The decade is over, most of the "best of" lists have been compiled and published, and reaction and commentary on what has been and what will be abounds.
I don’t have a lot to say about the previous decade and I have few “most anticipated” upcoming comics on my list except for Frank Miller’s follow up to 300, which I hope comes out some time before the next decade.
In Japan, there are only a handful of titles I want to check out that I haven’t yet. One is Zipang, because for the last decade or so I’d been waiting for it to end so I could read it all at once at a time when my Japanese would also be good enough to really dive into it. I’m sort of interesting in giving My Girl a shot, and also taking another look at the original Dragon Ball and One Piece back issues. But one comic I just can’t put aside anymore is Ultimo. Not because it’s Stan Lee and not because it’s Hiroyuki Takei, but because it’s both of them together.
It’s a collaborative work by two giants of Japanese and American comics that is actually being produced in Japan by a Japanese publisher. This one must be paid attention to, even if only in an academic sense, because I think it's a huge step toward change that he industry needs. I think that collaboration is the future and the only way Japanese comics will survive another decade – particularly in North America.
Manga is hurting so bad that the English meaning of term itself has been reduced from meaning “comics from Japan” to “comics resembling comics from Japan”. The problem is that the “manga” industry and the fans have boxed Japanese comics into a corner by trying to set them apart from "regular comics" and insisting that they were the future of the art form to replace superheroes. Now that it's clear that superheroes aren't going anywhere, and things aren’t going as planned on the Japanese soft power world domination front, some are trying to tell us manga is only a style of comic. We’re being told that it’s a set of formulas and a look characteristic of the Japanese mainstream that can be mimicked by anyone who can connect the manga dots in a given manga sub-genre (shonen, shojo, seinen, whatever!).
When these non-Japanese clones started being marketed along side Japanese imports as manga, that was, to me anyway, not only lame but the beginning of the end.
We have now even had an industry person actually suggest working with the same pirates so often blamed for the beating that sales are taking recently, a sign that some are in seriously deep trouble and don’t see a way out.
Well what did anyone expect? Keeping Japan's comics limited to specific formulas and superficial looks, and insisting they are unique and have so much more to offer than anyone else’s comics, isn't going to help them survive it's going to kill them.
And, however much they may resemble Japanese comics, putting non-Japanese comics in with Japanese imports and treating them as one in the same is like saying Avatar is a foreign film because James Cameron is Canadian.
It's ridiculous!!
Anyway, manga has they are currently marketed in the U.S. is not sustainable as long as the Japanese market continues to slide. Japan is struggling to stop a long slow slide in sales domestically, while at the same time trying to stop the bleeding by grabbing bigger cuts of dwindling overseas revenue. That's exactly what they did with animation, and where is “Anime” now?
If Japan can’t stop their death spiral, then overseas markets will continue to hurt too and the void just cannot be filled by clones. Something needs to change.
Along with breaking down the impossible weekly schedules to free up Japanese creators to really create instead of just scrambling and furiously delegating work to meet deadlines until they are forced to take time off anyway, they need to explore different work formats and learn to collaborate to keep creativity alive. That's not to say that Japanese creators have to collaborate with Americans or other foreign creators, only that many have realize that there are really only a handful of people capable of creating all around quality comics on their own, and even fewer who can do it on a regular weekly, or even monthly, basis without burning out.
I hope that Ultimo is a sign that maybe things are changing. However, it will impact the industry as a whole if it sells well. If it doesn’t sell then this new "collaboration" thingy will ditched as a failed experiment even before it’s been given a chance to really challenge the current status quo in Japan.
It may seem inconceivable now, and even blasphemous to some, but abolishment of weekly serials (but not necessarily anthologies) and a spirit of both domestic and international collaboration is the future for Japanese comics.
I firmly believe that the current mold must be broken or it will become the coffin that manga is buried in!
I’m rooting for Ultimo to lead a trend that will revitalize all Japanese comics, and force even the one-man shows to at least think about new approaches to their work in the future. Sooner or later change will come to the comic industry in Japan, especially as a new generation comes in that wants to create great comics, not just produce work as it always has been done. Pay attention, because the stupid manga box that people have shoved Japanese comics and their clones into is going to become as obsolete as Japanimation on Laserdisc.
