The manga world seems to be teeming with activity lately.
A new manga studio has sprung up in … New Jersey. Lime will produce two manga series for Tokyopop Germany, Evergrey and Ouija, and will be peddling its wares at the NY Comic-Con. Samples are online. (Hat tip: ANN.)
Ed Chavez at Anime on DVD looks at how 2005 shook out for two newcomers to the North American market, ICE Kunion and BLU. Ed gives ICE Kunion points for bringing over some good titles and doing a good job of translation and production, but faults them on communication. BLU is like the Unknown Manga Publisher; they appear to be affiliated with Tokyopop but tend to be quiet, other than bringing out the books on time. And Ed likes what he sees:
The eight titles range from quasi BL (Earthian) to hot and sexy Wild Rock (that cover even had me sweating), but mixed in the romance is action, comedy and a good amount of drama in case you want meat with your bishies.
Speaking of manwha, Buzzscope takes a look at Netcomics, the brand-new kid on the block—they launched in January. Netcomics offers many of their titles as webcomics as well as books, meaning you can read them for about $1 per volume, but be warned that their website only supports Internet Explorer. I’d be more bothered by that if they offered something I wanted, but so far I’m unimpressed with what I’ve seen. Check out the previews on Buzzscope to see if you agree.
Finally, Renae Geerlings has a new job and Top Cow has a new editor in chief. Johanna at Comics Worth Reading has a good summary of the reactions (and an interesting reaction of her own).