The last couple of weeks have had some great manga licenses, and sprinkled amidst them were some other tidbits of news that shouldn’t be missed:
Kodansha Comics has stated via their Twitter account that they would no longer be looking to continue any Del Rey’s manga series that Kodansha had not already taken over. The original question which got this answer was asking about School Rumble, while other series Del Rey had partially released that were not already picked up include Nodame Cantabile, Suzuka, and Basilisk. (via ComicsWorthReading)
House of 1000 Manga is one of my favourite features on AnimeNewsNetwork – Jason Thompson and occasional guest writer, Shaenon Garrity, do phenomenal jobs shining the spotlight on different series. Shaenon’s most recent article housed an interesting but sad piece of information – Viz Media has officially cancelled their release of Kingyo Used Books. The reason cited was licensing complications based on the books mentioned in the series itself. Considering how diverse the series included were, it’s no surprise Viz Media ran into big issues but it’s still disappointing. At least we have some closure on the topic now.
Brigid Alverson has posted two interviews well worth a read this weekend – one with Kevin Harmac, Viz’s director of publish and marketing, over the state of Viz Media’s digital manga; and the second an interview with Tokyopop’s president, Stu Levy. The latter in particular is a really interesting revisit of Tokyopop’s past, present and future straight from Stu himself. Even though much is already known or assumed, it is refreshing to read it coming directly from him.
And last but not least, GEN Manga has recently launched a Kickstarter to help finance a collected print edition of their series, Sorako. GEN has been serializing Sorako digitally via their GEN Manga magazine, and you can currently purchase the full version as a PDF.
I’ve been a naysayer of a manga publisher’s use of Kickstarter in the past, but GEN’s use of the crowd-sourcing system is much more in line with how I think the site can be used responsibly- offering collectors a way to finance something the company couldn’t otherwise do, but for a series readers have had the chance to already read and judge so they’re not pledging blindly. It’s a system that doesn’t rely on scanlation and Japanese readers, or simply risk-takers and faithful, to succeed. GEN is seeking $6000 for the funding.
“Sorako lives an ordinary life. And this is an ordinary story. She has friends and family, loves her dog, thinks about life, and occasionally looks for work (kinda). These are the adventures into a typical girl’s life.”
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