Fluit Notes

What Age Is It Now Anyway?

I’ve been talking about the ages of comics for the past three columns (if you think I’m being long-winded, you should see all of the stuff I left out).  Either way, I appreciate your perusal and participation.  So far, I’ve speculated as to whether or not Brightest Day and Heroic Age will launch a new age, sided with the broad consensus that there is such a beast as a Bronze Age, and struck out on my own to propose a Fourth Age from 1987-1996.  That leaves the issue of what do we do with the last dozen years or so.  Is it another age? 

If you’ve been reading along, then you already know that my answer is “Yes.”  However, I’ll readily admit that this is my own opinion rather than a widely-accepted theory.   

 There are two major arguments against this being a fifth age.  The first is “everything since **** is just one big age.”  There is some validity to that argument.  Indeed, every new age has had to overcome that perception. 

 Jeff-of-Earth-J had a great quote in response to the first column: "Modern Age" is a term I use for whatever the current age which has not yet been defined. For example, I used to say "Golden Silver and Modern," but now I say "Golden, Silver, Bronze and Modern." 

 This shows that, despite initial resistance, the idea of a defined age of comics can gain acceptance.  The argument would have been at one time, “everything since 1970 (the end of the Silver Age) is just one big age.”  Now, it’s more likely to be “everything since 1986 (the end of the Bronze Age) is just one big age.”  

 However, I argued that the years 1987 to 1996 have all of the features and characteristics of an age, with one notable exception- a widely agreed-upon name.  However, if we were to insert one of the suggested names, we would have Golden, Silver, Bronze, Iron and everything after.  In other words, “everything since 1996 (the end of the Iron Age) is one age.”  

 I’m glad to say that I’m not the only one who has considered this.  In 1997 and ’98, Wildstorm Studios produced a crossover between the X-Men and their own Wildcats.  The story would span several eras of time, reflecting the different ages of comics.  The four issues were the Golden Age, the Silver Age, the Dark Age (one of the other suggested names for the Fourth Age) and the Modern Age. 

 The second major argument against this being a fifth age has to do with sales.  Figserello wrote, “Sales follow successful new storytelling fashions, so the two are interlinked.”  Indeed, the earlier ages are defined not only by peaks in creative output, but also by spikes in sales. 

 That causes a problem for the current age.  After all, current comic book sales pale in comparison with earlier ages.  The best-selling comics of today would be mid-level performers in the ’80s or in danger of cancellation in the ‘60s. 

  However, I don’t think that necessarily precludes the possibility of a fifth age.  For one thing, an age is not necessarily a direct comparison between peaks.  By that definition, the Silver Age wouldn’t count as an Age either.  After all, the sales of the Silver Age were one-fifth of the sales of the Golden Age.  Similarly, the Bronze Age peak may not have been as high as the peak of the Silver Age but it was still a peak compared to the years that had come between.   

On the other hand, the last fifteen years have given us a valley and a peak that help shape the ages of comics.  The years of 1997-99 had the lowest comic book sales in history.  They’re so low that I wouldn’t even include them in an age.  They’re kind of like the years between the Golden and Silver Ages (which saw great sales in other genres but the near-extinction of superheroes) and the years between the Silver and Bronze Ages (according to some definitions).  In contrast, the years 2000-2007 saw seven straight years of growth.  That’s something that hadn’t happened since the Golden Age (the Silver Age’s best stretch was 4 years).

 Another issue is that sales contrasts across eras are not apple-to-apple comparisons.  Silver Age numbers are based on the number of issues printed for returnable newsstand distribution and could be double the number of issues actually sold.  Current numbers are based on issues sold to the direct market- while ignoring subscriptions, newsstand distribution and international sales- and could be half of the actual number of issues sold.  I’m not saying that current comics sell as well as Silver Age comics.  They don’t.  But the gap isn’t as great as some observers would have you believe.  Plus, modern comics are also sold in trade paperbacks, a secondary market that extends shelf-life and raises readership. 

 The current age may not be as commercially successful as the Silver Age, but that doesn’t have to mean it’s not an age at all.

 I think it is.  I think the sales are part of the story (including the seven straight years of growth that I mentioned previously).  I think the expansion of the market is part of the story.  Comics have expanded into new genres, new formats and new territories.  The last decade has seen the explosion of manga, trade paperbacks and bookstore sections devoted to comics.  You can even buy comics in airport terminals. 

 Of course, it’s not only about sales.  It’s also about style. 

 Luke Blanchard asked (yes, I’m quoting Luke again; sorry, Luke), “Is there the same kind of contrast between superhero comics of today and of fifteen years ago as there was between the superhero comics of the mid-70s and those of the early 60s?”

