Comments on: Online Manga as Pyramid Scheme

By: Digital Strips: The Webcomics Podcast

Digital Strips: The Webcomics Podcast — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 13:12:52 +0000

[...] Amway of comics? Johanna Draper Carlson looks at an online “manga,” Guardian Angel, that allows readers to set up their own purchase [...]

By: Johanna

Johanna — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 23:48:33 +0000

Not to mention that these days, if you have a PDF you want to share with your friends, you send them the PDF, you don’t make them go spend money.

By: buzz

buzz — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 23:40:31 +0000

The marketing is multi-level, but not a classic Ponzi pyramid. Rather, it’s more along the lines of AmWay: An actual bona fide product is available for sale, and people who get others to buy the product get a kick back of that sale. The buyers actually get something tangible instead of a mere promise of future earnings. There is no promise that everybody will be able to find a new buyer.

By: Journalista - the news weblog of The Comics Journal » Blog Archive » March 3, 2009: Big hand’s on 120, little hand’s on me

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 12:10:20 +0000

[...] Johanna Draper Carlson finds an innovative means of marketing comics online. [...]

By: Letizia

Letizia — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 10:31:54 +0000

After reading your posts I became curious about this comic
and I decided to give it a try it and I bought it.

Good move. I like it. Drawings are absolutly great, the story
is a sort of Van Damme’s movie with super action, fast
futuristic cars, big fights and a lot of bullets.

To make a brief summery: there has been a conflict
in the middle ages between two knight orders which
is ending nowadays with their successors, or at least
that’s what i have understood from this first volume.

By: Tommy Raiko

Tommy Raiko — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 18:08:43 +0000

“Also, I’m not sure what makes this a manga beyond the author naming it such. Visually, it reminds me most of Dave Sim’s Glamourpuss, with its photo-referenced art.”

Well, that opens up the whole “what makes manga manga?” can of worms, a question that’s perhaps unanswerable with any real specificity.

From a certain point-of-view, “manga” is just the Japanese word for “comics.” If the creator is Japanese (and judging from nothing other than the name, that may be true) then he/she may just be defaulting to a familiar use of the term (and as you point out, the “buzzword” quality of the word “manga” doesn’t hurt.) Still, if a Japanese person does comics, he/she is likely going to call them “manga,” regardless of what style he or she works in.

Anyway, the publisher’s referral plan is indeed audacious, and worth noting. Thanks!