My only question now is, why is the English edition of Ultimo going down the traditional translation and delayed release pipeline? It seems to me like the perfect opportunity to take the simultaneous Japan/US release model that RI-NE is pioneering, and really take it the next level with a true international collaboration.
Oh well, I'm sure it's easier written about on a blog than done. Maybe it'll happen someday.
In any case, while I have yet to read it and don't know if I'll even like it or not, I still hope Ultimo does well both here in Japan and overseas - for everyone's sake!
(must... fight.... urge to type "Excelsior!"... Arrgh!!!)
9 comments
This makes no sense, chiefly because I can't tell what your subject is. Who did this? The JAPANESE manga industry? No, never; the "superheroes" genre has never been much more than a niche in Japan. The manga industry of USA and Europe? Maybe, but you need to make a much argument better for it (not to mention in Europe, American superhero comins were never big, not even before the introduction of manga).
Well what did anyone expect? Keeping Japan's comics limited to specific formulas and superficial looks, and insisting they are unique and have so much more to offer than anyone else’s comics, isn't going to help them survive it's going to kill them.
You can't have read much manga to say that all manga follow specific formulas and are in a specific style. Contrary to belief, manga is not a genre. Also, if you think "Ultimo" is the first superhero manga, or manga inspired by the US superhero comics, you can't ever have heard of Katsura Masakazu, and if you haven't, that automatically makes me doubt your credentials as a person who should be writing meta on manga.
Along with breaking down the impossible weekly schedules to free up Japanese creators to really create instead of just scrambling and furiously delegating work to meet deadlines until they are forced to take time off anyway
I agree with you (fully!) that the manga industry is struggling, but weekly shonen manga is pretty much where sales are still profitable, so your arguments don't hold water.
only that many have realize that there are really only a handful of people capable of creating all around quality comics on their own, and even fewer who can do it on a regular weekly, or even monthly, basis without burning out.
Manga is, and has always been, a collaborative effort, and especially so in the weekly serialization business. The fact that this isn't what it says on the books is irrelevant.
Again I repeat that you're right the industry is struggling, and I agree with you that the format of RIN-NE (not RI-NE) is at least a part of the solution, but there are so many silly arguments in this piece I can't take it seriously. Which is really a shame since you seem to have the right idea ... deep down. Very deep down.
Well, I may not have made much sense to you, but allow me to at least clear up couple things:
First, I never said weekly boys comics weren't still profitable. Of they are still profitable! That's traditionally the major demographic for comics in every country.
The fact is, though, that sales have been declining for nearly two decades. Two decades! That's longer than most "boys" have been alive! A lot of weekly shonen Jump readers are 30somethings who just kept reading, and the big hits like One Piece are crossover hits that everyone reads. Where is the "shonen" market, or are you including the older men and women who read them in there too?
What I'm saying is that I think that trend will continue and therefore the market is not sustainable.
If that argument holds no water, then tell me where the next generation is? Tell me why I am wrong, I'd honestly like to hear some counter argument here.
As for Ultimo and collaboration, I never said, nor do I think, that it's a superhero comic. But Takei is one of few Japanese creators to include superhero comics as one if his influences, and who else is collaborating with another major creator - much less a foreign one? Beyond that, Ultimo even has inker credits. That's pretty amazing, and maybe will give some of those poor assistant around the country hope that someday they'll get their names in the comics they slave over for their masters.
In Japan, you have a few writer-artist teams, but how many Japanese creators really collaborate with anyone but their editors? They draft their work and set out instructions for their uncredited staff. Some do more work than others, but most don't answer to or really collaborate with anyone but their editors. Editirs play a role on all publishing, but how is that collaboration in the sense I am talking about? Would you care to expand on what you meant by saying that Japanese comics are collaborative?
Finally, I don't think manga is formula - actually, that's not true because serials by their very nature are formula! Howver, that's beside the point. I do think manga is being treated that way because if it weren't a formula genre how can you possibly say that an American comic is a "manga", or a "shonen or seinen manga"? Because it's drawn and layed out a certain way? Do screentones and speedlines make a comic a manga? Of course not. So what makes anyone think that there is any such thing as non-Japanese manga unless you take manga to mean something other than simply the Japanese word for comics?
