Read it before you buy it? Or buy it before you read it?

For anime, how many of your DVDs contain series you haven’t seen at all until you bought them? The number of series being broadcast on television has been dwindling for a while, but more and more companies are streaming their goods online, in whole or part, so there are still plenty of legitimate ways of seeing a series at least partially before buying it (and in addition to DVDs, there are now also budding download-to-own schemes for various platforms). Does anyone walk into the store without an idea of what they want to get? Does anyone just decide to buy a title coincidentally sitting next to the one they intended to get, thinking that it kinda looks interesting?

For manga, there are less legitimate routes to sampling. There are companies that have begun putting their comics online, but they’re almost never in complete collections: some will have a few pages; some will have a few chapters. The few manga magazines we have left and scanlations fill in the gap… along with grazing in the manga section of the bookstore, i.e., sitting around in the aisle and reading the book at the store. How many people buy comics without at least flipping through them first? Who goes off of cover design and backflap synopsises only? Because a vast majority of series are contained over several DVDs or graphic novels, I find it hard to take the risk of buying a single volume of something I may end up disliking. It’s an investment every time I buy something; I don’t buy something without the intention of buying all of it. A four DVD anime series (approx 12-13 episodes) can run up to $100 if they’re particularly expensive. A twelve volume manga series will be least $130. That’s a significant lump of money. Thus, sampling beforehand is pretty much required for me.

Movies and other television shows work similarly. How many people buy DVDs of movies without first having seen it in theatres? Who buys TV dramas without having seen the television broadcast or online streams? Or from a rental? From watching a friend’s copy? There might be exceptions in the five dollar discount bin, but hey, I can buy a sushi lunch for those five bucks instead of picking up a potentially crappy movie that no one else wants either. Music is also similar. Stores have listening stations. Online stores have clips. There’s the radio, Pandora, and related services. Except the cases where they’re already very familiar with the artist, few people will buy an album without sampling it first.

Books might be the trickiest bit. Libraries make them some of the easiest to sample entertainment items ever, and some publishers will have excepts ranging from a page or two or an entire chapter. And yet, most people that read books from libraries probably won’t bother buying a copy of their own, perhaps because the rereadability of books may be less than the rereadability or rewatchability of other media, at least over a short period of time. All the same, book buyers may be among those that are most likely to spontaneously purchase something based only on a synopsis or a book review or a recommendation. Those things certainly influence anime, manga, movie, comic, music, and other buyers, but certainly not to the same degree. Perhaps because paperbacks are among the cheapest of media, book buyers are just be less picky and more willing to take a risk? There’s also much less commitment. Even books in large series are often self-contained enough to buy on their own.

Assuming those assertions are true, it’s interesting that the media that’s easiest to get free is also the media that’s most likely to be purchased without sampling. For the former, is it just a rereadability issue? For the latter, is it just the price point? Is it because library users and book buyers are just different kinds of readers? And are those readers just different from the consumers of other media? Would a book buyer that often buys books based on reviews buy a movie based solely on reviews?

And then there is the question, how many of those that sample anything actually end up buying? Do they not buy because they’ve already sampled or did they just never intend to buy at all? For many media, samplers are usually pirates, but I don’t actually think that matters much. Sampling is sampling, whether or not the means are legitimate. In the end, they can all be split into the following groups:

1) Those that sample something because it’s available. They have no intentions of buying anything ever. Most steretypical pirates probably belong to this group. They download everything because they can. They don’t ever intend to buy anything. If they can’t download it, they just won’t watch it. No big deal for them. They don’t care. These are the people that go into grocery stores and eat all the free samples without ever intending to buy the product. Companies don’t really lose sales over these people; these people were never their customers.

2) Those that sample something because it’s available. They don’t necessarily have intentions of buying it, but might if they really like it. Most respectable fans probably belong to this group. They might watch broacasts or download fansubs and scanlations or ebooks or whatever. They aren’t necessarily looking to buy something, but it’s never out of the question. They are not adverse to supporting those that entertain them. It’s within this group that much of the illegal sampling debates center around. The big question is: how many people are on the fence about buying but end up not doing so because downloading is just easier and cheaper? They might feel guilty, but they still do it. Morality VS Money is a difficult thing. But if they don’t sample anything at all, how will they ever be exposed to something they might want?

