Hello, and welcome to Comic Drake where I talk about comic books and my name is Drake,
I have been an absolute manga fanatic for most of my life.
Anime and manga has been a huge passion of mine
growing up when I started watching Toonami, and I've gone to all sorts of anime conventions
and I used to be really into cosplaying, but over the years I've really gotten into American comics
and I really want to take a look today at
why there seems to be such a huge disconnect between the two and why American comics really don't sell all that many physical copies
even though superhero movies are some of the biggest things in pop culture
around the entire world and yet their Japanese counterparts seem to be outselling them pretty much every
single time and that's even including here in America
and if you really think about it,
manga and American comics are the exact same thing and I know a lot of weebs are going to go "No
they're not! They're completely separate things!" Listen, they're both comics.
Just like how JRPGs are still video games even though the "J" in JRPG stands for Japanese.
They are still video games and manga are still comics. You can fight me on the semantics
all you want, but that's just
how I'm going to be looking at things. Anyway; today I want to take a look
at some of the things that the American comic book industry can learn from their Japanese counterparts.
And maybe I can get you guys that are here
Just because you want to hear we're talking about manga interested in getting started in American comics as well.
One of the main detractions that I hear from people who don't want to get into American comics
is that they are just really convoluted and very long running.
I completely understand the frustration with wanting to read Spider-Man, but feeling like you have to read Amazing Spider-Man and
Spectacular Spider-Man and, "Oh, Spidey's over here doing a group crossover with this guy"
and "Oh my God Spider-Man's also in this giant
crossover event!" It seems really daunting whenever you just want to read the one story
And if we're going to be honest; the Marvel movies are getting that way too.
It seems that you have to watch all these films just to get the actual narrative of the most recent one,
but manga doesn't actually have that problem because typically, you just read chapter one or pick up volume one and you just read
forward. It's one story from start to finish under one title. I completely get how much more accessible manga is
and I think that it's very fascinating. Now, you're going to hear me talk about this a lot in this video,
but the indie comic scene is really starting to fill that niche that the big two publishers of super hero comics
aren't really filling right now. It's really hard
to want to get into a story and feel like you have to read everything else and yeah, sometimes in manga there's
supplemental material, but that's really not always necessary. Manga can even have these giant
expansive casts of characters, and they all have this deep lore and all this backstory,
but at the end of the day you pretty much only need to read one series from
start to finish in order to get it all and also typically in manga, it's the same writer from beginning to end
Sometimes American comics can... They can switch writers seemingly at the
drop of a hat . You can be in the middle of a storyline and suddenly the writer or the artist is completely
different and that can be very jarring from a visual art perspective, but also
it's really interesting how a character's motivation in American comics
can seemingly just switch. Sometimes you have a person who writes a book for a long time
and they really get to a good point of this character,
but then you have a new writer that says "Let's just undo everything that just happened.
This is my Daredevil". I get it. It's very frustrating.
Also, manga typically has longer lasting consequences when it comes to their story arcs. As in: if somebody dies
They're not always going to be brought back right away
with the exception of Dragon Ball. I mean let's be honest. I feel like Dragon Ball characters
come back just as much if not more so than American comic characters,
but you're able to see these characters progress and grow and in American comics,
they seem to always go back to a status quo
and that's because comic book characters are meant to go on and on and on and never end. Now granted,
it seems like some manga will never end, kind of like One Piece,
but I don't think it's actually designed to be that way. You're able to see some very long-running stories,
but they're pretty much always going to have an end
there's never going to be an end of Batman, and there's never going to be an end
of Superman or Iron Man or Thor.
Even if these characters die, they're going to come back.
Even if we go back to Batman, if we thought that Bruce Wayne was going to
stop being Batman. He's not going to pass it on to another character
He's just going to come back. Every single time that Bruce has left, he's always come back
and that's because that's just how it is. Manga, no matter how long it runs,
is eventually going to come to a stopping point. The only thing that'll really stop DC or Marvel
are if the entire industry fails. American comic book characters are typically meant to be multimedia icons
They're meant could be in TV shows, cartoons, movies, video games, etc. and
they're always meant to bring back readers to the comics
so they can make more stuff to base more things on.
They're meant to be self-perpetuating in that case,
but because of that, characters will always need to revert back to a status quo. All these big
superheroes are eventually going to need to go back to some level of familiarity. Yes at some point
you're going to see new additions, and you're going to take some subtle changes to characters,
but at the end of the day Spider-Man is going to go back to being the
quippy guy from Queens who's going around "thwip, thwipping" on all the people.
You're not going to really see a lot of changes in character
They're going to always kill off Aunt May,
but she's always going to come back or
If you're DC, you're just going to keep rebooting your universe over and over and over and over and over again
to continue to stay relevant. Manga doesn't do that.
Manga eventually ends and even though you see manga characters
just all over everything when it comes to merchandise,
all good things must come to an end. Typically when a manga series ends,
it feels like the writer is finally getting to say what they wanted to say it's been their
story from the beginning and very seldom are you going to have another writer take over a story like that.
I really like that sense of finality that something's happened;
because in my opinion you can't truly appreciate something until it's done and
you have time to think about it and for time to go by, but comics are always going to stay relevant.
