Manga hitting the news stands

Laemkral · Post by **Laemkral** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 8:13 pm

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/200512 ... omformanga

"Peach Fuzz" and "Van Von Hunter" have both been syndicated by Universal and will begin appearing in certain newspapers this January. I checked VVH's website and they made the announcement that they'll be starting middle of the year, and apparently with NEW content! That's pretty cool because it means fans of the comic will want to read it, and new people will get introduced to it and then start going to the website as well.

Jackhass · Post by **Jackhass** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 3:09 am

Interesting...hard to say how well Manga will do done in a typical newspaper strip format.

Already 32-page comic books are often to short and restrictive for Manga's decompressed style of story-telling...I can only imagine how long it will take for things to happen in a newspaper comic strip form.

Dotty · Post by **Dotty** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 3:56 am

Van Von Hunter I stopped reading due to the short nature of the strip at times, that and it was once a week for a strip I found to get less and less funny as time went on....whoch is bad, as it was still trying to be funny. I wish it all the luck in the world though, as I used to be quite a big fan of it.

I could see VVH pulling it off. I recall times where it was only one panel anyways.

Jen_Babcock · Post by **Jen_Babcock** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 1:13 am

I'm just curious as to how you all think manga will do in the newspaper.

I think it has a lot of potential, but it's a tough call- people don't read newspaper comics as serials and long storylines anymore. Non Sequitor occaisionally does it, but even then, it doesn't have the same feel as these manga features will have.

I've met one of the guy's responsible for bringing these features to the newspaper. I remember him being interested in attracting younger audiences, particuarly high schoolers and college students, and you can tell from the article that Laemkral posted that he believes that manga is the key to do this (and he may be right). At the same time however, I don't think that high school kids college kids are going to start buying newspapers b/c of a couple of features that were picked to be published in papers (not unless they were big fans of Peach Fuzz and Van Von Hunter). Moreover, if newspaper and syndicate editors are hoping to attract new readers just based on the perception that kids like manga, what makes them think that they would rather buy the newspaper than go to a comic book shop or an anime/manga store where they would have a larger selection of titles?

I'm pretty certain that Peach Fuzz and Van Von Hunter are going to be popping up in the LA Times in Jan. It'll be interesting to see how it fares in a city that has manga on practically every corner.

Laemkral · Post by **Laemkral** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 9:02 am

Overall, I doubt there will be a big increase in readership because of this. You may see older fans of those particular comics subscribing to those newspapers for their news source due to the bonus of manga included, but that's not going to be even close to a significant number. I'm a fan of VVH, but I'm not going to start a subscription to the LA Times.

What you'll mainly see is people who already subscribe occasionally becoming readers of the manga, and this will benefit the comics. Not the newspapers. Anyone who already reads the comics and that subscribes will probably develop a greater loyalty to the paper and be less likely to cancel their subscription, which is of benefit to the papers. Decline in readership has been a big issue.

Really, I don't see a huge change coming out of this other than greater exposure for manga, and maybe some recognition for the papers for being "brave" to offer up something a little less traditional.

Steverules · Post by **Steverules** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 10:07 am

I don't think it drive the hordes of young people to the paper. Several years ago they ran Spiderman and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the daily papers. When you have three or four panels with each panel smaller than a credit card you can't really get a lot of detail in there. And a continuing storyline just didn't work. I agree with Jen, why buy the paper to get a four panel strip when you can get a 30 page comic at the local shop or find an equivilant online. But I am glad to see the syndicate taking risks and trying to branch out to reach a new audience.

MariaAndMichelle · Post by **MariaAndMichelle** » Sun Jan 01, 2006 7:47 pm

That f*ckin' Peach Fuzz...

Jen_Babcock · Post by **Jen_Babcock** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 12:11 am

steverules wrote:I don't think it drive the hordes of young people to the paper. Several years ago they ran Spiderman and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the daily papers. When you have three or four panels with each panel smaller than a credit card you can't really get a lot of detail in there. And a continuing storyline just didn't work. I agree with Jen, why buy the paper to get a four panel strip when you can get a 30 page comic at the local shop or find an equivilant online. But I am glad to see the syndicate taking risks and trying to branch out to reach a new audience.

I think the comics may be longer than 4-5 panels. I'm guessing these features might be awarded more room than your typical feature- I'm not sure though... I guess we'll find out.

Even if they got more space, however, I still can't see this as a revolutionary move for newspapers- I agree w/ the previous statement that this will probably primarily benefit manga in that it will get greater exposure.

Jen_Babcock · Post by **Jen_Babcock** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 12:24 am

So did anyone see Peach Fuzz in the paper today?

Basically it looks like they're giving the comic about 1/2 a page, w/ reduced images of what would be 2 pages in a normal Tokyopop sized book. At the end it has some sort of cheesy summary like "Well so-and- so got a ferret but will she like her new home? Find out next week!"

