I mean, ICv2 reported that sales of manga had contracted over 2008 (http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/14239.html ), and I doubt anyone will be really surprised if that trend is borne out in 2009, which is the data informing Hibbs’ recent comments.

Hibbs may be being overly dramatic to say that “the [manga] category is in trouble,” but it’s not as if other industry observers aren’t saying (or at least implying…) the same thing.

Numbers can be looked at in so many ways that they can really be meaningless in the end. Because you can find a stat that will support anything you already believe to be true if you know how to look for it.

Oddly I’ve got some extra money for the first time in a long time. (new job doing taxes has been lucrative) Yet I have no idea what comics I might want to get. I know DC & Marvel are likely into some never ending crossover, so snooze. Yet I’m too much out of the Indy loop to get any of that either. (am behind in some manga, but would prefer something self contained)

Off to google I guess to see what’s out there.:)

But relative to past performance of well-established distributors who have handled my list, DBD has done fine. And since they have a separate staff from their Direct Market branch, it’s hard for me not to see them as dedicated to this area, especially after almost 10 years in the book trade.

Marvel’s been in business long enough to have seen a number of distributors come and go too, and its presence (or lack thereof) in bookstores is not a new thing for them to consider. So given all the other things we know, such as how quickly most Marvel books go out of print, I’d bet against distribution being their biggest problem area.

I have a handful of trades left so if anyone wants one, they can contact me at the email below.

Thanks for your interest. Love the blog, Johanna.
ken
Super Human Resources
ken@superhumanresourcesomic.com

I agree that their size might cut both ways with regards to service, but I’d bet that the benefits outweigh the costs since Marvel is such an important client of both Diamond distribution branches.

Given all the above, I think Occam’s Razor suggests that there are more likely explanations for Marvel’s underperfomance in the book trade.

[...] criticisms; Eric Reynolds, associate publisher of Fantagraphics; Hibbs, responding to Reynolds; and Johanna Draper Carlson. [Tilting at [...]

While that’s not a good basis for concluding anything about their overall performance, I’d say it trumps, well, yours. :) And I’m a pretty small fish in the pond so I would bet Marvel gets better than average treatment and far more than average attention by Diamond’s staff.

Yeah, still worried. I have better odds reading random webcomics and hoping for collections.

Or, you know, you actually like the type of material supported by the DM.

I think it is great that comics – by which people want to mean TPBs and OGNs – are selling in book stores. Regardless of format and outlet, comics selling to a casual reader base can only help the market and increase the odds of anything being published in 20 or 10 or 2 years. But while it is not “Bookstores vs DM”, neither is it “Bookstores == DM”.

I don’t enjoy Manga. I have read it – from Akira to Naruto – I continue to take suggestion from people whose taste I have enjoyed in other formats – from Iron Wok Jan to Hikaru No Go – but I have yet to find anything that lights my fire. I can appreciate “Art” books like Black Hole and The Rabbi’s Cat on an intellectual level, but they don’t “do” anything for me. And I simply don’t like Ultimate Spider-Man or Infinite Crisis, and I read Watchmen – multiple times – two decades ago, thankyouverymuch.

I suspect that if I tried a little harder I would find the titles I like in Bookstores. Hellblazer, like most Vertigo, seems to stay in print. But I have never seen an Incredible Hercules on the shelf at Borders, even if Marvel says they put one there. And Super Human Resources?

So yes, I am worried.

Interesting you bring up Y the Last Man. I’ll be very curious to see if it becomes a perennial or fades out after a couple more years. Death Note, in contrast, was widely considered one of the best manga of the past decade (a sentiment I disagree with, but there it is all the same), so it’s not quite the same thing. It’s the difference between All-Star Superman (Death Note) and Electric Mullet Superman (Love Hina), if that comparison’s clear.

Naruto went to $9.99 with book 46 in October 2009, so only one of the volumes that would show up in your numbers was at the higher price, with most of those from this year $7.95, as you say. But I think my point still stands. You say that higher-priced comics, of whatever kind, are better for retailers (an understandable point), and I say that manga prices in general have increased across the board over the past couple of years. I think that’s a relevant thing to mention if we’re talking about cost per shelf slot.

And yes, I knew I’d get called on the Marvel comment, but it’s still true that I would have liked to have seen you be as harsh on Marvel (given all the points they get wrong) as you were on manga. :)

Thanks very much for stopping by and responding.

Is that really a bad position after 7 years of doing these things? There’s 5250 data points on line, right this moment, and no one, ever, has done a thing online with them other than me.

I want to modify your tone, though, Johanna — what I’m really saying is “please, someone else do something with this, pretty please”, because I know my analysis isn’t as good as other people can do. I even state it directly in the column, and have for years :)

>>>Hibbs says that he’s surprised that Chobits (previously published by Tokyopop) isn’t still a top-seller, but he doesn’t seem to realize that Dark Horse is going to be rereleasing it as a Omnibus next month.<<<

I never used the word "surprised", for what that's worth. And I did, actually, know about the DH version, though I'd completely forgotten about it when writing this.

You're right on this one, though, I did not do enough research, and I should have pointed out (since I just looked now) that both LOVE HINA and CHOBITS are completely unavailable via (the one source I can easily check: B&T) book wholesale and at retail via Amazon. That's a mistake on my part. I will correct that next year when (if?) the DH edition charts.

"Morever, saying “finished manga series don’t keep selling as well as the new ones” is sort of like being surprised that Hawkman collections don’t sell any more."

Like, say, Y, THE LAST MAN then? Or hell, PREACHER for that matter, since it entered the charts this year?

Or if you want me to keep it to manga, how about DEATH NOTE?

"Naruto is an amazing success, something to be emulated, not feared."

I think that's an epically (and willfully) big misreading of my analysis to make, but I do think that NARUTO's, mm, "cool off"? is a pretty big story, because in terms of percentages of sales, to an extent, where NARUTO goes, so does the general market for manga.

"However, he says manga isn’t priced high enough, using the example of “$7.95 Naruto”. Does he know that all Viz titles are now at $9.99 or above"

No, I don't say that "manga isn't priced high enough", I say "If one is looking at a bottom-line oriented analysis of dollars-per-square-foot, that $19.95 copy of "Watchmen" looks a lot more attractive than the $7.95 "Naruto," presuming they’re selling an equivalent amount of copies from roughly the same amount of rack space. This is, of course, what pushed comics off of the “newsstand" – bottom-line oriented numbers crunchers saying that a rack of sunglasses generated more dollars-per-square-foot than a rack of comics, so the comics went away." those are different things.

And of course I know the price of manga, Johanna — I sell them after all. That doesn't stop NARUTO from, in fact, being $7.95.

"There’s a lot more to be said about Marvel’s atrocious bookstore performance than Hibbs goes into, but that would seem to be bashing one of his key products."

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Oh, Johanna, seriously, when have I EVER not been willing to take Marvel on?

I didn't say much more, because there really isn't much more to be said — as I noted, next year I am unlikely to even break Marvel out in their own section, their performance is so shitty.

-B