MangaBlog

David Taylor opens the week at Love Manga with an interview with A. Neculai, editor-in-chief at Drama Queen and editor of DQ’s new anthology, Rush. The first issue of Rush will debut at Yaoicon, and the magazine will begin its bimonthly schedule next year. Each issue will be $7.99 and will carry four (or more) boys’ love stories by Western manga-ka. As for distribution:

For the time being it will be distributed only through the DramaQueen shop, we’re also going to have a subscription program in place and maybe in time we will look into other online outlets. Due to some of our creators explicit content [we do not censor at DQ], some distributors might be unwilling to move Rush, and so for now, only time will tell.

This puts it right on the line: There’s not going to be any we-had-to-cover-that-up-or-Borders-won’t-stock-it lameness from DQ! The stories will be continuing stories, as in Japanese magazines, and will be collected in tankoubons. This neatly sidesteps one of the biggest problems with global manga as currently imagined by Tokyopop and (at least some of the time) Seven Seas: The long time between releases. Getting an installment every two months will keep reader interest high. If someone were doing that with Off*beat or The Dreaming, I would totally go for it.

One interesting aspect of Rush is the attention it is attracting in Japan. Contributor Tina Anderson writes:

Many Japanese BL-manga bloggers visited the Rush web site, and many of them cannot understand [besides colorful commentary on what’s licensed – or what America finds interesting in terms of BL] why the art in Rush looks to represent such a ‘masculine focus’. One commenter at Hedena demanded at her own blog: Is it even BL if it’s made outside Japan?

Apparently there are already requests for Rush in Japanese, but Tina says it won’t be translated.

At Icarus Publishing, Simon Jones discusses just who will be reading Rush in Japan—a country which, he points out, already has plenty of comics.

But the very fact that American BL does not strictly adhere to the styles of its Japanese forebearer could be an unexpected advantage… even if it is not accepted by the hardcore fans, it may very well find a completely new audience, straddling the middle ground between pure BL and pure gay manga.

… which I suspect is what’s happening both here and there, as BL finds a new audience and new creators spring up to meet their needs.

Tokyopop editor Tim Beedle (Beedlejuice) points out what’s been missing from all the conversation about Tokyopop’s new online exclusives: Any mention of the books themselves.

As the editor of Neck and Neck, Tim is just the guy to change that. Here’s what he has to say about this series:

Neck and Neck is written and drawn by Lee Sun-Hee, and tells the story of Dabin, a 15-year-old high school sophomore who also happens to be the daughter of the most powerful mob boss in Korea. Dabin has a crush on Eugene, who’s an older boy that works for her father, and transfers to his high school to be closer to him. The problem is that in addition to Eugene, the transfer also brings her closer to Shihu, the son of her father’s worst enemy. Shihu’s somewhat of a bad boy, and Dabin fosters an immediate dislike for him. However, at the same time, her competitive nature ensures that she just can’t ever seem to tear herself apart from him (she can’t let her enemy get the last word!). I’m sure you can figure out where the story’s going, but trust me, it’s a fun ride getting there…

Well, why didn’t he say so? After reading Tim’s post, I’m actually willing to give Neck and Neck a chance. This is the upside of the editors’ blogs: They let the editors talk about books they like, but that maybe don’t get noticed enough. And I think posts like this will be key to making the online exclusives a success. I’m more likely to send in my ten bucks if I know a little bit about the book I’m buying.

Here’s a treat to start your weekend off right: Queenie Chan has just posted a really cute little comic on her LiveJournal.

Love Manga has the latest Bookscan numbers and, ho hum, Naruto tops the list. In fact, while we’re all talking about Tokyopop, seven of the top ten are Viz titles, with Fruits Basket and two non-manga properties rounding out the list. And there’s this:

In its first full week of release Masashi Kishimoto’s Naruto Vol. 11 published by Viz sold more copies in a seven-day period than any other graphic novel has managed to do in bookstores so far in 2006. How hot is Naruto? Naruto Vol. 9, which debuted in March, remains the best-selling graphic novel of 2006 so far according to the BookScan report of bookstore sales — and all of the first ten volumes in the series would all rank in the top 12 in year-to-date sales with only DC’s V for Vendetta and Tokyopop’s Fruits Basket Vol. 13 interrupting Naruto’s dominance.

At the MangaCast, Ed looks beyond the online exclusives to something Tokyopop may be doing right: its partnership with Harper Collins. He has the cover of one of the first fruits of that venture, Meg Cabot’s Avalon High manga. And for those purists who are rolling their eyes, he has this to say:

And in a way this is not too far from what a publisher like Fujimi Shobo or MediaWorks would do. Both with their ties to Kadokawa Shoten and their own lines of light novels, tend to adapt books into manga. More often than not there is an established manga writer working with lesser known artists.

See! It’s how they do it in Japan.

Interesting books you’ll probably never see in English: Manga Junkie looks at Cat Street, a “feel-good tear-jerker” from the author of Boys Over Flowers.

