Forum - View topicNEWS: Comic Shop Responds About Its 'Buy American' Ad
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vashthekaizoku
 Posts: 261 Location: The House of Rat |
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Yeah with my Star Wars comics, I prefer to wait for the graphic novel. That's why I cancelled my subscription service, lack of storage space. And lucky for me, my local library carries the Fables series, so like with manga I want to read but not own, I put in a purchase request there! The publisher makes quite a bit more money from the library buying 8-10 copies versus my one...^__^ My main problem with American graphic novels versus manga is, with the kind of paper they use, pages keep coming unbound. I've had several over the years where I couldn't keep the book upright in my shelf anymore. It's the same issue with game strategy guides or any large books of that format, i.e. coffee table sized books. |
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mewpudding101
Industry Insider
 Posts: 2209 Location: Tokyo, Japan |
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It's like Cars for Clunkers... Except you trade in your car for money for a clunker. AND ONE DOLLAR?!
...I don't know man, even if the go American thing was a joke, they're still trying to tell you to trade in your "stupid" manga for "far-superior" comic books. *bleh* |
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sburstall
Posts: 178 Location: Ohio, USA |
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Thank you. I used to collect comics from the mid-80s to the end of the 90s. I dropped it because of just that reason, all the retconnincs, rebooting, mega-crossovers and specials. Also the storylines and characters became very dark. Characters murdering each other wasn't out of the question. And finally the artwork just got bad, all trying to be the next Jim Lee. I found mangas and it was good to just read a fun series or one not to dark. I'm not being pro-manga/Japanese, I just got tired of American fare. |
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oblivious247
Posts: 242 |
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And how do you know they haven't done similar promotions with American comics before? The store did not intend to offend anyone, but easily buttthurt fans like you will take issue with it, for the sake of taking issue with it. My LCS lets me trade in old manga for store credit. How about we take issue with that too. |
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jsevakis
Former ANN Editor in Chief
 Posts: 1684 Location: Los Angeles, CA |
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You know, the flyer might have been a bit much, but in hindsight, I think this is actually kind of a brilliant idea.
There are lots more young manga fans than American comic fans these days. Except they don't go to comic stores, they go to book stores. So... 1. Lure manga fans into the store by letting them trade in old manga for something cheap. 2. Hook them (hopefully) on something you can only get at a comic store. Get free used manga inventory (of old Vol 1s, which are hard to get and required to sell later books). 3. Lure in MORE manga fans because suddenly you have a bunch of really cheap used Vol 1's which are hard to get. How well this would work in practice is anyone's guess, but I really do like the idea. If I ran a comic book store I'd totally try it, especially if I lived in an Otaku-rich area. |
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Tamaria
 Posts: 1512 Location: De Achterhoek |
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I wouldn't like it either if the trade worked the other way around and the promotion was worded in some kind of Japanophile way. I don't see one thing as a replacement for the other. What's wrong with liking both? The fact that it's a DC promotion doesn't help. They've always made it pretty clear they don't think much of manga, even when CMX was still in business! Even if it's just a coincidence it turned out this way, it doesn't look good if you consider DC's history of, well, not liking manga. I would have liked the promotion if they let you trade in any type of first issue/volume for one of those first issues. |
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Chagen46
 Posts: 4377 |
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Oh no, heaven forbid that DC doesn't like its competition. That's how business goes. DC and any other manga publisher are in the comics sector of the market. The two compete against each other. Of course DC doesn't like its competition, would you like the people you're competing against for money? |
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Tamaria
Posts: 1512 Location: De Achterhoek |
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I'm going to try and see if I can find that interview from back when MINX was introduced. The editor, Karen Berger, spend the whole interview talking about how DC was doing something totally new by publishing comics for girls, while ignoring the fact that DC's manga imprint had some of the best translated shoujo manga in its catalogue. DC's funny like that. Last edited by Tamaria on Thu Jan 19, 2012 2:37 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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oblivious247
Posts: 242 |
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They're not saying anything is wrong with liking both. And this isn't a DC promotion. It's been explained plenty of times already. This is a store specific promotion. DC just gave them the go ahead. I also have over the years failed to see how DC hates manga. I know Jim Lee himself isn't terribly fond of the style, but that says nothing about the entire company. Poor handling is not the same as not liking or hating. |
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Tamaria
Posts: 1512 Location: De Achterhoek |
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It's a promotion supported by DC (they'd paying for 75% of the costs of the ad), it's an unfortunate association.
