Here’s a startling bit of news: Digital Manga, Inc., has put all their print titles on hiatus for six months, from January through June 2013. In a message on the company blog, Digital president Hikaru Sasahara said, “Please be advised that none of our licenses are cancelled, simply postponed. We will be resuming the distribution of our print editions in June, 2013.” The move affects all Digital imprints, including June, 801, and DokiDoki, but not the two Tezuka books ; behind the scenes, the company has been revamping its emanga digital manga site.
The latest addition to the Shonen Jump Alpha lineup is the romantic comedy Nisekoi, by Naoshi Komi, who is best known for his Double Arts manga.
Lissa Pattillo looks at this week’s new manga releases in her latest On the Shelf column at Otaku USA.
Where’s Deb Aoki? She’s in Tokyo, at the International Comics Festa, where a group of Canadians has put together their own doujinshi anthology. She’s taking pictures and chronicling her adventures on Twitter, so if you don’t follow her already, now would be a good time to start.
Reviews
Rebecca Silverman on vols. 9 and 10 of Oresama Teacher (ANN)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 44 of Case Closed (ANN)
Ken H on vol. 1 of Heroman (Comics Should Be Good)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 59 of Naruto (The Comic Book Bin)
Alex Hoffman on vol. 1 of Pupa (Manga Widget)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 10 of Rin-ne (The Comic Book Bin)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 8 of Sailor Moon (Blogcritics)
Anna on vol. 1 of Strobe Edge (Manga Report)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 1 of Strobe Edge (Comics Worth Reading)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Strobe Edge (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Rebecca Silverman on Wolf (ANN)
There wasn’t anything in particular of Digital Manga’s I was looking forward to (I find I tend to be happier if I wait until after something has been released to want it, unless I’m already keeping track of a series), but, as someone who still hasn’t moved to reading digital manga, I’m hoping this isn’t a worrisome sign for print manga. Until more (any?) manga gets released in a downloadable, DRM-free format, which is the minimum I ask of an e-book before I consider it for purchase, I’m not likely to pay for it.
DRM-free is actually happening in yaoi/BL world, with SuBLime and DMI now both offering downloadable PDFs. DMI’s cost more and are lower quality, hopefully this hiatus will give them a chance to work on that.
Thanks for the info. I’ve tried looking for DRM-free manga, to at least give digital manga a try, but I must not have been doing the best searches, because it was hard to figure out who was offering something I was willing to buy. I’m a little tired of the push towards “read in our special web-based reader only”.