.jpg)
Scanlations!!
Posted By Jerzy on July 26, 2010
Talking with Kasey Van Hise about the extreme drama behind scanlations and the pre-order for her new book.
Follow Mark, Kevin, Jerzy, & Kasey on Twitter!!
You can support the show by sending a quick “Thanks for hosting Art & Story’s media files” via Twitter to Barry Gregory, Jenni Gregory, or Thomas Florimonte!
Subscribe through iTunes!!
Extreme RSS Feed!!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 24:10 — 22.2MB)
anime boston had crashed the server and sold out the artist alley table in 28 seconds…
I’m rather fond of scanlations, just personally, though I usually balk at that sort of thing because it’s very close to stealing. (The legality debate is another issue entirely, so I’ll leave that for another time) I make a habit of buying the series I read with regularity, but if all things were equal — say, the author still got the money, and scanlations cost as much as official copies — I would buy the scanlations. I’d miss the feel of paper copies in my hands, but that’s it. There are a number of reasons, but I’ll highlight the main ones.
Translation. I have found one series I read where the official English translation was better than the scanlation with any sort of consistancy. (07 Ghost, for anyone who was curious) I read a lot of series. For just ONE to be better quality is a very poor statistic. Especially when you consider that most of the scanlations are done for free by people who are giving up their own time to translate these works while the official translations have paid translators. The official translator really should have more investment in their work, since it’s their livelihood, but this is not the case. There is one series that I cannot read the official translation because it’s simply painful. I still buy it, (support the author, woo!) but if I reread it, I do so online.
Ease of access. If I’ve heard a lot about a series or gotten a reccomendation, I can just look it up online. It’s how I learned I don’t really like Gintama (which sounded rockin’ awesome when I first heard about it) but I really love Tsubasa (which sounded kinda lame when I first heard about it). Neither of which was a series I would have picked up in the store. Also, the sheer number of comics. One of my favorite series was found with the random button on OneManga. That’s not something that really happens in a bookstore.
And finally, the update schedule. Scanlations keep up with the latest release in Japan, while official translations often lag a good ways behind. I’m a lot less edgey on forums when I don’t have to worry about someone spoiling things for me. It’s not that big of a deal, and it’s hardly the end of the world to encounter spoilers, but I would rather hear the story from the author than second-hand.
I agree with Jerzy, publishers should really be trying to capitalize on this. What they really need to be doing is asking OneManga to keep their series up in a truncated format — the first some-odd chapters would stay up as a preview, and perhaps the most recent chapter. Readers would then be encouraged to subscribe to acess the rest online or to purchase paper copies. If the translations were quality, I’d be a happy camper. Another suggestion I would make for this format is that if you’ve bought a paper copy of a manga, you could view it online. This has been done for some online TCGs I believe, where cards had a unique code that you could enter so you’d have your physical cards online as well. I don’t know how much work that would actually take, but I believe it’s possible.
Whoo, apologies for the wall of text. Apparently I feel strongly about this topic…
Jerz, I’m holding my breath in hopes that you, Mark, and Kevin will someday make it to the mini wonderland that is TCAF in my neck of the woods!
“This week will be an all-guests week.”
I’m looking forward to meeting all those people who I don’t yet know, and listening to their perspective on comics. To Mark and Kevin, have fun listening to Extreme!! for a change, because my guess is that you normally don’t do that.
Yes I’m with Sharon! A&S crew to TCAF!!!
ArrrOOooo!