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NEWS: HarperCollins, Tokyopop Announce Co-Publishing Deal

If American comics (or graphic novels, which might be a better term) showed up in Japan, they'd be called manga,

1) I don't think any manga should have a seperate label just because of the native origins of the author/artist.

2) I find that the term has a slight negative meaning to readers who have heard of the term. There hasn't been a lot of GREAT non-jp produced titles in the NA market yet, and so a lot of people think the term "OEL" relates to "amateur" "sub-standard" or "not authentic".

I must say I'm pretty stunned by all the negative comments. This is HarperCollins we're talking about here, not some shady amateur operation. Tokyopop has to prove it can make something good with HC's authors, of course, but to be so skeptical this early in the game just seems silly.

Point (1) is invalid because "OEL" itself has nothing to do with the creator's native origin. In fact, it was created to eliminate the concept of native origin, mostly because some Australian comicker whined to me that they didn't want to be called "Amerimanga" (and rightfully so).

Regarding (2). I don't know who these "a lot of people are," but I can tell you what they AREN'T: Industry executives, journalists, and even the creators themselves. Most of the people involved in actually making and promoting these kinds of comics are content to say OEL, and if the Average Joe and Joanna at the bookstore thinks it secretly means "crap," that says more about them and their own prejudices (just like people who equate "anime" with "crazy spiky hair fighting dudes").

My approach to bringing the idea of "OEL" into the world was to:
- acknowledge that there are English-speaking comic artists who have adapted manga into their work, and that their approach is uniquely differentiable from Japan AND traditional comics from the West

(And before ANYONE jumps in with another "It's all just comics" ... I'm tired of this old semantic cop-out. For your sake, I will agree that, yes, on a fundamental level, Akira and Cathy are TOTALLY the same!)

Boy, aren't we defensive?

Patachu wrote:

Point (1) is invalid because "OEL" itself has nothing to do with the creator's native origin. In fact, it was created to eliminate the concept of native origin, mostly because some Australian comicker whined to me that they didn't want to be called "Amerimanga" (and rightfully so). Regarding (2). I don't know who these "a lot of people are," but I can tell you what they AREN'T: Industry executives, journalists, and even the creators themselves. Most of the people involved in actually making and promoting these kinds of comics are content to say OEL, and if the Average Joe and Joanna at the bookstore thinks it secretly means "crap," that says more about them and their own prejudices (just like people who equate "anime" with "crazy spiky hair fighting dudes").

Two very good points, but I'll tell you what: as a fan, I am HIGHLY skeptical of OEL manga and very rarely bother reading it.

Why?

This is becoming less true as time goes on and the amount of manga available in English increases, but by and large, the real deal Japanese manga that gets imported is the most popular stuff in Japan. It's the best material by the best writers and artists, with a built-in fanbase that proves that there's *something* there for the translation company to be interested in it in the first place.

"OEL manga" is, by and large, created by amateurs. A large segment of the "OEL manga" market are Johnny-come-lately comics fans who slap big eyes on their characters and draw flowers in their backgrounds and think that's all there is to making something "shojo".

Is this true in all cases? Of course not. But "OEL manga" (both the term itself and the books that frequently get that tag) reeks of clinging onto the idea that it's manga-influenced to legitimize its existence. Meanwhile, the mainstream American comics scene is packed with guys (HUGELY popular guys like Joe Madureira and Humberto Ramos, to name a couple) who have a much better understanding of what it is that makes manga manga, and create better and more fully-realized work.

There's plenty of great manga-influenced, English language comics out there (Joe Mad's "Battle Chasers", Adam Warren's "Dirty Pair" work, and Fred Perry's fantastic "Gold Digger" to name just a few), but the manga influence on the works comes off far less contrived than it does in, say, an American artist completely tracing a Japanese artist's work.

A lot of Tokyopop's OEL stuff is, to be kind, amateurish. There are books like, say, "Boys of Summer", that have a real, professional writer (former "Superman" and "X-Men" writer Chuck Austen) and a real, professional artist (and a Japanese one, at that! Hiroki Otsuka) that have me intrigued, but most of it doesn't interest me in the slightest

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My approach to bringing the idea of "OEL" into the world was to: - acknowledge that there are English-speaking comic artists who have adapted manga into their work, and that their approach is uniquely differentiable from Japan AND traditional comics from the West

Yes, and there are plenty of English-speaking comic artists that don't need the crutch of pretending their work IS manga by using a superficial term. By that definition, Frank Miller's "Ronin" would be an OEL manga because it's so uniquely differentiable from American comics due to its nods to manga, but if you told Mr. "Sin City" that he was an "OEL manga artist", he'd probably laugh at you.

Quote:

(And before ANYONE jumps in with another "It's all just comics" ... I'm tired of this old semantic cop-out. For your sake, I will agree that, yes, on a fundamental level, Akira and Cathy are TOTALLY the same!)

Man, sounds like somebody needs to do some reading.

I would also like to note that even Viz, one of the biggest manga publishers in the industry, typically doesn't even use the word "manga". They use the term "graphic novel" (as in all those "Start your graphic novel collection today!" blurbs in their advertisements), which is the widely accepted term for a fully illustrated, novel-length work, regardless of what country its creators are from or how big the characters eyes are.

As for the main topic at hand, the Tokyopop move to Harper Collins is a great business decision on their part, and will likely only strengthen their stranglehold on the traditional bookstore market. I'm curious how this will affect what titles they choose to pursue.