Then again, gently shooting themselves in the foot without noticing is one of things DC does best. Here's on of those interviews, by the way. |
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jsieczkar
Posts: 139 |
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I've seen stores do it before and it has had been hit and miss, when the store I co-own ran a similar deal we had maybe 20 or so trade ins but less then a quarter continued to buy more american comics. Now when we did it the opossite way around it worked out better in that a dozen or so comic buyers now buy Japanese comics in addition to keeping the same same number of American published titles. To be honest it seemed many of the Japanese comic readers barely looked at the books then proclaimed that they sucked and ranted about the greatness of Japan. It seemed to be a way to check a box so they could now claim to have read american comics more then anything else. That said it did the deals did make the store money which from the store side is the important part.
That is kinda surprising I haven't heard of many issues with the bindings other then Marvel Essential line which has had many issues and I really don't advise people to buy them. |
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Alan45
 Village Elder Posts: 9875 Location: Virginia |
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@ jsieczkar
I have a couple of Top Cow trades with some loose pages and a Witchblade vol 3 where all of the pages fell out. (note: the vol. 3 of the Ron Marz run not the original). I think it depends on which bindery they were using at the time. |
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AilisKnil
Posts: 87 |
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The fact that this is even an issue is kind of sad.
Too many defensive people here getting all worked up over nothing. |
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Anime World Order
 Posts: 389 Location: Florida |
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I received a phone call yesterday from the two people most closely involved with this ad's content: the store owner who designed the ad (that admittedly doesn't really know much about manga or its readership, if that couldn't be inferred) and a more anime/manga-savvy friend of his who's used the store for some of his anime club's meetings. The call stemmed from my comment replies to this post. Like everything I write, my comments are a little longer than they need to be, but I more or less spelled out for them exactly what the issue was and exactly why it's a big deal that the major anime news outlets such as ANN and CRN are carrying this story. Please go read my comments on the matter before reading the rest of this, as I don't feel inclined to repeat it all here.
I advised them that they should do more than just leave comments on message boards of sites. I suggested they put up something on the front page of the store's website, post a Youtube video, make posts to the various social networking accounts they own, and directly inform all of the major manga/comics outlets that have carried the story to date what their positions are while accepting responsibility for the ad and acknowledging that the satirical nature of it is not quite so easily discerned among the very people for whom this ad is targeted to, many of whom are in a different age/gender demographic than their traditional base. Their plan was to be guests on a podcast later today and then release a video talking about it next Tuesday. They plan to tweak the ad "while still maintaining an element of controversy." I made my opinion known that in an era of instant messaging and communication, it would not be a good idea to remain silent for that long. I also made it known that they need to be really careful with how they alter this advertisement, because a commonly-held perception among manga fans of US comic stores and comic cons--a perception which that ad feeds into--is "they hate manga and want its fans to remain silent, yet they still want our money." If it gets altered and it's still "just as bad" or "worse," that will only foster negative goodwill. So far the store's homepage hasn't been updated, the ad hasn't been changed yet, and so on. Those things may still yet happen, though. I can't say either way whether it'll be "too late" by then, but their hearts are in the right place. Still, the majority of people who'll see this ad will not have direct interaction with the ad's creator. In a few days few people if anyone will remember the specifics of this particular incident, but a lot of people will continue to think "I'm not bothering with US comics" or "no way am I going into a comic book store, those places are hostile environments towards readers like me." Incidents like this help perpetuate that. Last edited by Anime World Order on Thu Jan 19, 2012 4:29 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Teriyaki Terrier
 Posts: 5689 |
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Here is what I think the comic shop owner was actually trying to say without the corporate speak.
"Opps, might have offended someone there. I don't want any lawsuits or any trouble. Mostly because I know that will cost money and I don't want to spend money on yet another lawsuit in my life. While I am blatantly doing anything to skirt around this issue, I am now going to go a sentence on how I do like anime and manga simply because if I don't, I am likely going to lose more business. My sponsors don't like that." I think that in a nut shell is what our disgruntled comic shop speaker is trying to say. Hard to say if there was any motive other than selling comics with the previous message, but I think the answer will vary from one person to the next. I will say this much though, this won't be forgotten by DC and likely they are going to try to different tactic in the future. Throw in the race card and every lawyer in the area will have a field day with this one. |
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