MangaBlog

It seems like they have been around forever, but the Yen Press folks officially launched at SDCC. Below the cut, a press release about their latest acquisitions.

YEN PRESS DEBUTS AT SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON AND ANNOUNCES SIMULTANEOUS US/UK RELEASE OF TITLES THIS FALL

Publishing Directors Hassler and Johnson UNVEIL SEVERAL KEY LICENSES FOR 2008…INCLUDING TITLES ACQUIRED FROM AKITA SHOTEN AND THE IMPRINT’S FIRST ACQUISITION FROM MEDIA WORKS

NEW YORK, NY (August 9, 2007) — Hot on the heels of a successful debut at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, the newly formed graphic novel imprint Yen Press has announced that Little, Brown Book Group UK will simultaneously distribute Yen’s upcoming list in Britain beginning next month. With seven titles scheduled for release this fall, Little, Brown UK’s market-leading sci-fi imprint Orbit has been enlisted to market the Yen Press list in the growing manga market.

Orbit Business Manager, George Walkley, stated about the new partnership, “Orbit has been watching the development of the manga market closely, and we’re confident that in Yen Press we have found the ideal publishing partner. Whilst the SF and manga markets are distinct, there are significant synergies, and we look forward to using our experience and expertise to establish Yen Press in the UK market.”

Yen Press Co-Publishing Director, Kurt Hassler, similarly added, “Yen Press is thrilled to see its books launching in the UK market through our partnership with Orbit. We strongly believe that a strategy of simultaneous release between the UK and North American markets is the best possible scenario for fans and retailers alike and will help to further facilitate the growth of an already rapidly expanding market.”

Working to forge ahead in that expansion, Hassler and Co-Publishing Director Rich Johnson also announced at San Diego Comic-Con three new and exciting Yen Press licenses for 2008:

The first, acquired from Akita Shoten, is Kazuto Okada’s high school sex comedy Sundome (Rated M: Mature). Scheduled for release in January, Sundome is the story of an apathetic young man whose dull existence is forever changed when an assertive young woman wants to join the same after-school club in which he is a member. If only all after-school clubs were as hands on as this!

In April, Sundome will be followed by Kieli – Yakako Kabei & Shiori Teshirogi’s story about a 14-year-old girl with the ability to see ghosts (Rated OT: Older Teen 16+) – also from Akita Shoten, and Kaze no Hana, Yen’s first acquisition from Media Works. Kaze no Hana, by Akiyoshi Ohta & Ushio Mizta, is the story of 16-year-old Momoka Futami who lost her memory after an accident that claimed both the lives of her parents four years ago. Taken in by her father’s powerful relatives, what awaits Momoka far exceeds her own fears and expectations – including a spiritual sword and a tumultuous battle.

In upcoming seasons, expect to see new graphic novel genres published by the growing imprint, including a manga anthology (with a combination of translated and original titles) scheduled to release in Summer 2008. Stated Publishing Director Rich Johnson at Comic-Con, “If it is a good book, and we think there is an audience for it, we are going to publish it.”

Yen Press is an imprint of Hachette Book Group USA dedicated to publishing graphic novels for adults and young readers. Yen Press’ focus is primarily on licensed manga, but will also publish across the wide spectrum of the graphic novel market, including, but not limited to: original manga publications, original American comics/graphic novels, webcomics, licensed adaptations, and children’s graphic novels.

Orbit, an imprint of Little, Brown Book Group, is the UK’s number one publisher of science fiction and fantasy, with a market share nearly double that of its nearest specialist competitor. Originally founded in 1974, Orbit publishes many of the biggest names in genre fiction, including Iain M Banks, Terry Brooks, Trudi Canavan, Robert Jordan and Tad Williams.

Hachette Book Group USA (HBG) is the wholly-owned subsidiary of Hachette Livre, and is comprised of the following publishing groups: Warner Books; Little, Brown and Company; FaithWords; Center Street; Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; and HBG Digital Media.

Shaenon Garrity has posted another piping-hot edition of the Overlooked Manga Festival, this one about Yakitate!! Japan, a favorite in my house.

The Same Hat guys are back, and they’re hosting another scanlation of a Shintaro Kago manga. Click at your own risk!

Here’s some more online manga with a different slant: Popteen.com is posting chapters of Gal Samurai, a shoujo-ish story of an ass-kickin’ kogal. It’s a bit uneven but entertaining in places. My advice: Check the story guide before you start reading, because there’s not much backstory in the chapters up so far. (Via ANN.)

Check this out, because it may not last: Ed has video of SDCC at the MangaCast. Also up at the ‘Cast: This week’s new manga, and a Maki Side Dish on Comic Gumbo.

Comicsnob has this week’s online manga rankings.

It’s time to start thinking about next year: ICv2 has the dope on Tokyopop’s first-quarter 2008 releases and Viz’s new series.

