Compare

Manga: One writer, period, until the original writer dies (or quits without getting the rights for his/her characters)
Comic Books: If you’re on MightyGodKing, do I even need to bother? To throw a bone, I’ll mention “X-Men comic books” and move on.

Winner: Manga. I mean, X-Men, really. New author every 6-12 issues, new author’s favorite character getting more face time and contradicting what you just read two months ago. Naruto has it’s share of continuity issues, but the storyline itself is consistent. DBZ didn’t suffer from a “Goku, the hero? I’ve always been a fan of Yajirobe, so I’m making him a Super-Duper Saiyan! Fuck Goku in his boring, girly voice having ass!”

Manga: (booklet or anthology sized): At least 100 pages, American marketed series usually having extras. The anthology books feature 6-12 series with 12-30+ pages per series.
Comic books: Usually tops out at 40 pages. And when was the last time that you purchased a monthly book with a self-contained side-feature? Or a concurrent running story, a la the GL/Rose and Thorn book? Bueller? Bueller?

Winner: Manga. More story for your buck.

Manga: $5-6 for your Shonen Jump/Yen/whichever new company decides to stretch it’s wings, with the abovementioned supplementals.
Comic books: $2.50-4.00 for the aforementioned 20 pages. Then another $2.50-$4.00 to collect the books that you need to read to make sure that the book you bought can be enjoyed in context. Yeah, all of these maxi-series and crossovers are really newbie-friendly. When I was 10, my allowance and chore money were stretched to the limit to keep up with X-Men books. How’s a 13 year old supposed to pay for Final Crisis?

Winner: Manga. It’s more expensive, but far more economical (as mentioned above)

Manga: Something looks interesting? Check out a few pages online, then order it! Or steal the damned thing, like I did with Ranma 1/2. Can anyone point out the person who bought the entire manga series of Ranma 1/2 as soon as he could afford it? {Hint: it’s me}
Comic books: Scans_daily is dead. You have to be a carefree Internet user to find free issues (Viruses? Whatever…) And you can subscribe, but who knows if you’ll get them in good condition?

Winner: Manga. An inability to receive their comic books in _readable_ condition was one of the reasons why my overseas buddies switched over to manga. A comic book gets slashed accidentally, then twisted as it’s shipped. Manga arrives with a slashed cover. The insides were still readable. And, unlike comic books, manga tend to show up _on time_.

Manga: Rapeman, a hero who travels Tokyo and rapes bitchy women.
Comic Books: Dr. Light, a (barely) closeted villain who raped a hero’s wife for teh LULZ. When captured, the heroes mindwiped him and sent him off to fight _their children_. IOW, by making him an innefectual villain and allowing him to be repeatedly beaten by children, they made him a victim in a way that killing him or imprisoning him off-planet wouldd not have allowed. Who’s the hero now?

Winner-Manga: Because they display their fucked-upness on their covers and insleeves. Very few people bought Legend of the Overfiend and thought “This looks appropriate for children. Overfiend sounds like the kind of thing that I want children to read.” They don’t just pop up with “Waaahaahaa! I R a rapeist now!”, “OK, we’re gonna erase your memories and send you out to fight children.”

And here’s what gets me: DC OWNS Vertigo and Wildstorm, which both produce softcover trades in a prompt manner (hell, Vertigo pioneered trade paperbacks in comics). Why can’t the parent company get on their shit? It just doesn’t make sense.

(How often does that sort of thing happen any more? Used to be it seemed like there was at least two or three promotions like that every year[...] Can anybody think of any others?)

The “Special edition” of videogames that come in a big chunky can and feature the same product augmented with some needless bits of crap only rubes take any interest in regularly feature little comic books devoted to the game’s backstory among said needless bit of crap. I’ve not checked to see how many of same are “Big Two” (or Dark Horse or second-tier imprint) issues, but I’d imagine at least the Big Two-licensed ones would be. Your point still stands when you compare the cost of a videogame special edition to that of an underpants regular edition.

Rich:

As an outsider I see the comics industry as a place where people get ideas for movies. In my mind it is much more profitable for Marvel and DC to manage their stable of IP by licensing them out for movies and t-shirts then it is to continue making paper comics.

One would hope the recent fracas involving the adaptation of the Best-Regarded Comic Book Ever(TM) into what was acknowledged by the studios to be One Of The Most Middling Underperformers Of The Year(TM) might highlight the flaws in this idea. The comics industry is where people get ideas for bad movies, and I couldn’t name more than five comic-book properties with a large enough cultural presence to market merch to people who weren’t active fans of the comic. I may be misunderstanding you.

I can get caught up on as much back story as I choose whenever I want. I can visit forums to praise / bitch about the plot. And every now and then, when a trade paperback gets released, I can pick it up on Amazon if I want. I’ve done this with a couple of my favorites, since its easier to reread a book than go scrolling through a web browser waiting for images to load.

Frankly, I think web comics had the comic market nailed down for the past ten years and the paper comics just haven’t been paying attention.

http://community.livejournal.com/noscans_daily/40484.html

With that said, I agree. Comics used to be something you could pick up in a lot of little shops, grocery store lines, etc. Now, it’s almost exclusively comic stores. And the price scares people away, too ($3.99 for 22 pages, something that’s read in mere minutes). They’re creeping closer and closer to a full-length novel, where you at least get (most times) a full story that leaves satisfied by the end. Unless it’s a trilogy or The Wheel of Time, but you get the point.

Frankly speaking, I think the monthlies are going the way of the dodo. I think full graphic novels, with a full, self contained story, is becoming more and more common. This is especially true when you think about people that buy trades only because there isn’t enough in a single issue now to satisfy them. Not for me, anyway.

What about a Kendle for comics?

The Kindle isn’t big enough and doesn’t do color. The Plastic Logic Reader is big enough in terms of screensize but likewise doesn’t do color. We’re probably two years minimum away from a reasonably affordable color e-reader.

Of course, once the Plastic Logic is released, there’s nothing stopping comics companies from selling black-and-white versions of their comics in downloadable form for the Plastic Logic other than their own inertia.

What about a Kendle for comics? You could get all your points addressed: lower price point (after the initial investment), free previews/freebies, IP controls, with the book store hardback/trade as a long-term archival solution.

From my perspective the weekly print comics are like an appendix to the IP holders. It exists because it used to serve a purpose and it is only worth paying attention to it when there is a serious problem.

One. Comparing placing comic books online to a library is not reasonable. A library has a way of tracking down people who have borrowed books and can levy fines against them if they are not returned on time

Two. The paper issue is valid, but I am not convinced that newsprint can hold the amount of ink necessary to make modern images pop off the page (both sides). A return to newsprint may require a return to halftone patterns. For modern images without a halftone print, a thicker bond is required. Maybe if there was a way to make a 40-50lb newsprint – but even then newsprint soaks a lot of ink by itself.

And that was part of the problem with comics – back in the 40′s and 50′s they competed with other magazines pricewise and contentwise. By the 1970s they were competing with chocolate bars pricewise and most magazines had beefed up their content. Perhaps comics would have died without the direct market. Or perhaps DC or Marvel would have finally had the balls to do what DC tried to do and got smacked down for – raising the price to $1 and making the books the size of a small magazine.