3) Those that sample something to decide whether they want to buy it. They buy it if they like it. They don’t if they dislike it. I don’t actually know many people in this last group, but I’m sure there are a good chunk of them. After all, they must be the bulk of people keeping various entertainment industries afloat. These are the people that want to buy things, but aren’t sure what to get.

Maybe the trick is just to put out more products that people actually like love so that more people in group #2 will be compelled to buy. It doesn’t really matter whether or not people are getting a hold of something beforehand if the product kind of sucks. Or maybe people should somehow, impossibly, be forced to not download things and then we’ll see how many actually stumble onto products on their own? Who knows?

From @debaoki (Editor of manga.about.com and one of the best AX twitter reporters I’ve found!):

okay at manga in US industry panel #ax09

lots of good commentary at manga in the US panel. lillian diaz-pryzbyl, luis reyes from tokyopop, plus robert napton fr. bandai

i can’t keep up with all the incredibly quotable quotes from the us manga panel at #ax09. very frank talk about failures, limitations.

there’s talk about how expensive it is to develop OEL manga – 4x as much as licensing manga from Japan.

Damn, that’s a huge investment difference — no wonder so few companies are willing to put forth the effort! Especially since they at least have an idea of how popular a licensed manga from Japan will do. With OEL, all the risk is on them — they have no idea how much it will sell, which leads into some cyclical failure as far as marketing goes. Seriously, how many OEL titles have you actually seen advertised? If TOKYOPOP pushed had pushed its OEL titles even half as much as they push Fruit Baskets, more of them might have had a chance. I also really get the idea that the talent search isn’t thorough enough — there are a slew of mediocre titles out there that pollute manga fans’ general opinion of OEL, which also contributes to this apparent downward spiral.

I really want to see more traditional US comics publishers to take on OEL projects. The companies that have previously been just licensing Japanese works may not have an incentive or the financial support to experiment with OEL, but at the very least, companies like Marvel and DC have money to play with. And I don’t mean any of the “manga versions” of their existing titles either — manga X-Men and manga Batman don’t count. I guess they still don’t have much of an incentive, but it’s unfortunate if they’re only looking for original projects in a certain style. If VIZ’s eventual original comics line will be willing to accept good pitches in any style, then why can’t Marvel and DC?

lots of talk about how the US system is not equipped to train artists to be better artists, storytellers.

US industry doesn’t allow artists time to develop their skills over time – demand for quick $$ return

at this panel, they’re showing examples of student work from a manga program at a local university. they’re all v. mediocre. #ax09

the very amateurish examples being shown on the screen don’t help anyone think that OEL manga has much to offer.

Exactly. No wonder no one wants to buy OEL! Consider that a vast majority of TOKYOPOP’s OEL titles were picked up form high school and college kids that entered their Rising Stars competition — most of them have never had any sort of formal training, so it’s really no surprise that they putter out so quickly. Their 20-page one shot might be okay, but give them a three-volume series and they have no idea what to do. I really get the feeling that TOKYOPOP was too eager to break into that market since no one else was tapping it at the time. Manga had only been popular for a few short years when Rising Stars was started, so there was only one generation of fan-turned-artists to draw from (admittedly, there were lots of manga fans from before the big boom, but the recent generation is the biggest crowd to take from). If they had started a few years later, there would have been many, many more art school-trained artists that would have been more capable of tackling the challenge of building up an OEL market in the States. Then again, many art-school trained artists still suck in the storytelling department because all they focus on is drawing, as noted below:

korean comics industry is smaller, but seems to allow for experimental comics to be more successful

“very few US manga artists have that fusion of drawing skills and knowledge of how a story flows”

webcomic artists forget that their pace of drawing 3 pages a week is too slow for professional work.

“it’s very difficult to be an awesome artist & an awesome writer at the same time.”

“We’ve met great artists who are miserable writers. There’s only so much an editor can do to fix an awful story.”

“so many 14 year olds on deviant art say “I’ve got a great idea for a manga”

“I say ‘give it 10 years & come back to me when you know how to write.’ – & that’s me being NICE.”

