Minx dumped | Viz’s Ferreyra interviewed

With the backing of Science, Matt Blind declares the Naruto phenomenon is over.  No longer will the adventures of the orange jumpsuited ninja make Iceland GDP-crushing, 3-week coke partying, Brazilian scat porn obscene washtubs of Scrooge McDuck money.  Instead, it will spend the rest of its pathetic days making Cristal swilling, estate-tax evading, minorly indecent barrels of Flintheart Glomgold money.

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According to Comic Book Resources, DC’s Minx imprint has been axed after launching to much media fanfare just one and a half years ago.  Often touted as an “alternative to manga”, the line featured graphic novels which were aimed at girls and young women.  Much reaction and analysis can be found at The Beat, Comics Worth Reading, The Comics Reporter, Newsarama, and delicious snark at Occasional Superheroine.

Fingers are being pointed at everything from mismanaged marketing, to the line’s identity crisis, to a lack of more easily-accesible genre titles in its mix; all fair criticisms, I suppose.  But it seems to me that Minx was a victim of overblown expectations more than anything else.  Since it was being marketed as an alternative to manga, book sellers may have expected it to put up manga-like numbers… that’s a tall order, given that Minx was only allowed an awfully brief year and a half to do it.

Edit: Journalista feels the same way… DC (or Random House) simply didn’t show much “patience and endurance” to see Minx through its growing pains (and come to think of it, this has been true for a lot of the new-audience initiatives the big two undertook over the years).  Dirk Deppey also closes with a frightening question… should this worry the CMX fans out there?

Edit 2: David Welsh and creator Hope Larson’s take on the shortcomings of Minx books.  Ouch, people.  Such brutality…

Edit 3: A few more links…

• GGY sharpens her Ockham’s razor and mercilessly shreds the books.
• A possible sign of what’s to come for Minx creators?  One book may continue under DC’s Vertigo imprint.
• Comics212 isn’t surprised that Minx failed.  But he also wouldn’t have been surprised if the imprint succeeded, either.  Which means… it is impossible for him to be surprised by Minx at all!
• Finally, The Beat adds some more historical insight and linkage, although she makes the odd insinuation that men who read NANA and Honey and Clover should be ashamed of themselves… men like me. (._.;)

  Although, I am creepy.  So maybe that proves her point.

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In 4 pages, Viz Media’s marketing VP Gonzalo Ferreyra tells ICv2 that the fundamentals of the manga industry is strong.  On the anime front, Ferreyra seems just slightly less confident…

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(Via MangaBlog) The Anime Almanac compares the recently launched Yen Plus manga magazine with the old defunct Raijin… something I’m sure the people at Yen want to avoid.

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You know, I was going to make a big post about how the timing of Toonami’s cancellation and Viz’s embrace of online video broadcast sites seemed just too perfect… but now I’m not going to, because Manga Xanada did it first and better than anyone.

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LGBT newspaper The Advocate has a rather in-depth article on the role of yuri manga in Japan and the West, with a  focus on the history rather than salaciousness, and some choice quotes from ALC Publishing and Tokyopop.

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eManga, DMP’s online manga rental service, has officially launched.  It’s still basically all yaoi, all the time though.