A bunch of interesting news and previews this past week – what better way to spend a lazy Sunday than getting caught up on a bunch of them! From contests to continuations, there should be a little something for everyone in this lengthy round-up of the week’s what-have-yous:
RightStuf’s most recent sale is on Tokyopop books, including their boys’ love imprint, BLU. Until February 1st, you’ll save at least 33% on each book. Perfect time to get caught up some series and get your hands on the recent ones – which include lots of fantastic new licenses including Alice in the Country of Hearts and Deadman Wonderland.
More information about Yen Press’s upcoming adaptation of Twilight has been released. The book will be a hardcover edition costing $19.99. It’s already one of the top-selling books on Amazon right now! Entertainment Weekly has an image of the cover and an interior preview. On a related note, Shannon Garrity has a great – and amusing – post comparing Twilight with most modern-day shoujo manga.
Fans of the series rejoice – Descendants of Darkness (Yami no Matsuei) is returning! After an eight year hiatus the supernatural manga laced with all that glorious homoerotic tension (perhaps biggest understatement of the new year so far) will be returning to publication with the release of its twelth volume in Japan. Viz Media has the English license to the series and has published up to volume eleven, last released in 2006.
DeviantArt is currently holding a contest: Ponyo Make A Splash – Online Banner Creation Contest. They’re looking for ad banners designed for use on the website to promote the upcoming DVD/Blu-Ray release of Studio Ghibli/Disney’s Ponyo. There are four different banner templates for designers to submit banners in. As for the prizes, “…each of the four winners will recieve a $500 Visa gift card, a devWEAR bag of Winner’s choice, a copy of Ponyo on DVD, a devWEAR shirt of Winner’s choice, and a one year Premium Membership to deviantART.”
After the continuation was pushed back to Spring 2010in early 2009, it looks like Yu Watase is finally able to put Fushigi Yuugi‘s prequel series, Genbu Kaiden, back into her busy production schedule! She posts about it over on her personal blog, though no complete translation is yet publicly posted of the entry. Viz Media has released the currently available nine volumes of the series. (via Manga Xanadu)
Lastly, the fairly-silent-in-recent-months publisher, GoComi has posted an update of their status via their forums. There isn’t a lot of specific news but they assure readers that despite some economic problems, they’re still plugging forward and going at it their best. Unfortunately a number of titles have gone on hold. You can read the whole post over there which also includes information of the potential future of their website community, the popularity of 07-Ghost and word about the status of books sold through their online store. (via @danielle_leigh1)
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That’s a lot of news!
Thanks as always for keeping us up to date with well, practically everything that’s going on in this corner of the mangaverse.
Alas, as far as I can tell the Descendants of Darkness book isn't new material. It's the compiled version of the last few episodes, from back in 2001.
[…] Pattillo rounds up the latest contests and other news at Kuriousity. (Don’t forget to check out the big post-Christmas giveaway at The Manga […]
Go! Comi has great titles, but it's just that they lack awareness. Take for example: Bleach. It wouldn't have been a best-seller or anything if it hadn't gained an audience through places like onemanga or mangafox. So it had some connections before it became a hit. Therefore, people mainly use the internet nowadays but a majprity of us do still go to the library to study or check something out. So, one way to help raise some awareness on Go! Comi's series is by recommending the public libraries to check out some of Go! Comi's series or by making videos on Youtube of Go Comi's series like making trailers:)
I agree that GoComi's series lack some necessary kinds of awareness for their series. They don't have as much online presence as other company's to promote their series and their target audience really lives and breaths on the internet these days.
As for the books themselves, I know my public library has lots of GoComi titles which is great but the large bookstore chains in the area carry few or none from them at all which is obviously much less great :(