ABSTRACT

Even though American and Japanese publishers dominate comic book sales globally, their respective contexts and products could not be any more different. In the case of American comics, the best-known and most celebrated genre—often criticized for being considered mainstream—is that of superheroes. However, the relationship between genre, theme and audience in the history of manga presents a different pattern. Japanese comics, particularly diverse with regard to demographic and generic segmentation, show a greater homogeneity in the use of stylistic codes which have come to be known as Japanese Visual Language (Cohn 2010). The American publishing market has mobilized several strategies in order to benefit from the international success of manga, coupled with the parallel success of anime at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The most common strategies have been the introduction of Japanese cultural elements and the adoption and hybridization of Japanese Visual Language, through the publication of products of Japanese and international authorship. The publishing imprint Mangaverse (2000–03; 2005–06), a relative failure in terms of its reception, represents a good example for the analysis of these trends and appropriative strategies. Through this case, aspects of the story, the deconstruction/appropriation of characters, different forms of transcultural adaptation, and the hybridization of media and genres are all analyzed.