean Ford
Tom Spurgeon replies: I don't have anything to say in response to this, although I'm sympathetic to publishers wanting to avoid a wholesale endorsement of free content plans based on the past success of related free content plans. There are too many specific contextual issues and too much that's too new in terms of how people relate to such plans for sweeping statements to be asserted about long-term success. Comics is in many ways a niche art form more than it is a popular art form, and has different rules and different risks when it comes to certain transitions.
*****
"1) I can't believe a dude who spends his life/livelihood covering the comic book industry 'doesn't buy many comic books.' Let me rephrase that: I believe you, it just raised my eyebrow. Do you get a lot of freebies or do you just ignore most of the stuff?
"2) I think a huge reason comics are losing their currency (in both senses of the term) is that they are too expensive. They are not worth the price of admission. I remember being completely seduced by comics when I bought DC's Saga of the Swamp Thing #21 (Alan Moore's "The Anatomy Lesson") for 75 cents. I could not believe then (I can scarcely believe it now) that you could buy an incredible, engrossing, thought-provoking, lyrical, original Moore script, brought to life by kick-ass (and unique to my 14-year-old experience) Bissette/Totleben art for a mere three quarters. What a bargain! Of course, buying a mediocre comic written by a journeyman Marvel hack and drawn by someone like John Buscema was, I thought, well worth three thin quarters. Today, most mainstream comics are serviceable bites of entertainment that go down like a dollar's worth at best, you know?
"3) Reading the 50-cent DC Universe 0 that just came out, I was thinking: "This feels like a pamphlet/advertisement for a real comic book to come later. It's entertaining enough. It was worth my 50 cents. But only just." Then I compared this issue with other DC fare I had bought in recent weeks for $3 a pop. Universe wasn't any worse, didn't feel any thinner. If all Marvels and DCs were a buck, would they sell a million copies a month? If only …
"4) I guess mainstream books either have to get a hell of a lot better, or a hell of a lot cheaper, to catch on with non-fans.
"5) All this being said, if Alan Moore teamed with Bill Sienkiewicz and put out a 20-page floppy today, I'd shell out $25 for it, sight unseen." -- Mark Sharar
Tom Spurgeon replies: I get a lot of freebies, Mark. I really doubt that cheap pricing would have a great and immediate effect on new sales. I think reducing some of the pressure could bolster sales overall, over time, up to a factor of two or even three times what they are now. It's not only that comics cost a lot right now but that they're being sold with the expectation of a lot of fans following a lot of them at once, which to my mind just doesn't match up.
*****
"One problem I have with your well-written piece about the high price of comics driving away the market is that you focus on independent comics... and (within some reasonable working definition of 'independent', which I've always considered a problematically fuzzy term), the prices really haven't gone up much at all. Recently, I've been digging through some black-and-white creator-owned comics from about 15-20 years ago, and the prices have been $2-2.95. As an example, the first issue of Bone came out in 1991 with a cover price of $2.95. Similar format books these days seem to run $2.99-$3.99. That's not even keeping up with inflation.
"What is hitting the comics pocketbook hard? The prices of dependent (?) comics have risen much more quickly, really catching up with the independent ones. But the prices also seem extra high because there are more collections available, generally cheaper per page. The comic feels like less of a deal.
"(My more curmudgeonly side feels that the sense of value has also decreased because an issue is less likely to feel like a complete story or even a full installment, and more like a signature for the trade paperback.)" -- Nat Gertler
Tom Spurgeon replies: This is an extremely difficult issue, Nat, because it's hard to find books with continuity that can be compared then to now and the format changes so frequently and in ways that affect the bottom line that it's hard to track exactly where the price increase comes from. Jeff was forward in his 1991 price -- most indy and alt-books were $2.25 or $2.50 at that time. My feeling is that alt- and indy-comics were ahead of the curve when it came to maximizing prices in the early to mid-1990s because they suffered the negative effects of the marketplace far ahead of mainstream comics. Since then, there's been something like an opposite effect keeping prices from going up further in a lot of cases: comic books from those companies are less of a profit center when compared to trades, partly because of an ossified market, so there isn't as much pressure to continue maximum their pricing. And of course, some books did go up. Love and Rockets, for instance, went from $2.50 to $4.50 between 1991 and 2007.
