Lea, I know the part that Kurt Hassler has played in this but the point is that it is because of TP the company doing this in such huge quantities that they became so well known, that some manga companies followed suit and the lower prices became the norm rather than the exception. I am not taking anything away from the part Kurt played in how manga is now done in the U.S. Sorry if it looked like I was slighting him or misleading anyone but I was being a little more general for the sake of brevity.
Oh, and boy do I remember those collections from SMILE/TOKYOPOP being $17. I was working in a comic shop at the time and the guy I was working for was only one teeny tiny evolutionary step up from a cheap flea market hustler; just canny enough to realize he MIGHT make money off graphic novels and manga but NOT sharp enough to really cultivate customer loyalty or a really good inventory. I was one of the few employees who was really interested in pushing indies, books for kids, or collections of any sort (whether manga, graphic novels or collections of old newspaper strips) and cultivating the type of customer that would buy them. I was always trying to get moms and non-superhero buyers to consider things.
And yeah, I remember when your books came out and I remember how low you got them priced. ^_^ And though you did such a thing earlier than TP, they WERE a major exception at the time, especially with other manga and graphic novels averaging at about $17 a book. Not ONLY did I get to see you in person more often back then and you had TOLD me about it but, as I said, I was working for a comic shop at the time and your book was one I tried to get more copies of BECAUSE of it's lower price point. Unfortunately the store owner was among those retailers who hated the lower price and always did his comic store math as Lower Price=Less Money For Store rather than Lower Price=Greater Incentive For Customers= More Books Sold. Man I hated that place. You live in SA, you know the kind of shop I mean.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2006-12-02 12:51 pm (UTC)Oh, and boy do I remember those collections from SMILE/TOKYOPOP being $17. I was working in a comic shop at the time and the guy I was working for was only one teeny tiny evolutionary step up from a cheap flea market hustler; just canny enough to realize he MIGHT make money off graphic novels and manga but NOT sharp enough to really cultivate customer loyalty or a really good inventory. I was one of the few employees who was really interested in pushing indies, books for kids, or collections of any sort (whether manga, graphic novels or collections of old newspaper strips) and cultivating the type of customer that would buy them. I was always trying to get moms and non-superhero buyers to consider things.
And yeah, I remember when your books came out and I remember how low you got them priced. ^_^
And though you did such a thing earlier than TP, they WERE a major exception at the time, especially with other manga and graphic novels averaging at about $17 a book. Not ONLY did I get to see you in person more often back then and you had TOLD me about it but, as I said, I was working for a comic shop at the time and your book was one I tried to get more copies of BECAUSE of it's lower price point. Unfortunately the store owner was among those retailers who hated the lower price and always did his comic store math as Lower Price=Less Money For Store rather than Lower Price=Greater Incentive For Customers= More Books Sold. Man I hated that place. You live in SA, you know the kind of shop I mean.