An Introspective Analysis on the Printing Industry for Manga
This post isn't particularly about me, but it may affect my decisions for the future for when I decide to commit to comics.
While this has been occurring for quite a while, I just want to discuss a bit about the decline of print media over the innovation that is digital media. I, like many, have grew up reading manga from print books. There was always something about the versatility with print books in which you could take it wherever you could go, and subjugate yourself to rad storytelling that was different from typical American comics. Some of my fondest memories were of bringing Inuyasha volumes to elementary school despite depictions of ultra violence and nudity, and reading Shonen Jump magazines collectively piled on top of the toilet to read back when Shonen Jump was gaining popularity.
Now, the reason why I would discuss this is because times are changing. This wasn't a thought that I came up with independently. I knew that the industry was in decline since Shonen Jump up and left the States years ago, but I had not really understood how bad it was before I started becoming a comic artist. While wasting precious time that could have been spent working on that long overdue comic of mine, I came across a book by a former manga artist that was translated and published digitally on Amazon. It's called "Manga Poverty" by Sato Shuho.
The book is an account of Shuho's long stint as a quasi-successful manga creator spanning multiple renowned series that had gone on to being adapted into live-action dramas. Now, what I had meant by "quasi-successful" was that even though Shuho made many accomplishments with his career, he wrote of often always making too little income and revenue off of royalties from his manga adaptations to pay his rent, his assistants, or to live a normal life. While us Westerners get a lot of crap regarding capitalism and its dispensable nature, Shuho writes about how publishers disrespect and shaft many manga artists to the point where many abandon their dreams to become salary men through an unsustainable payment system in which will leave the mangaka constantly in debt. It doesn't help that the industry is in decline due to dwindling sales of manga books and magazines as a result of digital distribution. Shuho acknowledges that the system is dying, and needs to evolve with the times and goes on to create his own digital manga distribution site (akin to Tapastic) called "Manga on Web". I've read several articles about the difficulties with being a mangaka, and the whole "not living your life" thing was pretty consistent given the industry's competitive nature, but it's a lot more better hearing it from someone who was from the inside.
As someone who personally enjoys collecting physical media, I can agree with Shuho that his direction towards digital distribution would be the ideal platform in the years coming. A lot of people say that physical media will never die off, and I agree, but eventually digital will become the standard due to being the least difficult to produce. It isn't rocket science. Most likely, physical print will become collectible commodities, and will be to digital what digital is now to print. As a fan of print and physical media, I was initially defiant against this realization, but now when I think about it, it is a lot more accommodating than what print was. Books take up space and are impractical to carry around in bulk most of the time. I can easily carry them digitally on my phone wherever I go, and not hoard them in my room to collect dust and make my room smaller. They are generally less expensive, well not college textbooks, but from that, logically how would one side with physical media? One may argue that something wrong could happen, and one could lose it all from some digital mishap. Well, I say that you can lose a lot more with a fire-related mishap with your collection of potential fuel lying around your bedroom. Almost all digital platforms now upload your books to the Cloud to be read on a different platform if need be and at anytime. Paper on the other hand will not stand the test of time, and you wouldn't be able to read it from your friend's house on his computer if the book is back at school, tucked away in your locker, and it's night time.
While one may compare this scenario to VHS versus DVD, at least one can reason the practicality of books. Books are never going to go away, but they eventually won't be the standard. Right now, since I think digital is still in it's infancy, I would recommend people on considering purchasing digital manga books since they are a hell of a lot cheaper now than what they will be in the future once publishers and distributors start to adapt. Paper volumes are getting cheaper, but once they become collectables, their prices will jump. So grab them all while you can.
Oh, and this is my 50th post. Hooray.
While this has been occurring for quite a while, I just want to discuss a bit about the decline of print media over the innovation that is digital media. I, like many, have grew up reading manga from print books. There was always something about the versatility with print books in which you could take it wherever you could go, and subjugate yourself to rad storytelling that was different from typical American comics. Some of my fondest memories were of bringing Inuyasha volumes to elementary school despite depictions of ultra violence and nudity, and reading Shonen Jump magazines collectively piled on top of the toilet to read back when Shonen Jump was gaining popularity.
Now, the reason why I would discuss this is because times are changing. This wasn't a thought that I came up with independently. I knew that the industry was in decline since Shonen Jump up and left the States years ago, but I had not really understood how bad it was before I started becoming a comic artist. While wasting precious time that could have been spent working on that long overdue comic of mine, I came across a book by a former manga artist that was translated and published digitally on Amazon. It's called "Manga Poverty" by Sato Shuho.
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As someone who personally enjoys collecting physical media, I can agree with Shuho that his direction towards digital distribution would be the ideal platform in the years coming. A lot of people say that physical media will never die off, and I agree, but eventually digital will become the standard due to being the least difficult to produce. It isn't rocket science. Most likely, physical print will become collectible commodities, and will be to digital what digital is now to print. As a fan of print and physical media, I was initially defiant against this realization, but now when I think about it, it is a lot more accommodating than what print was. Books take up space and are impractical to carry around in bulk most of the time. I can easily carry them digitally on my phone wherever I go, and not hoard them in my room to collect dust and make my room smaller. They are generally less expensive, well not college textbooks, but from that, logically how would one side with physical media? One may argue that something wrong could happen, and one could lose it all from some digital mishap. Well, I say that you can lose a lot more with a fire-related mishap with your collection of potential fuel lying around your bedroom. Almost all digital platforms now upload your books to the Cloud to be read on a different platform if need be and at anytime. Paper on the other hand will not stand the test of time, and you wouldn't be able to read it from your friend's house on his computer if the book is back at school, tucked away in your locker, and it's night time.
While one may compare this scenario to VHS versus DVD, at least one can reason the practicality of books. Books are never going to go away, but they eventually won't be the standard. Right now, since I think digital is still in it's infancy, I would recommend people on considering purchasing digital manga books since they are a hell of a lot cheaper now than what they will be in the future once publishers and distributors start to adapt. Paper volumes are getting cheaper, but once they become collectables, their prices will jump. So grab them all while you can.
Oh, and this is my 50th post. Hooray.
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