Go into my local Barnes & Noble to waste some time staring at shit I'll never buy

>go into my local Barnes & Noble to waste some time staring at shit I'll never buy
>get to the graphic novel section
>dozens of shelves with manga of all sorts, from ancient to modern, all neatly stacked
>TWO shelves for comics, looking like an ancient dusty library
>most of it is just Spider-Man and 80s Batman
>the comic book shelf is approached by some dude in his 30s wearing a fucking fedora
>the manga shelves are swarmed by a gaggle of what looks to be grade school kids talking about Naruto non-stop, and also some young girls straight outta Starbucks
>and they actually bought stuff
What went so fucking wrong with this industry? When you look at manga section, it feels exciting - so much cool shit to buy, there are various silly promotions and tie-in toys, etc. In comparison, the comic book section feels like a fucking graveyard of shit your dad read when he was your age, it looks boring, drab, and obviously on its way out.
The movies and cartoons are successful, so why can't comic books be successful? What is so cursed about this printed media in particular?

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it's gotten so bad lol, my book shop has never advertised comics, they had few graphic novels but in the last few years manga has grown soo popular they even display anime statue figures around the area and at the entrance, they've never done that for comics for as long as i've went

The American industry has been barely functional for almost 70 years at this point due to a combination of awful business and creational practices. The major traditional publishers like Marvel and DC are only big in the ever dwindling direct market where they can scam people into buying floppies, by far the shittiest format still being used. People also know about the big two's approach to storytelling, which is having no story, but having a continuity anyway because you you have to shake things up with events where THINGS WILL NEVER BE THE SAME (for 2-3 months). Manga on the other hand, is being sold in almost every book related market in the much more favorable trade/tankobon format and actually attempt to make stories.

Format is something people don't talk about enough. It's much easier to buy manga in tankobons than single-issue comics - it's way more stuff to actually read, you get more bang for your buck, they are easy to store (because they can stand up on the shelves like actual books), and they simply look really damn neat, you can present them in all kind of ways and make a visually pretty collection.
Floppies, meanwhile, are trash, literally. You'll be keeping them in a stack somewhere in your basement, if you decide to keep them, you can't display them in any way (without a sleeve with a piece of cardboard, or a plastic shell). Who the fuck would want to buy that?

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You do realise most mangas and comics are printed weekly / monthly then collected in TPB right?

Barnes & Noble is a national chain for normalfag media content
There are local comic book shops in every part of the country where those comic sales are made. Manga specific shops don’t exist. So all manga is sold through Amazon or at Barnes & Noble

That makes me wonder how come there haven't been shops dedicated to just selling manga in recent years in the states

>Naruto
I was in middle school when that craze start, and I never got into it, and considering how many people complained about most of the latter part of the story, it was probably a good thing.

Yes, printed in magazines. Which works far better than buying individual floppies. Imagine if you could just buy Weekly DC Magazine like you can WSJ, with literally everything DC-related in a single book.

Unironically? Unchecked capitalism.

More specifically, the monopolization of media, the goliaths in particular of which you all know of. The result is mass produced corporate garbage that's always safe and has the widest appeal, because the content is so inoffensive no one can find anything to complain about. The golden days of niche comic companies comprised of teams working on passion projects are long gone in America, however this business practice is still alive and well in other countries, like Japan. Back in the day a typical comic was produced by an entire team of people; penciler/inker/colorist/writer/letterer/editor/and several others. So, in countries where comics are thriving, their content blows everything else out the water, because their bestselling comics are in fact produced by a team of people. But since the comics industry (as it was) in the USA is dead and buried all that's left is independently funded authors who are expected to do ALL of the work previously listed, starting out for free no less on giant media goliaths (Webtoons & Tapas) who take all the profits. The result is newgrounds tier shit, not at the fault of anyone but our own shitty government who favor the big guy at all times.

Trust me you're not missing much with that series
Especially in recent times

But that's the weird part. Comic book movies and TV shows are pretty much THE normalfag stuff nowadays, and yet actual comic books can only be found in old brick and mortar comic book shops. They're not sold anywhere else anymore, but you can buy current manga in your local fucking Target, right near the toy aisle absolutely full of cape toys based on movies and cartoons.