 I think so.  Modern comics have very different features than Iron Age comics.  Comics of the early ‘90s were often fast-paced, action-packed affairs.  An actual story sometimes took back-seat to a sequence of fight scenes.  Comics of the mid-aughts were slow-paced.  They were deconstructed and fans would sometimes wait four to six issues for a big fight. 

Compare Jim Lee’s first issue of Wildcats in 1992 with Joe Casey’s first issue of Wildcats 3.0 in 2002.  Compare the “Reign of the Supermen” in 1993 with “World without a Superman” this past year.  Compare Joe Madureira’s X-Men in 1994 to Grant Morrison’s New X-Men in 2004.  They’re completely different animals. 

 And I’m not the only one who’s noticed.  John Dunbar made a good point when he discussed the history of Marvel comics in terms of its chief editors.  The comic books from the Joe Quesada era are as different from the Tom DeFalco era as the Jim Shooter era is from the Stan Lee era. 

 So yeah, I think we’re in the fifth age of comics.  Call them what you like: Chromium and Platinum (I haven’t given up on them yet), Dark and Prismatic (with a tip of the cap to Figserello), Iron and Modern.  But I think that they’re two very distinct and different ages, rather than one big “everything after.”

 And, yeah, I’m worried that we’re actually at the end of the fifth age of comics.  After the highs of 2007 (the best-selling year since the pre-crash days of ’95), we’ve seen two years of slight decline.  The industry isn’t back to the lows of 1997-’99.  At least, not yet. 

 Which brings me back to the subject that started this all.  I sincerely hope that DC’s Brightest Day and Marvel’s Heroic Age can reverse the trend.  I hope that new technology like Apple’s iPad can be a jump-start for the industry the way that the direct market was at the beginning of the Bronze Age.  I think things have been pretty good for the past decade.  And I’d like to see it keep going. 

 Thanks for listening, everyone.  The End. 

Trade Paperback Observations: Shaman Warrior

Shaman Warrior

by Park Joong-Ki

 

I have a mild interest in manga.  I’ll read it from time and time, and not just “Lone Wolf and Cub” though that’s the only series that I’ve followed extensively.  But I’m not devoted to it.  I don’t find it to be some panacea for the deficits of North American comics.  Sure, there’s a wide range of genres.  But that’s true as well of North American comics for those who are willing to look.  There’s also a range of quality: there’s good manga and great manga; there’s bad manga and awful manga. 

 

Shaman Warrior doesn’t fit any of those categories.  First of all, it’s technically not even manga.  Its official term is ‘manwha’ because it comes from Korea instead of Japan (though the difference in sensibilities is about as minimal as the difference between American and Canadian comics).  Secondly, it’s neither awful nor great.  It’s mediocre.  It’s got the potential to be really good.  But it doesn’t quite get there. 

 

Honestly, I’d love to have been the editor on this book.  I realize that sounds a little egotistical, claiming that I know what’s better for Shaman Warrior than its creator and its original editor.  Yet I couldn’t help thinking, “I wish this book had done this differently or this instead; it would have been so much more interesting.” 

 

The first problem is the pace.  Shaman Warrior is supposed to be an action book (as if you couldn’t tell by the title) yet it moves at a glacial speed, especially in the action scenes.  Comic book fans complained about the decompressed story-telling of U.S. comics but Shaman Warrior puts most of those to shame.  It took ten pages just to set up the opening scene: shaman and bodyguard walk into dusty outpost, give money to beggar, sit down in bar, overhear local ruffians picking on somebody weaker than them, verbal confrontation between bodyguard and local ruffian, local ruffian taunts shaman, then bodyguard starts the initial action sequence.  That’s right, it took ten pages to set up a bar fight. 

 

Unfortunately, the fight scene itself moves even slower.  The whole fight lasts 80 pages.  Literally.  It doesn’t all take place in the bar.  The shaman’s bodyguard beats up the local ruffian.  Then they’re ambushed outside by a whole bunch of local ruffians.  Then, the leader of the local ruffians jumps in.  In a way, it’s more like two fight scenes back to back, one with the gang of ruffians and a second with the leader.  Yet it’s still 80 pages from the first punch to the quiet aftermath.

 

The second problem is that we have no vested interest in the characters who are a part of the fight.  Sure, there are great panels of muscles flexing and swords flashing.  But why should we care about who wins and who loses when the only thing the hero has done is give a couple of coins to a local beggar and the only thing the villain has done is be aggressively rude to his waiter?  There’s a conflict there, but not one to sustain our interest for 80 pages.  A fight needs to be about something.  That’s why Kazuo Koike and Gojima save their big 100 page fight scenes in Lone Wolf and Cub until we’re 20 volunes in and already emotionally vested in the characters.  That’s why Peter Jackson shows the women and children cowering behind the battle lines in The Lord of the Rings and has characters make comments like “I’m fighting for the Shire.”  There’s a reason for the character to fight and there’s a reason for us to care who wins. 

