james_nicoll ([info]james_nicoll) wrote,
@ 2008-09-25 23:34:00
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Exit Minx
MINX published original graphic novels aimed primarily at teenage girls.

Farther down...

Multiple sources close to the situation agree Bond and DC aren’t to blame for MINX’s cancellation, and that this development should be seen as a depressing indication that a market for alternative young adult comics does not exist in the capacity to support an initiative of this kind, if at all.

Now, I wonder if those sources are close enough to Bond and DC to get splashed with blame if it was Bond and DC's fault?

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[info]agrumer
2008-09-26 03:54 am UTC (link)

Dirk Deppey's take on it, over at Journalista, is that DC just doesn't have what it takes to support a new small imprint for the bookstore market. It takes years of being willing to accept modest profits, and DC is just interested in rapid success:

The list of imprints that they formed only to be pulled when short-term success didn't promptly fall into their laps would fill a small cemetary: Milestone, Helix, Paradox Press, Pirahna Press, DC Focus, DC Elseworlds, Tangent Comics, the Humanoids line, the Elfquest deal. Remember when people were expecting more than two titles in the All Star line?

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[info]puritybrown
2008-09-26 04:01 am UTC (link)
I don't dispute his general point, but -- Elseworlds? That lasted a good while, didn't it?

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[info]agrumer
2008-09-26 04:50 am UTC (link)
Sixteen years, but it's also the one that is least like Minx, and most like the rest of their main comics line.

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[info]puritybrown
2008-09-26 03:59 am UTC (link)
Those "multiple sources" are full of it. Minx was an ill-conceived project from the very beginning; DC had a vague idea that they wanted to sell comics to teenage girls, and latched on to the notion that the way to do that was to create a line of graphic novels they could sell as YA fiction. Which was overlooking the fact that YA fiction for girls is a HUGE field in which a Johnny-come-lately like DC couldn't hope to compete without having a really amazing product. But none of the books were outstanding, and even the good ones could have done with a bit more editing and (in the ones I read) more pages. They felt rushed, too short, too thin, not developed enough.

That they didn't sell well in bookstores is one thing (there is muttering going on about shelving - YA or graphic novels or manga or...?). What's more indicative is the report from one commenter at The Beat that they didn't get taken out of libraries much. That's a sign that a major problem was the content.

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[info]liviapenn
2008-09-26 04:38 am UTC (link)
Not to mention the fact that even the editors didn't seem to know what the imprint was about.

Back in April '07 I posted a rant about a couple of quotes from Karen Berger, who'd basically talked about how the Minx line was based on manga, and how manga has gotten girls to read comics, and manga manga manga, and Minx would be so great because, like manga and YA, it was all about RELATIONSHIPS and friendship and romance, and it wouldn't have any of that silly "action" or "adventure" stuff, and then specifically stated "We don't have any fantasy elements to the books."

And I was like what the hell, "not particularly action-oriented," what do you mean, "no fantasy elements," -- um, this is not what's going to be bringing in the Fullmetal Alchemist/Bleach/Fruits Basket/Naruto audience, you guys. Why even mention manga as an inspiration if what you're putting out is going to be nothing like the titles that American girls have turned into best-sellers? And why are two female comics professionals reciting the same stupid "girls don't like superheroes" dogma that Marvel and DC have been shooting themselves in the foot with for ages?

And then when the books came out, IIRC, the vast majority of them had some kind of fantasy (Good as Lily) or martial-arts (Regifters, etc.) elements, so who even knows what they were talking about. ^_^

Edited at 2008-09-26 04:39 am UTC

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[info]roseembolism
2008-09-26 06:02 am UTC (link)
Romance and relationship mangas are selling well, and are popular. However, it seemed to me the last time I went to a used bookstore that the translated shoujo market was glutted with relationship manga. Which is a pity. I may be biased, but I happen to think that shoujo does horror and urban fantasy very well. I'd love to see more works by Shinohara Chie, maybe "Cry Out in the Big City", stuff like that.

One of the problems seems to me that DC went into the market without exactly knowing what they were doing. And the fact that they had very few female writers was a strike against them as well.

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[info]liviapenn
2008-09-26 05:47 pm UTC (link)
Romance and relationship mangas are selling well, and are popular.

