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[Egan_BW]

There's a comic shop somewhere around here. Only one that I know of, though.

[wierd]

There are at least two in Kansas City Mo.  I have been inside one.

[Yoink]

NOTE: But you didn't name any series that you suggest I check out. How can I compare if you don't name anything?

"there is an absolute abundance of high quality comics".

That's just an empty assertion without any examples given.

I did, though? Oh, it was in an edit, but still - I've been reading your edits, shouldn't that be a two-way street?
I mentioned Drumhellar and Stray Bullets, another interesting one is Shutter, although that's a bit more heavy on the adventure.
Sheltered was pretty good, as well, and it works as an example of a character-based story without a huge reliance on action. Saga is a series that, from what I've read about it, seems pretty heavy on the romance and what-have-you, but I thought it looked lame as shit so I never read it.

It's hard for me to just bust out a bunch of examples since I haven't been frequenting comic stores as much as I just to, for reasons I touched on earlier, and plus I don't have my collection with me - though that upcoming comic I mentioned earlier, Sleepless, might also be up your alley.
Outcast was another good one, but I only read a few issues.

There's something for everyone in comics, really. At least when you have a decent store...

Wait I just got back after a few hours and something about Yoink's arguement really confuses me...
Where the hell did you find a comic shop?

There's a comic shop somewhere around here. Only one that I know of, though.

...Wow, this makes me sad.
Here there are comic shops a-plenty, in the cities at least. Both cities I've lived in have... uh... a lot of comic stores. I've never exactly counted them. And that's just the ones I have been to, I doubt I've been to all of them.

I like to complain about Australia a lot, but at least its cities have comic stores. Heck, even the last town I lived in had a comic store open, plus another shop that stocked a mixture of secondhand comics and new, more artsy ones.
Come to think of it, I'm pretty sure I've been to a few backwater places that unexpectedly turned out to have comic shops... crazy.
But not as crazy as y'all having to live without easy access to good comics! That should be a human right. I feel for you. Hopefully you get a chance to visit a proper comic store sometime, hopefully soon. Almost all the ones I've been to have been great.

[wierd]

A quick poke at google says there are at least 6 actual comic stores, in addition to vintage stock (a chain store that deals in all kinds of things) locations, in KC Mo.

2 in Wichita.

Considering that they are specialty shops, it isnt that unusual that the number of options is limited.

[Reelya]

What I think best illustrates the point I was making is that with manga there's much more of a genre of "real world" settings where the emphasis is on character interactions and relationships.

For example Koe no Katachi is about a 12 y/o kid who incessantly bullies a deaf girl, the shit hits the fan, and it then follows the fallout from that until they're adults. Whereas Watashitachi no Shiawase na Jikan is about a girl who has attempted multiple suicide attempts, and she's invited to meet a death row inmate who's also attempted to take his life multiple times by her aunt who's a nun. And Solanin is about what happens to people in a group when one of the key people in the group dies suddenly in a car accident. And these are only a few from the small sample of manga that's come my way. Just that subgenre alone (slice of life) has over 3000 published mangas.

The point is, these kinds of stories and plots are really common in manga, but you have to dig really deep to find the same things in a western comic.

[wierd]

I think that might have something to do with what kinds of fantasies are prevalent in the culture.

Japan has some strange ones. (like maids? Really? maids?)-- where the west has people wanting to be larger than life.

[Egan_BW]

At heart we just want to shoot things with our big american guns.

[overseer05-15]

Japan has some strange ones. (like maids? Really? maids?)

While I would argue this point, I too was thrown for a mindscrew when I found out the cafes actually existed.

At heart we just want to shoot things with our big american guns.

At heart, everyone just want to shoot things with our big american guns. Not just americans.

[Yoink]

The point is, these kinds of stories and plots are really common in manga, but you have to dig really deep to find the same things in a western comic.

I'd say that is because they are boring as shit, but that would be expressing an opinion and me doing that sort of thing is what spawned this whole derail in the first place.

At heart we just want to shoot things with our big american guns.

Indeed.
Perhaps these manga creators are simply so repressed that they can't even express their deepest, truest fantasy in their art - that is to say, the fantasy of shooting things with their big american guns.

[Reelya]

The point is, these kinds of stories and plots are really common in manga, but you have to dig really deep to find the same things in a western comic.

I'd say that is because they are boring as shit, but that would be expressing an opinion and me doing that sort of thing is what spawned this whole derail in the first place.

Boring or relatable?

When shock-induced visions drive a detective specializing in the paranormal to a small town in South Dakota, he finds himself up against a flesh-hungry bog-man, their mutual ex-girlfriend (did we mention she’s a werewolf?), and a demon that’s stolen his arsenal of psychedelics. Then things start to get weird. We live in strange times. They call for strange ways!

Perhaps more people can relate to stuff that has realistic characters in realistic settings than to this. If you pitch something like drumhellar to the vast majority of people in the world, they're probably not going to be down for it, it's niche.

Whereas a manga such as Detroit Metal City is more relatable, since you could conceivably be in a metal band.