 

Park Joong-Ki doesn’t give us a reason to care until after the fight is over.  That’s when he gives us a flashback showing us the relationship between the shaman and the warrior.  That’s when we see the shaman receive orders from the general.  That’s when the shaman makes the bodyguard promise to watch over his child if he should die while on the mission.  Unfortunately, Joong-Ki doesn’t give us those character motivations until we’re already over 100 pages into the book.

 

Shaman Warrior would have been a lot stronger if the fight scenes were shortened (I’d cut them in half, 20 pages for each phase of the fight and 40 pages overall is enough) and if the character motivation scenes were intercut with the fight scenes.  Naturally, you don’t want to open with 20 pages of exposition anymore than with 80 pages of a single fight scene.  Yet by cutting back and forth between the present-day fight and the earlier character scenes, the author could have given us the action we crave at the same time as he gave us a reason to care. Knowing that the shaman is on a mission for the general would add tension to the fight with the local ruffians: they’re getting in the way of something with military and possibly national significance.  That way we would know that the shaman and his bodyguard have to win. 

 

I had another problem with Shaman Warrior though this particular observation may be more about me than it is about the book.  It might even have something to do with my own cultural inheritance.  A Korean might not have had the same confusion.  The issue is that the gender of the shaman isn’t clear at first.  The shaman is hooded, shadows cover the face.  When the hood is removed, the shaman has long hair and fine features.  The main villain- who turns out to be a rival shaman- also has long hair, fine features and large round earrings.  As a North American, those characteristics strike me as feminine.   I thought the shaman and the rival were both women, though I was never entirely sure. 

 

I actually liked that possibility.  I mentally toyed with the idea that this was a world in which only women could have the powers of a shaman- kind of like Red Star where the men are soldiers and the women are sorcerers.  It would have been an interesting premise for a sword and sorcery comic.  And it would have given an added dimension to the relationship between the shaman and the bodyguard.  There could have been an unrequited love simmering beneath a soldier’s devotion. 

 

Unfortunately, Park Joong-Ki didn’t take that path.  The scene with the shaman’s child struck me as especially feminine with long hair pulled back into a pony tail and shirt half open.  But in the next scene, the rival shaman specifically refers to the hero of the story as “he.”  That removed any doubt and confusion, not but my interest.  As I mentioned earlier, I couldn’t help but think the story would have been more interesting the other way. 

 

However, the problem is more significant.  After being let down in my momentary hope and expectation, I realized that Shaman Warrior doesn’t include any women at all.  It’s not just that the shaman and his rival are both men.  There are no women.  The baby’s mother is never shown or even mentioned.  This is kind of odd, considering that the baby is a newborn who doesn’t even have a name yet.  The shaman discusses naming the baby and his plans for how to raise the baby, but doesn’t bother to mention why the mother is out of the picture.  That kind of information could add to the character’s depth and motivation. 

 

Perhaps I’m not being fair, judging Shaman Warrior based on what it could have been instead of what it was.  It’s not a habit I want to encourage.  But that’s Shaman Warrior.  It scratches the surface of something interesting but is so caught up in 40 page fight scenes (there are more of them later in the book) that it never does anything with them.  I haven’t even covered every incident of missed potential.  Why does the beggar later try to kill the shaman?  Was he some kind of spy?  What’s the significance of the shaman having the eyes of a tiger or a wolf?  How does that relate to his powers?  I started skimming through the fight scenes, wishing for them to be over in the hopes of finding characterization, motivation and answers. 

 

Shaman Warrior isn’t an awful book.  It’s beautiful and it has great potential.  But it left me wanting more than it delivered, instead of wanting to read the next volume.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recent Reviews: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Justice Society of America and more…

It’s been a while since I reviewed a batch of new comics (since February, to be precise). So it’s about time I do it again.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer #15
by Drew Goddard and Georges Jeanty:

Wow. Issue fifteen is the excellent conclusion to the “Wolves at the Gate” story by Drew Goddard. It has pretty much everything you would want. It opens with a death scene shown from the perspective of the person who’s dying and the unspoken declaration of love for Xander by Renee. As a Buffy fan, you feel great remorse for Xander. This isn’t the first time that he’s lost someone he loves to this crusade. There’s also a big fight scene between a cadre of slayers and an army of vampires. Goddard and Jeanty do a great job of balancing the big fight with individual battles within the larger melee, especially focusing on more familiar characters like Willow. So, yeah, there’s a witch fight between Willow and Kumiko which is probably the best magic-on-magic fight I’ve seen since the wizard’s duel in “The Fellowship of the Ring.” There’s another great fight between giant Dawn and Mecha-Dawn. Hey, if you’re going to Tokyo, you might as well have a scene that pays homage to Godzilla. That particular scene is made even better by the supportive commentary from Andrew, whose entire life has been leading up to this moment. Besides the great fights, there’s also plenty of humor and subtle character moments. My one complaint is that it was occasionally difficult to distinguish between Dracula and Twilight. Considering that one is the chief villain and the other a temporary but untrustworthy ally that was a significant detail. Even so, with all of the other good stuff going on in this issue, the best was probably the relationship between Dracula and Xander. We see that Dracula really does care for Xander. And we see Xander grow in his relationship with Dracula, finally standing up to him. Buffy is a great series and this was a great issue.