(If you buy my logic that market forces have hit alt-comics first, it might be worth it to compare the negative reaction to Black Eye reducing its prices in the mid-1990s to the backlash you see against some of those cheaper Image books now.)
*****
"Before I even read your column today I was thinking about these same things and a question came to mind. I can't think of a nicer way to ask it than this;
"Why do the advertising sales people in comics suck so very badly?
"Shouldn't a periodical be making money or at least trying to make money of ad sales? I don't know how it works these days. I see the same ads in comics from different publishers so maybe it is up to the printer. I don't know who to point the finger of blame at but I do know they surely do suck.
"Looking at the FCBD offerings, you had ads aimed at kids in the grown up books, ads that would give kids nightmares in the kiddie books. Another thing I see all the time is ads for movies or video games long after they would have been relevant. One of the FCBD books aimed a little kids had an ad for a horror movie which is wrong by itself but if it was also a movie that had already been out for a while by FCBD. If I were the horror movie's studio and I paid for an ad to run weeks after the movie came out I would be freaking pissed and I probably would not buy ads with that company anymore. I remember this issue going back to when I was a kid buying off the spinner rack in the '80s. I would buy comics every week on the day they hit the rack and notice ads for movies, TV shows, games etc. that were already old news. Even in my 11- to 13-year-old brain I was thinking, this can't be worth the money to pay for that ad.
"Do the people that place ads in comics care so little that they don't keep track of when the ad would run or is comics so desperate for page filler that they are giving these ads away for next to nothing?
"Maybe I don't know enough about it but the ads in comics seem like a joke and have since the 80's. I feel like some kids fresh off selling ads for their college newspaper would have more hustle and generate more money than whoever it is that is selling ad space for Marvel, DC etc.
"I don't know how the whole thing works but I know it could be better. Well, I hope it could be better. I'm very interested to hear what you know (or could find out) on the subject." -- Shannon Smith
Tom Spurgeon replies: It does bear some looking into, although print ads aren't really where it's at right now and there are some structural problems that keeps some ads from being sold.
******
Among the more prominent replies on-line, Alan David Doane, Dirk Deppey and Sean Kleefeld talk about the piece in terms of it perhaps not dealing properly with the issue of on-line piracy.
Tom Spurgeon replies: I disagree that I didn't deal with on-line opportunities or piracy, or that it was somehow a missing element in the original essay; I just dealt with it in a summary fashion rather than in great detail. Basically, I’m not convinced that on-line media works as a direct replacement for comic books' traditional role as a sampler system, not should it. I don't think it works as a replacement, at least not as the industry approaches it right now, in part because the experience of reading some comics on-line is extremely different than the experience of reading them in print and in some cases it's so close to being the same thing. In the former case I think it creates a different experience. In the latter case, I think it creates a substitute experience that has the advantage to the consumer of being free. This sets up a system where the sampling must lead to a secondary purchase in order to benefit the creator and publisher, and although we have a few examples of this happening, I'm not convinced this will always happen.
In general, I'm suspicious of comparisons to music because of differences in how music is experienced multiple times between how comics are experienced multiple times, I'm suspicious of extrapolating from film because of the relative size of that audience and what that makes possible in terms of a small sample pumping money into something, and I'm suspicious of extrapolating from current comics examples because I think there are issues of novelty, scale and the specific consumer culture involved. I also don't believe that one technology necessarily replaces another, or has to, even if it eventually has some of the same functions. In other words, it's complicated, and I think largely unsettled. I suspect there's a friction between old and new habits that operates here that might disappear in half a generation, particularly because the technology is still emerging. In the 1980s there were assumptions about the way people would use VCRs that looked smart in 1983 but by the early 1990s were no longer relevant.
The history of comics is as much about the unfortunate, early abandonment of profitable strategies more than it's about the hesitant adoption of new ones. Ideally, I'd like to see the pursuit of multiple avenues. In this case: 1) more affordable comic books that allow for wider print sampling along with all the other reasons why that format is awesome (and if not that, then an approach to comic books that is more in tune with the price being asked for them), and 2) something for which I've been advocating a couple of years now: every single company releasing downloadable versions of every single print product they release, at a price according to the dictates of that market. It'd be a start, and I think would better prepare the industry to make a move once habits are more ingrained and we're able to track them.