“ive been to many portfolio reviews where the artist says ‘this is not my best work’– so why show it?”

Lillian was frank that they think that they don’t pay artists enough, but the biz structure makes it hard to pay more

“we don’t care that you can draw naruto in 15 poses. Being able to draw a character in a story, that’s what we want”

Ouch. And yet there are so many artists I know that will openly admit that they can’t write worth a damn. But they still want to draw their own comics. There aren’t enough comic-oriented art programs in the United States — most liberal arts universities have a very general art program with most of the focus on traditional fine art. As such, they will have students work on technique and style, but not storytelling. It might be more useful for aspiring comickers to enroll in a film program instead, or at least take a few directional classes on camera and storytelling. It blows my mind that countries like France and Korea invest so much more into the arts and recognize so many more branches of art; no wonder both of their comic markets are ten times as prosperous as the one in the United States.

Interesting bit about the webcomic artists though — what is the professional pace of pages per week? I feel like this is something I should know, but the rate would be different depending on how many people are working together on the pages (penciler, inker, toner/colorist). This really is a ruthless industry, lots of work for very little reward other than your own satisfaction, but your own satisfaction doesn’t pay the bills.

general consensus is that OEL manga development is a low priority for publishers in hard economic times.

“the bookstore model works as consignment: you can sell 10,000 books to these stores, then they can return 9,000.”

“this really plays havok with a business to be stuck with 9,000 books that’s headed to the compactor.”

Bad news for all the recent and soon-to-be-graduates looking for jobs! (Oh snap, that includes me.) I think this is all the more reason to hope that the Longbox really takes off since it’ll make production and distribution much, much easier and cost-effective for publishers, which could theoretically translate into them being more willing to take chances with original projects.

–

Not really specifics from the AX panel, but here’s some good additional commentary from @CBCebulski (Talent scout for Marvel Comics):

The U.S. comic system is equipped to train artists. The problem with OEL is that a lot of them aren’t artists. They’re manga fans who draw.

Many OEL kids were thrown into, and taken advantage of, by a fledgling business they had no education in or understanding of.

Early OEL chewed up and spit out a lot of artists who did have talent and just needed guidance and support. I hope they stick with it.

I know many “OEL artists” who have stuck it out and have successful careers now, but there are plenty more who walked away disenchanted.

Hopefully they’ll go to art school, learn more about the comic form, & give it another go, w/ a company/editor who can guide them this time.

Reading manga is not a proper art education.

The last bit makes me laugh, though while I agree, I also think that reading a ton of manga/comics definitely helps. There was a girl in one of my classes last year that admitted to not reading a lot of comics at all. Everyone else in the class was all, “Then why the hell are you here?”

It has some very Apple-inspired aethestics.

I’ve written about the idea of digital distribution of comics before, but had only considered a web-based platform because that was what most companies seemed to be experimenting with at the time. And really, I think one of the other reasons I hadn’t considered the iTunes model before is because I couldn’t really see the comics (or manga) industry ever agreeing on a universal solution, especially considering how haphazard and all over the place everyone’s digital model is for anime and television streams and downloads. And yet, how convenient and elegant it would be if they could agree? If you could find all your comics in one place for the super cheap price of $0.99/issue? It’s just about perfect.

With all the comics inflation that’s been happening recently, the price point of the Longbox might be the most attractive feature for both consumers and companies. Marvel has raised its most popular titles from $2.99/issue to $3.99/issue. For me, the three bucks I’d save buying a digital version is well worth sacrificing the novelty of a hard copy, especially when those three bucks add up every Wednesday. I could use that extra money to buy more comics! For graphic novels, if we go by prices set by various current web-models, they might go for anywhere between $2.50 and $4.50 a volume — at least half the price of Viz’s new $9.99 standard and TOKYOPOP’s $10.99. And for companies, since there would be zero printing costs, and since the Longbox supports formats already being used, it isn’t unlikely that they’d see an even bigger profit margin from digital sales.

