Vertical integration

Newsarama’s Michael Lorah interviews Yani Mentzas, Editorial Director of Vertical, which is causing all kinds of excitement since it started publishing manga. Here’s Mentzas on their Tezuka titles:

One of Vertical’s founding ideas was to publish newly translated Tezuka on a regular basis. Tezuka Productions, however, made it very clear to us that we wouldn’t be acquiring any more titles from them until we proved ourselves with Buddha. Thankfully, the series did well, so we were permitted to publish more of the master. In terms of sales, the first volume of Buddha sold roughly the same amount as the first book of the Ring trilogy, the other flagship title of our debut year.

There’s lots more, including the nugget that Vertical will be trying to get into the teen manga market. Can’t get enough? Ed Chavez posts audio of Vertical’s NYCC panel at the MangaCast.

Also at the MangaCast: New titles pop up on Amazon, readers guess the licensor.

Dirk Deppey learns the hard way that if you publish the words “the first…” about anything, someone will come up with an earlier example. In this case it’s the first shounen-ai kiss, referenced yesterday.

Queenie Chan reports on the progress of The Dreaming and posts some more Zelda fan manga.

ChunHyang’s latest Tokyopop Round-Up includes some interesting links, including Stephanie “telophase” Folse’s latest column, Ripping off the classics. And she points out that the Make5Wishes entry pulls in some interesting reactions in comments.

Dark Horse will be publishing Chunchu, which won the 2003 Manhwa of the Year award.

Pata draws some parallels between the popularity of Japanese culture in two different countries. And Chloe notes that pop culture may not be the best lens through which to view a country.

Reviews: Dirk Deppey reviews vol. 1 of To Terra. Dave Ferraro also reviews To Terra at Comics-and-More, and he checks out vol. 3 of Emma as well. Danielle Van Gorder reviews Gravitation EX for Anime on DVD. At the Mangamaniaccafe, Julie checks out vol. 15 of Red River. Connie presents Slightly Biased reviews of vol. 1 of Go Go Heaven, vol. 1 of Ichigenme… The First Class Is Civil Law, vol. 1 of Swan, and vol. 2 of One Thousand and One Nights. At Active Anime, Holly Ellingwood reviews vol. 5 of Crimson Hero and vol. 16 of Blade of the Immortal, and Christopher Seama reads vol. 8 of Kekkaishi. Leroy Douresseaux checks out vol. 1 of Banya the Explosive Delivery Man at the Comic Book Bin.