Andrew Grossberg talks to manga editor supreme Carl Horn about American vs. Japanese comics:
TW: What would it take to get the American market to embrace black and white newsprint for an anthology?
CH: Value. One of the reasons anthologies have trouble is that American anthologies have never adopted a Japanese pricing scheme. I was the manga editor of Pulp which lasted for five years. I also did some work for Super Manga Blast. But a Shonen Jump or a Shojo Beat in many cases gives you twice as many pages for the same price as their counterparts. It’s a tremendous value for the cost.
TW: And it works in Japan.
CH: VIZ is trying to reproduce the Japanese model in all its particulars here in the US. We’ve had the tankobon (graphic novels) for the last five years but the other part of the puzzle is the magazines. VIZ has been trying to sustain that part of the model too for which I give them a lot of credit because they’re expensive magazines to produce.
February 14th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
It would be great if there was some way to, you know, read the interview…?
February 14th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
Hugh — You just want everything don’t you?
Link is fixed now … many, many hours later. Sorry about that.