XPost: rec.arts.anime.misc   
   From: warewolfmypants@shaw.ca   
      
   "Chris Sobieniak"  wrote in   
   news:1172773320.219937.142290@n33g2000cwc.googlegroups.com:   
      
   > On Mar 1, 4:18 am, Relic  wrote:   
   >   
   >> I know DC has their   
   >> licensed titles for kids like the CN books. But in any   
   >> case, I think that if manga are regularly appearing in   
   >> Publisher's Weekly Top 150 and book stores like Borders and   
   >> Waldenbooks devote large amounts of shelf space to it,   
   >> then it has gone somewhat beyond "niche". Of course,   
   >> as we have seen with traditional pamphlets in the past   
   >> (the DC Implosion and the collapse of the B/W market   
   >> in the late 80s), this could, for the same reasons, change   
   >> very quickly.   
   >   
   > Perhaps.  The Anime World Order podcast has pondered similar questions   
   > over the stagnating comic book industry and the BS they've done to   
   > prevent any real interest the consumers might have to buy anything   
   > domestically as opposed to how Japanese comics have been ("Free Comic   
   > Book Day" is a joke).   
      
   This is probably trivial but I like to think that there are comics and/or   
   manga available for everybody - that if someone wants to read a (heroic)   
   success story, watch a powerful tale of tragedy and revenge unfold or   
   simply smirk at the tribulations of a giant teenage girl trying to make   
   her way through an ordinary high school, they're a shelf or   
   bagged/bargain bin away.  The problem, aside from some   
   language/translation barriers, is that not all of the 'better books' get   
   the required shelf space and/or exposure once they're printed/delivered.   
   Even I will admit that I've passed over books that didn't 'meet my   
   expectations' because they didn't feature enough magic use or girls being   
   gagged...but every once in a while, I'll take another look at those   
   'boring titles' and find a surprisingly good story behind the artwork.   
      
   Boneyard enchanted me, Captain Jack amused me and, while I couldn't   
   really read it more than once, Ghost World was an entertaining ride   
   nonetheless. (It was almost like what the crews behind MTV's Downtown   
   were trying to accomplish)   
      
   We could all offer suggestions on how to improve the various industries,   
   of course - maybe that next giant robot manga or time travel epic will be   
   a great success - but I also think that we could better promote the niche   
   titles that are already available.  Would anyone like to mention the   
   types of stories and scenes they're looking for in a comic/manga or would   
   that provide more trouble than benefits?   
      
   I'd certainly be happy to start (particularly after hearing the lines   
   that the characters of Daria and Duckman spouted)   
      
   Signed,   
   Warewolf   
   who knows that perfection, like obscenity, is in the eye of the beholder   
   not just the mind of the pundit.   
      
      
      
      
   'You think I'm sick?  Well, the only disease I've got is modern life, a   
   shnut-busting gauntlet of inefficiency and misery that's one long parade   
   of let-downs, put-downs, trickle-downs, shut-outs, freeze-outs, sell-   
   outs, numb-nuts, nincompoops and nimrods all making every day as much fun   
   as waxing a flaming Pontiac with your tongue, where even if you *DO* luck   
   into the possibility of some fleeting pleasure like, say, if some   
   nymphomaniac telephone operators with the muscle control of Romanian mat-   
   slappers agree to a little strip air-hockey, it'll be over before it   
   starts cause some vowel-lacking, feta-reaking cab jockey slams his   
   'checker' up your 'hatchback' and the cab is owned by a pinata spanker   
   from a Santa Ria cult in Xioacampa who starts shaking chicken bones at   
   you and gives you a boil on your neck so big, all it needs is Michael   
   Jordan's autograph to make it complete.   
      
   And even with all this, **WITH ALL THIS**...I *still* drag my sorry butt   
   out of the Sealy every morning and stick my face in the reaping maching   
   for one more day, knowing that when it's time for me to flash the cosmic   
   card key at those pearly gates, I won't be in the coffin anyway cause   
   some underhanded undertaker sold my heart, pancreas and other assorted   
   good and plently to that same Santa Ria cult so does anybody really   
   wonder why anybody is hanging onto sanity by the atoms on the tips of   
   their fingernails while life dirty dances on their digits and is it   
   really any wonder why I seem DERANGED!!' -- Duckman, Room with a   
   Belleview   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)