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.”

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.

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.

But there actually seem arguments in favor of the idea now that I think about it. After all, people never thought e-books would ever catch on, but they’re now rather widespread with many people carrying digital books with them everywhere on the Amazon’s Kindle, iPhones, other smart phones, and even their iPods. Manga for cellphones has been available in Japan for years, though of course, their cellphone technology and usage is quite a step up from the US. Besides, plenty of manga fans read their weekly dose of new, scanlated chapters on the computer, and quite a few of them will read through the entirety of some series online, including titles that have already been released domestically. “Strain on the eyes” is no match for the free and convenient. Manga sales have been declining, if all the TOKYOPOP restructuring hubbub was any indication.

I’m not sure if scanlations have as much an impact on manga sales as fansubs do on DVD sales though. Various experiments conducted by both fiction and nonfiction authors suggest that the availability of an e-book actually boosts real book sales. None of them were manga so I guess their target audiences are very different, but they’re interesting studies all the same. Still, even if scanlations aren’t robbing distributors of real book sales, there are plenty of incentives for putting manga online legally. For one, it’s a new avenue of business that has tried potential, so why leave it unexplored? Any new customers they might gain from the venture would help, especially considering it wouldn’t take much investment. Marvel has already experimented with the digital comic subscription, and as far as I know, it’s doing pretty well.

The pricing model Digital Manga is using is kind of interesting. It’s cheaper than buying the physical thing by more than 50%. The experiment I mentioned above had the people release their e-books free, which spurred their real book sales. TOKYOPOP already hosts chapters online for some of their manga, and some other companies like Broccoli are starting to do it as well. But if they’re going to charge for digital manga, it seems unlikely that that will translate into any increase in book sales since customers would have to pay for it twice. But for the digital copy to be worth the money, it will likely need to step up on quality. Testimonials here describe various bugs and things needed for improvement — I wonder if they’ll follow up on those? If I won’t have the manga in my hands and I’m paying for it, then I want sharp digital images, an easy way to adjust size, the option to view pages one at a time or two at a time, etc. Mimic the oldschool reading experience as much as possible.

I wonder if anyone will try to release digital manga by chapter shortly after release in Japan though. For long-running shounen series like Bleach and Naruto, it seems like it would be much easier than any attempt to release anime concurrently (though Crunchyroll and partners seem to be doing reasonably well). Viz already has the license. It doesn’t take nearly as long to translate a chapter. It would be gold. Just figure out how to price a chapter. A dollar? Fifty cents? Seems like a good model to me. Four chapters a month. Two to four dollars a month per customer. Multiply by the number of rampant Narutards. Gold! I think the main reason scanlations have little effect on manga sales is because those that read scanlations are often those that keep up with current manga in Japan, which is often volumes ahead of the current domestic releases, especially for series like Naruto. If you could get even a percentage of those people to buy something, wouldn’t that be great? Think of the revenue!

The only issue would be that a chapter of manga is much easier to find online than an episode of anime, or at least, they’re easier to access. No having to deal with torrents. You don’t even have to download anything! Just pop over to Mangashare or Onemanga and you’re set. Then again, if Viz did create a legal way for readers to have timely access to Japan’s newest manga, I feel that many scanlators would hang up their work hats in good faith.

(PS – meanwhile, anime movies on the Japanese DS. Think we’ll see any of that Stateside?)
(PPS – Whoa. Now this is groundbreaking!)

That isn’t to say that there aren’t factors contributing to these issues from within the anime and manga industries, but with gas averaging more than $4/gal, there are people desperate enough to border hop to Mexico, despite prevailant gang violence, so they can save a few hundred dollars — it shouldn’t be surprising that sales of these entertainment items are falling. Parents are paying double what they used to every month for gas; most likely, their kids’ allowances are shrinking as a result. College students are also struggling with higher gas prices, and that part-time job is getting harder and harder to find. Even though our general age group might like to think we’re still a little isolated from the “real world,” this just isn’t the case anymore.

Back to TOKYOPOP though. As much as I respect them, I suppose I can still be counted amongst the number who are just shaking their heads and saying, “I knew this would happen.” In the last two years or so, every time I walked into a bookstore, the manga section seems to have grown again, and a vast majority of the titles will belong to TP. Viz stayed a powerhouse by licensing the big titles (Naruto, Bleach, Death Note), but TP has always been the forerunner in variety. They licensed fucking everything. Kind of. Despite the undesputably broader range, shoujo still seemed to be their main ticket. Walking by the shelves and skimming the hundreds of titles, I always wondered how much of a fanbase each one had. I knew the anime/manga fandom had been growing almost exponentially for years now, but it still seemed unlikely that these dozens of obscure titles were taking in amazing profits.

Now it seems painfully obvious that TP had outstretched themselves. It should have never come to that; it was just poor decision making.

Their objective with the cutting back on titles and massive layoffs is obvious, but I’m less certain about the rest of their restructuring plans. What exactly are they trying to achieve? New Media? Please, no. Why on earth would you want to venture into a new industry your core industry is in so much trouble? If stretching yourself too thin was the problem in the past, WHY ARE YOU DOING IT AGAIN? I’m shaking my head at you, TOKYOPOP, and if that venture falls through in a few years, I’ll still be with the group saying “I told you so.”

I really feel like TOKYOPOP and all the other floundering businesses in our industry need to re-examine their priorities. Just concentrate on what they know they’re good at for now. There is a time to try out new things and take risks, but with things the way they are now, I think it would be better to hold those off until after the storm — or at least until we know more about what to expect from our economy. Gas isn’t expected to go much higher, but it isn’t expected to go back down any time soon either. Eventually, consumer habits will probably return to more healthy levels, but for now, let’s just ride out the storm without doing anything incredibly… stupid.