A lot of people already read comics digitally, whether legally or illegally, so I really don’t think that transition will be much of an issue here. With money tight in everyone’s pocket’s these days, it’s hard to argue tradition with cost, and the publishing industry in general has been declining for a while. When Amazon’s Kindle 2 released in February, my feed reader was bombarded with Slashdot and New York Times articles comparing its surging popularity with that of Apple’s iPod with further comparisons with the music industry in general. And indeed, there do seem to be a lot of similarities, including telltale mistakes. The Longbox does seek to interface with the Kindle, as well as the score of other experimental eReaders like the iPhone, WiiWare, DS, and Xbox Live. The graphic format of comics might make it more challenging to adapt than text, but at this point, I see its acceptance as inevitable, at the very least on computer screens.

The last thing is, of course, content. A few studios are already on board, but no one major yet (ie, no Marvel or DC or Dark Horse, no Viz or TOKYOPOP). I am hoping that this will change soon as news of the Longbox makes its way around. Really, I don’t see any reason for it to fail once the major players sign on — iTunes is a proven success, and I don’t think comics or comics consumers are all that different from music and music consumers. Such a dramatic shift to digital comics will be hard on a lot of people and there will be casualties in the process (comic stores that don’t host D&D games will be the first to go), but as Ron Richards over at iFanboy dramatically puts it, “Digital comics are inevitable.  Change or Die.”

Opinion Prone: Hey, Eric! So how goes the quest for original comics at VIZ Media?

Eric Searleman:  We made the announcement at Comic-Con last summer about our intention to publish original comics. And since that time I’ve talked to hundreds of creators and perused a mountainous pile of submissions. The talent and enthusiasm is heartening.

OP: You were working on VIZ Media’s original comics with Marc Weidenbaum, who left the company in February. How much has this unexpected departure affected your work?

Eric:  His departure definitely had an affect on our plans. How could it not? But I’m happy to say that VIZ Media remains committed to publishing original comics. With Marc gone, the venture now falls within the orbit of VP Alvin Lu. I’m confident that along with Alvin, and Editorial Director Masumi Washington, I can get the job done. And I’m confident that our comics will be terrific.

OP: You mentioned at Editor’s Day that VIZ Media would be willing to consider any good story idea, regardless of the attached art style. That’s pretty awesome. All the same, do you think people with a less manga-influenced style would be less likely to pitch ideas to VIZ because of its brand?

Eric:  I’m hoping to publish a wide range of artistic styles. Comics are comics. Why put limits on it? I’d like to encourage anyone with a smart and fun idea to contact me. I don’t care if you draw like Masashi Kishimoto or Gabriel Ba.

OP: The graphic novel/tankobon format has pretty much been the exclusive format for manga-influenced original comics in the United States. Has VIZ Media considered publishing comics in single issues (that may be collected into trades later), as most American comics are traditionally?

Eric:  The format will suit the material. There’s no reason our original comics have to follow the same 5 x 7, b/w format as our manga graphic novels. And if one of our titles works best in serialized form, I’m sure we’ll figure out a way to serialize it.

OP: Has VIZ Media considered publishing original comics online via something like IKKI, which was announced in the wake of Shojo Beat‘s cancellation?

Eric:  Believe me, we’ve considered everything. There are so many options available to us. I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but I feel strongly that we’ll disseminate our comics in the best way possible that suits the material.

OP:  Over at TOKYOPOP, their submissions guidelines for original comics include a section for marketing. Do you think marketability will play a big role in determining what kinds of titles VIZ will pick up for its original comics?

Eric:  I’m not comfortable comparing VIZ Media with another company. But here’s the bottom line for us: the quality of the comic takes precedent over everything else. Period. If I get a submission that knocks my socks off, I’m going to sit down with Alvin and Masumi and I’m going to champion it. And believe me, I can be a very persuasive guy.

OP: Last summer, VIZ set up an office in Hollywood focused on turning its properties into movies. Do you think it will be viable to turn original comic properties into movies?

Eric:  Yes, most definitely. If we hit the jackpot with one of our original books, I’d be tickled to see it turned into a movie. And I’m sure the creator would be thrilled too. As an editor, however, my priority is on producing good comics. All that Hollywood stuff will come later.

OP: Original comics will, presumably, have smaller established fanbases than properties from Japan—how much of an influence do you think fan support has on the success of a movie adaptation of a comic?