Anyway, apparently they're going to run Peach Fuzz in the LA Times for 20 weeks, after which they'll feature Von van Hunter for a limited time.

They're probably testing to see how successful this endeavor is. It took Tokyopop and Universal 2 years to develop this format.

Seems iffy for now. Peach Fuzz may be too long to hold the average newspaper comic reader's interest. We'll see.

Tim · Post by **Tim** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 12:38 am

Peach Fuzz showed up in my paper's comic section today too. I think it got a little smaller run here (I think a third of a page - I'm not sure, I don't know sizes)...I did have to squint a little bit. Certainly a bit of a departure from the rest of the gag-a-day comics...we'll have to see what the reaction will be.

Though, admittedly, I was a little more fascinated by the fact that they used the same comic font that I do.

Jen_Babcock · Post by **Jen_Babcock** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 1:02 am

This is really silly in a way, but it kind of ticked me off how in one of the pages the mom is telling her daughter that if the ferret bites her, they're going to return it.

If you're worried about an animal biting your kid, you really shouldn't be getting them a pet like that. People buy rabbits all the time thinking they're not going to bite, and when they do, they get sent back to the pet store or to high kill shelters. It's really upsetting.

Anyway... now that I've got that off my chest...

Yeah, now that I think of it, "Peach Fuzz" may have only taken up a 1/3 of the page. The text was pretty small.

Shishio · Post by **Shishio** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 6:43 am

Jackhass wrote:Already 32-page comic books are often to short and restrictive for Manga's decompressed style of story-telling...I can only imagine how long it will take for things to happen in a newspaper comic strip form.

For some manga. However, there are plenty of titles whose chapters are about 16-20 pages.

It is pretty cool that those comics are being syndicated, though I agree they won't help any newspaper's readership.

ScrumYummy · Post by **ScrumYummy** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 9:31 am

MariaAndMichelle wrote:That f*ckin' Peach Fuzz...

Yay!! I'm not the only person that thinks that comic should be burned!!

As for VVH, their humor went down the toilet because all of their jokes and gags were rip-offs of other books, manga, anime, and sci-fi series >=| I was kind of disappointed that these two strips were chosen to represent "manga."

Col · Post by **Col** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 11:16 am

Can someone scan or take a photo of the page the manga's on? I'm curious to see what it looks like without having to buy a paper.

LibertyCabbage · Post by **LibertyCabbage** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 11:27 am

i'll do it when i get home =o and if i'm upsetting anyone by posting it, it's not illegal because you all know my real name is Dick Steeldick.

LibertyCabbage · Post by **LibertyCabbage** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 4:35 pm

here's a scan of it from the palm beach post ... i don't think i'm breaking any rules by posting it but if i am then a mod can feel free to remove the link.

http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/8720/fuzz3nn.jpg

Paul Escobar · Post by **Paul Escobar** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 6:12 pm

It's an neat format they've chosen with the two pages. Nice design. The "Tokyopop presents" legend rather does make it look like an advertisement. Which it is, of course.

I'm not sure it will attract more readers to the newspaper... OTOH, young people read their parents' newspapers, and when they move away from home, the more there's in the paper to interest them, the likelier it is that they'll become subscribers themselves, I guess.

In a way it's silly to have comics in newspapers when those comics aren't made as newspaper comics - the storytelling rhythm is all wrong. Comic strips and manga/comic book/album comics are very different things. But who cares? In Europe it's not unusual for newspapers to publish comics that are made for album/book publishing. The newspaper prints the comics before the books come out - so newspaper readers get the opportunity to read the comics before they "really" come out, the artists get more money, the publishers get free advertisement - everybody's happy.

Humbug · Post by **Humbug** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 6:39 pm

I always consider newspaper comics to be light reading, I really don't care what they put in there or remove. So yea, VVH? So indifferent.

Col · Post by **Col** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 8:57 pm

LibertyCabbage wrote:here's a scan of it from the palm beach post ... i don't think i'm breaking any rules by posting it but if i am then a mod can feel free to remove the link.

http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/8720/fuzz3nn.jpg

Thanks, LC. That makes me laugh. Not in the way that they intended either. Ah well, maybe if it were to do well they'd give other newspaper cartoonists more room to work with? I doubt it, but you never know.

Resolve · Post by **Resolve** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 8:57 am

whats that taste... it so tart yet fruity.... sour grapes?

heh, seriously though, I'm actually pretty happy for them. They've worked really hard (for 6+ years?), and I can still remember there erhm... (humble?) beginings.

I haven't read any of there comic but i'm guessing it's pretty girly and geared towards 6-13 year olds, a very discerning audiance mind you.

their hard work paid off, kinda picks up my spirit. ya' know?