Anime News
eigoMANGA Teams With Diamond To Support Comic Book Retailers Over Mainstream Book Stores Date: 3/1/2005 |
eigoMANGA is teaming with Diamond Distribution for ?gManga Month?h, an initiative within the month of March that encourages comic book retailers to celebrate and promote all things related to manga. Manga in the US has become mainstream and an apparent consumer trend has developed where comic book fans are choosing media chain stores over comic book stores to purchase manga and comic book graphic novels. As a result, this trend poses a threat that can significantly weakening the comic book retailer market. ?gI can see a dot com-like boom and eventual bust for manga distributed primarily to media chain stores?h, claims Austin Osueke, CEO and publisher for eigoMANGA. Large media chain stores are treating manga as a trend and they are inadvertently over saturating the manga market in the US by overstocking their stores with too much manga; not all of these books are selling. The media stores will return unsold books and stop buying new manga. Comic book retailers will not order the manga because of they assume that fans will head to media stores to purchase the books instead of them. As a result new manga releases in the US will become scarce and manga publishers will be dealt a big blow?h. With the partnership with Diamond Distribution during ?gManga Month?h, eigoMANGA will supply an exclusive line of its manga publications, RUMBLE PAK and SAKURA PAKK only to comic book stores as well as encouraging manga fans to form relationships with their local comic book retailers as well as empowering them with the ability to request and order their favorite manga publications through comic book retailers. eigoMANGA is also producing a series of in store live events with participating comic book stores for the month of May in the form of musical performances and artist appearances. ?hIt's important to support comic book retailers because comic books are their lives and they're in it for the long haul; mainstream retailers are not. The people who run and operate comic book stores are loyal fans. They cultivate fans and they are willing to support them for the long term; we shouldn?ft overlook the huge role comic book stores play for the comic book industry?h, claims Osueke. |
Source: Manga News Service |