Your 2007 Eagle Awards Winners
The Eagle Awards finally have their 2007 winners up (they call their awards according to the year of the work in question rather than the year of the awards). They're kind of a comic book industry award as opposed to a wider comics award, which provides some of the explanation for their completely asinine, myopic statements on their own behalf you'll find through the link. Anyhow, here are your winners.
Favorite Newcomer Writer
Matt Fraction Favourite Newcomer Artist
David Aja Favourite Comics Writer
Alan Moore Favourite Comics Writer/Artist
Alan Davis Favourite Comics Artist: Pencils
Frank Cho Favourite Comics Artist: Inks
D'Israeli Favourite Artist: Fully-Painted Artwork
Alex Ross Favourite Colourist
Laura Martin Favourite Letterer
Dave Gibbons Favourite Editor
Tharg Favourite Publisher
Marvel Favourite Colour Comicbook - American Hellboy: Darkness Calls Favourite Colour Comicbook - British Spectacular Spider-Man Favourite Black and White Comicbook - American The Walking Dead Favourite Black and White Comicbook - British How To Date A Girl In 10 Days Favourite New Comicbook Thor Favourite Manga Death Note Favourite European Comics Requiem, Vampire Knight Favourite Comics Story published during 2007 Captain America #25-30: The Death of Captain America Favourite Comics Cover published during 2007 World War Hulk #1A Favourite Original Graphic Novel The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier Favourite Reprint Compilation Absolute Sandman, Vol. 2 Favourite Comics Hero
Batman Favourite Comics Villain
Joker Favourite Magazine About Comics Wizard Favourite Comics-Related Book Our Gods Wear Spandex Favourite Comics-Based Movie Or TV 300 Favourite Comics Related Website
Marvel.com Favourite Web-Based Comic The Order of the Stick Roll of Honour
Mike Mignola
Dirk Deppey reminds us that the family of artist Gene Colan, struggling with medical bills brought about by the mainstream comics veteran's liver failure, can be assisted simply by making a paypal donation to the appropriate e-mail address: genecolan@optonline.net. Of previously discussed options, here's the post by writer Clifford Meth that tells professionals where to send items for auction. Meth is also making the full monies earned by the sale of this book available to the Colans.
* this brief profile of the latest Pat Oliphant show contains photos from the exhibit, which actually makes such a huge difference I now want all exhibit reports to come with at least five photos.
* there doesn't seem to me enough material to do a collective memory on last weekend's Emerald City Comicon, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't read the written efforts of the comics industry's Nick Frost and Simon Pegg: Steve Lieber (and friends) and Jeff Parker.
* if you're interested in the latest Marvel numbers and the transcript of a telephone call where board members talk in very general terms about movie positioning strategy, this page is for you.
* finally, the Marvel editor Tom Brevoort hasstarted a series of blog postings about four of the core Marvel titles and the hows and whys of their appeal. Speaking of American superhero comics coverage, this interview with Marc Guggenheim cracked me up because all the questions seemed more like howls of displeasure over the basic concept behind Guggenheim's comic book.
Creators: Matthew Armstrong, Bannister, Phil Craven, Steve Hamaker, Ben Hatke, Kazu Kibuishi, Johane Matte, Jake Parker, Rad Sechrist, Kean Soo Publishing Information: Villard, softcover, 112 pages, March 2008, $10 Ordering Numbers: 9780345503138 (ISBN13)
If I remember the discussion surrounding the publication of the first four Flight volumes, one of the driving ideas is that it would help a specific group of artists perhaps more attuned to illustration and animation to build the confidence and chops so that they might continue doing comics on a grander and grander scale. That's a lovely thought for a comics series, and while a lot of the work in Flight left me cold, there was so much of it in one place that it kind of felt like eating a luxurious meal at a restaurant whose cuisine I didn't take to naturally, or seeing in a movie at the Cinerama in a genre I didn't care for. What I didn't like I could appreciate; what didn't work was subsumed into memories of those half dozen or so cartoonists who seemed destined for greater things. In that way, Flight kind of worked like a classic comics anthology, just with more of an open ambition to spring its cartoonists on the world.