[overseer05-15]

Fun fact: I've never seen comics in a library, other than some Superman/Batman compendium or X-men but nobody likes those guys anyway. I dunno if this is common, but you can borrow whole series of manga at my town library.

[wierd]

I dunno reelya. A large portion of real japanese manga is the "relationship" fantasy type. (this covers yaoi and other such genres under one huge umbrella, even though most of those genres dont belong on the same shelf.)

It seems kind of strange to me, that the most popular fantasy type in Japan is the "intimate relationship", and that there are actual genres for things like mundane lives of mundane people, to say nothing of the very strange glorification of servile positions (like being a maid...)

Western fantasy, by comparison, aims for "larger than life" (werewolves, guys with multiple girlfriends, super powers, and yes-- big guns.)

People tend to fantasize about what they cannot have, imagining what it would be like.  That is the allure of the comic book hero.  It seems very alien and weird to apply that thinking to "intimate relationship" fantasy. (I get that most people in japan are literally too busy to have relationships, since being worked to death is an actual thing there in their culture, but still. wtf.)

[overseer05-15]

guys with multiple girlfriends

You... haven't read much manga, have you.
I'll freely admit that I've never heard of it in western comics, so I suppose YMMV.
The concept of a harem manga/anime (and reverse harem) are really common.

[Reelya]

I dunno reelya. A large portion of real japanese manga is the "relationship" fantasy type. (this covers yaoi and other such genres under one huge umbrella, even though most of those genres dont belong on the same shelf.)

It seems kind of strange to me, that the most popular fantasy type in Japan is the "intimate relationship", and that there are actual genres for things like mundane lives of mundane people, to say nothing of the very strange glorification of servile positions (like being a maid...)

Western fantasy, by comparison, aims for "larger than life" (werewolves, guys with multiple girlfriends, super powers, and yes-- big guns.)

People tend to fantasize about what they cannot have, imagining what it would be like.  That is the allure of the comic book hero.  It seems very alien and weird to apply that thinking to "intimate relationship" fantasy. (I get that most people in japan are literally too busy to have relationships, since being worked to death is an actual thing there in their culture, but still. wtf.)

Not quite sure that's accurate. Sure western comics lack those sorts of things, but not all western media does. Manga in some aspects is more similar to the genres of western TV than to western comic books. For example, one of the oldest tropes in manga is the "magical girlfriend" trope, which goes back to the 1980s or earlier (Oh My Goddess for example, which began in 1988 I think). You wouldn't find that in a western comic, so is it an especially "Japanese" plot? Maybe not. Having a magical girlfriend is also the plot of several classic TV shows such as I dream of Jeannie or Bewitched. The genre of Oh My Goddess is basically the same as those kinds of shows. Except with plot continuity instead of episodic events.

Manga in Japan are read by more people so they have come to cater to a wider variety of tastes, similar to how TV caters to all tastes. This might answer the question of why so many people are reading manga. As a medium becomes more mainstream, it ends up covering a wider range of topics that are relatable to more people, thus further becoming accessible. Western Comics are more niche - 15-25 y/o males mostly. Or older males, but only if you're a really die-hard fan. So they by their nature don't cater to such a wide range of people out there.

[Yoink]

I should mention that I do appreciate the slice-of-life... genre? Theme? Whatever you call it, some of my favourite books fall within that category, and a better made, more realistic version of the Sims would likely be one of my dream videogames.

Actually, come to think of it, there are quite a lot of "slice-of-life" tales within Western comics, they just (in my experience) are more likely to be published in a single volume, graphic novel style, rather than showing up on the shelves each month in single issues.
I'm sure there are exceptions to that rule, though. Next time I'm at ye olde comic shoppe I shall cast a more thorough eye over their selection, in search of any series with a focus on mind-numbing mundanities.

I actually have a slice-of-life comic from the library on my to-read pile right now: Daytripper, by Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá. Despite the name, it doesn't appear to be about psychedelics like I had expected, but it drew me in nonetheless with its promise of, I dunno, life stuff.
Also the creators are from Brazil, so it still counts as American!

Other examples would be things like Ghost Town - though I was actually quite disappointed by it - and Buddy Does Seattle/Jersey, although it's art style is rather cartoonish.
There were actually a number of such slice-of-life titles in a book I had on graphic novels some years ago, but I've only managed to track down a couple of them from what I can remember. I've forgotten a lot of the names of those that looked interesting, sadly.

Oh, and there's that journalist and war correspondent who turns his work (as well as the stories he uncovers) into comics/GN's that could well be described as slice-of-life - Joe Sacco, that's his name. I've only read one of his books, though.


@Reelya: something that rather irks me about your arguments is the ageism. Please stop claiming that western comics are mostly for 15-25 year olds - comic fans vary wildly in age.
The last time I ventured into a comic store I'm fairly certain I was the youngest person there by a considerable margin (in the part of the shop I was in, at least) and the place was quite busy.


Edit: I can't tell, is this post horrifically lengthy? Posting from my phone is a pain.