Producing the same kind of anthology in the US has proven difficult, probably because it's a relative niche market-- Shojo Beat, Shonen Jump, and Yen Plus are probably more effective as marketing tools than as money-making products themselves.
But could the same concept work for something a bit broader-- like American comics? Tim Seeley, creator of Hack/Slash, chats with Comic Book Resources about the rising prices of comic books and likes the idea of the format, particularly its ability to throw new titles out and then release them in TPB if they “stick.”
But Seeley admits that continuity-driven fans are biased against anthologies as being for side-stories, not the main stories.
Now, I'm totally biased: I'm very, very used to manga's release patterns, both in Japan and the US, so that I think putting American comics in anthologies would be awesome (I'd totally subscribe to, say, a monthly Vertigo anthology with some of their awesomest series and some new “test' series as well).
To counter my bias, I talked to Comic Vine's Gman and a comic fan friend, Japanator's John Martone. Both cited that the costs of such a publication would be too high and comic fans are too used to their traditional floppies (especially, of course, those of the collector's mindset, since a trade is unlikely to go up in value like an individual chapter could). Gman says the same thing as Seeley: it could be a good idea, but too many comic book fans would fight it.
I know a lot of you read American comics as well as manga. Would you consider subscribing to, essentially, a comic book “magazine,” presuming that it came out at the same rate that the floppy chapters would have-- basically just floppies of different series collected together instead of sold separately? Or do you prefer to pay for only the individual series you want?