Flight Explorer also seems like a classic anthology, but one of those that's working out of more mundane concerns. Namely, it's directed at all-ages readers, and partly as a result it's a more portable book with a great price point that would seem to appeal to a younger consumer that might not be able to get the bigger books. As a result, there's a lot less work here, and what there is doesn't seem as inspired as some of the "I'll give comics my best shot" ethos that seemed to (and maybe just seemed to, but still) inhabit the larger volumes. For instance, work by two great talents for all-ages comics, editor Kibuishi and Kean Soo of Jellaby submit works that frankly come across as a bit perfunctory. Kibuishi's lacks the formal audacity of later Copper pieces, while the Jellaby comic is as adorable as always but seems almost pushy in communicating its warm fuzziness, like the creator was forced to come up with something heartwarming at a pitch meeting. A lively adventure short by Steve Hamaker ("All In A Day's Work") and a comedic piece by Philip Craven ("Big Mouth") seem to represented cartoonists working closer to the edge of their talents; each finds the right level of verve in terms of their presentation and both offer a kind of completeness to their stories that makes each experience seem less like an installment in some other book's run of chapters. Most of the other work I found forgettable, so many reasonably well-drawn color fantasies, like flipping through the cable cartoon channels from the treadmill Saturday morning at the gym. Flight Explorer feels like it's one or two compelling, audacious and lively efforts from completion, an anthology without a central, defining work or two. That, sadly, is also pretty common.
DAVID WELSH: Why did Tokyopop decide the time was right to branch into full-color graphic novels? Tell me a bit about the genesis of the imprint.
BRYCE COLEMAN: For quite some time we'd been looking at potential licensed properties from all over the world, not just Japan and Korea. And there is so much cool stuff out there, especially in Europe. Titles that we would have loved to have gotten our hands on. Books that we were sure could find an appreciative U.S. audience, but were all but unknown in the States. The problem was, that for the most part, these properties were all in color, and we found ourselves lamenting, "Man, we'd love to publish that, but we don't do color. Oh, well." It just got to the point where the timing felt right. Where, as a company, we'd established ourselves as global thinkers, not to be pigeonholed into a single, narrow category. Tokyopop has always been about creating cultural and artistic bridges, so this seemed like a natural progression. It was our publisher, Mike Kiley, who gave us the marching orders to start the line several months ago, and I couldn't be more excited.
WELSH: What's the scope of the line? Are you focusing on a particular genre or tone, and is there a specific audience demographic you're trying to reach?
COLEMAN: The scope of these graphic novels so far is pretty varied. One of our launch titles is Orange by Chinese manga phenom, Benjamin. His work is all in a real world setting, dealing with young adult themes, but the artwork is done in this stunning, painterly manner that gives it all a vibrant, intense, dreamlike quality. We'll be following Orange with another book by Benjamin, Remember. Brilliant stuff. But we also have some epic fantasy titles, like Luuna from France. This property has been hugely successful in Europe. The art is absolutely lush, with a high-end animation look to it. It's the story of a young Native American girl about to enter her rite of passage only to find herself on a dangerous quest to end a curse on her tribe. Reading this series is like watching a fantastic animated feature play out before your eyes. Pixie is another of the early titles in the line. A little closer to a traditional manga aesthetic than Luuna and lighter in tone, it's a fantasy tale set in the fictional world filled with magical kingdoms, thieves, princes and creatures galore. This one's lots of fun.
So, while the scope I think will be expansive in both genre and tone, we're looking at attracting an audience demo of both girls and guys, in the teen to older teen range. We're definitely not doing "kiddie books" with these graphic novels, but while some will be more real world and sophisticated, others will simply be awesome tales of fantasy and adventure.
WELSH: Tell me a bit about the search process: how is Tokyopop finding these works? Is it similar to the licensing process you use for manga, manhwa and so on?
