good article
i get really pretty riled up at how precious american comic peeps are about pirating, like somehow it’s the piraters/consumers at fault for the industry’s death
uh I sent the below as a comment on this essay but I think the BD culture kind of gives an interesting perspective on comics as art and a product so for anyone who thinks its interesting!!
“Just as a contrast by how comics are doing in the West, there’s a really strong comic tradition in Europe (bandes-dessinées) that is completely non-intuitive.
Someone’s gotta ask the French how they do it because the magazines/periodicals themselves cost a lot and are down right unaffordable if you don’t live in Europe (192 EUROS FOR A 1 YEAR SUBSCRIPTION IN THE US… SOB…) and their albums are costly too but they’re definitely meant to be kept as art. I mean they’re hard cover, select paper, full color and everything. Piracy hasn’t been a really huge issue as far as I know; scanslations and uploads are sparse as there isn’t much demand for it. People don’t object to paying for them. The difference I think is the way story continuity is handled and the fact that the comics tradition has been well-revered since the days of Tintin (1930s) and the idea that they are for EVERYBODY. American media completely fucked the comic industry about when cartoons became synonymous with children and greasy ponytailed man-children.
Typical BD albums are 10-12 euros, 60 pages, full color, A3 size (they’re giant, can’t fit in most of my bookshelves) but the story starts and ends in those 60 pages and the only further you can go from there is maybe a story that spans two albums. There’s no impetus of buying albums just to see what happens next. It would be like if we all had to pay 3 dollars every week to watch the new episode of 30Rock. They’re really for the sake of collecting, not dissimilar to collecting movies and when that’s the case there’s no regret or hesitance because these albums are gorgeous, complete, and the people making these BDs are at the apex of the hireable skill, they’re considered artists. The idea of purchasing a physical product just to see what happens is absurd.”
Coincidentally I was reading about Europe’s mentality towards comics in one of Yamino’s responses. This is really interesting. Pity America shoves comics and cartoons under the ‘only for kids’ label. :|
