Manga News and Information
August, 2008Five Highly Anticipated New Titles Announced Including TIME STRANGER KYOKO, SHORT-TEMPERED MELANCHOLIC, SUGAR PRINCESS, MIXED VEGETABLES And WANTED San Francisco, CA, August 21, 2008 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry's most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, has announced five new shojo manga (graphic novel for girls) titles set to debut throughout the Third Quarter. Published under the company's popular Shojo Beat imprint, the new series include TIME STRANGER KYOKO, SHORT-TEMPERED MELANCHOLIC AND OTHER STORIES, SUGAR PRINCES: SKATING TO WIN, MIXED VEGETABLES and WANTED. Black and White in a Color World: How Manga Has Retrained Our Rods and Cones
by Peter Gutiérrez In a world where computer monitors seem to offer greater color saturation than film stock, and where television now provides images that are more vivid than life itself, how incongruous is the success of this unpresumptuous little art form we call manga? Need more examples of manga's contrarian status in this regard? How about the vast color palettes of real-time immersive video games, or even conventional comic books, which have been using digital coloring effectively for more than a decade? Of course a perfectly natural reaction to such observations is a big, fat "So what?" And if that's the case, great. Guest articles and special features. Rounding Out the Takehiko Inoue Releases - The Critically Acclaimed VAGABOND Published Under The VIZBIG Imprint San Francisco, CA, August 19, 2008 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry's most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, has announced the publication of a diverse new collection of manga (graphic novel) and art books by famed artist/creator Takehiko Inoue. To all those who asked the question, the reason CP is not reporting on many manga-related news is because our staff is on vacation. If things go well, regular news reporting should resume this September in one way or another. We'd like to thank everyone who sent us "ready-made" news and articles and press releases and such, so to keep our site not completely dead this summer :) Back to watching the Olympics! The folks over at Rumic World have been doing some extensive on-location coverage of Rumiko Takahashi's gallery show over the past week. Check out the feature in "It's a Rumic World" Event Coverage. From About:Manga comes another interview from Comic-Con. This time with Hiro Mashima, the creator of Fairy Tail, Rave Master and Monster Hunter Orage: "In our interview and from Q&A from his Comic-Con appearance, Mashima-sensei talks about the real-life inspirations for the wizards of Fairy Tail (like how he got the idea for Natsu's motion sickness) and how he creates both a weekly and a monthly manga series for both Shonen and Shonen Rival magazine and still find time to have fun." Historic Collaboration Bridges Western And Eastern Popular Comic And Graphic Novel Traditions San Francisco, CA, August 5, 2008 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry's most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, in conjunction with Stan Lee's POW! Entertainment (PK:POWN) has announced the North American debut of the exciting Prologue Chapter of ULTIMO in the September 2008 issue of SHONEN JUMP magazine, which hits retail outlets nationwide on August 5 for $4.99. ULTIMO is the result of a historic collaboration between comics legend Stan Lee, creator of many iconic superheroes including Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, and the X-Men, and Hiroyuki Takei, the creator of the popular SHAMAN KING manga (graphic novel) series. From About.Manga comes an interview with Tite Kubo, the creator of Bleach, during SDCC: The life of a successful manga artist is a hectic one, especially for a creator like Tite Kubo who works on a hugely popular shonen manga series like Bleach. So it was a rare treat for U.S. manga fans to meet Kubo-sensei at San Diego Comic-Con. Besides catching his panel appearance, I also got a few moments with this shonen manga superstar to ask him about his beginnings as a manga artist, his early influences, his creative process and his most memorable Comic-Con moment. Eight Series Announced Including New Shojo Stories And Two New Award-Winning Titles From Creative Mastermind Naoki Urasawa San Francisco, CA, August 4, 2008 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry's most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, has provided a preview of a variety of compelling new manga titles set to debut under the VIZ SIGNATURE, VIZ MEDIA and SHOJO BEAT imprints in the first half of 2009. Launching this summer in India, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, USA & UK, Fluid Friction Comics have announced that the first issue of their debut series DevaShard: At First Light will feature the artwork of world famous artist Simon Bisley on the cover. Simon Bisley made his name in the comic book world with his work on 2000AD in the 1980’s and especially on the characters Slaine, the Horned God and Judge Dredd. From there he went on to work on a wide selection of the world's best known comic books, including Batman during the 1990's at which time he was specially selected to portray the Dark Knight when he was being reinvented as the darker hero we know today. Other important titles he has worked on include the Heavy Metal fantasy art magazines, X-Men and later Wolverine. The winner of this year's World Cosplay Summit has been announced. According to JBC Publishing, the company that promoted WCS in Brazil, the winning team is the team of Gabriel Niemietz and Jéssica Campos, who cosplayed as the robot Jango and Jo from Burst Angel. Source: Papo de Budega
Comiket is a place where doujin artists and groups gather and sell their works. While many groups hardly make any profit, Comiket is the place where they would try and make a name for themselves. Many of today's popular artists and groups began their career at Comiket. From Saimon Fumi to Rumoki Takahashi, or the mega-popular CLAMP, they all attended Comiket in the early days of their career. Some doujin groups, like Type-Moon, became so popular and made enough money to go professional. Comiket began in 1975, and gradually grew into the world's biggest comic convention. In the last few years, each day of the convention saw an overall attendance of over 100,000, and C66 saw a total attendance of 510,000. Edgy Series About Two Miscreant Boys' Adventures In A Surreal Metropolis Is The Only Japanese Manga Title To Win This Year San Francisco, CA, August 1, 2008 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry's most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, has announced that its manga, TEKKONKINKREET: BLACK & WHITE, by acclaimed creator Taiyo Matsumoto, won a 2008 Eisner Comic Industry Award for the Best U.S. Edition of International Material – Japan. Named for pioneering writer and comic artist Will Eisner, the awards recognize exemplary comics, graphic novels and other pop writings and are given each year as part of the annual Comic-Con International convention. HONG KONG'S FIRST EVER INTERNATIONAL GRAPHIC NOVEL Launching the first issue of their debut title DevaShard across America in September 2008, Hong Kong based company Fluid Friction looks set to revolutionise the comic book and graphic novel industry. In the long history of comics and graphic novels in Hong Kong, no one has previously attempted to launch a truly international product. However, with 6 markets initially (HK, Singapore, Macau, India, USA & UK) and many more to follow, Fluid Friction looks to be the first to release its graphic novel worldwide and simultaneously in English & Chinese. |
Manga Zombie
Finale: Panelosophy
An ongoing conversation about the philosophy behind manga both in the U.S. and abroad. Manga Ranking
Monthly charts of comparative manga rankings based on aggregate online sales listings from Matt Blind. |
Comic Market, or 
ComiPress teams up with writer Udagawa Takeo and translator John Gallagher to publish an online version of the English-language translation of Manga Zombie.