They're always going to keep going. You can look back on different stories and stuff,
but you're never really going to see a character die off or
retire for a long term bit . You get exceptions here and there,
but not really. Another thing that's really interesting about American comics
is that they seem more episodic than manga which is really weird because it seems like pretty much
every single manga series getting adapted into an anime.
Every single day I'm seeing like
"Oh Drake, you need to watch this anime and this anime and this anime this anime!" and
they're getting just cranked out like crazy,
but this is where things get interesting tying back into our previous point:
It's that a lot of American comics seem very
Monster of the Week, Villain of the Week,
Situation of the Week kind of pulp style
episodic things because they're always going to go back to the status quo that we've talked about,
but manga since it's going to end up telling an entire story,
every single chapter, every single episode of an anime really feels like it's building onto a larger narrative
and I think that is very fascinating.
You get these arcs that they work their way into each other and again,
they have these lasting consequences in manga and you're able to tell these big epic themes overall
and yes, I feel like you get that in American comics,
typically with one writer's time with a boo,k but never to the extent that manga has.
There's always going to be Mark Waid's Daredevil. That feels like a solid beginning to end story even though
technically it would pick up in the middle of Daredevil's career.
Regardless, you can see where Mark Waid was going with the character
and you can see the ups and the downs before it eventually reverts back to the status quo.
I really like how manga is able to tell these complete narratives,
but another big thing is that manga seems to have more genres
than American comic. Now contrary to what a lot of people might think,
"Cape Comics" which are superhero comics aren't the only genre out there. You have horror
and sci-fi and westerns and even in the big two publishers,
you are able to see some varying degrees of the genre.
Like you have your Jonah Hex being westerns and you have your
Zatannas and your Doctor Stranges and stuff, for the occult and sci-fi and horror and all that stuff,
but it's still labeled under the umbrella of superhero comics,
but the semantics of what actually is a superhero is another conversation
for another day. When it comes to manga series, you have all your big battle
superhero-esque anime have shonen, but you're also able to get slices of life. , you're able to get horror,
you're able to get straight-up, silly goofy comedy stuff and yes,
all these different genres are starting to get more popular in American comics, mainly with indie publishers,
but you're not really seeing the big two (Marvel and DC) venture into this foray. It's typically just
"Hey this guy is good at punching things. Let's continue to do that because
it makes money and also these character has been around since the freaking forties." and yes, this entire
video has been really ranty and rambley and I've been all over the place with things,
but let me just quickly break it back down to what I mainly think that
the American comic industry could learn from manga
and again, the indie scene is really starting to pick up on a lot of this.
I think we need to see less dependency on the
big interconnected multiverse and work on telling smaller
oersonal stories with characters from beginning to end
that the reader can relate to. Make it to where the numbering system is easy
Don't start at issue five hundred and sixty five!
Just start at issue one and just keep telling things up to that point. Just
keep going! Make it obvious to readers where they can start. It's always going to be obvious.
"Hey, you want to read this book? Look, it has a big, ole number one on it
and then the next one's going to be number two and number three and number four!
Just keep it going and if it gets too big, stop and
tell another story! It doesn't need to go on forever let characters
have actual growth. Don't just keep reverting them
back of the status quo because you want to sell more toys because you want new
readers who are going to coming in in twenty or thirty years to eventually get to enjoy the same character.
While I do love that part of storytelling, it makes it very difficult for a lot of readers
because they feel like they have to keep up with everything even though they really don't have to.
I feel like we need to let writers stay on books for a longer time. Now
we don't need to do a Dan Slot and let him on Spider-Man for seemingly forever,
but don't just shift writers in the middle of an arc!
Let them have a time. Let them be a Mark Waid and stay with a book for a definite amount of time
Let them tell the story that they want to tell and when it's done., don't just wipe the slate clean and start over.
Let characters have some sort of growth and tell more genres of stories
Oh my God! I love cape comics to death,
but that's not the only thing that needs to sell. There's a reason why the indie books have been taking off,
it's because they have the freedom to tell new types of stories. Fans want them. Marvel. DC.
Tell more genres! You can put them in the same god damn universe
Give me more Jonah Hexs! Give me more magic shit!
Give me more this and that!
Tell more than just superhero books, for the love of god, or at least help differentiate them.
Don't let it all just be the same generic stuff that we see time and time again.
I love American comics, and I feel like they are very inaccessible
and I really think that's why manga has started to take off over the past few decades. It makes so much sense
why this is popular and yes,
manga does have its unique traits that is very distinctly it that track some people for that,
but at the same time, I really feel like we
have great stories in the American scene that can definitely use new eyes.
Learn what you can from your competitors and from your neighbors
oversea and try to make something good for everybody.
This video has been super ranty and super rambley .I understand. I don't have a script.
I am very very sorry, but if you feel like you want to get into American comics and
you don't really know where to start then this is what the channel is about.
It's all about giving you guys information and history, so you don't have to comb through all that stuff
and we give you good reading recommendations. So why not consider
watching another video and learning from more for yourself?
It's a great industry and I really want you to enjoy it
with me. As always these videos would not be possible without my amazing supporters over on Patreon,
badasses like Yosh Flores, Nate Kiellach, Bonnie Davies,
Ashley Donson, and Billy Lewis. You guys made this possible. Thank you so much and
you can see even more names of our supporters down there in the description below, but again,
thank you so much for watching, I really hope you enjoyed this, and hopefully I'll see you next time.