5by8, #7: Attribution
originally written for and posted on Comicsnob.com [Dec ’06 – May ’08]
For some of us (who are reviewing comics, say, or who are genuinely interested in the artist and writers) figuring out who worked on a comic can take a little digging. The Big Two are more interested in selling you Capt. Superhero as a brand, as opposed to promoting the work of a specific artist, so they’re not itching to tell you.
Here’s an interesting exercise for you:
Open a comic, and see who holds the copyright. In the US, that’d be the publisher. I’m sure there are also all sorts of trademark notices about character names, logos, and even the costumes–they own it, lock, stock, and utility belt. On the other hand, I’ve noticed that for most (not all, but a majority) of the manga titles, the author owns the copyright
Not that the kids drawing Naruto into their math notebooks during geometry classes are thinking of who will own the rights to their characters when they finally do get a job as an artist… I doubt they’re thinking of eventual gainful employment at all– if they were they’d likely pay more attention in math class.
The matter of ownership isn’t quite the same as recognition. Of course there is a lot of respect for American artists, and some are quite well known. Any good fanboy will be able to list a half-dozen or so of his favourite artists, and after their movie deals even a fair chunk of the general public know about Frank Miller and Alan Moore. The marquee names are the glaring exceptions, however; a lot of great talent labours in relative obscurity, collecting a paycheck but not really owning the characters and other creative output they’re producing.
Maybe it is because there is a greater emphasis in manga on original stories, as opposed to on-going franchises. Or that quite a few books have a single creator, who is both writer and artist. This is not to say that one person drew the whole book (though that happens) but rather there is the one person with the ideas, who has done the bulk of the writing and character design, and likely a good chunk of the art, so of course he or she has their name on the cover. And presumably, when the book becomes an anime, or gets licensed for the US market, the manga creator gets her cut, too. I’m not a lawyer, but that’s how copyright works, right? They own it.
Let me throw some Japanese at you: manga-ka are addressed by the honorific sensei, just like doctors, teachers, and novelists. While you still might not let your daughter date one, they are accorded respect as artists and professionals.
I think any discussion of “why aren’t American comics as good as manga?” needs to start from this point. We all like to talk about the artistic merits of comics, but it is also a business. You could even say that it’s primarily a business.
That is not to say that art has no place, or that the reason well written stories fail is because the marketplace didn’t want them. To draw an analogy to books (the one’s without pictures in them) there is room for all sorts of stories in the market: A direct comparison could be made between the output of the Big Two and corporately produced series such as the Harlequin romances, but move past that small section and you find your award winners & best-sellers, high-concept experimental stories, anthologies & collections, past classics, and annoying mystery pulps starring the author’s cat (god I hate those)– all sorts of books from the prolific authors like Asimov and King, down to the occasional author who in the course of her career wrote just the one book.
Of course there are a lot of book publishers out there. And a dozen or so distributors. And chains of book stores from coast to coast carrying hundreds of thousands of titles at each location. Everyone involved in books seems to be making a lot of money. Do the publishers need strict control over a book to profit from it? Obviously the answer is no, because copyright in almost all cases is retained by the authors.
Could the comic industry look like the rest of publishing? I think yes, they can make inroads into new genres and markets, if they try. The Americans will have an easier time of it, in fact, because manga is already carving out space at the bookstore, and teaching people that a comic book doesn’t have to be all bam, pow, and spandex.
The industry would have to have participation from more players than, say, just 2. And growth would come slowly, no doubt; but it could start growing tomorrow. There is demand for good comics. I’m sure there are people who’d be willing to write and draw them. We just need to find new ways to get the content out there.
Marvel and DC might be amazed at the sorts of things that people are already doing, if they opened up their editorial process to submissions, and tried operating like most other book publishers. I’m not saying they need to lay off their art staff, but they could hire some assistant editors and extend an invitation to artists. It could be an addition to the Capt. Superhero line, an opportunity to expand. I’m surprised that it hasn’t already been done, honestly.
Reading submissions is a pain, I guess. Or the comics industry is dead set on cannibalizing old properties until the whole thing dies of autolysis.
Comic companies could closely mirror their cousins in the rest of the publishing world, and let creators determine character, setting, and story, and then through the editorial process polish those gems that can be found among submissions. Let the authors keep the rights to their work– a little respect and a financial stake for the hard working folks who actually make the superheroes fly. If autocratic control of the industry is eased, I think the free market would inundate us with more comics than we could stand.