COLEMAN: Well, obviously we didn't have the clearly established lines of acquisition like we do on the Japanese and Korean manga right out of the gate. You can't walk across the Tokyopop office without tripping over a Japanese or Korean speaker, but as we tried to gather coverage on some of these early titles, we suddenly found ourselves asking, "Okay, anybody here read French?" But other than that basic challenge, it's a continuing learning process to try and understand the landscape of graphic novels in Europe. Trying to divine what will work in the U.S. market is going to be based largely on our intuition, practical research and, hopefully, a little bit of luck. Will the fact that a title was successful in Europe translate into sales here? That's what we're trying to get a handle on, but I think we're making some exciting choices. Right now, our mandate is this -- find titles that either embrace some kind of manga aesthetic at a high level of artistry, or simply anything that is just too freakin' unique and cool to pass up!
WELSH: Have you determined a general release schedule -- how many books you'd like to release in a given year?
COLEMAN: Oh, sure. We're looking at releasing five series, covering about eight volumes, in 2009. Moving on to 2010 we're looking at going up to about 10-12, and ramping up even more in 2011. We want to be prudent as we develop the line and are trying to choose the licenses carefully. I really do think that these graphic novels have tremendous potential in the U.S., so I'm hopeful that the line will eventually become one of the staples of what we do.
WELSH: The first three books announced in the Tokyopop Graphic Novels line have dimensions of 7" by 10". Is that the standard size for the imprint, or is there some flexibility depending on the individual work in question?
COLEMAN: Good question. Yup, those will be the dimensions for pretty much everything in the line. Of course, should there be a special project that demands a different treatment, we'll take it on a case-by-case basis. We really feel that consistency will be an important factor in the success of these graphic novels. I think one of the reasons that European titles haven't been well received in the U.S. market in the past, is because the trim size of the originals, especially the French Bande Dessinee (what we'd call graphic novels in the States), are far too big to fit on U.S. retailers' shelves. Not to mention most bookshelves at home. This trim size will allow these graphic novels to fit perfectly alongside most traditional graphic novels and trade paperbacks. Another thing people might not know is that many of these original books are only about 50-80 pages per volume. We're binding up anywhere between two to three original volumes to make one of ours, giving the buyer more bang for their precious buck.
WELSH: What new marketing and production challenges has the line presented? What are some of the key differences in preparing books like these for the market as opposed to black-and-white manga?
COLEMAN: From a marketing perspective, the challenge is going to be generating excitement about this new venture in a manner that lets our traditional fan base know that there are some incredible works here, and that they're bound to love them. But also, to alert readers who may fall just outside that sphere. People who possibly, while thinking some our manga looked cool and interesting, just couldn't get by the whole "black & white" aspect of it. I think part of the trick will lie in being clear that we're not starting a whole new business with these color graphic novels, but that this is just a continuation of the innovation Tokyopop has become known for.
And of course, we're hoping that with the more traditional trim size, we'll be able to penetrate the direct market shelf space in a way we never have before. I see these books being able to sit right alongside everything from an American Splendor collection to a TP of The Ultimates.
The production challenge with these color graphic novels basically comes down to the accelerated schedule. Due to the cost of printing the books in color, these will mostly be manufactured in China, which for us means sending the books to press at least a full two months earlier than we send out the regular manga. As the editor in charge of these books, my biggest concern is making sure I've got everything together and made the English adaptations the very best they can be, and not having that early deadline catch me unprepared. But I know that once we get the first few of these out, we'll get into a groove and it'll be like second nature for us.
*****
(Images from Orange, Pixie and Luuna)
*****
David P. Welsh has loved comics since his parents first used Archie and Casper to sedate him during long trips in the family station wagon.
He's worked as a reporter and editor for daily and weekly newspapers, and later sold out for the glamorous world of public relations. Prior to relocating to The Comics Reporter, he wrote his Flipped column for Comic World News for just over three years. He's written articles on comics for print outlets and a variety of other web sites.
He lives in West Virginia, which he says has gotten a lot easier since the Starbucks and Barnes & Noble opened up.
