Danica Davidson
April 7, 2025 
Part of a CBS Evening News segment on President Trump’s new tariffs gives examples of small businesses feeling the effects. They mainly decided to highlight Phantom Comics, a Washington, D.C. comic book store, about how the tariffs are impacting manga and other supplies.
Jacob Shapiro runs the store, and the majority of his costs are about to rise.
“Almost everything in this store, from the comics and graphic novels, to the manga, to the Hello Kitty plushies, boardgames, almost all of it comes from overseas,” he told the news.
He says that there are printers in the U.S., but not a lot.
CBS plays a video President Trump shared that stated he was purposefully tanking the stock market to bring down interest rates. It then goes back to the comic book store, with Shapiro flipping through a manga and explaining it was printed in Korea. South Korea has a 25% tariff rate attached to it, even higher than Japan’s 24%.
“There’s a non-zero chance we’re not going to survive the next couple of years,” says Shapiro, who worries that people will stop buying things like manga and comic books if essentials become too expensive for households.
“I don’t know what [President Trump] is thinking,” Shapiro goes on. “I get the idea of wanting to bring manufacturing back to the U.S. But we need a plan, and it’s something that’s going to take years to do. You can’t just flip a switch and change distribution models.”
From here CBS News goes on to talk with factory workers in Michigan, and then to talk about stocks plunging, particularly tech stocks and 401K.
Owner of comics shop that relies on imports fears it won’t survive Trump tariffs
Meanwhile, over in Japan The Kyodo News reported, “Tokyo stocks plunged nearly 8 percent Monday, with the Nikkei index suffering its third-largest point drop on record. . .” The tariffs are not popular in Japan, where the prime minister has dubbed them a national crisis. Chief economist at Sony Financial Group Inc. Hiroshi Watanabe remarked, “Stock declines are being caused by the irrational tariff policies of the U.S. administration under President Trump, and turmoil in markets is unlikely to settle unless the policies are revised.”
Source: CBS News
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Danica Davidson is the author of the bestselling Manga Art for Beginners with artist Melanie Westin, plus its sequel, Manga Art for Everyone, and the first-of-its-kind manga chalk book Chalk Art Manga, both illustrated by professional Japanese mangaka Rena Saiya. Check out her other comics and books at www.danicadavidson.com.
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