Justice Society of America #16
by Geoff Johns and Dale Eaglesham

I had been looking forward to the Kingdom Come story-line but lately, JSA has seemed a little slow. I suppose you could accuse this issue of being slow as well as the story isn’t progressed that far in the issue. But in this case, that’s not a problem as the issue itself is so well done. The basic plot is pretty simple. Magog has just been killed and in his place stands Gog. The Justice Society doesn’t know quite what to do. The real story is in their reaction. Some call Gog “a god.” Others are in disbelief. They follow Gog around as he gives gifts of life to the African natives. The heroes aren’t sure if they should stop him or help him. There are some great scenes including a stand-off between Mr. Terrific and Amazing Man as they debate the value of the scientific approach and the approach of faith. Yet the surprising heart of this story has to do with Damage. Johns opens the issue with a quick run-down of Damage’s life from his own point of view. We discover that Damage’s name is more than just a description of his powers. It’s also an apt description of Grant himself. He’s been damaged by a life history filled with abandonment and abuse. So it’s not surprising that Damage is one of the heroes most skeptical of Gog. It is surprising how Gog reacts to Damage: smiling and then healing him outside and in. There’s no big fight in this issue of JSA. But it’s a very good issue anyway, raising questions and issues in a way that is neither one-sided nor trite. And it’s definitely an issue that makes you want to come back for the next one, just to see how it will all work out in the end.

Noble Causes #34
by Jay Faerber and Yildiray Cinar

Noble Causes continues its excellent return from a planned hiatus with this issue. There’s a big battle with a giant Pharaoh. But the real battle is the inter-family squabble as the team is torn apart by the accusation that Frost tried to rape Surge’s girlfriend Amy. The argument shows the rifts that already exist in the family- that Surge has never really felt that he fits in, and that many of the others don’t really trust Celeste who’s proven to be unfaithful in her relationships in the past. Of course, that’s just the argument on the table. Jay Faerber lets the audience in on even more secrets. So while we’re captivated by the current arguments, we’re also salivating at the thought of future arguments that will occur when other secrets get out- especially the arrangement between Doc’s current wife Olympia and his former wife Gaia. There are a couple of other nice features worth mentioning. For one, Yildiray Cinar continues to show his flexibility as an artist, drawing intimate family fights with close-ups and impersonal fights verse villains from afar, and even mixing in a flashback scene with a real Bronze Age feel to it. The other nice feature was the way in which Jay Faerber is building his own little world. He’s previously brought Venture and the Firebirds into Noble Causes. Now, he builds connections to his other title Dynamo 5 by including Captain Dynamo in the flashback and featuring Dynamo 5 villain Bonechill.

Wolverine: Dangerous Games
By Simon Spurrier and Ben Oliver, and Rick Remender and Jerome Opena

I’ve been getting into Wolverine quite a bit recently so I’ve started ordering a lot of these extra one-shots without reading the solicitation information. I found out from X-Axis that this particular issue was going to involve fox-hunting. While Paul O’Brien of that site was pretty cynical about the likelihood that this would be more treatise than story, I was still willing to give the issue a chance. Unfortunately, O’Brien was right. There are plenty of tidbits explaining to us why fox-hunting is unfair, wrong and evil. The hunters are shown to be either stupid or evil. Even the dogs are drawn in a way that makes them look like demons. Spurrier does try to give us a couple of twists to make the story worthwhile. The main hunter had actually planned to get Wolverine involved because he thought that Logan would be a more compelling prey than the foxes. And the hippy who first gets Wolverine involved in the protest turns out to be a traitor working for the hunter. But while that does give the story something more to go on, it doesn’t elevate it above its trite roots as a treatise against fox-hunting. The quote by Oscar Wilde at the end of the story only confirms that this is little more than a morality play. The one good thing is the Ben Oliver art, which has a crisp Carlos Pacheco-like look to it. The back-up is a little bit better. Wolverine is in Thailand, protecting a monastery from a crime syndicate. There’s a glimpse of romance and a brutal battle. It’s nothing we haven’t seen before, but that set-up usually works for Wolverine and it does here as well. My complaint this time is that Wolverine is again shown to be a remorseless killer. I think that particular characterization is off. He does have honor and remorse, even if he has to occasionally set them aside in order to get the job done. He’ll kill when he must, but he doesn’t take glee in it (as he did in the fox-hunt story). As he was once known to say, what he does isn’t very pretty and he’s at least aware of it.

