[...] Johanna Draper Carlson shares some additional detail on the power list from ICv2’s latest Retailers Guide to Anime/Manga. It rounds out the initial picture in some interesting ways, and Johanna offers insightful commentary along the way. [...]

I know we’ve all largely moved on from this, but something just clicked in my mind about the Tokyopop instance cited here.

Wasn’t that the manga that was ostensibly created by and credited to Courtney Love? Setting aside how weird it is for the head of the company to be the pseudonymous co-writer, isn’t it just as sensible to think that the book got a lot of extra promotion and product becase of the Courtney Love connection (if only so far as a “we’re doing a book with this big personality, so we’ve gotta do a lot of stuff to keep this celebrity happy” way)

Not that that necessarily would or should make anyone more comfortable with the company head as pseudonymous writer thing, but could help explain some things.

[...] ICv2’s Ten Most Powerful People in Manga Commentary: MangaBlog Precocious Curmudgeon Icarus Comics Love Manga’s first attempt last summer Comics Worth Reading (includes the Next Ten on ICv2’s list) Precocious Curmudgeon’s ten most creatively influential publishers list MangaBlog’s ten most powerful bloggers list [...]

Chris

Anyway, I’m not sure any publisher of licensed manga has much power. The real power is in the hands of the licensors on one end and the fans on the other.

That’s why (since it’s not like this was a blind ballot or anything) my top vote was for the fans.

[...] The conversation continues about ICv2’s ten most powerful list, with manga veteran Jake Forbes offering questioning the whole concept at Comics Worth Reading: “POWER!” seems like such a silly term when discussing the manga market. Savvy is much more applicable, as the real power comes from Japanese editors/creators/publishers and from grassroots fan networks who decide what is going to be a hit before things are licensed. [...]

I don’t automatically think that an editor (or other publisher employee) writing a project for that publisher–even pseudonymously–is an example of a conflict of interest.

There have been many book industry employees who have written books (for their own publishers and others)–to say nothing of writer/editors, artists/editors etc. in comics–that I don’t think of the practice isn’t intrinsically unethical.

A buyer having the responsibility of making the puchasing decision for a book he/she wrote, though, seems a little sketchier. But if that’s what happened with Hassler and Borders, I’d hope due disclosures were made and oversight taken. In the grand scheme of things, though, it’s not nuclear secrets we’re talking about here or anything.

Anyway, I think the point I’m trying to make here is that when we’re throwing phrases like “conflict of interest” around, it’s probably a good idea to keep clear the different situations we’re talking about.

Of the “big three” (Viz, Tpop, Del Rey), I have yet to see an instance where one of them has made a hit out of obscurity (maybe Ragnarok for Tokypop, only because it came out before people were looking at Korea, and Bleach was a hit earlier than most people expected, selling well before the anime). For all their “Power,” Tokyopop can’t make Initial D a top 50 manga (after the first volumes in a much smaller market) and Viz can’t sell a Japanese phenomenon like Vagabond to an audience that wants Kenshin, and Del Rey can’t make people care about a Gundam Seed manga when the anime isn’t connecting with american otaku.

I would suggest that the success of Juvenille Orion, a no-name title from a relatively tiny publisher that went exclusive with Borders/Walden, shows that at the end of the day, the buyer really does have more “power” than publishers right now.

Likewise, I think that Dark Horse has more “power” in some ways than the big 3, as their imprint and reputation alone can turn an old school seinen title into a #1 selling title. Naruto would be #1 whoever was selling it — the same is not true of Samurai Executioner.

Anyway, just chipping in some curmudgeonly grumblings to supplement the precocious one’s.

-Jake

I write Last Hope under the pseudonym Michael Dignan. It’s published by Seven Seas.

Dallas

(Stu Levy is “D.J. Milky”, writer of Princess Ai, which explains the PA push that included a rather nice animated Cartoon Network ad and rather nice Barbie-sized dolls, too.)

Still, given the emphasis on the bookstore market, one can’t help but wonder what the message might be for comics retailers. And I still wonder when figures from boutique or niche publishers like Vertical or Fanfare will show up on a list like this.

[...] Johanna at Comics Worth Reading gave me a heads-up that she has posted more info from the ICv2 Retailers Guide on how they selected the Top Ten Most Powerful People in Manga. Johanna has some good commentary on their selection methods, and she also reproduces their list of the people who almost made the Top Ten [...]