Eric:  A solid fanbase proves that a comic book is connecting with its audience. That’s a fact. But adapting one medium into another is always a tricky business. How many times have we seen a great book turned into a lousy movie?  I wish there was a proven formula for success.

OP: Once you do manage to get VIZ Media’s original comics line off the ground, assuming VIZ Media will end up going with the graphic novel-only format, how many new series do you think you’ll be aiming to launch annually?

Eric:  At this point, that’s an impossible question to answer. But I can tell you this: I can’t wait until the day I see VIZ Media Original Comics on our production schedule.

OP: Even though VIZ Media isn’t accepting pitches for original projects just yet, you told several artists at Editor’s Day that VIZ Media was interested in hiring artists for specific roles, such as penciler, inker, and toner, for in-house projects. What kinds of projects are these?

Eric:  There are numerous ideas floating around the VIZ Media bullpen. Depending on what project gets the green light, we may need to hire a team of artists to get the job done. You never know. My goal in Savannah was to make contacts and see what type of talent level was available. After meeting the students and faculty at SCAD, I came back to San Francisco pumped up to make great comics.

OP: Can you share any examples of what those ideas might be, or is it all hush-hush?

Eric: I wouldn’t exactly say it’s “hush-hush.” I just think it would be inappropriate to reveal projects that are, at this time, still in development.

OP: I think that’s all I have to ask you! Is there anything else about Viz, original comics, life, the universe, or everything, that you’d like to add?

Eric: I’d like to thank everyone for their interest in our plans to publish original comics. Hopefully you’ll enjoy our original stuff as much as you enjoy the manga we bring over.

–

And that’s it! Thanks a ton to Eric for offering to do the interview in the first place and to Evelyn Dubocq, VIZ’s awesome PR director, for making it happen. I hope this interview has been informative to someone other than myself, and I wonder what, if anything, VIZ might be announcing at Comic-Con in a few weeks?

But Viz showed up after all, represented by Eric Searleman, the senior editor that was working with Marc Weidenbaum (the aforementioned VP) on the original publishing line. So it seems that the venture hasn’t quite died yet. It’s worth noting though, that while Viz’s website declares that they aren’t accepting unsolicited submissions, they don’t say that the original comics program is dead or on any kind of hiatus. It’s also worth noting that several days after the announcement that Weidenbaum had left Viz, there was a post on Viz’s official blog directed towards original creators, suggesting that they still had plans to accept submissions eventually, even if things might be significantly delayed with Weidenbaum’s departure.

The panel discussion covered some pretty general topics, mostly aimed towards artists and writers trying to break into the industry. Mr. Searleman was relatively quiet compared to the rest of the lot, but seemed much more optimistic on subjects like the economy and pitching projects to companies. Some worthy tidbits include his mentioning that any project pitched to Viz should expect to go through heavy editorial input and that women seemed to represent a majority of those attracted to manga. The entire panel was supposedly recorded and should be featured on Monday’s scheduled podcast at SEQALAB, if anyone’s interested.

What interested me the most about the entire panel though was, and the belatedly-introduced, actual topic of this post is, a question someone asked at the end of the panel, in conjunction with something else Mr. Searleman said earlier. Is Viz specifically looking for projects in the “manga style”? Like some, I would would prefer “manga” to be a word synonymous with “comics,” but the general population does not treat it as such, so it isn’t so. But both the person who asked the question and Mr. Searleman seemed to agree that it doesn’t really matter what style something is in as long as it can tell a good story, and Viz is out to “publish good stories.” Presumably, this translates to, “No, Viz is not only specifically looking for manga-styled pitches,” but I have to wonder if that’s a good or bad thing, marketing-wise.

I have always disagreed with those who have labeled American artists drawing in a perceived anime/manga style to be wannabes or rip-offs. The only weakness comes when artists take no interest in studying reality and base all of their stylistic choices off of pre-existing ones. But that isn’t an exclusively American (or otherwise non-Japanese) weakness. Young Japanese artists who surround themselves with manga undoubtedly go through the same steps — they mimic what’s around them. American artists who surround themselves with the same manga are really no different. Similarly, artists of whatever origin who surround themselves with Western comics will mimic the styles that they see and read and admire. If you label one set of them wannabes or rip-offs, you’ll have to label all of them wannabes and rip-offs, but without them, there would never be a new generation of artists.