Rann/Thanagar Holy War #1
By Keith Giffen and Ron Lim

I enjoyed the first Rann/Thanagar War, which was depicted in one of the mini-series leading up to Infinite Crisis. Despite my growing disinterest in DC comics right now (or should that be decreasing interest?), I went ahead and picked this up hoping to be able to recapture some of the enjoyment I felt a couple of years ago. The issue certainly started out okay. Katar Hol, aka Hawkman, is infiltrating his own people of Thanagar. He opposed the earlier war and is afraid the religious undercurrents of his society might lead to a second war. Adam Strange, the human who has relocated to Rann, is Hawkman’s ally in this. However, Adam Strange has discovered something sinister on Rann. Whereas Rann had always been a society centered on science, after the last war the Rannians have begun to embrace religion. Hawkman and Strange worry that the two fundamentalist viewpoints will lead to another war. This is the point at which I started to have my first problem with this comic. The Rann/Thanagar conflict had previously been used as a metaphor for the wars between science and religion. While I don’t think that particular conflict needs to exist in the way that it does, I at least have to admit that it does exist. However, now the Rann/Thanagar war is being shown as a battle between two religions. Again, there is both historical and current precedent for that situation. But I don’t really appreciate that religion is being shown as an entirely insidious force while all of the science-minded people are shown to be both rational and ethical. It’s a little too narrow a viewpoint, even for comics. I much prefer the openness I saw in JSA. I wouldn’t write this series off just for that. After all, it’s early and the conflict may yet twist into something else. But I am admittedly leery at this point. That concern was joined by another as the story seemed to stall as it continued. Keith Giffen is working with a large cast. After introducing Hawkman, Adam Strange and the current conflict, he then proceeds to introduce the new Captain Comet (just “Comet,” sorry), Tigorr of the Omega Men, Prince Gavyn of Throneworld (Starman III) and others. Not all of these characters tie into the story immediately, though I suspect they will at some point. However, that made the issue a series of introductions rather than a story. Giffen would have been better off holding back on some of those introductions until the second issue so that more of the story could have been played out in this one. I did enjoy aspects of this comic. I liked the Ron Lim art and it certainly started out well. But I’m not sure I enjoyed enough of this issue to pick up the second one.

Star Wars: Rebellion 14
By Jeremy Barlow and Colin Wilson

At one point, Rebellion was the weakest of the Star Wars titles. That’s no longer the case. The current arc, “Small Victories,” has been the best of this title so far and one of the better Star Wars stories of the year. This conclusion continues the quality. The issue opens with an opportunity for Colin Wilson to show off. Being a Star Wars artist requires the ability to draw technology. Wilson does a great job here depicting multiple Star Destroyers in the midst of evasive maneuvers, a collision and a crash. Later on, Wilson will get another shot with a beautiful B-wing splash page followed by a second space battle. The story is just as strong. Luke, Leia and the other members of the Rebellion strike team are desperate to get off of the planet now that their main objective has been achieved. And there’s a tense moment as they debate whether or not to look for Deena Shan before they depart. As one pilot notes, they don’t even know if she’s alive or dead. Deena has become a real star in this story and Barlow and Wilson do an incredible job of portraying her. Wilson draws her with blood and tears while Barlow gives her dialogue with a powerful mix of tenacity and resignation. We know that the budding romance between Deena and Luke won’t work out, but it’s fun to see it start to blossom anyway.

Captain Britain and MI:13 #2
By Paul Cornell and Leonard Kirk

After an excellent first issue, the second issue of Captain Britain and MI:13 is a bit of a step backwards. That’s not to say that it isn’t a good issue. It just isn’t as great as the first. The Leonard Kirk art is occasionally breath-taking. I loved the splash page of the Skrull armada and the picture of the Black Knight’s body being split apart. Plus, there are some great story moments. Faiza Hussain is turning into an interesting character. With Faiza in this book and Dust in Young X-Men, Marvel is creating a couple of very strong Muslim characters. And I appreciated that none of the current heroes were able to pull the sword from the stone. It was a good twist on the usual tale, and it fits what we know of Pete Wisdom and “John Lennon.” Unfortunately, the story does get a little complicated at points. Tink comes out of nowhere in this story and I’m not entirely sure how Oberon is supposed to fit in with Otherworld (the home of the Captain Britain corps currently being invaded by Skrulls). It’s possible these things make sense to people who have read Cornell’s “Wisdom” mini-series but they’re a little confusing here. However, the first issue was strong enough and there are enough good moments here that I’ll definitely be back for another issue. Plus, how could I pass up getting a chance to read about a super Skrull magical monster with all of earth’s mystical items at his disposal?