When it comes to manga, I tend to read the more fantasy/sci-fi stories, but I've also read titles like Nana, Paradise Kiss and Honey&Clover... But I think of those titles, and I try to imagine DC publishing a Minx book that has the characters having (gasp) premarital sex! and schoolgirl affairs with older, married men! and quitting school to be a fashion model and then getting kicked out of the house by your mom, and moving in with your hot, bi boyfriend! and transsexual characters! oh, and SMOKING! -- I mean can you imagine? :D Whereas most of the DC titles were as squeaky-clean and predictable as after-school specials. "Lily learns a lesson about life!" "The Janes learn about the power of art!" "Dixie learns to be true to herself!" Meh.

And the fact that they had very few female writers was a strike against them as well.

Yep.

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[info]james_nicoll
2008-09-26 06:04 pm UTC (link)
They could have always given this author a contract:

http://venusenvy.comicgenesis.com/about.html

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(Anonymous)
2008-09-27 01:29 am UTC (link)
Nana, Paradise Kiss and Honey&Clover is like "la creme de la creme" of Shojo Manga, all they have outstanding art to go with their story and yes has more controversial elements used extremely well. Probably only water baby was the only one that wasn't that clean but was released too late, and while Ross Campell art is awesome is not exactly very known yet, while the ones you mentioned were kinda of expected already before their license. Shojo Beat magazine did a smart move in marketing those two titles among other not known ones, Minx didn't have a strong title to serve as hook for all the others.

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[info]vito_excalibur
2008-09-26 02:58 pm UTC (link)
Agreed.

They needed to be able to sell to me: I like YA books, I like manga, I like books with girls in them, I already even buy comic books, and as a matter of policy I buy comic books with female writers and artists -

Oh wait, they pretty much didn't have any of those, did they?

And I went out and bought a few Minx books, and Re-Gifters was pretty good, and everything else was...boring.

I am kind of boggled by the reasoning that goes "girls like manga, let us sell them some books that are nothing at all like manga but are about the same size and shape! Clearly the popularity of manga is because the books are smaller than regular comic books and girls like small cute things!"

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[info]liviapenn
2008-09-26 05:50 pm UTC (link)

I already even buy comic books, and as a matter of policy I buy comic books with female writers and artists -

Oh wait, they pretty much didn't have any of those, did they?

Yeah. "The Minx line brings teenage girls insight into the issues that really affect them! Brought to you by: (a) middle-aged mainstream comics writers and (b) twenty-something indie comics writers whose entire ouevre up until now is about how they don't understand chicks, man."

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[info]glaurung_quena
2008-09-26 12:54 pm UTC (link)
"Multiple sources close to the situation agree Bond and DC aren’t to blame for MINX’s cancellation, and that this development should be seen as a depressing indication that a market for alternative young adult comics does not exist in the capacity to support an initiative of this kind, if at all."

So, they're blaming their failure on the absence of a market for young adult comics? WTF? And in what world of elves and fairies are these guys living in, that they didn't notice that Manga continues to sell really, really well to young girls? This is just laughable.

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[info]martin_wisse
2008-09-26 07:03 pm UTC (link)
Well, what do you expect Bond and DC, sorry "multiple sources close to the situation" to say? That they were completely incapable of selling comics to girls or unwilling to take the time and money to invest properly in the imprint?

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[info]charles_rb
2008-09-27 04:07 pm UTC (link)
They haven't said "YOU, the fans, YOU are responsible because YOU DIDN'T SUPPORT IT ENOUGH!", I was expecting at least someone to claim that.

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[info]charles_rb
2008-09-26 11:14 pm UTC (link)
If it's not DC's fault their line failed, then the only logical reason is there is no teen-girl audience for comics.

But there is. So DC must have cocked up somehow.

That somehow is:

a) Inability to penetrate the target retailers, indicating either apathy from bookstores or inability to market the product to them.

b) Not much promotion aimed at the target audience. (There's some promotional events occuring, er, now-ish. When they're CLOSING the line. So if it works, it won't matter.)

c) Unclear initially what the imprint was meant to be producing and what you could expect from it.

d) Lack of diversity in the stories told and demographics of the characters in it, which is limiting.

e) Seeming lack of support and initiative from DC, and especially lack of stamina - they cancel after two years, and didn't meet their full announced plans for the second year; this sort of thing requires endurance before you can succeed, Tokyopop took years before hitting it big (as did Lee's Marvel).

f) Lack of series - Young Adults has a lot of series of novels, series do well. Minx ended up with... one (the Janes). Whoops.

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