Nevertheless, most non-Japanese fans of manga still end up drawing quite a bit differently from Japanese natives, probably because it’s impossible to ignore all of the other cultural influences around them, no matter how much they delve into the foreign media. So their styles don’t get be to called straight up “manga,” only “manga-styled” or “manga-influenced.” I have mixed feelings about that since I don’t consider “manga-styled” to be a very specific term. Astro Boy and Akira are both “manga-styled,” but you’d never mistake one for the other. I guess the most significant thing though, is that you’d never mistake either for a non-Japanese-related comic. Everyone expects something when they hear “manga” or “manga-styled” or “OEL.”

Or “Viz.”

Viz publishes manga. If Viz is to finally venture into original comics, everyone will expect that they end up publishing “manga-styled” original comics.

Mr. Searleman said so himself, but as previously stated, he also mentioned being interested in any good story. I wonder what would happen if Viz actually published an original comic that was vastly, vastly different from what people would expect from “manga”? What if Viz published something that looked really American indie? Or even American superhero? It’s easy to say that people will want to read anything that has a good story, but it’s hard to deny that for comics — art is a huge factor and always serves as the first impression. I would like to think that most people are drawn to manga for the stories more than the art, but it is always interesting to see just how big the divide sometimes is between manga fans and Western comic fans. If the stories are equally good, why the hate? Each side stereotypes the other. The stories on the other side aren’t better, they say. The former only see the repetitive and continuously retconned superheros and the latter only see the androgynous gay boys and lolicon. Or something.

Viz is a powerful brand within the community; would people be confused or put off to see a Jack Kirby or even Adam Hughes-esque cover on something with Viz’s label on the spine? Would they be shocked and appalled if Viz published a superhero story? A good superhero story, perhaps, but a superhero story all the same? Breaking down the barrier! Bridging and crossing the divide! Say it ain’t so! Then again, Dark Horse publishes a good amount of both already, and almost all Western comic book publishers at this point have tapped into the “manga-style” in some way. Those announcements all seem to be met with derision and scorn, but I don’t know a damn thing about the sales on say, the shounen Wolverine or freaky shoujo X-Men manga. Do these things actually work? Are people actually buying these titles because the art drew them to it? Or are all these companies’ various marketing departments retarded?

If these adaptations are actually selling, would the reverse work? Would seeing an Western-style comic published by a manga publisher attract fans from the other side? Or would such a venture attract the same kind of derision and scorn?

Or is it all a moot point because no one that draws in such a Western style would approach Viz in the first place? Students had to sign up beforehand to meet with their editor of choice on Friday. Reading over the list, every name that I recognized was someone that had a decidedly “manga” style, myself included. Professors seem to like to say that the top reason project pitches are rejected is because the style of the pitch does not match the style of the company it’s being pitched to. They tell us that Marvel would not look to hire someone with an indie style and that DC would not look to hire someone with a manga style. Those mantras may or may not be true (was all the X-Men manga pitched by an outside newbie?), but it might be enough to keep students away from companies that don’t traditionally publish things in their style. The barriers have been breaking down, but it might not really matter when you’re just breaking in.

But come on, for ninety-nine cents? The whole order plus shipping cost less than a normally-priced TP manga. So here is a review.

I actually finished reading Kanpai! a few weeks ago but never got around to writing a review. I had to sit down and force myself to just do it tonight though since I’m bringing the two volumes with me to a departmental garage sale thing tomorrow — if I’m lucky, I might actually profit a little from them, hahaha. Maybe I’ll also be able to get rid of this copy of Catcher in the Rye.

I’ve updated my MAL review for DOGS to include some commentary about Viz’s release, but I’m going to do an in-depth semi-review here because I feel like it.