Btw, I was a little unclear - sorry about that I should have specified more - but when I say manga industry I am talking about both here and North America. I didn't specify when I was talking about which, but obviously when I talk about manga and "regular comics" I'm talking about north America because everyone knows Japan doesn't give a shit about any comics other than their own - but they are very happy to agressively pimp their own around the world and claim that they are now the dominant force - and THAT is the problem I am pointing out.
What are the odds of them reading manhwa and bédé?
Good question!
In North America I'd say there's a good chance if there's good stuff avalible in English.
In that case, I was refering to Japan and here I would say no way, no chance. I might be wrong in counting out Korean comics, but I think most hardcore fans here scoff at them as copies of Japanese comics, just like they scoff at American comic because they think they are inferior and stupid.
Really, though, I think the average comic reader here has little access and little interest in anothing not Japanese.
What do you think?
and when i first read i was astonished it's freaking awsome! It's just great every chapter...i love it xD
I really think that this is the future i don't think it's an inminent future but yea this is great this means maybe in 20 years if i have an idea and i do things right maybe i could geat published in square xD
i agree with what you said about the next generation it is here and people can't deny that just look the comic contest of morning thosands of people are trying to make their way into the industry
ps i recomeend you read "Heroman" another stan lee cooperation (he just went to japan to make mecha manga xD) i've heard really good things about it
till next post
Really, though, I think the average comic reader here has little access and little interest in anothing not Japanese.
"What do you think?"
I guessed the odds were low but didn't know how low. I also remembered the "Korean Wave" of South Korean pop culture gaining popularity in other parts of East Asia including Japan (see http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/30/AR2006083002985.html ).
Then there's gotta be a range of fans, from hardcore to average to well-rounded dabblers - like the way there's a range in America, from hardcore superhero mega-crossover fans to average fans to dabblers like me who like a little of the American stuff, a little of the Japanese stuff, a little of the Canadian stuff, a little of the Korean stuff, a little of this and that in each of the non-comics formats too, etc. ;)
I'm not sure why you stress collaboration as the answer, though. Stan Lee has repeatedly said in interviews that he has basically no input in Ultimo and has had no input since the first one-shot chapter was written... despite the inker credit, from what I can tell it's produced by almost exactly the same type of creator-editor team as most manga.
Frankly, I think collaboration is generally a *bad* way to produce comics. The best and most interesting comics are produced by a single creator, despite the existence of a few exceptional writers out there like Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, Warren Ellis, Neil Gaiman, etc. In general, I think comic artists/writers/creators should strive to become good enough to produce work entirely by themselves -- creators like Charles Schulz, Dave Sim (despite the right-wing religious fundamentalism thing), Derek Kirk Kim, Dylon Meconis, Chester Brown, Carla Speed McNeil, etc. The ideal is creator ownership and that the work should express one person's vision. Weekly manga, with its editorial interference and vast numbers of assistants, is obviously generally closer to a "Garfield" type of creator-owned work than a "Peanuts" type of creator-owned work, but I still admire it more than the American superhero comics penciller-inker-scripter system, with none of the creators even owning the final product.
In that respect, I am highly wary of the idea of Japanese comics taking the American superhero industry for a model because I consider the American superhero comics system to be fairly indefensible in the way it treats its artists and creators. The Japanese manga business may need a new model, but the American superhero comics model is far worse.
Thanks very much for your comments.
Yes, I do mean that they need to look outside the box. I agree with you that the superhero format is not the answer at all.
If fact you have inspired me to write about that, partly because I can see now how it's easy to think that I am saying Japanese comics need some Superhero mojo, when they clearly do not. I think that would suck.
I am all for creator ownership. But for people who want to collaborate, that format can be a timebomb because the copyright owner ends up in the same position as publishers like Marvel and DC when there is a dispute - e.g. Gaiman vs. McFarlane, among others.
(That may be the exception to the rule, though, and I am not a McFarlane fan. I liked his early artwork on Spiderman way back, but McFarlane is a business man who can draw, no more no less.)
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