I couldn’t resist posting up all these bits and pieces of news today. There’s alot of work that needs to be done, but ofcourse I’m online scanning article headlines. What will we all do without the Internet? I’m also working on a Block 6 page – or I’m SUPPOSED to be working on one, but instead ended up contemplating The Meaning of Life. Here we go again…

 

Article on CMX: For those paying attention to CMX’s misadventures in the manga market, there is a new article detailing the successes and failures of the manga market. It’s analysis of CMX is pretty good, and I can understand the author’s frustration. A few entries ago I posted up a brief essay on the direct market and the manga market, namely on the cluelessness of the Big Two to come up with any valid response to manga. But ofcourse, I’d completely forgotten about the CMX label from DC, which IS an actual attempt by one of the big ones in the manga market. So you can’t fault them for trying – though you can fault them again for their cluelessness.

If it weren’t for this article, I would have completely forgotten CMX existed, if it weren’t for the Tenjho Tenge fiasco. Their CMX line of manga has failed to make any big splashes, despite being backed by DC (and therefore Warner Bros). It’s not necessarily because they’re releasing bad work, though perhaps the reasons for this is related to my essay on the J-pop culture community. You can’t discount the power of anime and fan-community tie-ins when it comes to moving volumes of manga, and currently none of their works released has the associated paraphernalia that accompanies alot of manga series. It’s harder to appeal to the casual manga fans without it, and if you were to appeal to the hardcore manga fans, you will have to be hanging around scanslation sites to know what the fans are reading (not what CMX has put out). And if you want to appeal to the normal bookstore browsers, then you’ll need a huge, smart marketing campaign. Currently, CMX doesn’t seem to have that either.

But perhaps the releases of CMX seems to point to another problem with the growing manga market – the shrinking pool of good manga in Japan available for translation. The article mentions Viz and Del Ray (aka Random House), and the fact that they’re aligned with Japanese publishing giants. Good move. Certainly being affiliated with a giant publisher will ensure you get the cream of the crop that publisher has to offer – namely work that has a fanbase already and several anime/game tie-ins. Who is CMX associated with? No one, as far as I’m aware; but with DC and Warner Bros behind them, striking a deal certainly can’t be difficult.

Perhaps the lack of a deal itself says something – that DC/Warner Bros isn’t fully committing themselves to publishing manga. That they’re only testing the waters and toying with the idea, to see how things go. Well, if this is the case, then it’s an approach bound to fail. There are already alot companies in the manga market, many with better reputations and contacts than CMX. If CMX wants to be a serious competitor, then not only will it have to throw its full weight behind its manga releases, but DC and Warner will have to as well. And right now it doesn’t seem to be happening.

The author of the article is right to be frustrated. There ARE alot of resources CMX has that aren’t being used, or used properly.