Interesting little write-up about the popularity of Manga in the US that I found:

http://rashels-dnb.blogspot.com/2011/02/mangas-popularity-in-america-where-did.html

I knew Manga was popular, but I didn’t know it made up 2/3rs of the industry! I’m going to keep checking to verify that’s true, but if so – wow.

This whole thing with DC Comics and their reboot (in which the latest news is that they are openly admitting to be doing this mainly to appeal to males 18-34 only) has me – again – thinking about how much I wish I could create a Manga-type format for some DC titles – particularly Superman.

What I immediately liked about Manga when I first took the plunge and started reading some (back in 2007) was the wide range of stories that could be found if you did some research. And not just the stories were diverse, but the target readerships were diverse too. Girls, boys, young women, young men, adults, even gay or lesbian . . . chances are there was some manga out there that appealed to a person. There’s a series out there for every type of reader. And it was all mainstream at that (well, mainstream in Japan at least).

I’ve thought for a while now that Superman is something that could easily be broken into three distinct types of Manga series:

1. A shonen manga (maybe in the style of something like Fullmetal Alchemist) which would be the “main” series – lots of action and adventure, etc.

2. A shojo manga focused on Lois, (maybe in the style of something like Skip Beat), focusing on her career as an investigative reporter and all that, along with being Superman’s girlfriend/wife.

3. A second shonen manga that would be more “adult” in it’s themes and stories, kind of an AU and maybe even more seinen than shonen in it’s make.

With those three types you could reach a wide (wider) variety of readers and do many more diverse stories than can be done now – or will be done in this new reboot I bet.