Diamond Comics Distributors filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection today. They also announced that they were selling off pieces of their large company - Alliance Games and Diamond UK were two mentioned today with others likely to happen soon.
What does this mean for the comic book business? Hard to tell for sure. Diamond has been losing pieces of the distribution business for the last five years and right now they're a comparatively minor player in the game. However, when it comes to small press comics Diamond is one of the few viable nationwide distribution options.
Remember that a Chapter 11 filing indicates an intent for the business to continue after a reorganization.
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I grew up with the understanding that Western-style comics (i.e. manga, as opposed to whatever came before) and baseball grew popular in Japan during the American occupation.
Neither of these is true. As I noted earlier, manga as we know it began in 1902. 30's anime and manga were influenced by US works to an extent - supposedly, the whole "big eyes" phenomenon goes back to Uncle Walt. Postwar, Blondie, of all things, was popular in Japan, apparently because Blondie and Dagwood lived the prosperous middle class life that the average Ichiro and Emiko aspired to. I note that Japan has long supported a wide range of genres in comics, of which "super-hero" comics play only a part. I'm not sure why that couldn't be possible in the US.
I seem to recall you once mentioning a professor who taught you that baseball was introduced to Japan after the war. Tain't so, McGee.
Baseball was introduced to Japan in 1859, the first school teams were established in 1872, and the first professional competitions began in the 1920's. I've read that Babe Ruth toured Japan during this period. The first professional league was established in 1936.
I have also read that towards the end of the Pacific War, when things were going badly for Japan, the Imperial government banned all sorts of public entertainments (i.e., movies, plays, sporting events), so that people could focus on the war effort. I don't doubt that D-Mac and the SCAP Bunch encouraged the resumption of baseball during the Occupation as part of their "democratization" program. Perhaps that's what your professor was thinking of.
This argument is specious (and incredibly condescending) because superhero comics didn’t push anything out and aren’t pushing anything else out.
Spounds like "Great Replacement theory" (which is also specious).
Superheroes aren’t a genre. They’re a medium.
No, "superheroes" is a genre; comic books is a medium.
The big publishers need to try new things and have the confidence to GIVE THEM A CHANCE. Cancelling new things before they can grow their audience is short-sighted and stupid. If all the decision-makers are doing is looking at numbers and saying “this number is bigger than that number” you could save money and pay a seven-year-old child to make the decisions.
There are a number of good examples in television where the smartest creators and their smart backers suffer low ratings for a season or two before taking off as a landmark cash cow.
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