Random Musings on New Numbers for Graphic Novels

Recently, I happened to look at the sales charts for graphic novels for April 2007 (courtesy of icv2.com ). I don’t do this every month, but I like to check in from time to time to see how the industry is doing. I find it helps to have facts in order to fend off the Chicken Littles and other dark prophets of doom. I found this month’s sales chart to be particularly interesting and I thought I’d share a few thoughts with the rest of you. 

 

Civil War

The big news this month is Civil War. Marvel wrapped up their big crossover in March and started releasing Civil War-related trade paperbacks in April. And Civil War dominated. The main trade, Civil War itself, brought in 19,215 sales for the month. That makes it not only the biggest graphic novel in April, but it also makes it the biggest debuting graphic novel of the year by nearly 10,000 copies. For the sake of comparison, the top-selling trades in January, February and March were Astonishing X-Men Vol. 3, Civil War: Road to Civil War and 300 with sales of 8.874, 9,340 and 8,726 respectively. It’s safe to say that Civil War killed the competition.

However, the good news for Marvel doesn’t stop with the main title. The Civil War tie-ins and related books took the top four spots and six of the top eight in April. Thanks mainly to the many Civil War books released, April 2007 experienced a whopping 44% growth over the sales of April 2006.

I think this underscores a point I’ve made often over the years: single issue comics and trade paperbacks are not in competition with each other; instead, they are complementary pieces of the same market. The biggest selling single-issue comic of 2006, Civil War, becomes the biggest selling trade paperback of 2007. The sale of singles drives the sale of trades.

This isn’t unusual. We see similar things in the music industry, in which musicians with the best-selling singles are often the same musicians with the best-selling albums. We see similar things in the movie industry, in which the biggest blockbusters in theatres also become the best-sellers in video rentals and DVDs. Admittedly, there’s not a perfect correlation. Some artists sell comparatively better in singles than they do in albums. Some movies, especially family films, sell better in the secondary market of DVD sales than in the primary market of the theatre. But there is a high correlation- the best-selling singles come from the best-selling albums, the best-selling DVDs come from the best-selling movies.

And the same is true in comics: the best-selling comics make for the best-selling trades. There’s not a perfect correlation. But it’s close enough to show that the singles market is capable of driving the trade market and to show that the two formats work together in a complementary fashion, rather than work against each other competitively.

Manga

After a top four filled with Civil War related titles, the next two trades were All-Star Superman Vol. 1 and Fruits Basket I don’t have anything interesting to say about All-Star Superman right now, except to note that it’s another title that does well in single issues before doing well in trades. However, I was intrigued by the presence of Fruits Basket, which happened to be the highest-selling Manga of the month. Vol. 6.

A number of years ago, Manga titles were selling at an exponential rate and some observers predicted that Manga would completely overtake superhero comics. It hasn’t happened yet. Manga is a strong presence -after all, Fruits Basket was the sixth best selling trade of the month- but it isn’t the dominant presence it was predicted to be. There were six Manga titles in the top 50, ranking from Fruits Basket at #6 to Inu Yasha Vol. 29 at #45. We see a similar picture in January, with 7 Manga titles in the top 50, in February with 5 and in March with 4 (although 2 more charted at #51 and #53). Some titles, like Death Note, are growing in sales from one volume to the next. Others, like Inu Yasha and Battle Club, are experiencing small declines. Manga is a steady seller, but it no longer appears to be growing exponentially.

Of course, that’s only looking at the sales charts for the direct market and Manga is a much bigger presence in the bookstores than it is in the local comic shop. I’m certainly not the expert in this area but, thankfully, I don’t have to be. Brian Hibbs, a retailer and columnist at Newsarama has already done the research. The best-selling Manga title of 2006 was Naruto Vol. 9, which sold 101, 457 copies. That’s pretty impressive. It’s even more impressive to know that the 12 volumes of Naruto ranked 1-11 and 16 for the year (the final volume was released in December and ranked 16^th with only one month’s worth of sales). The 12 volumes combined to sell 917,115 trades or an average of 76,426 per volume. That’s some pretty hefty sales.

However, it still doesn’t match the best-selling comic book. The seven issues of Civil War have combined to sell 2,154,641 copies so far. That’s an average of 307,805 copies per issue. Now, that’s not the complete picture. We didn’t look at how well Naruto sold in comic book shops. And we aren’t able to know how well Civil War sold via newsstands. But the partial picture we have shows us this: Civil War sold better in comic book shops than Naruto  sold in bookstores.

