I like dingy little stores that look like someone converted their home. Record stores, independent game stores, used book shops. It's kind of weird knowing how that turns people off, but considering how many people get nostalgic big chain retail stores I shouldn't be surprised.
The time to ditch floppies has long passed, but if the industry insists on keeping the periodical model, then at the very least it's time to consider bi-monthly double-length comics. You can't keep raising prices without at least some increase in perceived value.
I think it would help a ton if runs were month to month and not on some weird 1-2 month release schedule
The Japanese can do it weekly, why not us Americans
Mangaka live crazy lives
I doubt any comic artists could keep up that level of grind. Frankly I'm continuously amazed than managaka do it and I'm not surprised when they get sick from the unhealthy living.
Mangaka live crazy lives
I doubt any comic artists could keep up that level of grind. Frankly I'm continuously amazed than managaka do it and I'm not surprised when they get sick from the unhealthy living.
Even the mangaka that say they don't have assistants very often have assistants.
Manga production is what it is because it's very big business. There's too much at stake not to produce constant material. Because they make so much, they can charge peanuts for it.
American print is kind of fricked, even magazines cost $15 these days, and those can be filled by articles you pay writers peanuts for. Comics require significant money to produce just so creators can get a living wage, even then it's flexed so that writers have to write multiple books to break even. And while everyone says American comics are an assembly line, the role of separate inkers and colorists are getting minimized; because the money just isn't there there's more and more artists choosing to "ink"(submit lineart) themselves and sometimes color as well.
>I think it would help a ton if runs were month to month and not on some weird 1-2 month release schedule
To release double-length monthly books on time requires a level of planning and preparation that neither of the big two have demonstrated in a long time. They might not even have enough money to stay 3 or 4 issues in front.
>To release double-length monthly books on time requires a level of planning and preparation that neither of the big two have demonstrated in a long time.
Maybe they should start by reducing the number of people they need to make a book. Do you really need two different people to write the "story" and the script. Or a guy who's only job it is to type that script into speech bubbles in Photoshop.
The story/script thing is reasonable as a complaint , but usually the way it works is how it's done in tv; basically the story guy is the one who handles the overall arc and the script is done by the person turning that idea into a full script with dialog.
As for the lettering, there's two reasons 1) lettering is a a skill in and of itself. Good artists aren't necessarily good letterers.
2) You can pay a letterer less than you can a penciller, inker, or colorist. If it's a job that needs to be done, they'd rather it be given to someone who they can pay less while they pay the penciller more money to pencil.
>I think it would help a ton if runs were month to month and not on some weird 1-2 month release schedule
To release double-length monthly books on time requires a level of planning and preparation that neither of the big two have demonstrated in a long time. They might not even have enough money to stay 3 or 4 issues in front.
I know Cinemaphile seems to hate big two art but the level of detailing is a huge reason why production is slowed down so much. Peppe Larraz had an interview with Mark Millar a month ago where he talks about that, back in the 60's-80's an issue could be produced far more quicker, then after the late 90's when photorealism and more detail became demanded after the Ultimates and The authority, it raised the demand for more detail.
Every mangaka alive curses the name of tezuka under their breath for bringing about an unrealistic standard of work by anyone who isnt a highly prolific genius willing to work for peanuts. Every anime artist similiarly curses his name for the same reasons.
It's kind of amusing to me that so much manga, at least notable ones, seems to be made by people who run counter culture to Japan's work obsessed society, yet end up getting trapped in it if their work gets big enough.
Yep, small time creators arent beholden to standards because they arent getting paid, large time creators can do whatever because the bigwigs only really care about the brand itself, so just avoid ever being merely okay and you too can easily escape the noose.
Aw I'd better pirate it then while continuing to complain ceaselessly about both the rising prices and the creatively derelict state of the medium
The comic and movie industries being rebooted is satisfactorily ironic
Finally we'll get aggressively streamlined mediocrity, but NOW by choice
Makes sense
Bad quality + high price = no buy
I wanted to buy want of the new Sonic comics and immediately dipped as soon as I saw the price.