I was a little slow picking this up this week, but everyone else caught it: vol. 20 of Bleach shot up from 111 to 85 on the USA Today Booklist, and vol. 15 of Naruto slid from 88 to 130.

Reviews: John Jakala reviews Times of Botchan at Sporadic Sequential. At The Comic Book Bin, Leroy Douresseaux checks out vol. 5 of O-Parts Hunter. Patricia Beard reviews vol. 1 of Satisfaction Guaranteed for Anime on DVD. At Comics Worth Reading, Rob Vollmar gives two thumbs up to vol. 2 of Phoenix. Leah reviews vols. 1 and 2 of Dokebi Bride at Hobotaku. Christopher Seaman reviews vol. 4 of Hayate the Combat Butler and Holly Ellingwood checks out vol. 1 of Sunflower at Active Anime. Mangamaniac Julie reviews one of my favorite series, vol. 4 of ES: Eternal Sabbath, at MangaCast. At Prospero’s Manga, Ferdinand reviews Shoujoai Ni Bouken: The Adventure of Yuriko. Cornerofmadness reviews vol. 18 of Bleach at Manganews. Connie goes for the girly with a review of vol. 1 of Metamo Kiss at Slightly Biased Manga.

ComiPress reports that the winner of Kodansha’s international manga competition is the artist known as rem. Tokyopop spilled the beans in their description of Vampire Kisses, which rem illustrates. She also was the first winner of the Rising Stars of Manga competition. The first prize is $5,000, and rem’s comic, Kage no Matsuri (which was originally done as a webcomic) will be published in an upcoming issue of Morning magazine in Japan.

In other international competition news, the Manila Standard interviews two Filipino artists who placed in the top 15 in the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s manga competition: Elmer Damaso, the artist for Ravenskull, and Jhomar Soriano, who draws Mr. Grieves. Both are published by Seven Seas.

Bookslut interviews Anne Ishii, director of marketing and publicity at Vertical and blogger extraordinaire. (Via blog@Newsarama.)

At the MangaCast, Ed has posted audio of the DrMaster panel at Anime Expo.

ICv2 has more info on the new titles announced by CMX at SDCC.

John Jakala celebrates the joy of Kekkaishi character designs, with lots of illustrations.

The Forbidden Planet blog takes a look at some of Yen Press/Orbit’s upcoming books.

Jake at Ye Olde Comick Booke Blogge ‘fesses up about concocting the KISS yaoi hoax. And apparently we played right into his hands!

“Want to get teens’ attention? Use manga!” Yeah, try throwing it at their head when they ignore you. Seriously, this post at the Humane Education Blog highlights the only OEL manga I have heard of from Viz, the 1 World Manga series.

In case you missed all the SDCC announcements, Viz brings us up to date on upcoming releases.

Reviews: Another day, another Maki Usami manga review from Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page; today’s selection is Orange Kiss. Hobotaku likes vol. 1 of Nana. Julie checks out vol. 7 of Moon Child at the Manga Maniac Cafe. At Slightly Biased Manga, Connie reviews vol. 3 of To Terra… Erica Friedman reviews vol. 3 of Kashimashi ~Girl Meets Girl~ at Okazu. Scott Campbell reviews vol. 1 of XS Hybrid and Holly Ellingwood checks out vol. 1 of Words of Devotion at Active Anime. Comicsnob Matt Blind reviews vols. 1 and 2 of Kitchen Princess. At the Comic Book Bin, Leroy Douresseax reviews vol. 4 of Hayate the Combat Butler.

I was tempted to title this “Dark Horse gets Gantz in their Pantz,” but it looks like this manga is no laughing matter. Read on for the details.

The Deadliest Ball since Phantasm!

GANTZ Brings Its Hardboiled Universe of Ultra-stylish Violence, Pathos, and Sexiness to Dark Horse

Inarguably the most highly demanded manga in the last half-decade, the enormously popular seinen manga series, GANTZ, has taken the bright path to Dark Horse. Hiroya Oku, creator of GANTZ, has put together a cast of characters that are both sympathetic and strong to which anyone can relate. The wildly renowned anime, also entitled GANTZ from ADV, primarily follows the same story and has been translated in several different languages captivating audiences all over the world.

Gantz tells the story of a team of dead people who are forced to take part in a “game” that has them hunting aliens and other creatures who live among the populace of Japan. The story focuses on Kei Kurono, a teenage boy who died saving a homeless man from a train. He, along with a band of others who are recently deceased, is forced to complete a series of dangerous and complicated missions by a strange device called Gantz. On these missions characters can even die again, only to be quickly replaced by others like them. As the plot progresses, so does the intricacy of relationships between characters.

“Throughout the years, there has been one title that fans approach us about again and again, and that is GANTZ. Dark Horse President/Publisher/Founder Mike Richardson has been pursuing the book since it was released, and we’re finally happy to bring GANTZ to English readers. Considered along the same lines as Ghost in the Shell and AKIRA, it is one of the greatest seinen manga ever created. GANTZ has found itself a very fitting home at the world’s greatest English-language seinen publisher,” explains Michael Gombos, Director of Asian Licensing at Dark Horse Comics.

