"GILES: Japanese Manga consumers purchase thick, black and white, cheap digests to read on a long train commute and dispose of them when they're done. American comic consumers purchase expensive, thin, full-color pamphlets to read on the toilet and then save them in boxes forever. Manga is cheap. American comics are not. Is there any way, in your opinion, to change American reading habits and comic tastes in this regard?
"TAMAI: In the States, the smaller monthly serial is more of a printing fanfare, and expensive, full 4 color art at that. I'd feel pretty jacked if I tossed out a copy of Frank Miller's Sin City or Mignola's Hellboy after giving it a reading, and a few months later to go buy it again in a TPB. And, if you recycle the pulp paper, you get more manga post consumer printed pulp. Also, I do know that the Japanese print industry has also been using Soy ink, so less chemicals end up seeping into the ground, and, more importantly, into your body. You'd be surprised if you knew how toxic some printing inks and varnishes were involved in printing a spiffy 4-color deal. But not all comics are printed in the States on totally expensive paper, it's just not the kind of thing you’re going to toss out to recycle.
"GILES: Here in the States the average fan would never dream of purchasing, reading and then tossing away a comic book.
"Is there a way to make a shift towards "cheap and disposable" comics here in the States that you can see working towards improving the acceptance of comics in our culture?
"SCHODT: I don't see any reason for the U.S. industry to import the disposabilty aspect of Japanese Manga. It would help, however, if U.S. comics were priced lower for children, and if they had more pages, so artists could tell more complex stories. The catch here, of course, is that in order to bring the price down, the publishers require an economy of scale that would be difficult to achieve in the U.S."