I didn’t write this to denigrate Manga. I have nothing against Manga and I hope it continues to sell well. But the idea that Manga sales completely outstrip superhero sales is not borne out by the numbers. Manga outsells comic books in bookstores. Comic books outsell Manga in comic book stores. And, currently, comic books sell better in comic book stores than Manga sells in bookstores. Yet, I think that’s okay. Once again, I don’t think that superhero comic books and Manga are competing with each other. They’re part of the same medium, and what’s good for one isn’t automatically bad for the other. After all, the period of exponential growth for Manga happened to coincide with a period of sustained growth for comic books. They can both be healthy at the same time.

Runaways

Earlier I noted that single issue sales tend to drive graphic novel sales. However, I will readily admit that there isn’t a perfect correlation. Some titles simply sell proportionally better in trade paperbacks and digests. Exhibit A is Runaways. The #5 trade in April was All-Star Superman which sold 6,675 copies. The #9 trade (and the third non-Civil War trade) was Runaways which sold 5,420 copies. In single issues, All-Star Superman averages sales of about 110,000 copies. Runaways averages about 25,000 copies. Yet despite that large difference in single issue sales, the All-Star Superman trade sold only 1,255 more copies than the Runaways trade.

Admittedly, that number is misleading. For one thing, this is the $20 hardcover of All-Star Superman and the $8 digest of Runaways so we’re not exactly comparing apples to apples. Presumably, All-Star Superman will sell some more copies of a soft-cover trade somewhere down the line (I know I’m waiting for one). And, presumably, not as many people would have shelled out $20 for a Runaways hardcover as were willing to shell out for an $8 digest. However, it does show that certain titles have a stronger secondary market presence than others. Runaways is one of them. Looking further down the list, the Runaways digest outsold a volume of Batman: Detective and Wolverine: Origins despite selling significantly fewer copies of single issues.

 

The Walking Dead

The next thing to catch my eye was barely in the top half of the sales charts. It was the 43^rd best selling comic of the month: Walking Dead Vol. 6. What is noteworthy is not that Walking Dead Vol. 6 was sitting at #43, but that Walking Dead Volumes 1, 5 and 2 were also on the chart at numbers 65, 80 and 96. And it wasn’t just April. I looked at the earlier sales charts as well. Volumes 1, 3, 4 and 5 all charted in January and again in March. Volumes 1 and 5 both charted in February. Somewhat quietly, Robert Kirkman’s Walking Dead has become one of the most consistent selling trades in the market.  

These trades aren’t simply selling in the first month of their release, and maybe the second, before fading away from the charts. No, they’re charting again and again, selling more than 1,000 extra copies month after month. I have seen this before. I have seen series that would ship multiple volumes month after month after month, but they were series like Swamp Thing and Sandman Now, apparently, the Walking Dead has entered their ranks. Furthermore, the Walking Dead is currently outdoing them as no other series- Swamp Thing, not Sandman is shipping multiple volumes month after month. There are some other consistent sellers, but they’re Manga or single volume trades like The Watchmen or 300. Even so, it’s almost odd to think of the Walking Dead as a title that sells as consistently as The Watchmen and 300. 

I mentioned in my last column that I had grown bored with The Walking Dead. I may not be reading the title anymore, but I can't help but be impressed by its success.

Come Discuss this column at the Captain Comics Message Board : Fluit Notes Forum

Originally Published at  CaptainComics.us, on June 1, 2007

All-Ages Trade Paperback Reviews: Bone and Little Nemo in Slumberland

Bone Volume 7: Ghost Circles and Volume 8: Treasure Hunters

By Jeff Smith

 

I have to be honest with you, gentle reader. Ghost Circles was disappointing. At the opening of this volume, the Lord of the Locusts and his minions have effectively destroyed the valley. Now, the three Bone cousins, Gran’ma Ben and Thorn have to cross the devastated valley as they try to make their way to allies in the city of Aletheia. Complicating the journey, the valley was destroyed mystically and there are still trans-dimensional pockets called Ghost Circles that the travelers have to avoid. In another book, that might make for an interesting journey. In Bone, it’s kind of depressing. And with all of the mystical mumbo-jumbo that Thorn spouts as she explains the situation, it’s actually kind of boring.

 

That isn’t to say that Ghost Circles is all bad. In the very first chapter, there are some pretty good bits as Fone Bone’s dreams become reality turning both himself and Phony Bone into characters from Moby Dick. I have to admit that I enjoyed that. And in the next two chapters, Jeff Smith does a good job of using the banter between the Bone cousins as comic relief. But that’s just it. In the previous volumes, the banter between the Bone cousins was the highlight. Phony’s schemes, Smiley’s foolishness, Fone’s infatuations- these were the heart of the series. But in Ghost Circles, these seem like secondary concerns, kept around as comic relief to keep us entertained while the real business is going on elsewhere. And, as I noted earlier, it left me somewhat bored and depressed.

