Well, what do you know? Another page within days instead of months. As much as I enjoyed doing the flashback sequence, I’m happy to go back to the good old style of the book.
Recently, I had the opportunity to visit the InternationalMangaMuseum in Kyoto. What really caught my attention was a temporary exhibit highlighting French comic books, or Bande Dessinée as they’re known in France. Belgium and France not only constitute one of the biggest comic book markets in the world, but they also have a different approach to publishing. In Japan, for example, manga are done cheaply and quickly usually by one or two creators in compilations. If the story generates any interest, then it gets its own book. In the U.S. serialized books are output monthly at a neck-breaking pace by a team of artists. In the Franco-Belgian market, books are published maybe once a year by a team of two artists (usually). Sure, they are longer than 22 pages, but it’s not so much a serialized market like in Japan or the U.S.
It was very interesting seeing the differences between the three biggest markets of comic books; how they develop independently from each other, and how sometimes they influence each other. I’ll see you in the page.
