"Screw you and your sparkles, Twilight manga!"
ICv2 has a
big three-part interview with DC CEO Paul Levitz, and among other things, he talks about the state of the manga industry.
"You really have to split out the American graphic novel business from the manga business. The manga business is in a much more radical transition from its moment of being a fad to its moment of being a business. There are enduring franchises that clearly exist; the ability to do the American manga; interesting things are beginning to emerge. The Twilight project is a really interesting one…with the potential new audience that brings in. But the 'I’m just going to shovel out the manga as fast as I can I went to Japan and I bought 83 books—here they all are,' day is over."
I think he's right, as we've clearly seen this strategy not do so hot for some companies-- the ones who didn't plan out their licenses very carefully often ran into money troubles or worse. But are we really going to have to depend on a
Twilight manga to bring new audience to the field? And does that mean that we're going to see an onslaught of material targeted at the Twilight audience for years to come, not unlike how YA fantasy has dominated the book world in the wake of Harry Potter? On the other hand, it's not like we don't already have plenty of content in that vein (hello, Vampire Knight!). Interestingly, he doesn't mention CMX anywhere...but this is more about American comics than manga overall.
Anyway, this quote is all from part one, but he talks about all sorts of other things tangentially related to manga, and decidedly related to comics, so
give it a look-see.
Of course, you need things the kids like (that also seem innocuous enough to Mom & Dad, since the 'rents are the one's buying them) and right now I'd say manga is doing a better job of converting the eventual audience (by 2017 these kids will enter high school; and by 2021 they'll be in college. 14-24 is a Sweet-Spot demographic for comic fandom, a percentage of which also translates into comic sales)
Pokemon & Yu-Gi-Oh seem to hit the under-10 set in a way Batman doesn't -- not that the kids don't like Batman, and there is plenty of licensing going on to get versions of Bats in front of Kindergarteners and First Graders, but where are the 'bridge' books? After you turn 10 but before you can sneak out and buy your own comic books, is there a Batman story or series that you can con Mom into buying, that is also worth reading?
A kid raised on a steady diet of Pokemon, Bakugan, or whatever the new thing will be has easy stepping stones up the maturity ladder. (seems like half the manga are rated 13+, then there's a chunk of Older Teen and 16+ titles, and then there's the 18+ titles in four flavors: Gore Fest and Pantsu Party for the guys (and some girls) and Shirtless Bishies and Angsty Romance for the girls (and some boys).
DC has Vertigo, which is admittedly cool but can come off as just a Comic Fanboy kind of cool, and CMX which they criminally ignore (and Wildstorm that has collections of the Robotech comics -- from the name you can guess these are American Comics of the 'Robotech' 'anime', but still worth checking out), but outside of the underused CMX brand, do they have anything with the DC brand on it that appeals to 14 year old girls? Or to any guy with a maturity level above a 14-year-old mindset? (actually, that's a trick question: all guys are perpetually stuck in that immature mindset.)
It's interesting that Levitz cites an older teen demographic, and one already familiar with manga -- they may not read it but I'm sure most have a friend who does -- as the 'new' customer, while continuing to ignore the fact that 4 million kids turn six each and every year.