The Hawaii Star Manga Project is NOT a new idea ... others have successfully used a similar format or concept, in some cases for DECADES. The format is cheap, has good distribution and it's EVERYWHERE!

The Back to Basics Approach Rides Again!

Each title below was successful because they were based on the same simple concept. They had the winning combo: damn good product concept, and damn GOOD product to back it up.

There are many different ways to go about creating comics; of the newsprint comics, there are some VERY successful ones such as:

**The Spirit Section (1940-1952 Monthly US Newspaper Comic Book Insert Supplement, created to allow newspapers compete with the late 30's comic book boom caused by Superman/ Batman etc) [link])
**2000 AD( Weekly English (UK) Newspaper Tabloid Comic, 32+ yrs and over 1600+ issues : [link])
**Weekly Shonen Jump (Weekly Japanese Newsprint Anthology Comic 30+ years, and now a Monthly US Comic Magazine): [link])

Now It's Our Turn!

In the tradition of these pioneers, the Hawaii Star Manga Project (Prototype Newspaper Comic Magazine, made IN Hawaii) IS a weird cross between a dirt cheap Manga/comic and an illustrated fiction magazine, with coupon ads waiting on each page for the readers to use. We've studied what made each prior product a success and applied the lessons here, added a few of our own, and developed a "broad based, flexible format product" with a little something for everyone, aimed right at the core 15-30 demographic!! [link]

We're also in the planning stages for an Anime Magazine, a Small Kid Title, Genre based Spinoff Books (Superheroes/Sentai, Mystery/Suspense/Horror, Romance, Action & Adventure for example) and a Literary Magazine with Illustrated Fiction. HSMP is our a shakedown cruise.
Our Early Days (mid 90's to the early 2000's) were a fun & exciting experience! (well...If it doesn't kill you...) Check out this article on Hawaii's Comic Publishers (and a little background on the Hawaii comic scene, with Sam Campos, Doc (with the old Limelight Publishing/Media, No Talent Comics and others): [link]


What happened to "regular" comics?

Due to a new marketing model, traditional comics lost the mainstream in the late 70's: DC & Marvel began using a "direct sales" distribution model that substantially cut production costs as they knew in advance how many comic books to print, and that the issues were also to be paid for in advance! (The old "Standard" distribution model was blind ship X number of issues, and find out 3 months later how many sold and how many were "unsold & destroyed" by retailers to get credit back from the shops distributor.)

The "direct sales" distribution method greatly speeded up cash flow, and publisher's response time to sales fluctuations. The drawback to this policy, which gave rise to comics specialty retailers as a byproduct, also gave consumers the perception that "newsstand" copies were inferior to their gimmicky "direct sale" cousins. (Identical internal content notwithstanding!)

This "inferiority complex" eliminated the once common "spinner racks" of comics at many general retailers kids went to (like drug stores, supermarkets, candy stores, discount stores etc), which helped, in an unexpected twist, to put the industry in it's current bind. When the number of comic specialty shops contracted in the late 80's - mid 90's from over 10,000 to approx 3000-2500, the industry got a wake up call. They hit "snooze" and rolled over again.

Comic's have niched themselves as a COLLECTIBLE over those last 3 decades. hiding in dwindling specialty shops, not out there as broad based good cheap fun. Consumers for 3 generations have been conditioned to see comics in this light.

While their quality has NEVER been higher, the typical comic now runs $3.00 & up, and this keeps many good titles from readers hands. The current economic downturn does not bode well, especially for smaller comic publishers, and will almost surely result in further erosion of the number of comics retailers.

New ideas, (or redoing old ones) are called for. Innovation is a necessity at a time like this, and it's time for the Lime! Lets make Comics good cheap fun again!!