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My anger is so fucking righteous.<\/p>\nMy anger is so fucking righteous.<\/p>\n
Seriously though, I’m in Japan, everything’s goddamned awesome. I don’t even have an angry bone in my body at this point, let alone a righteously angry one (and for those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, click here<\/a><\/strong>).<\/p>\n But… did you see this? http:\/\/www.comicsreporter.com\/index.php\/cr_editorial_why_comic_shops_still_matter\/<\/a>. Go read that, it’s really good. I wanna give Tom a big hug. Perhaps I will next time I see him, and won’t that be awkward? Anyway, Spurge wants a new direction to the discussion about comic shops, and I think that’s great… Anything to get away from the stuff the folks are saying in THE BEAT’s comments section. So, let’s go: topic starter.<\/p>\n I am in Japan, and there are comic book stores everywhere<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Seriously. Not American Comics, for the most part, but if you blurred your eyes a little you’d recognize many of the places I’ve been visiting as comic book shops. This is in a nation where, as I’ve already blogged, comics are readily (and volumously) available in standard book stores, at the ‘news stand’, at train stations, the 7-11, even in vending machines. Comics are everywhere, and despite that, there are still dedicated comic book stores…! The argument from a number of people is that comic book shops should go the way of the dodo, in favour of mass-market distribution in traditional book stores, and via the internet… But here I am in a country where comics ARE available in the mass-market, in fact, comics make up something like 40% of all published material in the country. And yet, despite that, there is a clear market for comic shops. Even when they have side-lines like used comics, dvds, statues, etc. Even when they don’t, and it’s all about the books… this happens in France too, btw.<\/p>\n The next message in my Japan travelogue is about the end of day 02, where I go to ANIMATE, an eight-floor comic book store. It’s pretty neat, and I was totally inspired. I think you might be too?<\/p>\n