Dark Horse is proud to deliver one of the most requested manga ever to be released. GANTZ has obtained a cult-like following that crosses mediums from print to DVD and back again. The devotion of the fans and excitement of the critics push this manga into a category all its own, surpassing any other in its genre.

GANTZ is tentatively scheduled for a summer 2008 release.

Lots of manga goodness at this week’s Publisher’s Weekly Comics Week, where Ed Chavez takes a look at CMX and Kai-Ming Cha talks to Eijiro Shimada of Kodansha’s Morning Two magazine about the publisher’s international manga competition. Amazingly, Naruto tops the August bestseller list, which also features Kingdom Hearts II, Death Note, more Naruto, Bleach, and Millennium Snow.

David Welsh has a short list of this week’s picks.

The new issue of Otaku USA is out, and Erin F. has a feature article on Tekkonkinkreet.

Okazu’s 5th anniversary is coming up, and Erica suggests readers send in some yuri art to celebrate.

Missed it: Newsarama interviewed Tokyopop director of new product development Jeremy Ross about Tpop 2.0. Caught it: ANN.

Manga Life has the PR on June Manga’s August releases. And ComiPress has the scoop on the upcoming volume of Aoi House.

ANN reports that sales of cell phone manga are up threefold, and web manga is up 70 percent, in Japan.

Reviews: First, head over to ANN, where Carlo Santos checks out a batch of new titles in his Right Turn Only!! column. And the Anime on DVD crew post another batch of Small Bodied Manga Reviews. Also at AoD, Patricia Beard looks at vol. 1 of Can’t Win With You. At Slightly Biased Manga, Connie reviews vol. 7 of Pastel, vol. 2 of Ichigenme… The First Class Is Civil Law, and vol. 4 of Saint Seiya. At Manganews, the review of the day is Floating_Sakura’s take on vol. 1 of Millennium Snow. Katherine Dacey-Tsuei checks out vol. 7 of The Rising Stars of Manga, Tokyopop’s competition anthology, at PopCultureShock. At Prospero’s Manga, Ferdinand reviews vol. 1 of Stand By Youth and Miranda updates vols. 2 and 3 of Crossroad. Michael Aronson reviews vol. 7 of Buso Renkin at Manga Life. At the Manga Maniac Cafe, Julie reviews vol. 1 of Hollow Fields. Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page checks out another Maki Usami manga, Sakura Rhythm. At Mecha Mecha Media, John Thomas enjoys vol. 1 of Translucent and vol. 1 of Mushishi. I am Otaku feels reaffirmed by Genshiken. At Warren Peace Sings the Blues, Matt Brady reviews vol. 1 of Buddha.

The post-SDCC edition of the MangaBlogCast is up, recapping all the manga-related news of the con. I’m heading out for a full day (and then some) of work but will post the liner notes tonight.

ICv2 talks to Del Rey associate publisher Dallas Middaugh about trends in the manga market. Meanwhile, Del Rey gets its own blog—on Anime on DVD. Giapet wonders what’s up with that.

The Toronto Chronicle Herald interviews Dramacon creator Svetlana Chmakova. (Via Giapet.)

John Jakala goes shopping and discovers it’s hard to find those in-between volumes.

Comicsnob has this week’s new manga and last week’s online sales rankings.

The Weekly Recon takes another look at this week’s list, with brief reviews of recent titles. And The Yaoi Review takes a quick look at some August releases.

Yaoi911 is offering a free comic to registered users. Click the link for details (over 18 only).

For a company that hasn’t actually published anything yet, Yen Press is doing pretty well: They just signed with Little, Brown to distribute their books in the UK. (Via ComiPress.)

Reviews: The BasuGasuBakuhatsu Anime Blog checks out vol. 6 of Nodame Cantabile, vol. 1 of Pita-Ten, vol. 1 of Gon, and vol. 2 of Disgaea 2. Connie reviews vol. 8 of Hellsing at Slightly Biased Manga. At PopCultureShock, Erin F. looks at three “goth-loli must-haves,” Kamikaze Girls (the novel), Kamikaze Girls (the movie), and Japanese Schoolgirl Inferno. Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga page checks out two titles in Japanese by Maki Usami, Sekai wa Happy de Dekiteru and Kanon. At the Manga Maniac Cafe, Julie reviews vol. 1 of Walkin’ Butterfly. Nick at Hobotaku gives vol. 1 of Princess Resurrection a B+. Christopher Seama reviews vol. 1 of ME2 for Active Anime. Greg Hackmann reviews vol. 1 of Translucent for Anime on DVD. At Comics-and-More, Dave Ferraro devotes Manga Monday to vol. 1 of Gon and vol. 19 of Hana-Kimi. At Manga Life, Dan Polley reviews vol. 1 of Mushishi.