Deb Aoki rounds up the major manga news from Anime Expo and San Diego Comic-Con, while Heidi MacDonald and Calvin Reid weigh in on the overall state of the comics industry. The good news: the manga market has rebounded from the late 2000s, when a glut of product and the collapse of Borders forced several publishers to shut down.
Over at Comic Book Resources, Brigid Alverson interviews Tokyopop founder Stu Levy about the company’s new business plan, which consists of three key components: “licensed Japanese manga, graphic novels based on brands, and new products based on Tokyopop’s existing global manga properties.”
Going to Otakon? Ed Chavez hinted that Vertical Comics may have three or four licensing announcements. In other Vertical news, all seventeen volumes of Black Jack are now available in ebook form.
Crunchyroll just launched five new manga series, including Scum’s Wish, The Morose Mononokean, and Princess Jellyfish.
DMP’s latest Kickstarter campaign successfully funded print editions of Osamu Tezuka’s Storm Fairy, Crime and Punishment, and Unico.
Tokyo Ghoul tops this week’s New York Times Manga Best Sellers, while Attack on Titan tops ICv2’s list of the Top 10 Manga Franchises of Spring 2015. Also making the ICv2 cut are long-time favorites Death Note and Naruto and relative newcomer Sword Art Online.
Are you a Dorohedoro fan? If so, keep your eyes peeled for the first issue of Marvel’s Ant-Man: The Last Days; Q Hayashida provided the cover art. (Issue ships on 8/15.)
Justin Stroman talks to several Digital Manga Guild localizers about their experiences–good and bad–working for DMP.
The folks at ALC Publishing have translated Rica Takashima’s article “Japan: Fertile Ground for the Cultivation of Yuri,” which originally appeared in the December 14th issue of Eureka.
News from Japan: Creator Masaya Hokazono (Inugami) just launched Osoroshi Ya (Dreadful Shop), a new website for manga horror enthusiasts. Natsuki Takaya is hard at work on a sequel to Fruits Basket. Beginning September 4th, a new chapter will be posted every week at the HanaLaLa website. The end is near–for Orange, Cross H, and Grendizer Giga, that is.
Reviews: At Kaleo, Henry Ma reviews the latest chapters of Bleach, and offers predictions for the next installment. Ash Brown posts short reviews of After I Win, Alice in the Country of Hearts: My Fanatic Rabbit, and Aquarion Evol.
Erica Friedman on vol. 2 of Akuma no Riddle (Okazu)
Chris Beveridge on vol. 1 of The Complete Chi’s Sweet Home (The Fandom Post)
Rebecca Silverman on vols. 1-3 of Demon From Afar (ANN)
Anna N. on vol. 2 of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Part One: Phantom Blood (The Manga Report)
Helen on Kitchen Princess (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Megan R. on Kujibiki Unbalance (The Manga Test Drive)
Matthew Warner on The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (The Fandom Post)
Kristin on vol. 1 of Maid-Sama (Comic Attack)
Jon Parrish and Luke Thompson-Moritz on vol. 3 of Peepo Choo (Comic DNA)
Sean Gaffney on vols. 17-18 of Ranma 1/2 (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Matthew Warner on vol. 11 of Sankarea: Undying Love (The Fandom Post)
Jeff Alford on Trash Market (Run Spot Run)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 1 of Twin Star Exorcists (ANN)
Jocelyn Allen on Wagamama Chie-chan (Brain vs. Book)
One little error: The NY Times list you were looking at was from 2013; Attack on Titan didn’t have 6 titles in the top 10 this week.
That’s actually a pretty big error on my part, Callum–thanks for the tip! I’ve updated the text to reflect the fact that Tokyo Ghoul currently reigns supreme.