PACKAGING & APPEARANCE — Since I don’t buy a lot of manga, this is actually the first Viz release that I’ve picked up since my old, old Gundam Wing manga — all my others have been TOKYOPOP releases — though I still plan to eventually pick up all of Death Note. The volume was actually shrink-wrapped and marked with explicit content, which surprised me until I opened it. The fold-out poster is this illustration on one side and this picture of Naoto on the other side. I forgot about all the nudity that’s in this manga, apparently, probably because none of it ever feels gratitious. The manga itself feels very slick — the DOGS logos and titles on the front and back covers, as well as the spine, are all shiny silver, and the graphic design on all sides is very clean and nice looking. The exception is the text that reads “Stray dogs howling through the dark” on the back; the font used is ill-fitting and kind of ugly, but that’s pretty minor.

The print size is a bit larger than most tankoban, and I noticed the paper quality is a little lesser. The pages aren’t as heavy and sturdy as I’m used to, and the volume itself is very flexible. I don’t mind the larger format at all, but I’m confused as to why the paper quality changed. It can’t be just a Viz thing since I’ve at least flipped through other Viz releases and never noticed a quality difference. I’m hesitant to call it a cost issue since this volume of DOGS is already quite a bit more expensive ($12.99) than other Viz releases ($7.99), so it isn’t like they couldn’t have offset printing costs on the larger size. It’s not that big a deal really, but it was a noticable thing.

EDITNG & TRANSLATION — As someone who doesn’t speak the language, I can really only judge a translation by how natural it feels and much it makes sense. Having read scanlations is a decent basis for meaning, especially since the scanlator always made a point to make notes on the portions she wasn’t sure of, but in the end, it’s really just about whether the story comes across in a way that isn’t confusing or choppy. I was, for the most part, really happy and impressed by Viz’s translation. There were a lot of things that were actually made much clearer through this translation. The slang and dialogue localization was less extreme than what TOKYOPOP usually does (though story setting may have something to do with this), so the inevitable shift in character tones wasn’t too jarring.

I was kind of confused about some of their choices in diction. For example, Badou once referred to cigarettes as “fags.” It’s all well and good meaning-wise, but fag in that usage is British slang, not American slang, and I don’t imagine that too many people even know that. There was also a part where Badou declares “U. B. DESTROYED!” which was kind of awkward since I think “you be” would have fit in the bubble just fine? Badou also says “Oh shi–” at some point, but that’s just awesome.

All of the sound effects in this release are edited and translated, which surprised me since I thought that sort of editing went out when everyone decided perserving the right-to-left reading format was the way to go. Still, compared to Viz’s older works, the translated sound effects are much improved. They’ve gotten more creative with the onomatopoeias (“twip” and “zsh” in addition to your standard “bang” and “whap”), and most of the sound effects actually seem to make sense. The chosen fonts are kind of plain and uninspired at times, but they fit in okay, and I think I’m just biased because I find katakana to be infinitely more interesting to look at even though the “sound” effect part will be lost to me until I sit my ass down and memorize that alphabet.

The font and copy choices for the normal dalogue were pretty standard, though the font size changed a lot to accomodate the bubbles — this always annoys me, but what can ya do. I always enjoy the out-of-bubble dialogue though (all those tiny comments made by chibi and background characters), and the translations for those were especially fun.

Last note here: Heine’s name is offically Heine because that’s a real German name. Some fans have been whining about this, and I understand that the change seems trivially annoying because the scanlations use “Haine,” but seriously, come on. The romaji has always been transliterated to “Haine” because that’s how it’d be pronounced in Japanese. For the transliteration to be “Heine,” the katakana would need to be ヘイネ, which the Japanese would pronounce “Hay-nay” or “Heh-ee-nay” instead.

FINAL THOUGHTS – I’m really happy with Viz’s treatment of DOGS for the most part and really look forward to the release of Bullets&Carnage vol. 1 in August (and vol. 2 in December!) It’s great to finally be able to hold one of Miwa’s works in my hands, though I’ve come to notice a lot more anatomical mistakes in his art because of it, lol. (Check out Heine’s left leg on the cover, serious!)

So I don’t know just how worried I should be, especially considering the fact that I seem to have very, very poor circulation in my hands. I can put on gloves, wear them for twenty minutes, and my hands will still be as icy as they were before. My forearm will be fine, but my hands will be freezing. There are probably plenty of other explanations for why my hands can’t seem to stay warm, but as an idiot pursuing art as a career, CTS is easily one of my biggest fears, right up there under blindness. If my blood vessels can’t seem to reach my fingertips, how long will it be before my nerves can’t either?

