Time for a quick little manga round-up on this August Wednesday, this last Wednesday before back to school. Horrifying thought.

DramaQueen spokesperson, Taisa (though she reminds readers she’s not really an official staff worker anymore), continues to tell fans there’s a sliver of hope for a company revival, but now isn’t against suggesting fans check out some scanlations in the meantime. This is light of the continuing fact that DQ doesn’t look keen to delivery anything, books or news, anytime soon. If anything, scanlations might be all that’ll hold fans’ interest until a time when either DramaQueen gets their act together, or drops the license so a more reliable company can pick them up. Readers may remember that it wasn’t too long ago that DQ issued cease and desists to scanlation groups offering translated version of their license, Tyrant Who Falls in Love.

 “In the mean time… I personally take no issue with responsible scanslation use, and I think that at this point DQ would take no issue with it, either.” – Taisa

The DQ forums have been a little busier than usual as of late but certainly not without anything less negative or new to say as tempers continue to run hot and patience running thin.

 Shonen-Ai-Samurai, a BLU spokesperson on their forums, has let their readers know that the light novels Flesh & Blood, by Natsuki Matsuoka, will not be seeing publication due to costs and a bad light-novel reputation with other companies. With DMP being the big distributer, and seemingly having a pretty good run with them, I wonder whose experiences they’re going by? Presumably Tokyopop’s line of light novels, several of which have been cancelled or infinitely suspended. Never underestimate the economic power of boys’ love fans though, BLU! (news via Gia) 

 Leave it to Viz to show publishers how it’s done when it atleast comes to effeciency and information. Amazon.com has nearly all their releases up to mid-May 2009 listed, and though that’s nothing new, the fact they all come with finished cover art and synopsises sure is. Wish I could say the same for some other companies’ books, especially when company websites aren’t always the best tended to… Guess I’m saying thanks, Viz? Even if now the nine month wait seems all the longer when I can stare at those shiny covers in anticipation.

The listing for Viz’s series Oishinbo is also up with some definitive clarifaction about their treatment of the 130+ volume series. As has been mentioned time and time again since the license announcement, there’s no way could be releasing the entire run, right? This may be old news but those who, like me, may’ve missed it, the series looks like it’s getting a thick one-shot treatment made up of “the best stories from the hundred-plus volume series … compiled into A la Carte editions, arranged by subject.” Looks like an interesting read to me! And much less daunting for my shelves than 130 books.

 In light of the death of Iris Print, Tina Anderson has recieved a portion of the remaining copies of her book, Only Words. She’s now selling copies of the book, signed, on Amazon for less than the original cover price. If you’re looking for a copy of her boys’ love story, definately stop over there and pick one up while you can (while I lament Amazon.com’s pricey and self-preventive shipping costs to Canada).

 Via Yaoi Press’s Twitter, the Tokyopop manga viewer now has a 22-page preview of the upcoming fourth, and final volume, of Winter Demon. That is some gorgeous looking artwork, if I do say so myself! I’m definately looking forward to it. Fans should pop over there for the sneak-peek! 

 And finally, after an initial wait period and two newstand-released issues, Yen Plus is now offically open for subscriptions. While there was momentary pause caused by an insecure website, the Yen Press staff assure their readers the site is now secure and ready to take their orders.

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About the Author: Lissa Pattillo

Lissa Pattillo is the owner and editor of Kuriousity.ca. Residing in Halifax, Nova Scotia she takes great joy in collecting all manners of manga genres, regretting that there's never enough time in the day to review or share them all. Along with reviews, Lissa is responsible for all the news postings to the website and works full time as a web and graphic designer.