bonsai
02-20-2004, 03:59 PM
France Sees Mania for Japanese Manga
By Jo Johnson
Financial Times
February 16, 2004
PARIS — Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac must be rotating in his burial place.
The 17th century man of letters, venerated locally as the restorer of French prose, would be horrified at recent events in his hometown of Angouleme. Last month, it welcomed 150,000 people to a festival that, over the last 31 years, has become the Cannes of comic books — known as bandes dessinees in France. This year, there was even more than usual to infuriate this defender of French linguistic purity.
Manga-mania is sweeping the country. Manga — Japanese "graphic novels," many of them violent and pornographic — accounted for about a third of the 1,860 new comic books published in France last year, according to publisher Livres Hebdo, compared with about 20% in 2002 and less than 10% in 2001.
The speed of the manga invasion makes it one of the most dramatic cultural shifts since Hollywood overpowered the European film industry. The generation that grew up watching Japanese cartoons on television in the 1980s now reads manga, not Moliere.
The fear is that France may become like Japan, where 40% of publications are comics and ever fewer people read any of what is considered serious literature.
On the surface, the French comic industry is enjoying a golden age. Sales of comic books reached a new high last year and represent about 10% of the book market.
In many nations, comics are no more than a childhood indulgence, but the French regard comic books as the "ninth art," almost on a par with classic fiction and cinema. Read by 7- to 77-year-olds, comic books provide an escapist break from a heavy literary culture and hark back to happier economic times.
In fact, however, it is manga that is fueling the comic boom. Jacques Glenat, founder of Glenat, which in 1991 published the first best-selling manga — "Akira" — said his sales of Japanese comics soared 20% last year. In a mature book industry that grew at only as much as 1% in 2003, almost all big comic book publishers have set up fast-growing manga imprints. Only Dupuis, the grand Belgian house founded in 1898, keeps to a manga-free list — but many suspect it too may soon follow suit.
"For a long time we thought manga was just a fad that would disappear, but we were wrong," said Claude Gendrot, editorial director of Dupuis. "We are now seriously asking ourselves whether we should jump on the bandwagon."
The economics of manga seem unstoppable. Pocket-sized and printed in black and white on cheap paper, they cost less to produce than the lavish, all-color hardback books produced in France and Belgium. Profit margins on manga are also higher because it is much cheaper to pay a license fee to translate an existing series than to commission an original work from a European artist.
Manga sells for about $7.50 — half the cost of a traditional comic book. Whereas a French comic series offers readers one volume a year, manga publishers deliver a new tome every month.
The increasing sophistication of the manga available in France — at Angouleme this year, "20th Century Boy" by Naoki Urusawa won the prize for the best series — helps publishers defend themselves against criticism that they are corrupting youths.
"If we did not have manga, a whole generation would have stayed in front of the television and never held a book in their hands," Glenat said. Better that they read manga than never learn to read at all."
By Jo Johnson
Financial Times
February 16, 2004
PARIS — Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac must be rotating in his burial place.
The 17th century man of letters, venerated locally as the restorer of French prose, would be horrified at recent events in his hometown of Angouleme. Last month, it welcomed 150,000 people to a festival that, over the last 31 years, has become the Cannes of comic books — known as bandes dessinees in France. This year, there was even more than usual to infuriate this defender of French linguistic purity.
Manga-mania is sweeping the country. Manga — Japanese "graphic novels," many of them violent and pornographic — accounted for about a third of the 1,860 new comic books published in France last year, according to publisher Livres Hebdo, compared with about 20% in 2002 and less than 10% in 2001.
The speed of the manga invasion makes it one of the most dramatic cultural shifts since Hollywood overpowered the European film industry. The generation that grew up watching Japanese cartoons on television in the 1980s now reads manga, not Moliere.
The fear is that France may become like Japan, where 40% of publications are comics and ever fewer people read any of what is considered serious literature.
On the surface, the French comic industry is enjoying a golden age. Sales of comic books reached a new high last year and represent about 10% of the book market.
In many nations, comics are no more than a childhood indulgence, but the French regard comic books as the "ninth art," almost on a par with classic fiction and cinema. Read by 7- to 77-year-olds, comic books provide an escapist break from a heavy literary culture and hark back to happier economic times.
In fact, however, it is manga that is fueling the comic boom. Jacques Glenat, founder of Glenat, which in 1991 published the first best-selling manga — "Akira" — said his sales of Japanese comics soared 20% last year. In a mature book industry that grew at only as much as 1% in 2003, almost all big comic book publishers have set up fast-growing manga imprints. Only Dupuis, the grand Belgian house founded in 1898, keeps to a manga-free list — but many suspect it too may soon follow suit.
"For a long time we thought manga was just a fad that would disappear, but we were wrong," said Claude Gendrot, editorial director of Dupuis. "We are now seriously asking ourselves whether we should jump on the bandwagon."
The economics of manga seem unstoppable. Pocket-sized and printed in black and white on cheap paper, they cost less to produce than the lavish, all-color hardback books produced in France and Belgium. Profit margins on manga are also higher because it is much cheaper to pay a license fee to translate an existing series than to commission an original work from a European artist.
Manga sells for about $7.50 — half the cost of a traditional comic book. Whereas a French comic series offers readers one volume a year, manga publishers deliver a new tome every month.
The increasing sophistication of the manga available in France — at Angouleme this year, "20th Century Boy" by Naoki Urusawa won the prize for the best series — helps publishers defend themselves against criticism that they are corrupting youths.
"If we did not have manga, a whole generation would have stayed in front of the television and never held a book in their hands," Glenat said. Better that they read manga than never learn to read at all."