There's just a lot more variety in it.
More variety = more people attracted to it = more reason for book stores and general retail shops to stock it = more of it existing in these spaces.
I could go to my local B&N and find everything from popular shounen to obscure shoujo to edgy gorey seinen to literal loli smut.
There's something for pretty much everyone, whereas comics only tend to be made for middle-aged dudes or elementary schoolers.

I have a feeling your the type to blame any and every problem on capitalism.

If you knew anything about comics you know there are stories for all ages
Comics have a lot of variety in their stories when you look outside of marvel and dc

Pretty good to put the first volume of SpyxFamily on discount what with the anime's recent premiere. Stores should take advantage of the upcoming Dr. Strange film with a collection of selected, relevant co-Pfft HAHAAHA no they won't.

Uhh, I don't think there are any American loli smut comics my dude.

Not really. Comic books are 90% capes, say thanks to CCA.

because manga is still niche despite what the internet would tell you. Also they take up a lot more space which is why you always see them get huge sections while the comics, usually much more compact, don't need as much space.

>t.worked at a comic book store part time

Nice, only took like 5 minutes for this retarded "counter"argument to pop up.

Keep clutching those failproof freedoms, it's going to slowly dig us deeper into a hole and we'll end up on the same exact footing as actual communist counties.

As I said, you don't look at anything past dc and marvel
That's like saying that manga is 50% battle shonen and 50% isekai
Just a generalized statement with not enough merit

True but there is a /ss/ comic with a scantly clad cowboy

You're partially-right, but still off-base.
The real issue is not Capitalism, it's the stock market.
Many of the manga magazines and publishers in Japan are owned by giant corporations, but many of those corpos are family-owned and not publicly-traded, so they're not obsessed with infinite growth for the sake of pleasing stockholders and investors.
Hitotsubashi for instance (who owns Shueisha (Shounen Jump), Viz Media, and Hakusensha (Young Animal)) is a family-owned corporation.

Capitalism is fine, retarded IP laws are what fucked comic books over in the long run. Creators don't own shit, only companies do. The entire industry is a bunch of freelancers writing stories about characters their grandfathers read when they were kids. There's no throughline, no actual story worth telling. When was the last time someone made a new original superhero that took the comic book industry by storm (not just a new costume like Spider-Gwen, but an actual new hero)? And that's because no one can be arsed to make new characters when they know DC and Marvel will take ownership anyway. And this stagnation destroyed comics.

That wasnt a counter argument, it was conjecture based on your post. You know, like how you just made a bunch of assumptions based on my response?

What is Image?

Shonen is not analogous to capes, it's not just superheroes, but action in general. If mainstream comics had as much variety as Japanese shonen has, maybe people would be more interested.
>As I said, you don't look at anything past dc and marvel
I'm sure there's a buttload of original webcomics and whatnot, but they're having any influence on the industry at large.

>because manga is still niche despite what the internet would tell you.
Uhh, what?
The biggest comic publisher in America last year (in terms of sales) was a manga publisher, user.

Having influence doesn't tell on whether or not the comic is good
There are a ton of webcomics but there are still comic companies that produce things that aren't just capeshit

A company that produced Spawn, Invincible, and something else no one cares about.

>movies and TV shows are pretty much THE normalfag stuff nowadays
You answered your own inquiry. Comics are not movies and TV.

>grade school kids talking about Naruto non-stop
>Naruto
>not One Piece
plebs

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Then why isn't there just a manga shop selling manga and anime merch?
Why not just cut out the middle man with B&N and just sell the stuff directly to the public and even more?

quarterly profits, which are the default measurement of success because of capitalism, are the thing that drives the millions of events nobody gives a fuck about.

you have to deliberately not think about the consequences of capitalism to not understand how it's causing the arts to deteriorate.

There are anime merch stores, and geek stores in general always carry anime merch. And why would you need to relegate manga to separate manga stores when it can be sold in much bigger places?

>Then why isn't there just a manga shop selling manga and anime merch?
Because it's cheaper to just sell it at retail shops or general bookstores?
That's part of WHY manga has gotten so popular, because it's available everywhere instead of just at specialty shops.

