It’s a sad day whenever a publisher shuts its doors. PictureBox Inc recently announced that as of December 31st they would be ceasing publication of new titles.
Most notable to manga readers was likely PictureBox’s announcement back in January that they were starting an imprint called Ten Cent Manga, which included a hardcover collection of older Osamu Tezuka stories. The company didn’t publish a lot of manga, but what it did publish came with extra attention to the presentation, making each a collector’s item.
For me this news is saddest for the loss of a company brave enough to publish bara in North America – comics intended for gay men starring masculine characters, in contrast to boys’ love created for female audiences. Their release of The Passion of Gengoroh Tagame was wonderfully put together, and I loved being able to get my copy and meet the bara-famous Gengoroh Tagame at this past year’s Toronto Comics Art Fest. I was really, really looking forward to their announced bara anthology which was supposed to come out in Spring 2014 and had a number of my favourite bara artists featured in it.
PictureBox Inc is currently offering 50% off everything available to purchase via their website. Below is a list of their manga offerings with a few different places to purchase – get them while you can!
The Passion of Gengoroh Tagame: The Master of the Gay Erotic Manga
( PictureBox | Amazon.ca | Amazon.com )
The Last of the Mohicans – Shigeru Sugiura
( PictureBox | Amazon.ca | Amazon.com )
The Mysterious Underground Men – Osamu Tezuka
( PictureBox | Amazon.ca | Amazon.com )
Gold Pollen and Other Stories: Masters of Alternative Manga (Vol. 01)
( PictureBox | Amazon.ca | Amazon.com )
World Map Room – Yuichi Yokoyama
( PictureBox | Amazon.ca | Amazon.com )
Travel – Yuichi Yokoyama
( PictureBox | Amazon.ca | Amazon.com )
[…] late-publisher Picture Box Inc was originally slated to release the collection but announced they were shutting down as of the end of December. You can read more about the book in my original […]