That Tomoko Ninomiya of Nodame Cantabile was recently diagnosed with CTS doesn’t help either. Hers was probably triggered by pregnancy more than her profession, but it made me wonder just how many artists out there suffer or have suffered from CTS. My roommate is one of them. Hers was caused by breaking her wrist a few years ago; she had to have super expensive surgery and wore a wrist brace for a good while afterwards. She’s mostly fine now and even survived the intensiveness that was 24 Hour Comic Day last October, but all the same. I don’t want to have super expensive (and probably painful) surgery or wear a wrist brace.

Currently, I probably don’t draw any more than 3-4 hours a day on a good day, but I’m also having a slow quarter. During finals week last quarter, I probably drew some eight hours a day. I can draw for about 30 minutes at a time before my hand needs a break, at which point I usually shake it around and go to check email and such. After a certain point, I’ll need the breaks more frequently, but it doesn’t really take long to shake off the aching/cramping in my hand and massaging my knuckles helps too. The massaging kind of helps with the circulation thing too, but I’ve kind of just gotten in the habit of pressing my hands against my stomach because it’s always warm there. :|

Even on the days when I draw until my hand wants to fall off and it hurts to even stretch my fingers, like aforementioned 24 Hour Comic Day, everything is usually fine a day or two later. So I don’t know. Maybe I worry too much. No one wants surgery, but at least it exists. I guess my roommate can attest to a reasonable enough recovery (so best wishes to Ninomiya), and I don’t know of any artist offhand that got CTS as a direct result of drawing too much. Besides, there’s really no avoiding that repetitive strain in this field. I don’t really have delusions of becoming a comic artist, but even commercial illustrators have that kind of strenuous work. There are no preventive measures to take beyond those periodic breaks (which are harder to fit in when you’ve got a deadline…). You’re going to draw. You’re going to draw a lot. Deal with it. :(

Oh. PS. Happy (Lunar) New Year!

That live action Cowboy Bebop movie got a lot of headlines today because it looks like Keanu Reeves really wants that role as Spike Speigal after all. I’m still skeptical about it, but after all the disastrous news for Dragonball, but was a little cheered knowing that Reeves is a fan and hopes to preserve the original integrity of the anime.

Now, TOKYOPOP just sent me an email exclaiming that it’s got a deal for a live action adaptation of Priest, one of its manhwa properties. Apparently, it’s something that’s been floating around for a while, but now it’s got a shiny new director I’ve never heard of so there’s new life to it. I’m not familiar with Priest, but it’s Western horror and vampires. Not really something I’m particularly interested in, so I can’t decide if it’s better suited for Hollywood than, say Dragonaball. If Twilight’s any indication, I guess vampires have a place. Western horror? I dunno. Crappy remakes of Japanese thrillers seem to be big, so even though this is Korean, maybe that appeal will still be there.

I never liked the idea of TOKYOPOP restructuring and making that New Media division. I still think it’s pretty stupid and pointless of them to try and expand into new areas when their core market is suffering so much. I suppose licensing out a property doesn’t really require much effort on their part, but I’d like to think that they have some hand in production to keep the property from deviating too much and going to hell. So I’m not sure how much I actually want TP to succeed in this endeavor because I just want them to go back to focusing on their manga. They don’t need a New Media division if they keep laying people off. I really can’t see this movie being a huge box office success though, even if it stays pretty low budget and B-list like it feels like it will.

It’s probably too early to be speculating, anyway. I wouldn’t be surprising if this title continues to flounder around the next few years, if it gets finished at all.

I’ll be rereading and reviewing Episode Zero soon, and after that, I’m going to be selling them all to a friend. I was really fighting with the idea of letting them go — like I said, these were pretty much the first manga I ever bought — but I think after rereading all of them, I’ll be all right. Gundam Wing was one of my first major fandoms, so it makes sense that it’s hard to get rid of what I own. It makes me wonder what else I’ll be getting rid of soon, and it makes me wonder what I’ll be getting rid of in the future. I don’t buy too many things in general, but I get attached easily. And I’m a packrat. I’m not used to getting rid of things at all. Damn economy, eh? Damn it all.