 
The good news is that Ghost Circles appears to have been an aberration. By the time we get to the next volume, Treasure Hunters, the story is back in full swing. In Treasure Hunters, the travelers have arrived at the city of Aletheia. This is the city where Gran’ma Ben was once a queen and where Thorn is destined to rule someday. And there are all kinds of interesting developments and complications for our heroes. Dragon worship has been outlawed. Gran’ma Ben’s supporters are in hiding. And there’s plenty of opportunity for Phony and Smiley to get into trouble.

 
In fact, Treasure Hunters may just be one of my favorite volumes of Bone. It seems like everybody is in exactly the right role. Gran’ma Ben and Thorn are working on the big, important things like rallying an underground, overthrowing a tyrant and preparing a city to defend itself against an invasion of rat creatures. And Fone Bone tags along due to his infatuation with Thorn and his loyalty to Gran’ma Ben. Fone is definitely out of his depth, but he also gives the readers somebody to identify with. Plus, Gran’ma Ben’s loyal supporters provide a few surprises of their own, especially a wise old wizard who is fairly amusing.

 
Meanwhile, the other two Bones are getting into trouble but intentionally and unintentionally. Smiley is still complicating things by bringing the baby rat creature Bartleby along (although Bartleby is more of an adolescent by this point). Phony is back to his old scheming ways, offering to defend the market from some bullying bees as a pretense to finding the treasure that Phony is convinced must be hidden somewhere. And once again, Fone is caught in the middle, running back and forth between Thorn and his cousins, trying to help with the big, important things while simultaneously trying to keep his cousins out of trouble. It’s great stuff. There’s a great pace, a lot of humor and always something else going on. Treasure Hunters reminds me of The Great Cow Race and the bar bet, a couple of other occasions in which we saw a combination of frantic energy and wit.

 
That’s one disappointing volume and another outstanding one. Not a bad score for Bone, especially when you consider that the seventh volume was the only disappointing volume so far.

 

Little Nemo in Slumberland Volume 2: 1907-1908

By Winsor McCay

 
We go from a recent all-ages hit to one of the first ones. The newspaper cartoon strip was still in its infancy when Winsor McCay created Little Nemo in Slumberland. The cartoon ran for ten years from 1905-1914 and this volume collects the third and fourth years of 1907 and 1908.

 
There are a number of things that make Little Nemo in Slumberland unique. It was always a full-page and full-color cartoon. But what makes Little Nemo stand the test of time is Winsor McCay’s incredible imagination.

 
The concept of the cartoon is fairly simple. There’s a little boy named Nemo. When he sleeps, he dreams. Each page details one of his dreams. And each page ends with him waking up. But while the concept may be simple, the execution is astounding. McCay crafts continuing stories. Each dream picks up where the last one left off with the result that Little Nemo in Slumberland reads more like one long-form cartoon than a collection of separate entries. The way that Nemo wakes up always ties into his dream. If he falls down in his dream, he falls out of his bed in real life. When somebody is calling him from afar, it usually means that one of his parents is yelling at him that it’s time to get up. The result is a wonderful blend of imagination and humor that makes you feel good- especially as each page ends with a waking up joke of some sort or another.

 
McCay also proves to be a visual visionary. He stretches his panels from the top of the page to the bottom or from one side to another. I’ve read art books that compliment George Perez for doing similar things with page design in Crisis on Infinite Earths but Winsor McCay was doing this eighty years earlier! I love how McCay plays with borders. In one sequence, Nemo and his companions climb a seemingly endless series of skyscrapers. I love how McCay plays with cartoon conventions, such as by breaking the fourth wall that separates the characters from the reader. In one sequence, Nemo and his companions complain that the cartoonist hasn’t been feeding them and they tear down the logo for sustenance. In another sequence, Nemo’s friend Mary complains that they’ve been sitting in the same spot for eight weeks watching a parade go by.

 
There’s only one thing that holds me back from whole-heartedly recommending Little Nemo. Like William Shakespeare and The Merchant of Venice, like Mickey Rooney’s Chinese neighbor in A Breakfast at Tiffany’s, like Will Eisner’s inclusion of Ebony White in The Spirit, Winsor McCay is not immune to the prejudices of his times. Nemo and his companions travel to Africa

and the depiction of the natives there might be offensive to some people today. One of the natives even comes along for other adventures and while “the imp” proves to be charmingly mischievous, his look and his nonsensical speech are more Amos ‘n’ Andy than National Geographic. It’s understandable, given the time in which this cartoon was written, but unfortunate.

Other than that, Little Nemo is a delightful read. It may be difficult to find. Fantagraphics collected the series in 5 volumes from 1988 to 1991 but they’re mostly out of print and they go for several hundred dollars a piece. Happily, Checker Books appears to be planning to start a new collection this April. But if you can get your hands on a copy, Little Nemo is well-worth checking out.

Originally Published on the16 February 2007 at CaptainComics.us