Is there a place for manhwa and webtoons in a store dedicated to manga? ICv2 went straight to the source on this and asked Jim Killen, Director of Retail Operations at the Manga Spot chain (see “ICv2 Interview: Kurt Hassler on Manga Spot”) what he is observing. Previously, Killen was the buyer of adult graphic novels, science fiction and fantasy, and RPGs at Barnes & Noble and was with the company for over 40 years. He will be one of the speakers at the upcoming ICv2 Insider Talks at New York Comic Con (see “ICv2 Insider Talks”).
In terms of inventory, what does your collection of manhwa and webtoons look like—what’s the balance of manhwa vs. American webtoons and what genres do you stock?
Regarding genres of manhwa, like our manga assortment we stock everything. The manga assortment is of course larger, but some of our manhwa titles are definitely in our top ten or twenty sellers.
What types of webtoon-based titles sell best – manhwa, American comics, romance, action? Which particular titles are your best-sellers?
Our bestselling manhwa genres are Action, Adventure, and Fantasy. Some or our bestselling series are Solo Leveling, Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint, The Boxer, and Heartstopper.
Do you mix manga, manhwa, and webtoons or do you display them separately?
We had one store that broke out manhwa and other webtoons into separate bays as an experiment. All the rest of our stores merchandise Manga, Manhwa, and Manhua together sorted by series.
What have you noticed about the webtoon audience – are they demographically different from manga customers?
They’re not really that different an audience, either demographically or in buying habits. They read the original webtoons online, but like audiences brought in via anime, they want to physically own the content for a series they love.
Do they make a distinction between manga, manhwa, and other webtoons, or is it all just about story to them?
They’re driven by the series and content and don’t seem to care about the differences between manga, manhwa, and other webtoons. Many readers seems to read all three—it just depends on the story.
Since webtoons are generally available for free or low cost on digital media, what do you think moves people to buy them on paper? Is having a connection with the creator important to them? Or conversely, are they just seeing the paper book and not aware that there’s a webtoon?
So far many of our customers were brought in having read the series or starting the series online as a webtoon, but they want to own and collect the series in a printed form.
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Source: ICv2
