To be honest, I'm not all for including older manga, at least big ones since they already had the attention they deserved and more.
[...]
I'd much prefer hearing about those manga than the mainstream ones, even if they are good.
Well, you certainly are right in some ways. They had some attention -> but that's mostly in Japan.
I always find it a little sad and to a certain point even quite shocking to see how small the amount of people is who really read some older series. I mean, after all they're part of a grand tradition. It's mostly thanks to those classics that we can enjoy certain series we love nowadays. It's kinda like... "set books" or "basic education" of manga to some extent.
So, not only are you missing out some damn awesome first rate series if you don't read them (I for one am convinced that most new series can't compare to a fair amount of stuff we got back in the days. Like if I compare Weekly Shounen JUMP series nowadays and what was serialized in the 80's or early 90's, holy cow... quality sure has dropped.). If you do, you'll also gain deeper knowledge about manga as a whole and therefore will be able to enjoy even newer titles more in the end.
But maybe that's a matter of taste and "reader's philosophy". Just like with literature: there sure are enough people who enjoy reading their Twilight books and would never dare to read some Shakespeare unless you hold a gun to their head...
(Same goes vice versa, of course.)
And we certainly sit in the same boat when it comes to wishing to see more non-mainstream or indi stuff. I was happy enough to get a spread of an Asano Inio manga into the final round, which even came in second!
Totally agree with you, but the sad fact is that most people have really never heard of them
Most people go for recent stuff, stuff that is serialised now or didn't end too long ago. I myself haven't even heard of any of those names outside of Tezuka (whose work I am only beginning to read now!) and Fujiko. And another thing is their availability. Most old old series don't have Edited Mangas, and even if there were official versions in people's bookshops, they probably never notice them...
Yeah, I totally know what you mean. I even remember people who asked me for recommendations saying stuff like "Ugh... don't wanna read that, it's too old!"
But I have to agree that availability's a bitch... most Edited Manga groups prefer to do stuff which has a high demand from readers' side. It's kinda like a vicious circle really... xD (No demand for old series -leads to-> translators/Manga Editors ignoring the series -leads to-> less old series available -leads to-> less people knowing about them...and so on.)
And don't get me started on availability of official releases. Either they simply don't exist or they're out of print since ages. [I own some volumes which go for several hundred Euros on ebay... (Not like I'd want to sell them though, of course.^^)]
But sal-chan knows Japanese, so that's no excuse for you.
If you're bored some time, be sure to check out some of those legends' works.
//Oh btw: I don't wanna come off as some regressive/conservative longtime manga fan who yearns for the better times so I'll probably better leave this topic be. xD"