You may e-mail David with questions or commentary You can write to this site about David's columns
Pirkola Assailant Seeks Plea Agreement
According to the latest local news update, one of the three men accused of robbing and shooting the comics retailer David Pirkola is seeking a plea agreement for his role in the April 25 incident which put Pirkola into the critical condition where he has since remained. Marvin Michael-Marquis Jones, a 19-year-old, waived a probable cause hearing on charges of armed robbery and attempted murder. Another suspect remains in custody while a third is being sought by police.
Mark Heath has announced the end of his feature Spot The Frog, which will come to close in early July. I liked Spot, which I thought was nice-looking and always pleasant, the kind of feature that once upon a time you grew up and had pleasant memories of it having run in your local paper even though you kind of felt that no one else remembered it. I think there a couple things we can take away from the departure of another modestly successful strip, including 1) a book collection isn't a sure sign of success, as people have believed since Garfield became a hit; Spot the Frog had I think two, and 2) it's really tough out there for work to find traction unless it break out. I think that's where the declining number of newspaper spots and the increased churn in terms of dumping and trying strips is most greatly felt. Is there no such thing as a newspaper strip middle class anymore?
NCS, AAEC Against Orphaned Works Bill
The National Cartoonists Society (NCS) is urging its members to write their congresspeople against the Orphan Works Act of 2008, while the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists has penned a letter from both organizations making official their objection to that bill's passage. What's missing, Dirk Deppey points out, is a concise and concrete dissection of the bill's potential evils. On the other hand, I'm not sure that not being able to run off on one's fingers exactly what's wrong with a piece of legislation means that you can't or shouldn't object to it with the rough conception you do have of its likely impact.
Although the narratives prove rather old-fashioned in the sense they depend on formula and the outcomes are never truly in doubt, the tremendously atmospheric cartooning makes this an entertaining effort no matter how you feel about this kind of work. The designs nearly quiver under the burden of their own awesomeness; they're the kind you see on the page holding ideas in how they're drawn that you can't believe anyone was loopy enough to execute. That so much here seems lurid -- there are moments of wet, nasty horror, and instances of psychological trauma and some scary violence -- says a lot about how well grounded Dororo is in positive elements. The story is frequently funny, the relationship between the two characters never feels forced any more than the dictates of convention demand, and there's a theme that I think we can now say was a definite 20th Century cultural point that incompleteness in character and body can be healed through devotion to duty, a kind of vocational transformation that's touching and sweet.
"We really wish that Fantagraphics had consulted us as their retail partners before they made this move, because we would have said 'Good God No, Don't Do It,'" Chris Butcher of 
Eric Reynolds summarized his company's position in an e-mail early today. "One of the areas we've struggled in the last few years despite overall growth has been in the Direct Market, and this new relationship will invariably strengthen our relationship with the Direct Market and allow us to serve it better. It will result for retailers in a better discount on average, better shipping rates, and better availability / information / fulfillment on all titles. We will have better information at our disposal all the way around. It also means lower overhead for us, and enables us to devote less time to accounting and order-taking and more time to actually focus on providing useful sales and marketing tools to retailers," he wrote.
"My wife and I live on the combined salaries of a teacher and a writer. We own two cats. We pretty much never buy anything more expensive than clothes at Target, CDs and DVDs from Amazon, or meals at Grand Luxe Cafe, but we do enjoy doing those things. We're buying a house. We'd probably like to have a kid. With all that in mind, I stopped buying comic books regularly when I lost my job at the A&F Quarterly back in 2003 and stopped altogether once I started working at Wizard and was able to read them all for free, and great googly moogly, there is no way I'd ever start again. What a waste of money! Trades and GNs and manga volumes are cheaper for more, and more complete, entertainment. Multiple expenditures of $2.99-$3.99 for 20-something pages of story every week? You're off your chum." -- Sean T. Collins
"The price of comic books does seem disproportionately high (I'm 47 years old and paid 12 cents for my first comics) compared to the inflation rate for other commodities. However, I think you were right too when you once wrote that the only comic too expensive is a bad comic book. Three dollars feels equitable for an issue of Speak Of The Devil with Gilbert Hernandez's always wonderful storytelling and pretty characters. Criminal includes Ed Brubaker's text pieces and extras (kind of like Neil Young putting the bonus cuts on the vinyl release). Omega The Unknown is a visually interesting looking comic book that makes you glad you own the single issues. In the mid-'80s I remember two dollars seeming expensive for some comics. William Messner-Loeb's Journey always seemed worth the cover price for the great story and how beautiful the art looked on the baxter paper.
