Comments on: Shrinkage

By: MangaBlog » Blog Archive » MangaBlogCast is up!

MangaBlog » Blog Archive » MangaBlogCast is up! — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 11:26:16 +0000

[...] ComiPress: Manga sales are down in Japan. ICv2: Yeah, and DVDs too! Simon Jones: No! Not shrinking! Getting more diffuse! ComiPress: Yup, see, here’s a partnership between video, game, and manga people. [...]

By: ardith

ardith — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 17:56:43 +0000

gynocrat >
Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake series is being adapted into comic book form and that generated a lot of interested, I think. Having a bigger name author like Nora Roberts would have gotten a lot of interest….

By: Simon

Simon — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 16:42:29 +0000

Hmm… armchair quarterbacking here, but perhaps they’re not doing well because the books are adaptations. Adaptations usually do not surpass originals, and romance readers who don’t read manga have little incentive to pick up these retellings. On the other hand, if they’re trying to attract manga readers to romance, then the books would do better shelved with the rest of the manga. Maybe they’re not fulling exploiting the “josei” angle to the booksellers…

That said, these books might be really popular in Japan, eh…?

By: gynocrat

gynocrat — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 14:49:17 +0000

I got the impression that these were Japanese versions of original Harlequin romances, and just failed to garnish interest anyway. If you recall, Harlequin eventually took over marketing and distro for the Harlequin manga line in the states, and it’s still tanked.

Perhaps the majority of romance fiction readers just aren’t into sequential art. :/

By: MangaBlog » Blog Archive » Ides of manga

MangaBlog » Blog Archive » Ides of manga — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 14:27:02 +0000

[...] Simon Jones comments on the latest market news in Japan; his take: the market isn’t shrinking, it’s spreading into different media. (Link is, as always, NSFW.) [...]

By: Journalista - the news weblog of The Comics Journal » Blog Archive » Mar. 15, 2007: Naruto owns us all

Thu, 15 Mar 2007 08:21:29 +0000

[...] Simon Jones offers some perspective on recent reports that Japan’s drawn-culture industries are declining. [...]

By: ardith

ardith — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 20:10:54 +0000

Probably not so well. I haven’t heard much on it. They could have cross promoted in their regular Harlequin book releases to help their romance readers find them.

The pink ink thing was not a turn on for me. It’s hard to read.

By: Simon

Simon — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 19:52:25 +0000

Actually, this brings up the question of just how well/poorly is Harlequin doing with their manga line? Don’t quite remember seeing Harlequin represented in the bookscan numbers… of course I could be missing them because they’re listed with romance novels, or maybe they’re technically Dark Horse books.

By: ardith

ardith — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 19:18:28 +0000

re: Harlequin Manga
Sooooo sad, they have NORA ROBERTS manga! They should have released her stuff first. Nora Roberts is the Queen of romance novels. *shakes head*