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de la Iglesia, Martin. "Early manga translations in the West: Underground cult or mainstream failure?." Comics Forum 2014. Accessed 21Nov. 2013. <http://comicsforum.org/ ... y-martin-de-la-iglesia/>. Added by: joachim (7/17/14, 2:58 PM) Last edited by: joachim (7/17/14, 4:42 PM) |
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| Resource type: Web Article Language: en: English BibTeX citation key: delaIglesia2014 Email resource to friend View all bibliographic details  |
Categories: General Keywords: "Japan Inc.", "Lone Wolf & Cub", Adventure comics, Germany, Ishinomori. Shōtarō, Japan, Koike. Kazuo, Kojima. Gōseki, Manga, Nonfiction, Reception, Translation, USA Creators: de la Iglesia Collection: Comics Forum |
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| Attachments | URLs http://comicsforum ... tin-de-la-iglesia/ |
| Abstract |
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In the 1980s, publishing translated manga in the Western world was still an unstable business. Manga had not yet been discovered to be profitable by established comic publishers in Western countries (e.g. Carlsen from 1991, DC/CMX from 2004, or Egmont from 1994), and most specialised manga publishing companies such as Tokyopop had not been founded there yet. Back then, some translations were published by short-lived comic companies like First Comics (US edition of Lone Wolf and Cub, 1987) or Eclipse Comics (US edition of Mai, the Psychic Girl, 1987, etc.). Others were published by companies that did not normally produce comics, like Rowohlt (German edition of Barefoot Gen, 1982), Verlag der Goethe-Buchhandlung (German edition of Haine, 1988) or University of California Press (US edition of Japan Inc., 1988). Clearly, these titles can hardly be considered commercially successful. But who exactly were their readers, and how did this readership compare to the marketing goals of the publishers? For instance, First and Eclipse tried to break into the mainstream US comic market, whereas UC Press, Rowohlt and Goethe-Buchhandlung probably had an audience in mind that was interested in the content of their manga, but which was not necessarily comprised of regular comic readers at all. Even so, did those ill-fated manga translations sow the seeds of an underground cult following, which would grow to become the manga boom of the 1990s and 2000s? These questions are part of a long-term research project, the first results of which will be presented in this paper.
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