New comics on the High Street

Lew Stringer · Post by **Lew Stringer** » 10 May 2006, 21:25

Some may not realize that while we're regretting the loss of traditional comics in newsagents, there's a quiet revolution going on in high street bookshops.

Waterstones and Borders have shelves packed with 200 page comic books from Gollancz Manga http://www.orionbooks.co.uk which are very popular and cost ?4.99 each. Apparently kids are snapping up the adventures of Yu-Gi-Oh!, One Piece, Case Closed etc. These books are in the original Japanese format (so read right to left) but that's easy to get used to.

No doubt some purists will say they're not "proper" UK comics. Well, they're as British as Mighty World of Marvel or Avengers United etc in that they're published by a British company, via license from the originating country. (There are also other titles imported from US publisher Tokyopop).

The main point is they're comics that kids can easily find on the High Street of most cities/large towns. And kids really like them. (I saw a kid on the bus the other day reading one). So when is some enterprising UK publisher going to develop brand new material in this format I wonder?

Lew

HighAndMighty · Post by **HighAndMighty** » 12 May 2006, 14:37

Lew- I picked one of these up today after you'd mentioned them.

The backwards reading makes the panel-ordering confusing at first (especiall when you're trying to read it sneakily at work) but once you're used to it, it's a refeshing read.

It would be nice to see some home produced work in this format- there are 3 shelves full of these in my local W.H.Smith so they're obviously popular. It's a big step away from "traditional" british comics though- you're expecting your reader to invest a lot of time into the work and I think you'd have to be prepared to increase your investment of time into producing a cohesive, involving story.

I'm not sure that many British publishers would be prepared to invest in the development of this kind of work.

Anyway.... back to the book...

chrissmillie · Post by **chrissmillie** » 12 May 2006, 15:10

There is a Mangaquake out there, though it's not on the shelves.

Took the 1980s until Brits could write good superhero comics (well, I suppose Chris Claremont and John Byrne were born here), so maybe in the 2030s we can write some decent manga!

Chris

Post by **AndyB** » 12 May 2006, 18:18

Interesting point. I assume that normally manga comics are flipped over before they're lettered in English?

Lew Stringer · Post by **Lew Stringer** » 15 May 2006, 16:16

AndyB wrote:Interesting point. I assume that normally manga comics are flipped over before they're lettered in English?

The ones that were published years ago were, but it created problems (cars on wrong side of street, etc) and could look a bit wonky. The current pages appear as they do in Japan (ie: panels to be read right to left) with English dialogue replacing Japanese dialogue.

Personally I like the right-to-left format. It's an interesting novelty and dead easy to adjust to.

Lew

steelclaw · Post by **steelclaw** » 16 May 2006, 10:32

Has anyone seen the Dr Who story magazine?(Not the latest comic) it cost ?5.99 and it's full of strips

HighAndMighty · Post by **HighAndMighty** » 16 May 2006, 16:32

Great set of books- and quite a broad range of genres. I'm loving the "Case Closed" books and perhaps more importantly for the future of comics, so are my kids!

The left to right is simple to adjust to... there's even a handy guide on how to read them printed in the front (back?) of the book.

Thanks for the tip Lew- I would have completely missed out on these if you hadn't started this topic.

colcool007 · Post by **colcool007** » 16 May 2006, 18:52

steelclaw wrote:Has anyone seen the Dr Who story magazine?(Not the latest comic) it cost ?5.99 and it's full of strips

Yep, got it for youngest as she is mad keen on anything with Doctor Who. 100 pages for ?6 is a bit pricey, but then again, almost all the strips are new to us.

Comics UK