Comics/Manga Discussion Thread

[Daikun]

Amazon is releasing Initial D in its entirety.

This is the first time the complete story has been released in English. (The final 15 volumes were previously never released. Thanks, Tokyopop!)

Volumes 34-38 are out now; 39-48 are coming later this year.

[Daikun]

R.I.P. Kazuo Koike

[Daikun]

MasakoX shows off the manga exhibit in the British Museum.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEqoFJVSeoE

[Daikun]

So, Shogakukan is doing this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1a7e6oNtSA

It's one thing to sue pirates (which makes sense), but requesting access to their credit cards and bank accounts? Can they legally do this?

[Avaitor]

RIP Vertigo.

So yeah, it looks like the label is folding as DC is trying to consolidate their imprints together. This could be a good thing, or not-so-good one. Hopefully some of the series and characters that haven't been integrated into the core DC universe will go to good new homes with their creators.

[Dr. Insomniac]

While it's mostly a name change, it's still hard not to mourn Vertigo's death. It's a line that grew into its own subset of comics and writers who could appeal to people who otherwise wouldn't have bought any of DC's output. That outsider approach and appeal to creator rights was a boon back in the day. Granted, Vertigo was never the same after Karen Berger left, and Image has been the popular place for creator-owned comics for quite a while now, but it's sad nonetheless.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So a Marvel X Shonen Jump collaboration was just announced: https://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2019/09/02/yu-gi-oh-kazuki-takahashi-draws-manga-short-about-iron-man-spider-mans-trip-to-japan

Seems like a small side project for some mangaka to take part in, but we could get some fun little one-shots out of it.

[Daikun]

The Far Side is coming back!

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, I've read a fair amount of Marvel and DC books over the past few years, in addition to other comics. I've found a lot of stories that I enjoy, but do you know what I've realized about almost all of the ones that resonate with me? They are almost always well over a decade old (in many cases several). To this day I have barely kept up with any current runs not because of confusing continuity or having trouble finding the material to catch-up, but because single-issues are so absurdly expensive. Even digital releases are only about a dollar or two cheaper than print, and I can't help but feel like it's such a bafflingly dated business model that I'm shocked that it still exists in the format that it does.

I'm not going to pretend like I know the slightest bit about the logistics of how comic book sales work and how much money needs to be charged to recoup costs, but clearly sales are pretty abysmal these days for the Western side of the industry, all across the board.

I mean, even for stuff that I have enjoyed like Ewings' Immortal Hulk run or King's Batman run, I've still only kept up by trades because why the fuck would I want to spend $4-5 for roughly 20-pages of content (we're talking maybe 10-15 minutes of reading material if I'm being generous). I really feel so stupid for reading Bryan Hill's Killmonger miniseries that way, which I kept up with because it was really good, but had I waited for a trade I could have read it in one go for significantly cheaper.

Meanwhile, you have manga sales through the roof proving that people still read comic books as individual issues just as much as ever. I mean, look at Shonen Jump right now. Like a lot of people, I'm subscribed to their service and have online access to all of their Viz translated new releases as well as an insane backlog of a huge library of their collected works. And that's only $2 a month for all of it (with nothing in the way of outside ads). I'm currently keeping up with several weekly titles and a couple of monthly ones without any significant financial investment.

I'm not saying that I'd expect Marvel or DC to do the exact same thing, but I don't think it's a stretch to say that there is no reason that at least their digital releases need to be priced nearly as high as they currently are. Maybe offer the option for bundles of 4-5 series at that price (even if it's digital only), or at least reduce the price for single digital issues significantly.

Maybe I'm just a nut who doesn't know what he's talking about. I've heard other people complain that modern Western comics are failing because a lot of modern books just suck (which, to be fair, I've run into a lot of garbage from stuff published this decade). Personally, though, I think the industry's collective insistence on adhering to a horribly dated business practice and release format is more to blame, here.

[Dr. Insomniac]

I'd argue comic book sales are stagnant instead of dropping, based off of Comichron's charts. In fact, sales from the month of July 2019 look better than July 1999, and only slightly worse than July 2009. But I agree that single issues are overpriced for comics you could read within 5 to 10 minutes, and anyone going to a comic book store could read them off the shelf and put them back with little hassle.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

That makes sense, but you have to figure that the people behind the industry would have tried to move away from this by now. It's one thing to stay stagnant, but if stagnation is still relatively low in terms of sales, wouldn't it be in the industry's best interest to try to increase sales?

I suppose my main point more than anything is that I don't really see the reason why comic book single issues need to be that expensive to begin with.

[Daikun]

https://twitter.com/otakucalendarjp/status/1200363726190174208

[Daikun]

Inuyasha is getting a sequel.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Didn't really care for the epilogue of KnY. Reminds me of Digimon Adventure 02, or Naruto, or Harry Potter. Not sure why creators feel the need to show "the next generation" featuring one-off characters we have no investment in. That said, this epilogue does nothing to actually ruin what came before it, especially since it's a few generations in the future rather than just the main characters' kids. Still, it's made more baffling and unnecessary by the fact that chapter 204 was a more than appropriate ending for the series, tying up all of the loose ends and wrapping up the main duo's journey.

I really loved the last arc. It felt very JoJo's esque in how intense the final bouts got, with several beloved characters falling in the final battle, particularly in emotionally resonant ways that felt like a real gut punch to fans rather than just as mere shock value.

I will miss reading this series from week to week, but I'm glad that it maintained a consistent level of quality throughout it's run and, unnecessary epilogue aside, ended on a high note rather than being dragged out for longer than it needed to. I will definitely be following whatever Gotogue works on next.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, I have the entire Lee/Kirby run of FF4 on Comixology and I read through a few issues every week. I just came across this little issue today:



Man, you've gotta love the 60's.