On the Tokyopop site, editor Tim Beedle plugs the new Return to Labyrinth page, which is really just a portal back to the book info on the Tokyopop site. But it’s a beautiful portal. Beedle has written a nice, long editor’s introduction, which is something Tokyopop needs more of. It seems like their catalog copy has gotten very skimpy lately. And then there’s a sample chapter. Aside from the fact that the pages have the same crowded format as the rest of the site, this is how it should be done.

Still at Tokyopop, ChunHyang once again picks out the blogs worth reading on that site.

… but you can’t slice a tomato with your foot! Splat! It’s been at least 20 years since I saw those Ginsu knife ads, but I can still repeat them word for word. Now that’s a great marketing campaign! Simon Jones, who can always be counted on for some lucid commentary from the publisher’s point if view, compares Tokyopop’s online exclusives to the Ginsu knife, which was one of the first products to be directly marketed via TV (“Hurry, send money now! Wait six weeks for delivery!”)

It worked because it had a great marketing campaign; they weren’t competing for shelf space; and TVs had become ubiquitous in the American household, ensuring that many people received their message. By shunning retail, they turned a flop into a best-seller.

Thirty years later, Tokyopop is trying to do the same thing online. They’re betting that the internet has become ubiquitous enough that they can reach a majority of their potential customers. They’ve got just about everything they need in place, too… a community portal to create captive audiences; a free print magazine whose true purpose was to data mine a huge mailing list perfect for direct marketing.

And the numbers make it work:

As discussed in the previous TP post, Tokyopop can either make 1.5 times the amount of profit, or the same amount of profit selling to just 30 to 40% of the audience. They know the move to online will likely cause a drop in readership, but they’re counting on it being less than 60%.

I agree on the numbers, but I still think Tokyopop is falling short on the marketing side. They have yet to come up with the manga equivalent of “You can’t slice a tomato with your foot.”

Love Manga has more analysis and a roundup of links. Lyle sees Tokyopop making the same mistakes as Marvel and DC, including pushing already popular titles at the expense of lesser-known ones. And at Sporadic Sequential, John Jakala wonders if some of the Tokyopop online exclusives may quietly disappear, or become webcomics, if preorders are too low. He’s made a list of the titles on the site now, so we can check if Tokyopop is being naughty or nice.

Meanwhile, in comments at Love Manga, Rivkah puts her finger on what’s bugging me about the online exclusives:

Sales can’t get it through their head that they’re marketing a good majority of their titles to girls who are a heck of a lot more likely to buy something they don’t necessarily want simply because it’s on sale. I think a lot of the folk in sales are still stuck with the mentality of the male comic book buyer who goes in to purchase what he wants, even if he has to pay full price. Call me sexist, but girls are drawn to the red sale sign like moths to a flame.

That’s it! I hate paying full price for anything, but I’ll buy all kinds of crazy things if they are half off. I know there may be contractual reasons why Tokyopop has to pay full price, but they need to find a way around them (coupons!). Especially for the early volumes.

You know how CMX was the bad guys for censoring Tenjho Tenge, and Del Rey was the company that would never do that? Well, this week the Anime on DVD forum, noticed that Del Rey rewrote parts of Air Gear to eliminate references to rape. Some readers had been giving them the benefit of the doubt (bad translation?) but editor Dallas Middaugh ‘fessed up:

I’ve long said that at Del Rey Manga, if we have to edit it we won’t publish it. So what do I do for the first volume of Air Gear, the work of an artist whose work has been censored in the past? I edit the dialogue to tone down sexual references. Dumb.

Even dumber? Mentioning it in a PW interview:

Middaugh says that Del Rey Manga will not edit the art although it has “toned down dialogue to reduce [sexual references] in the first volume.”

Actually, it’s amazing it took so long for the steam to hit the fan. But if the bad news is that Del Rey isn’t immune to temptation, the good news is that they are willing to repent:

I could explain how I reached that decision, but that isn’t really relevant. The decision was mine, it was wrong, and we’re fixing it. The next printing of Air Gear 1 will have the appropriate dialogue that refers to the rape on pages 58, 95, and 99. I am working to determine when that printing will be in stores – give me a week or so to sort that out, and I’ll post here again. For financial reasons, I cannot offer you the opportunity to trade your book in for a new printing.

You’re all aware of the change to the cover of Air Gear 2 (changing her thong and chaps to pants). That change will remain in place. The unedited image will appear on the title page in black and white.

Repent and toss in a panty shot for good measure. That’s why the fans love ’em! Reaction was immediate:

Wow! I wasn’t expecting that. This is exactly why you guys are my favorite manga company right now. YOU. ACTUALLY. LISTEN. And thank you so much for doing so. I will actually double dip on buying AG Volume 1 when you guys get the new printing out.

And now even people who weren’t going to read it vow to pick up volumes to show their support (go on, read the thread). Now that’s PR. Whatever they’re paying Dallas Middaugh, it isn’t enough.