Start your reading today at ICv2, where their two-part interview with Viz brass touches on the state of the manga market (better than last year), the problem of kids’ manga, the renewed popularity of shoujo, their “aggressive” push to digital, and some books to look forward to in the fall, including the old and new volumes of Loveless. And here’s VP of publishing Leyla Aker on why Viz is going beyond parent companies Shueisha and Shogakukan for licenses:
When Tokyopop was a major force in licensing and Go! Comi, Bandai, and the smaller publishers were around, we really didn’t go to a lot of publishers because it was more of an effort to secure those licenses in competition with the other publishers, and we didn’t really need to. Our parent companies’ catalogs were so deep there wasn’t a huge impetus to go out to try to find other stuff. But now the publishing landscape here has changed so much, where there’s essentially only a handful of players left, the field is more open so when we are looking to acquire material, the editors know that they should be looking everywhere. It’s kind of an organic process of just going further afield.
This month’s Manga Moveable Feast focuses on CLAMP, and Melinda Beasi kicks it off with an introduction to the team and their works, both major and minor, as well as an argument in favor of Cardcaptor Sakura. The Manga Bookshelf bloggers devote their Pick of the Week to their favorite CLAMP manga as well. The full archive for the feast is here.
The Manga Village team makes their picks from this week’s new manga.
Lori Henderson has a concise roundup of the manga news from San Diego at Manga Xanadu, and the Manga Village team has a roundtable discussion as well.
Digital Manga’s Tezuka Kickstarter campaign raised over $49,000, enough to fund print editions of Unico, Triton, and Atomcat, and perhaps setting a record for manga-based Kickstarters, says Deb Aoki.
Johanna Draper Carlson and Ed Sizemore host an epic edition of the Manga Out Loud podcast, discussing Kickstarter with special guests Matt Blind, Erica Friedman, Jason Yadao, and Ben Applegate
Erica Friedman explains why it is important for yuri manga to be commercially successful—and that means paying the licensors, translators, and publishers.
Alex Hoffman has a license request: The josei manga 3 A.M. Dangerous Zone, a workplace story about a girl who designs pachinko machines.
Three Steps Over Japan takes a peek between the covers of Monthly Comic Rex.
Matt Blind lists the manga best-sellers (online sales) for the week ending June 17.
News from Japan: A local group has asked the Hiroshima Board of Education not to use Keiji Nakasawa’s Barefoot Gen in its peace studies program, calling the semi-autobiographical tale of a boy who survived the Hiroshima bombing “one-sided.” Eikichi Onizuka, the title character in GTO, will make an appearance in a one-shot spinoff of Inohead Gargoyle, the latest series by GTO creator Tohru Fujisawa, in Young magazine. The manga team Peach-Pit (Shugo Chara!, Rozen Maiden) has a new manga in the works that will run in Kodansha’s Dessert. Happy Hustle High creator Rie Takada will launch a new series, Boku no Kanojo wa Yōjinbō (My Girlfriend is a Yojimbo/Bodyguard), in the September 3 issue of Silky. ANN has the Japanese publisher rankings for the first half of 2012, plus a bit of analysis.
Reviews: Deb Aoki takes a look at the first chapter of Takama-Ga-Hara, the newest series to join the Shonen Jump Alpha lineup. Adam Stephanides takes a brief look at three untranslated manga by Shintaro Kago at Completely Futile. Ash Brown reports in on the latest week of manga at Experiments in Manga.
Lissa Pattillo on vols. 1-3 of Alice in the Country of Hearts (Kuriousity)
Kristin on vols. 11 and 12 of Bakuman (Comic Attack)
Sheena McNeil on vol. 44 of Bleach (Sequential Tart)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 22 of D.Gray-Man (The Comic Book Bin)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of The Disappearance of Nagato Yuko-Chan (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
J. Caleb Mozzocco on vol. 1 of The Flowers of Evil (Every Day Is Like Wednesday)
Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of Gate 7 (Manga Xanadu)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 23 of Hayate the Combat Butler (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
L.B. Bryant on vol. 1 of Jiu Jiu (ICv2)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 4 of Pokemon Adventures: Diamond and Pearl Platinum (Blogcritics)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 17 of Ranma 1/2 (Blogcritics)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 9 of Rosario + Vampire: Season II (The Comic Book Bin)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 6 of Sailor Moon (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Dave Ferraro on Sakuran (Comics-and-More)
Jia on vol. 1 of Walkin’ Butterfly (Dear Author)
