All Hail King City

Don MacPherson talks to creator Brandon Graham and Tokyopop marketing director about King City, which is being co-published in a unique arrangement by Tokyopop and Image Comics. Here’s Brandon’s summary of the deal:

“As far as I understand it, Image is putting this out as they would any of the creator-owned titles they do, treating Tokyopop as they would normally treat a creator,” he told Eye on Comics. “So Image will get the same percentage they would with any other they put out. And Tokyopop is paying me up front to draw it.”

Image is reformatting the title as a pamphlet-style series and republishing the first volume in that format before putting out the new material. Although it canceled most of its global manga series last year, Tokyopop has, for the most part, refused to return any rights to the creators, so creators can’t take their work elsewhere (McPherson talks to Ross Campbell and Becky Cloonan about this). And even under this new arrangement, Tokyopop, not Graham, is the creator who makes the contract with Image. Graham notes the occasion in his LJ, which is, as always, a NSFW but interesting collection of his own work and interesting comics he has seen here or there.

Disappearance Diary has been nominated for an Ignatz Award, the first manga to be so honored, according to Deb Aoki.

Reviews: At the Forbidden Planet blog, Richard Bruton reviews Manga Kamishibai – The Art of Japanese Paper Theatre, about an art form that may have been the direct predecessor of today’s manga. Andrew Cunningham takes a look at Bokke-San, Yoshiyuki Nishi’s followup to Muhyo and Roji, at The Eastern Standard. Sadie Mattox has short takes on her summer reading at Extremely Graphic, and Snow Wildsmith looks at some continuing yaoi series at Fujoshi Librarian.

Ed Sizemore on vol. 4 of 20th Century Boys (Comics Worth Reading)
Casey Brienza on vols. 1 and 2 of Canon (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Casey Brienza on vols. 3 and 4 of Canon (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 1 of Chibi-Vampire (Kuriousity)
Tangognat on vol. 1 of Children of the Sea (Tangognat)
Julie on vol. 11 of Crimson Hero (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Deb Aoki on Domo: The Manga (About.com)
Casey Brienza on vols. 1-4 of Flower of Life (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 1 of Four-Eyed Prince (The Comic Book Bin)
Snow Wildsmith on The History of the West Wing (Good Comics for Kids)
Melinda Beasi on vol. 1 of Ichiroh! (There it is, Plain as Daylight)
Snow Wildsmith on Junior Escort (Manga Jouhou)
Casey Brienza on vols. 1-3 of Jyu-Oh-Sei (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Matthew Rozier on vol. 1 of Kekkaishi (Comics Village)
Courtney Kraft on Living for Tomorrow (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Casey Brienza on vol. 1 of Ludwig II (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Billy Aguiar on vol. 1 of Maria Holic (Prospero’s Manga)
Noah Berlatsky on vol. 1 of Ooku: The Inner Chamber (The Hooded Utilitarian)
Lorena Nava Ruggero on Red Colored Elegy (i heart manga)
Ai Kano on vol. 9 of Strawberry 100% (Animanga Nation)
Billy Aguiar on vol. 1 of A Tale of an Unknown Country (Prospero’s Manga)
Courtney Kraft on vol. 3 of Vampire Hunter D (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 1 of Zone-00 (The Comic Book Bin)

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