"The most distressing part of this equation is something you mentioned -- the prohibitive cost of the books I want to read means I rarely have any money left over for the potentially exciting new work by creators that I would love to know about -- and frankly it also means that most stores can't afford to stock this stuff anyway. Comics is going through one of it's most fertile, creative moments ever right now and it seems dangerously close to being a lost moment because too many people don't have access to great new books like Dash Shaw's Bottomless Belly Button or Jillian Tamaki's Skim or Ken Dahl's Welcome to the Dahl House or Lynda Barry's What It Is (and who knows what else I've missed). One problem is that people will not see all of these books in their local store, the other problem is that those books retail for a combined cost of about $80. What's more valuable -- to have 1000 people buy $80 worth of books or to have 400,000 people read them online somehow?
"2) I think a huge reason comics are losing their currency (in both senses of the term) is that they are too expensive. They are not worth the price of admission. I remember being completely seduced by comics when I bought DC's Saga of the Swamp Thing #21 (Alan Moore's "The Anatomy Lesson") for 75 cents. I could not believe then (I can scarcely believe it now) that you could buy an incredible, engrossing, thought-provoking, lyrical, original Moore script, brought to life by kick-ass (and unique to my 14-year-old experience) Bissette/Totleben art for a mere three quarters. What a bargain! Of course, buying a mediocre comic written by a journeyman Marvel hack and drawn by someone like John Buscema was, I thought, well worth three thin quarters. Today, most mainstream comics are serviceable bites of entertainment that go down like a dollar's worth at best, you know? 
"One problem I have with your well-written piece about the high price of comics driving away the market is that you focus on independent comics... and (within some reasonable working definition of 'independent', which I've always considered a problematically fuzzy term), the prices really haven't gone up much at all. Recently, I've been digging through some black-and-white creator-owned comics from about 15-20 years ago, and the prices have been $2-2.95. As an example, the first issue of Bone came out in 1991 with a cover price of $2.95. Similar format books these days seem to run $2.99-$3.99. That's not even keeping up with inflation.
In general, I'm suspicious of comparisons to music because of differences in how music is experienced multiple times between how comics are experienced multiple times, I'm suspicious of extrapolating from film because of the relative size of that audience and what that makes possible in terms of a small sample pumping money into something, and I'm suspicious of extrapolating from current comics examples because I think there are issues of novelty, scale and the specific consumer culture involved. I also don't believe that one technology necessarily replaces another, or has to, even if it eventually has some of the same functions. In other words, it's complicated, and I think largely unsettled. I suspect there's a friction between old and new habits that operates here that might disappear in half a generation, particularly because the technology is still emerging. In the 1980s there were assumptions about the way people would use VCRs that looked smart in 1983 but by the early 1990s were no longer relevant. 
Favourite Colour Comicbook - American
* 
If I remember the discussion surrounding the publication of the first four Flight volumes, one of the driving ideas is that it would help a specific group of artists perhaps more attuned to illustration and animation to build the confidence and chops so that they might continue doing comics on a grander and grander scale. That's a lovely thought for a comics series, and while a lot of the work in Flight left me cold, there was so much of it in one place that it kind of felt like eating a luxurious meal at a restaurant whose cuisine I didn't take to naturally, or seeing in a movie at the Cinerama in a genre I didn't care for. What I didn't like I could appreciate; what didn't work was subsumed into memories of those half dozen or so cartoonists who seemed destined for greater things. In that way, Flight kind of worked like a classic comics anthology, just with more of an open ambition to spring its cartoonists on the world.
WELSH: What's the scope of the line? Are you focusing on a particular genre or tone, and is there a specific audience demographic you're trying to reach?
WELSH: The first three books announced in the Tokyopop Graphic Novels line have dimensions of 7" by 10". Is that the standard size for the imprint, or is there some flexibility depending on the individual work in question?
