Beating Them at their Own Game - Belated Post-mortem
Manga's success has received even more attention now, even if the lessons being taken seem questionable.
When I first wrote the Areo piece linked below back in 2021, the idea of Japanese manga overtaking Western, or more specifically American comics, was already something discussed not only among industry circles but also across social media. The mainstream consensus at the time, however, was at best ambivalent, with the tendency instead, as demonstrated by Comichron, being to lump in manga sales with those of comics and graphic novels in North America. Unsurprisingly, not only has the article held up rather well, but the developments discussed have received even more attention since then, even if the lessons being taken seem questionable.
Beating Them at their Own Game: Why Manga is Overtaking American Comics
Disclaimer: This article was originally posted on Areo Magazine on September 3, 2021. This has been republished in light of the publication shutting down business operations on November 6, 2023. These days, it’s taken for granted that the comics industry has become a media juggernaut in the western world—as evidenced by the myriad movies based on comic-b…
As acknowledged by CBR on May 13, 2023, manga’s upstaging of mainstream comics even in their home turf has become common knowledge. From wider accessibility in bookstores and broader variety in subject matter to comparatively lower barriers to entry, it doesn’t take much effort to see why Japanese titles are making waves overseas. A later piece posted on December 9, meanwhile, even highlighted how Western publishers, from the “Big Two” like Marvel and DC to smaller ones like Valiant Comics (through its owner Allen Books) are either looking into localizing more manga or taking more inspiration from the format, echoing what the French have done.
Meanwhile, manga continues to see record growth. According to both the All Japan Magazine and Book Publishers’ and Editors’ Association, and the Research Institute for Publications in an April 2023 press release, manga sales in the country alone reach ¥ 677 billion (approx. USD 4.65 billion), spearheaded by digital formats.
Yet even as the American scene jumps on the bandwagon, the status quo doesn’t seem to have changed meaningfully since the Areo article’s release. If anything, the industry’s mainstream seems to have doubled-down in certain respects.
As Superman writer Joshua Williamson remarked in an interview with Popverse on December 26, 2023:
“Sometimes people get really angry and they spend money, which is the saddest thing. But it's been the hard lesson that I've learned from DC. It's that when people are happy, they spend less. It sucks, but it is a pattern that I've seen in my time at DC.”
Ideally, he went on to elaborate, this could be done constructively by building rapport with readers before putting them (and the characters of their work) on their toes, but always giving “a chance to get back up, every now and then.” Yet in practice, DC Comics (and by extension the industry’s mainstream) has taken that to mean capitalizing on outrage, be it via hyper-politicization (like heavy-handed commentary on supposed white supremacy in modern America in the current Wonder Woman run) or questionable character-assassination (as what happened to The Punisher prior to a 2023 reboot).
Meanwhile, a video by Youtuber and 30 year-long comic book store owner Glenn O’Leary on December 1, 2023 turned into a scathing criticism over the Big Two’s mismanagement of their own popular IPs and how they’ve contributed to retailers struggling to make ends meet, mentioning among others how poorly written and handled Marvel villain The Hood has been. His ire was soon extended to the industry at large:
“People grew up, are growing up, loving Peter Parker, loving Miles Morales, loving Captain America. We don’t need you to put your input in it, just write Steve Rogers. Don’t write ‘What would Steve Rogers be if I was Steve Rogers?’ That’s not how it works…Just write a book, get paid for what you do, get paid for what you’re supposed to be doing, and make it a good story. We don’t need your opinions.”
After his video caught attention on social media, as noted by Bounding into Comics’ Scott Baculi a few days later, O’Leary not only met dismissive comments from some members of the very industry bring criticized, but was also outright mocked for “refusing to change with the times”. Bleeding Cool editor-in-chief Rich Johnson’s seemingly sympathetic op-ed not long after, meanwhile, downplayed those criticisms almost patronizingly as stemming from a vocal minority misunderstanding the industry.
When noted comic creator Mike Millar empathized with and invited the Youtuber for an interview on December 7 (in which the detractors hounding O’Leary were dubbed “Cancel Pigs”), he was in turn met with even more backlash, accused by the same crowd of either aligning with reactionary bigots, or (as insinuated by Johnson in the same Bleeding Cool op-ed) opportunistic grifting. It’s hard to ignore the feeling that the American industry consensus doesn’t like hearing such scrutiny, especially from those seen as not part of it.
Paralleling these is a persistent antagonizing of manga itself within certain corners of American media. As I touched on in a recent piece critiquing VICE News’ slanderous coverage of the subject matter, specifically Hanako Montgomery’s 2022 documentary “The Dark Side of Manga”, there’s a narrative of Japanese nerd culture as fundamentally problematic. Whether it’s due to being deemed sexist, degenerate, or violating some human right, this pathologizing sadly goes past coloring perceptions of such works, if not Japan at large, in the eyes of those unfamiliar with them.
Combined with how the greater push for localizing manga and anime has coincided with growing controversy over how that’s being done (from making an explicitly male character in Ryousuke Nanasaki’s LGBT story Until I Met My Husband transgender to inserting ideological quips where none previously existed), it appears like some in the American comics and publishing scenes have taken the wrong lessons. Rather than seeing what the competition has done so well in terms of content and sales, they instead seem more content to either attempt delegitimizing the entire medium, or pressure the Japanese into conforming to their norms, assuming “victory” by default.
At the same time, just as in 2021, isn’t true for the entire industry. Even as the mainstream consensus and its most ardent defenders double-down, there are still many creators and indie companies out there trying to learn the best takeaways from their Japanese counterparts, or otherwise turns things around. This still need not end in either tragedy or farce.
Such a discussion, however, would inevitably involve exploring Comicsgate and its legacy. That, though, is a story for another time.