Manga is outselling comics( DC + Marvel ) in America

http://goboiano.com/viz-manga-sales-are-destroying-dc-marvel-in-comic-market/

Good. I hope comicvine gets renamed as mangavine.

Well it's not surprising when One Dragon ball super manga volume outsold supermans Comicbook sales for the whole year added up together

Never read manga, do they come in single issues like comics or just the collections like you see in bookstores?

This isn't really new.

Its even sadder that a good amount of the manga reading audience just reads it for free online.

It's even weird that I don't think its a Quality thing, Comics are just seen as mega nerd culture while Manga is kind of accepted more so by younger people. I honestly think Comics are as good as they are ever going to be sell wise and the only form they'll make real money are Video games and Movies.

Not that hard to believe honestly. Anime and Manga are essentially an easier to read and more accessible comic book. Most people turn away from comics because they don't know where to start. With Manga you can watch the anime which is a direct adaptation of the manga or you can just start at the first issue.

@jakefuryv2: they come in volumes which I guess would be the equivalent of a trade

Comics>Manhwa>Manga

Not surprising really. The American Comic book market is literally dominated by 2 companies whose properties are far older than the younger audiences and, hell, most of the older audience as well. Not to mention that a good amount of these properties have era-spanning, complex, convoluted, and even sometimes contradictory histories that are intimidating to even think about jumping on. I know people who think One Piece is too long, imagine them trying to jump on board Action Comics which is rapidly approaching 1000 issues. And while there are a ton of great comics from publishers like Dark Horse, Archie, Image, etc they aren't even close to as gigantic of a presence as the well established Iconic characters that make up the Marvel and DC roster.

Manga offers a fresh bunch of stories that usually isn't tied to a bunch of mandatory reading and is far easier to absorb than American comics. And because these stories are often self-contained there's often more room for surprises and better storytelling i.e. A character you like in the series could die suddenly or some big event radically changes the course of the whole story's world. Now, these storytelling risks can and most likely have already been done in the comics. I mean a lot has happened to DC's Earth, a lot. It even just got pushed toward the edge of the Universe recently and yet here it is still in one piece, it undercuts a lot of stakes for me at least. Oh no here comes Darkseid to destroy the world... again. Wonder how that'll turn out.

So I can see the mainstream appeal of Manga over comics. More power to them.

Different aspects play into this. One being that Manga are easier to get into. With there only being one writer, you know exactly where to start. Compared to comics, who have multiple writers, with multiple runs, some dating back decades. A lot of people simply don't know where to begin.

A lot of manga also have the benefit of having an anime adaption. Most manga fans got into said manga after watching the anime first, and going back to read the source material.

Then you have consistency. Mangaka may stumble with this as well, I'm looking at you Toriyama, but having only one writer does make things more consistent, especially when it comes to things such as power levels and characterization. No one knows the ins and outs of a character more than the one who created it. Meanwhile with comics, when you have multiple writers, you have multiple people who have a different interpretation of the same character.

not surprised...

Maybe Marvel should make jokes on every panels on their comics.

But jokes can't make your material les shitty thar it already is.

This baffles my mind, I find most mangas to be incredibly cheesy, shallow, and just less interesting than comics in general. Also far worse art

So the sight can die that much sooner like CV's sister site AnimeVice?

Of course they do. It's cheaper, the stories have a beginning middle and end so they always have that something new attention.

It's also protected much from both the American corporate mindset AND SJW bullshit among other reasons.

Or maybe it'll actually have content like Anime News Network or MyAnimeList.

Not surprised. Manga is cheaper, probably because most of it is in black and white. You can get 600 pages of Naruto for less than 300 pages of Batman. Pound for pound, that's a good deal.

I was a frequent visitor of Anime Vice until it went down. Much like Comic Vine today, it lost its paid staff and drifted for a year or so until the inevitable end.

Nope it will just die like AnimeVice. No reason CV would survive when AnimeVice didn't especially when AnimeVice still had staff at the time unlike ComicVine now.

Kinda like what's happening to CV now just faster. >_>

As for you original comment thats something I've thought about creating a thread over. How would people feel if comics went Black and White to lower prices.

@phillip33: do you only read shounen ?

@midnightdragon18: yup

@dernman: i wouldn't mind, it would be faster and the stories unfold quicker.

Not surprising.

