Forum - View topic

REVIEW: Andromeda Stories GN 1-3

vashfanatic wrote:

It's relatively attractice aesthetically, but it doesn't scream "check me out!"

It isn't supposed to scream "check me out!" - that isn't how you sell classic comics (or classic anything else for that matter).

Hence the cover has to say, "this is not only classic, it is cool and you should try it." Basic marketing.

vashfanatic wrote:

Hence the cover has to say, "this is not only classic, it is cool and you should try it." Basic marketing.

Of course. But screaming isn't the way to do that. Some products are best sold by brow beating you (i.e. the hard sell) and some products are best sold by seducing you (i.e. the soft sell). Basic marketing.

Which products have the subtlest branding and most low key aesthetics? The higher quality, more expensive ones.
Which products have the most garish, brash packaging? The cheaper, mass market ones.

Know thy niche.

And how does a bland black-and-white pseudo-modern-deisgn cover "seduce" you? It's blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand. ;-p

I mean, I know what you're talking about; think of the cover of Watchmen, for instance. I'm not saying it has to have giant explosions on the cover or anything. But this one is just plain uninteresting.

The more expensive and "higher quality" brands are closer to the left. Tell me which you think looks the most generic? This isn't just done with ketchup though. I could show countless other examples.

You've just shown how wrong this comparison is. Sure, they don't have to market it because people "in the know" know that this rum is better. But then they also crank the price up to 100 times the lesser brand. It doesn't matter if it doesn't catch anyone's eye, they don't have to sell as much to make a profit.

While a small niche of anime fans may know about the work and about Keiko Takemiya, the vast majority won't,

and meanwhile it's the same $12 most manga is;

When it comes to manga, you do need something in its production to make it stand out, since it isn't exactly on the level of "high culture" the way a good bottle of rum might be.

As much as you may not want to admit it, manga is, as with ketchup, of necessity a mass market product, no matter how good it may be.

I have to agree with someone earlier that my favorite covers are those of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, which are art in and of themselves, and depict stunning and dramatic elements of the work inside.

And I dare you tell me that Nausicaa is somehow a cheaper, "gauche" work compared to Andromeda Stories. I dare you.

Quote:

I have to agree with someone earlier that my favorite covers are those of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, which are art in and of themselves, and depict stunning and dramatic elements of the work inside.

I quite agree. But unless the original covers of Andromeda Stories are similarly lovely (and similarly appealing to the audience the books were pitched to in America) that's hardly a useful comparison.

Quote:

And I dare you tell me that Nausicaa is somehow a cheaper, "gauche" work compared to Andromeda Stories. I dare you.

See above. Just because one book benefits from a facelift doesn't mean that all books should get one. For example, Dark Horse were wise to give Lone Wolf And Cub completely new covers and equally wise not to give, say, Akira completely new covers. Furthermore, the fact that I like the Andromeda Stories covers doesn't mean that I don't like any other covers as much or more and nor does it mean that I think all books should have covers that look just like them.

Also - if something is a classic, and is really really good, then why the hell wouldn't you want to make it appealing to the average reader and not just the "elite"? Why would you want to box classics into a niche, rather than making them accessible to everyone? A mediocre series like this might not matter, but if the covers to To Terra had been moor appealingly designed, you could have had the chance to lure in a host of new readers to a series they might otherwise never had heard of. Color me an optimist if you will - but it was a good cover design that first made me pick up Gene Wolfe.

This isn't about any one type of fan being "elite," it's about trying to reach out to audiences beyond manga fans.

I don't see how having a distinctive cover somehow makes the books inaccessible to your average fan. Only the fans themselves make this inaccessible when they won't read something because the artwork is "too old looking."

Maybe we just look for different things in covers, I'm mostly attracted to books that look different from the surrounding books rather then good or bad covers.

If you go to Amazon.co.jp, you'l find that the Japanese covers to Andromeda Stories are.... hideous. But so are these.

Also - if something is a classic, and is really really good, then why the hell wouldn't you want to make it appealing to the average reader and not just the "elite"? Why would you want to box classics into a niche, rather than making them accessible to everyone?

To me they scream that Verticle didn't care enough to be bothered to come up with something truly compelling for the cover and just rushed these out cheaply.

Funny, your reference to "Joe Naruto fan" sure seemed to imply that. Also, given how all manga is lumped together in book stores, do you really think that non-manga fans are going to somehow stumble across this?

...which is probably true. All I was saying before this mess started out was that I agree with Casey about the covers. I hope that, while you like them, you can understand why someone could find them very, very unattractive. To me, they look like they were thrown together on Adobe Photoshop by an amateur; there's no thought put into these designs. To me they scream that Verticle didn't care enough to be bothered to come up with something truly compelling for the cover and just rushed these out cheaply.