Hola Family, Friends and those I haven’t met yet
Visited Barnes & Noble with my sister yesterday.
Years ago I worked at one of their stores, actually helped to open up one of the first superstores in New York City. I remember — and this was back in the early 90’s — we had to practically beg management to devote one small shelf to comic book graphic novels. At that time there were very few — if any — graphic novels being sold in bookstores. Well, we finally got our shelf and loaded it up with Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing; Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman; Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns & Sin City (and an awesome Daredevil); Scott McCloud’s Zot; James O’Barr’s The Crow.
But there were no Manga graphic novels at that time in any of the bookstores — unless you went to a specialty comic book store — like the downtown “Forbidden Planet.” Coolest place on Earth, at least when you were a comic book / monster / giant robot / hungry kid.
But today, during my patrol through Barnes & Noble, I found more bookshelves loaded up with Manga graphic novels and barely 2 1/2 shelves devoted to mainstream comic book graphic novels — like Batman, Avengers, Wonder Woman, Superman, X-Men.
What does this all mean? That Manga is sweeping the planet and leaving the traditional comic books lost in the dust. I listen to a lot of comic book related podcasts, for example Comics by Perch, and this is a regular topic. And from my understanding, Manga publishers do a better job at making their books reader friendly and easily accessible, while the current insanity of mainstream comic books, with all their reboots, exorbitant prices, redundant storylines and poorly written scripts, continues to turn off many longtime fans.
Well, in my heart I still prefer the mainstream superheroes. And my sister prefers Manga. But she’s still cool, so I won’t give her a hard time.
And as Perch would say, “Thanks for listening.”
Have a great Thursday everyone. And until mañana . . .
Bring on the Spiders!
Ian S
Florida!
P.S.
“No rulers were harmed during the making of this cartoon.”
“Let’s still be careful out there.”