Frick, I could buy Mania from a key vendor for less
Had a store that looked just like this that closed down during the pandemic
The age of the dingy, musky LCS is slowly going away
I like dingy little stores that look like someone converted their home. Record stores, independent game stores, used book shops. It's kind of weird knowing how that turns people off, but considering how many people get nostalgic big chain retail stores I shouldn't be surprised.
>comic books? sorry sir this is now a manga store
It's not quite that bad. Floppy + tip comes out to 6 and change at my LCS.
The time to ditch floppies has long passed, but if the industry insists on keeping the periodical model, then at the very least it's time to consider bi-monthly double-length comics. You can't keep raising prices without at least some increase in perceived value.
I like the anthology format. I feel like I get decent value from Action Comics, even though the story in the back doesn’t tend to be very good.
I think it would help a ton if runs were month to month and not on some weird 1-2 month release schedule
The Japanese can do it weekly, why not us Americans
Mangaka live crazy lives
I doubt any comic artists could keep up that level of grind. Frankly I'm continuously amazed than managaka do it and I'm not surprised when they get sick from the unhealthy living.
If the industry was that good of course they could lol, I doubt many current artists would be willing to compromise their work like that though
Tezuka died from overworking
So did Ian McGinty, and he was far younger than Tezuka.
Even the mangaka that say they don't have assistants very often have assistants.
Manga production is what it is because it's very big business. There's too much at stake not to produce constant material. Because they make so much, they can charge peanuts for it.
American print is kind of fricked, even magazines cost $15 these days, and those can be filled by articles you pay writers peanuts for. Comics require significant money to produce just so creators can get a living wage, even then it's flexed so that writers have to write multiple books to break even. And while everyone says American comics are an assembly line, the role of separate inkers and colorists are getting minimized; because the money just isn't there there's more and more artists choosing to "ink"(submit lineart) themselves and sometimes color as well.
>I think it would help a ton if runs were month to month and not on some weird 1-2 month release schedule
To release double-length monthly books on time requires a level of planning and preparation that neither of the big two have demonstrated in a long time. They might not even have enough money to stay 3 or 4 issues in front.
>To release double-length monthly books on time requires a level of planning and preparation that neither of the big two have demonstrated in a long time.
Maybe they should start by reducing the number of people they need to make a book. Do you really need two different people to write the "story" and the script. Or a guy who's only job it is to type that script into speech bubbles in Photoshop.
The story/script thing is reasonable as a complaint , but usually the way it works is how it's done in tv; basically the story guy is the one who handles the overall arc and the script is done by the person turning that idea into a full script with dialog.
As for the lettering, there's two reasons 1) lettering is a a skill in and of itself. Good artists aren't necessarily good letterers.
2) You can pay a letterer less than you can a penciller, inker, or colorist. If it's a job that needs to be done, they'd rather it be given to someone who they can pay less while they pay the penciller more money to pencil.
I know Cinemaphile seems to hate big two art but the level of detailing is a huge reason why production is slowed down so much. Peppe Larraz had an interview with Mark Millar a month ago where he talks about that, back in the 60's-80's an issue could be produced far more quicker, then after the late 90's when photorealism and more detail became demanded after the Ultimates and The authority, it raised the demand for more detail.
Every mangaka alive curses the name of tezuka under their breath for bringing about an unrealistic standard of work by anyone who isnt a highly prolific genius willing to work for peanuts. Every anime artist similiarly curses his name for the same reasons.
It's kind of amusing to me that so much manga, at least notable ones, seems to be made by people who run counter culture to Japan's work obsessed society, yet end up getting trapped in it if their work gets big enough.
If their work gets big enough they can basically release whenever, unless they are moronic enough to work for a weekly magazine.
Yep, small time creators arent beholden to standards because they arent getting paid, large time creators can do whatever because the bigwigs only really care about the brand itself, so just avoid ever being merely okay and you too can easily escape the noose.
Comics are dirt cheap used though so whatever, just buy used trades and back issues.
With that much money I could buy a 150 pages book that will last me more than 20 minutes at max to read.
Do you want bag and board?
this, it's worth the extra dollar for piece of mind