Monday, March 26, 2007

A Pro Speaks: Boom Studios

Check out this awesome interview with the men behind Boom.

Since its inception, Boom has appealed to comic aficionados with its several-issue miniseries. This year, Boom is focusing on longer plots, offering story arcs that can be serialized, then bound together as graphic novels and sold in major retail chains such as Barnes & Noble.

"Look at this," Richie said, pointing at the spine of a 20-something-page comic book. "This disappears into a shelf." At about half an inch thick, sometimes more, graphic novels demand greater attention.
This is something I've been thinking of myself. See, I've been studying manga's success in America, and it seems that a good portion of that success is due to the fact that manga's digest volumes provide a lot more story at a good price point.

I'm also questioning comic books standard serialized format. Sometimes it works, a full story is told that is a piece of a larger story and compels the reader to wait a month to buy the next issue. Sometimes it doesn't work, only a part of a story is told, and it really feels like it. With Manga, it almost doesn't matter. Manga comes out weekly, so the period of excitement is considerably less.

I think the American comics industry has quite a bit to learn from the Japanese. I might expand on my thoughts later.

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