Shoppers’ alert, summer reading, Japan travel photos

Those of you who buy your manga in comics shops may have to look elsewhere for most of Yen Press’s July releases, or ask your retailer to order from someone other than Diamond Comics Distributors, because Diamond cancelled a number of the manga and manhwa solicited in the May Previews. Sean Gaffney noted this yesterday on Twitter, so I e-mailed Kurt Hassler, who got back to me right away. Here’s what he said:

So far as the Yen titles on this list are concerned, these are not publisher cancelations. These are Previews cancelations which simply means that Diamond for whatever reason has opted not to make these titles available through their service. The books are all still very much being published, and retailers have the option of ordering them directly through Hachette Book Group or through any number of other wholesalers like Ingram or Baker & Taylor.

When I asked if that was because of Diamond’s new order minimums, Kurt replied that he really didn’t know but that that was “as likely a reason as any.” Affected titles include Croquis Pop, Mr. Flower Groom, and the Kieli novel. Other books cancelled by Previews this month include upcoming volumes of Breath from Yaoi Generation, Ultimate Venus and 07-Ghost from Go!Comi, and Gorgeous Carat Lesperanza from Tokyopop. Looking back at previous cancellation lists, this doesn’t seem to be unusual except for the number of Yen titles falling under the ax this month.

At MangaCast, Ed Chavez is pretty pleased that Viz is publishing Children of the Sea.

Deb Aoki presents her summer reading list—12 manga that grownups can enjoy—at About.com.

This is pretty cool: Colleen Doran digs out some old photos of a 1996 trip to Japan with a host of comics luminaries, including Jeff Smith, Frederick Schodt, and Jules Feiffer. Enjoy!

At the Studio QT blog, Susie muses a bit on whether scanlations have affected manga sales. Her conclusion: Hard to say, but it’s not killing print.

Patrick Macias has an advance look at the upcoming Otaku USA magazine.

Lori Henderson thinks through her shopping list at Manga Xanadu.

Christopher Butcher is in Japan, buying cat manga, drinking jellied coffee, and taking pictures of everything he sees. Enjoy!

News from Japan: The online doujin and eroge shop delipare is announcing restrictions on works with certain keywords, such as loli, Canned Dogs reports.

Reviews: Kate Dacey has some short reviews of Black Jack, Firefighter Nanase, and Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit up at The Manga Critic. At Manga Life, Park Cooper and Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane post brief writeups of various series they are following.

Connie on vol. 6 of B.O.D.Y. (Slightly Biased Manga)
Kate Dacey on The Cat in the Coffin (The Manga Critic)
Deb Aoki on Clover (About.com)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 1 of Detroit Metal City (Comics Worth Reading)
Greg McElhatton on vol. 1 of Detroit Metal City (Read About Comics)
David Welsh on vol. 1 of Detroit Metal City (The Comics Reporter)
Connie on vol. 14 of D.Gray-Man (Slightly Biased Manga)
Julie on vols. 13 and 14 of D.Gray-Man (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Connie on A Drifting Life (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 2 of Future Lovers (Slightly Biased Manga)
Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane on vol. 10 of High School Debut (Manga Life)
Ken Haley on The History of the West Wing (Manga Recon)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 1 of Imadoki! (Kuriousity)
Connie on vol. 21 of Iron Wok Jan (Slightly Biased Manga)
Billy Aguiar on vol. 1 of KimiKiss (Prospero’s Manga)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 1 of KimiKiss (Comics Worth Reading)
Lorena on vol. 1 of Kitchen Princess (i heart manga)
Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane on vol. 1 of The Lapis Lazuli Crown (Manga Life)
Dave Ferraro on Leave it to PET (Comics-and-More)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 2 of Ludwig II (Kuriousity)
Lorena on vol. 1 of Mars (i heart manga)
Sandy Bilus on Mijeong (I Love Rob Liefeld)
Michelle Smith on vol. 10 of Nana (Soliloquy in Blue)
Lorena on vol. 1 of Parasyte (i heart manga)
David Welsh on vol. 3 of Real (Precocious Curmudgeon)
James Fleenor on vol. 1 of Samurai Harem: Asu no Yoichi (Anime Sentinel)
Emily on Sonnan Janeeyo (Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page)
Katherine Farmar on vol. 2 of Sunflower (Comics Village)
Connie on vol. 14 of Swan (Slightly Biased Manga)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 1 of Tsubasa: Those With Wings (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Tangognat on Two Flowers for the Dragon (Tangognat)

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Comments

  1. Thanks for the link, Brigid!

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  1. […] delve into some of the smaller publishers seeking new routes of distribution. And on that note, Diamond shed books from Manga publisher Yen Press. As the article points out, the books are still being published, but Diamond won’t be soliciting […]