But the retail shops still get a cut of the profit from the sales, seems like it would be better to use the money they've already made to make VIZ stores to make 100% of the profit

>Capitalism is fine
it really isn't. quarterly profits don't just kill comic companies--they snuff out the soul from any publicly traded company.

ever notice why a certain brand suddenly lost the quality it was once known for? the reason for that, 9 times out of 10--capitalism.

what was the motivation driving stan lee and jack kirby? they didnt care about the money, they were just doing it for art's sake?

The retailers would get a cut of the profits no matter what.
Do you not understand how publishing works?

To have a higher chance to have long time customers that will go to your designated store for your fix while also providing updates on the newest manga currently in the magazines

Why would they be getting a cut of the profit if the publisher made their own store?

The "event" craze hadn't started yet.

Lee was doing it for money, certainly--but they were doing it the old fashion way; by making a product that people want to buy and enjoy.

But they already have that WITHOUT specialty stores, so why would they waste the time/money?

When has any comic publisher ever created their own retail store?
user, are you even reading the insane shit you're typing?

How's what I'm saying insane?
There's been DC and Marvel stores

Specialty stores would bring in more profit
Doesn't seem like even a dent in their money if they made it

>There's been DC and Marvel stores
And how well did those fare?
I think that should answer your question.

So Stan Lee was motivated by profits, and made good art.
Modern comics are motivated by profits, and make bad art.
So the conclusion you come to is that profit motivation is the problem?
Isn't it easier to say that modern writers and artists aren't as talented as ones form the past, or due to IP laws aren't motivated to be creative, or that decades of continuity stifles creativity, or a hundred other explanations that aren't retarded?

They can only last in major cities (and even then only 1/2 in each) where there is a larger clientele base. Otherwise the topic is still way too niche and top heavy with bestselling manga that are sold at bigger retailers for it to make financial sense to make one. Comic/toys stores can cover a tiny manga and merch section while everything else can be bought online

>Specialty stores would bring in more profit
The direct market kind of disproves that.
If anything specialty stores result in LESS profit since they get less foot traffic.
It's much better to sell your comic at a bookstore or a grocery store than in a specialty shop.

>blood on the tracks
Not even worth it for 90% off. Man, I read it for free at my library and still feel like I got ripped off.

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user, don't tell me you got filtered by schizokino.

>Modern comics are motivated by profits, and make bad art.
No, no
>Modern comics are motivated by profits
THAT's all. I know there's people who think it's a conspiracy that WB is fucking retarded and trying to replace their long-time audience with a new one, but I think it's just their incompetence--not "the Jews trying to take away what makes the God-given land so great!"

Don't get me wrong, I hate Israel's ruling class, but I just don't think anybody gives enough of a fuck about comics these days to try "ruining" them to crumble a culture.

nuzlocke comics is far from schizokino.

i feel like actual schizokino would be a story written by a schizo, not one that features a character who happens to have a delusion once in a while for the sake of a plot point.

I know nothing about the industry but it has to be more about manga publishers being hard shills and/or marvel/dc fumbling their oligopoly over the actual content of the comics
Maybe printing black/white is infinitely easier to produce and for stores to take a risk on without losing a fortune?

>once in a while
Oh user, I was just joking about you getting filtered, don't tell me you actually did.

The whole thing is popcron.
You can read a whole volume in 10 minuets.

Parasyte, FMA, and Nichijou are right there, BotT doesn't deserve to be on the same table as them.

It's definitely the content.
Manga is just more exotic, which makes it more interesting to your average reader.
If I want to see typical American stuff I can just go watch some generic TV show, comics nowadays don't really offer me anything I can't get from TV or movies.

You get long-time customers regardless. What comic book shops miscalculated is the importance of foot traffic. Turns out a ton of people get into comics when they buy their first comic in their local convenience store, no one starts by going out of their way to find comic shops. That's exactly how things work in Japan - WSJ is sold anywhere magazines are sold, you can always grab one for dirt-cheap and be up to speed with everything Shonen Jump, just like that. Comic book stores are not nearly as convinient.

I dunno, you tell me.

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Not enough faggots and niggers in comics.

American comics can be saved if every single comic book has a black or gay in it.

We need more Tom Taylor’s and Ta-Nehisi Coates of the world.

This.
I don't know who started this trend of "specialty shops" being something to aspire towards but it is literally the opposite of how things should work if you're trying to actually expand a medium.