Do as we say! Wait....don't do it!

Flashback about 8 years ago or so.

Manga is all the rage. Teens and pre-teens line the aisles of Barnes and Noble and Borders. The cheap little books are selling like hotcakes.

And most comic books stores have been left in the dust.

Most of them simply missed the boat -- not understanding them, or caring for them.

Other comic stores (like me) tried, but it was hard keeping up with the onslaught of books without return privileges. We were left with too many clunkers for it to be very profitable, plus it seemed like it required more and more space.

Anyway, a theme developed that comic stores were being stupid. (Comic stores are always stupid --we never have enough of what they want when they want it --)

Look! the manga proponents would say, look how many manga books are selling in the mass market! Look how many young people and -- gasp -- girls! are buying manga. Comic stores are stupid, as usual. They don't have a clue!'

Comics are doomed, because they aren't following the manga model -- book-sized bang for the buck. Cheap stories.

Silly comic stores.


Flash to present.

Borders is gone. Manga is selling less than half as well as it once did. Major publishers like Tokyo Pop are gone. Most kids who are still interested simply pirate the material off the internet.

What went wrong?

Well,these experts say, manga made the mistake of being targeted toward younger people and especially girls, who have now grown out of the fad and moved on.

Also, they put out book-sized material that was too cheap per page.


So...if you'll please notice... the very same things the comic store haters were telling us comic stores to do 8 years ago, they are now telling us caused the demise of Manga.

We can't win.