Digital Manga launched a new Kickstarter project late this week, this time for Osamu Tezuka’s Unico. The Kickstarter launched June 21st and is currently over halfway to their goal of $20,000/US.
Unico is a series Tezuka drew for children during the late 70s and it was originally published in full-colour. Digital Manga plans to release the entire thing in one omnibus collection and maintaining the colour print (hence they say the much higher pledge amount). They’ve got a couple rough sample pages on their Kickstarter project page so the curious can get a glimpse of what they’re pledging towards.
“Unico is a little unicorn who possesses the magical power to help those who love him. His story begins in the Greece of mythology, with Tezuka’s take on the story of Psyche. In his version, Unico brings great happiness to the mortal Psyche, who in return cares for him and loves him. But the goddess Venus is jealous of Psyche, tricking her and ordering Zephyrus, the West Wind, to kidnap and banish the unicorn to someplace far away after wiping his memory. Before Unico can spend too long in one place, Zephyrus returns to carry him away again.”
The book is being quoted at 441 pages and for a cost of $39.95/US once printed. In addition to pledging towards Unico, Digital Manga has stated that they’ll be including a second license in the project if the Kickstarter surpasses it’s $20,000 goal in advance of the July 21st cut-off. … what could it be?
I made no secret of my opinions towards Digital Manga’s use of Kickstarter in the past. While I’m pleased to see they’ve made some changes to the benefit of their supporters (such as preview pages), I still won’t be supporting this project as a pledger. When/if the book is completed and out on store shelves, however, I’ll definitely be purchasing it to add to the Tezuka collection! Unico looks quite adorable.
The company’s last Kickstarter was for Osamu Tezuka’s Barbara which was successfully funded at $17,032 – three times more than the $6,500 requested. Barbara is scheduled for public release this September (Amazon CAN/US).
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[…] over 450 backers, Digital Manga’s Unico Kickstarter surpassed it’s original funding goal last week. True to their word, the company announced a secondary license for their backers to shoot […]