The manga action doesn’t really start until today, with the Del Rey, Yen Press, and CMX panels, but we did make it to the Vertical panel yesterday and chatted with Steven Padnick of Tor Books, which is Seven Seas’ partner.
The news at Vertical was that they plan no new manga in the immediate future, but they will be releasing more volumes of Black Jack, along with a slew of interesting Japanese craft books, sudoku books, and cookbooks. Vertical head Ioannis Mentzas did reveal that they recently formed a relationship with a Japanese company that would provide both cash and influence in licensing negotiations while allowing them to remain independent. Gia liveblogged the panel here, if you would like more details. Oh, and full disclosure: I won the first two volumes of Black Jack in hardcover in the drawing.
Over at the Tor booth, I asked Padnick what was up with Seven Seas, which seems to have been rather quiet lately. He reassured me that they have had steady and good sales for the past year, although he allowed he was a bit worried about the Diamond minimums, which may affect some of their titles, although the bookstore channel remains robust. While the transition to the Tor partnership took Seven Seas off the market for three or four months last year, that is behind them, and the company will be announcing new licenses at San Diego Comic-Con in July. Previously announced books that are in the works include omnibus editions of Destiny’s Hand and Hollow Fields, and the second omnibus volume of Amazing Agent Luna.
Also, Tokyopop announced yesterday that it will be publishinga Domo-kun manga.
ANN has a full report up of the ICv2 graphic novel white paper.
And if you’re here and can’t figure out what to do, Deb Aoki has today’s manga and anime highlights at her blog.
Seven seas puts out books pretty regularly. I just picked up volume 2s of Afro Samurai and Hayate Cross Blade on Thursday. Also, Hollow Fields is on volume 3.
Ok, I’ve been trying to figure this out for days. Why is it a big deal for TP to be publishing a Domo-kun manga? It’s…a stuffed brown square, right?
Any enlightenment would be appreciated.
love, lore
From Wikipedia:
“Domo (どーもくん, Dōmo-kun?) is the mascot of Japan’s NHK television station, appearing in several 30 second stop-motion sketches shown as station identification during shows.
In 2006 Nickelodeon announced that it was to develop 26 two-minute shorts of Domo for broadcast in the United States.[1][2] In December 2007 ICv2 announced that Nickelodeon would begin airing the shorts in early 2008.[3]
Target used the character as the theme of its 2008 Halloween promotions.[4] This included a number of Halloween-themed products, such as candy and toys. An original animation was created for Target, available on their website.”