Wednesday, November 22, 2006

 

German Comic Books

It's tough being a German comic book writer!

For one thing, the market has been traditionally very small - only 4% of all printed matter in Germany is in comic book form. On top of this, 70% of this miniscule market share is dominated by Japanese manga and nearly all the rest by American reprints of Spiderman or by the iconoclastic Dutch series, 'Storm'.

But there have been some great successes - I remember reading an excellent graphic novel a few years ago called 'Vampire' for example.

Looking on the bright side, however, it does mean that there are great opportunities for developing the market and increasing market share. Carlsen comics are doing great work in this area. You can find out more here:

http://www.carlsen.de/rights.comics/

I think you'll agree reading through this list that there is some fascinating stuff here - some very mature reading. I've ordered a batch and will be reporting back to you on it soon.

In particular, I've heard good things about Isabel Kreitz and her book, 'The Discovery of the Curried Sausage'. I'm particularly looking forward to that as I am a great fan of the curried sausage and I've often eaten them on my visits to Hamburg - the culinary capital of the north in my opinion.

Another that comes with rave reviews is Nam and Tram Nguyen's 'Delilah' a translation from the Daisuko studios. This Vietnamese written manga is said to have a delicate touch which still manages to be funny and bittersweet at the same time in the best Asian tradition.

Oh - and they also have a character called Aya!!

This Aya is a 19-year-old who lives in Africa in the late 1970s and faces a whole series of teenage-angst problems with her friends and family. It's another bittersweet French-written romantic comedy which premiered at the Angouleme festival last year. How does the Carlsen Aya compare to AK's Aya? - why not buy both and decide for yourself !!!

You can read more about Carlsen's Aya here:

http://www.carlsencomics.de/cc/cc_artikel/show.php3?id=804&nodeid=1

Monday, November 20, 2006

 

AK Comics - Graphic Novels!

At last, AK Comics have taken the very positive decision of shifting to graphic novel format. There are several problems with producing the characters in monthly comic book form:

Firstly, communications and distribution become strained when the artists are in Brazil, production is in Egypt and distribution is throughout the Middle East, North Africa, the USA and Europe - you try juggling with six balls and you'll get the message.

Secondly, the comic book market is so, so crowded. It is - as we know - essentially a duopoly so this is where most people spend their money. But then, we have a whole gaggle of smaller publishers fighting for the final few pence. There's no way that the consumer has the time or energy to explore this fully - to separate the quality stuff from the dross.

Thirdly, there's the declining distribution outlet - fewer and fewer comic book stores, offering less and less space to comic books - and who are only able to operate on a paid-order basis - thereby ensuring they won't take any risks.

Finally, there's the extremely short shelf-life - one month to sell all your product or die in the attempt - and then you have to do it all over again the next month!

The graphic novel format on the other hand offers a shelf-life of up to TEN YEARS for a book. Also, there are many more outlets - bookshops, airports and so on. The profit margins are higher, people will look for back titles of characters they enjoyed, deadlines are less crucial. This is why the Japanese keep all the issues of their titles on sale all the time - and even the Italians are moving in that direction - what possible reason could you have for taking a title off th shelf after a month - isn't that crazy?

And then of course, with over 100 pages, you can develop richer plots, characterisation, artwork and so on - you end up with a much better product all round.

So this is the start of a new era for AK Comics - the first graphic novels should start appearing in the spring of 2007. I can't wait!

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