Manga and anime has been huge for a long time. Anyone who visits stores with books can tell you that the Manga section is significantly larger than the Graphic Novel/Comic Section

@phillip33: lol well there you go

@dernman: I used to read quite a few indie comics back in the day that were black and white, so I am up for it. Original TMNT, Cerebus the Aardvark, Bone, Ninja High School, Sin City, Black Kiss, Usagi Yojimbo, Fusion, Faust, Sam & Max Freelance Police, Xenozoic Tales, etc... These days, I Kill Giants is a good read, so the medium hasn't been entirely abandoned by Western creators.

I thought this was old news.

I think the contained story is part of it, but mostly I think it's bang for the buck. A manga is ten bucks or less and has a lot of content. A comic is 4 bucks and takes ten minutes to read.

@midnightdragon18: well I’ll tell you what I’m definitely not reading any of that manga volleyball crap that ish looks rediculous

This is old news for the most part. Currently, The Big Two's overall quality has declined and as a result less sales and comics from Indie companies have much better quality (although not as much sales).

Hasn't it been doing that for at least a decade?

I've honestly found worse art in comics than i have in manga. I can name like.....2 american comic artists i like Sarah Stone and Alex Milne. But i have Several artists who make manga that look a lot better. In terms of fights overall i find Manga has more engaging fights that don't last a total of 4 pages, but that's also due to the nature of how different stories in comics work and how manga work. I suggest you try a more adult manga, Berserk is probably the best one i can recommend here.

Sure. But comic characters are still much more iconic though.

1. Easier to access. Less rare. How many comic shops are there vs Barnes in noble or some bookstore?

2. Cheaper compared to comics in what you get.

3. More competition in the manga genre.

This has been going on for a bit especially as manga and anime just grow.

They are also cheaper
They cater to a seemingly wider range of tastes without having to really look for them
There are more writers, independents are abound
They output on a frankly insane level
They have Seemingly less rules to follow (To the outsider anyhow)
Anime gives the medium a boost rather than (At least near as I can tell) detract from it
Manga is generally insane just easier for people to get into on pretty much all fronts.
Plus I think Comics is being increasingly seen as more of an "old people" type of thing despite them essentially being the same thing.

Thought there were already one of these? It's because of those damn weebs that's why.

jk

I wonder if this is only in the USA or in Europe as well?

I've never read manga and I'm not planning to tbh.

@brucerogers: yeah but they make comics to sell and make money, not to be iconic.

@midnightdragon18: But the more iconic the character, the more marketing potential they have. I am not talking strictly about comics either.

i mean why doesn't superman sell millions of copies then ? you need more than just iconic status and marketing. DC and Marvel are rehashing the same comics from the 80's. Mangas are always evolving.

you have brand new mangas like Attack on titan and My hero acadamia that have surpassed characters like superman in popularity and sales. Sure Superman will be around longer, but once a manga ends, there will be a new one popular one to outsell the western comics.

@midnightdragon18: Like I said, I wasnt only taking about comics. Superman has tons of marketing potential given he is one of the most iconic heroes ever. Be it movies, action figures, video games etc. Though Batman is a better example. Or Spider-man. Comics is just one source of income for these two companies.

Now AOT and MHA can outsell Superman comics all they want but their characters are nowhere as well known and recognised as him. Case in point, if you were told to make a movie (animated or otherwise) and were allowed to choose between Superman/Batman/Spider-man and these aforementioned characters, the former would put far more asses on the seats.

Especially given the current superhero hype.

but whats the point if he can't sell any comics ? i already said comics book characters are more iconic, but whats the point if they can't sell comics ?

@midnightdragon18: Because comics arent their only source of income?. There are tons of other ways as to how they can make money off their characters.

Personally, I wouldn't be for it...

@angryhulks: not really, DC and Marvel pretty much have a monopoly on American Comics . If you're beating marvel and dc then you're pretty much beating the comic industry

@vptwarrior: oh please. Jim Chung, Frank cho, Ron lim, mike deodato, Esad Ribic???? I have yet to see a manga interior or exterior match anything these Gods have done

Regarding this point, bookstores generally stock graphic novels as well, usually close to the manga and sci-fi and fantasy books. So trade comics are just as readily available in bookshops as manga volumes.

@petey_is_spidey: @angryhulks: edited op for you guys