Originally disclosed back in June, Digital Manga has now launched the official start of their newest digital manga initiative, and one that could potentially overhaul the way fans around the world enjoy the medium: The Digital Manga Guild. Credit and thanks to Daniella of All About Manga for sharing the link via her Twitter account.
“With the changing tide of the economy and the high cost and slow pace of producing print editions of your favorite manga, Digital Manga, Inc. has moved forward into this new digital venture to localize and produce manga online! Digital Manga has made agreements with six major Japanese publishers to provide content to our online platform, planned for a 2011 launch. Hundreds of untranslated titles will need to be adapted to the rest of the speaking world. That is where you, the fans step in.”
The website is pretty sparse right now but has open applications for groups and individuals to apply for potential roles as translators, editors, re-writers, touch-up artists and letterers. There’re no specifics on the experience required for applicants though there is a section to provide examples of your work.
It’s exciting to see the number of different languages Digital Manga is seeking translators for: English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Korean and Chinese. Not only could this be a fantastic endeavour for Digital Manga’s current English market, but to manga readers around the world as well, offering a fan-involved, legal and artist supporting alternative to scanlations. This is a project definitely worth keeping an eye on and it’ll be great to see what first titles come out the door.
You can read more about the original discussion surrounding this project on the website, The Yaoi Review, including a follow-up response from the company president.
Follow
I wonder if VIZ and DMP timed their announcements to pop up in the same week? Very nice move even if it's a coincidence. I imagine we'll get tons of titles we wouldn't get otherwise if Japanese catalogues of digital manga are any indication- lots of older, classic series, and maybe some newer stuff from smaller pubs. The more general name of the site, and the fact that 6 pubs are lined up makes me guess we'll likely have shojo, josie, seinen and shonen titles. Interesting news!