4 ms·

"I'm not denying this, but I find it a hypocritical view when you then compare it with mangas. 99% of manga is produced as an attempt to generate a franchise th

"I'm not denying this, but I find it a hypocritical view when you then compare it with mangas. 99% of manga is produced as an attempt to generate a franchise that will spawn anime series, anime movie(s), real-life movie(s), collectibles, and boatload of related merchandise." The most popular western comics tend to be owned by a corporation like Disney that hires and fires artists in search of a bottom line. The comic will stay in production until it is no longer profitable. The most popular manga seem to have some amount of ownership retained by the original author. The manga tend to come to an end when the author retires. This doesn't mean manga artists are free of capitalistic concerns and western artists are all hacks (though emotionally I feel they kind of are...) but at least when it comes to the most popular books the two systems don't seem to operate that same way.

toyg 4y ago
You're moving the goalposts. There is not an argument of superiority - both systems are geared towards making money for corporations, they just go about it in slightly different ways. And there is no question that the Japanese thoroughly explored the merchandise and adaptation space much earlier (and with a more systemic approach) than US publishers; so to criticize the US industry for moving towards that same model, seems pointless. (As for exploitation of workers, US artists and writers might be poor but are not known to kill themselves because they're overworked... They also tend to get more recognition: most popular mangas are produced by pools of artists in studios, often without their names actually attached to them (beyond the title-creator); whereas the story/pencils/inks tradition in US comics tends to surface contributors in most cases. In economic terms, both categories are typically screwed over by corporations anyway, just in different ways.)
- anotherman554 4y ago
  I should probably clarify that I don't actually think of American comics as research and development for related media. That said, in the Japanese system we can distinguish between author and publisher. In the American system the author (for purposes of copyright) is often the publisher. Authors can have motivations other than making money (even if they want to make money). It's harder to impute such motivations on nonhuman entities like Warner Brothers or Disney. So the idea that American comics are research and development for related merchandizing seems closer to the truth to me than it does for Japanese comics, either though I wouldn't really describe either product that way. I don't think the sort of recognition letterers, colorists, or inkers get is worth a whole lot in economic terms under the American system, though I'd agree that manga studios should credit everyone who works on the book.

toyg 4y ago

You're moving the goalposts. There is not an argument of superiority - both systems are geared towards making money for corporations, they just go about it in slightly different ways. And there is no question that the Japanese thoroughly explored the merchandise and adaptation space much earlier (and with a more systemic approach) than US publishers; so to criticize the US industry for moving towards that same model, seems pointless. (As for exploitation of workers, US artists and writers might be poor but are not known to kill themselves because they're overworked... They also tend to get more recognition: most popular mangas are produced by pools of artists in studios, often without their names actually attached to them (beyond the title-creator); whereas the story/pencils/inks tradition in US comics tends to surface contributors in most cases. In economic terms, both categories are typically screwed over by corporations anyway, just in different ways.)

anotherman554 4y ago
I should probably clarify that I don't actually think of American comics as research and development for related media. That said, in the Japanese system we can distinguish between author and publisher. In the American system the author (for purposes of copyright) is often the publisher. Authors can have motivations other than making money (even if they want to make money). It's harder to impute such motivations on nonhuman entities like Warner Brothers or Disney. So the idea that American comics are research and development for related merchandizing seems closer to the truth to me than it does for Japanese comics, either though I wouldn't really describe either product that way. I don't think the sort of recognition letterers, colorists, or inkers get is worth a whole lot in economic terms under the American system, though I'd agree that manga studios should credit everyone who works on the book.