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Technical troubles are delaying this post of mine on Del Rey’s Saturday panel, but I did attend and there was plenty of info shared by the pleasantly enthusiastic staff.
The panel of staff members included Del Rey’s Associate Publisher, Editor, Licensing and Acquistion Handler, Marketing Manager… and “just a writer” (info was withheld so as not to spoil news delivered in the panel).
Lots of great announcements here at the Yen Press panel, so as before while this will be a brief overview until I have the time to write something full, but here’re the goodies in the meantime!
New license announcements:
Black Butler by Yana Toboso
Darker Than Black by Bones, Tensai Okamura, Nokya, Arklight
Romeo & Juliet by William Shakesspeare/Adapted by COM, Gonzo, SPWT
Bunny Drop by Yumi Unita
Sasameke by Ryuji Gotsubo
Omamori Himari by Milan Matra
My Girlfriend’s A Geek (Fujyoshi Kanojo) by Pentabu & Rize Shinba
Novel By Pentabu (blog collection by boy that inspired the Fujyoshi Kanojo)
Otome by Yuuki Fujinari
Dragon Girl by Toru Fujieda
Natsukashi Machi no Rozione by Sumomo Yumeka
Kobato by CLAMP (Coming May 2010)
Lots of great titles in the list, and following the licensing is a nice-sized Q & A which you can read a few excerpts from after the cut.
Day one of SDCC wraps up tonight and what a day it was! My 6000km trek across the continent that was full of trials standing between me and Comic Con, from barely connecting flights to lost luggage and no hotel room. But, patience and perserverance wins in the end and I was able to join fellow con-goers in enjoying day one (and writing about it on no sleep. It’s all about the con experience!). On that vague note, please excuse any crazy spelling errors or icky photo placement. My SDCC posts will all recieve a cleaning up once I return home from my trip.
As today was preview night for 4-day badge holders, press and professfionals, there wasn’t anything in the way of panels occuring but that didn’t mean the thousands of people who flocked to San Diego to attend didn’t find exactly what they were looking for. Open to the public after a slightly disorganized, but still very smoothly executed, registration, Comic Con International’s exhibitor area (“San Diego Comic Con”) was officially open to its eager audience.
You can read about my initial manga finds on the floor and see some photos after the jump.
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Manga-ka: CLAMP
Publisher: Dark Horse
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Release Date: April 2009
Synopsis: “Kazuhiko is a young, but already deeply wounded, black-ops agent of a baroque, retro-tech world – pulled out of retirement to escort Sue, a mysterious waif, to a destination she alone knows. Sue and Kazuhiko have never met… yet she knows him, having grown up since the age of four with her only human contact being two distant voices: that of her elderly “grandma” – Kazuhiko’s commander, General Ko; and that of Kazuhiko’s dead girlfriend, the beautiful singer Ora. And Sue has been kept in that cage all these years because of what she is, and what the Clover Leaf Project found her to be: a military top secret… and the most dangerous person in the world.”
Combining the noir-esque features of one of CLAMP’s most visually distinct works, and an impressive repackaging by Dark Horse, this dark futuristic story of hope and survival gets another well-deserved chance to enthrall a new generation of manga fans.
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Manga-ka: CLAMP
Publisher: DelRey
Rating: Teen (13+)
Release Date: May 2009
Synopsis: “Fai’s secret past is revealed in horrific detail, and all his lies laid bare. Now Fai must face the rage of Kurogane, and the one person who showed Fai kindness as a child is now his mortal enemy. Can Fai survive Kurogane, Ashura-ô, and Fei-Wang Reed’s final curse?”
This entire volume consists of two things: Fai flashbacks, which serve to finally fully flesh out the smiling sorcerer’s tortured past, and then overlapping present-time fight sequences. Thanks to the number of speedline intense, dialogue-scarce action panels, don’t be surprised if you fly through this volume quicker than most. Ultimately, however, all this speed does is induce longing for the next volume to happen sooner than later.
A couple new Amazon finds today (feels like it’s been a while, doesn’t it?) and a few updates on some old news. Hold onto your seats, this could prove mildly of interest to you!
First off, Tokyopop has two new series listed over on Amazon.ca, both listed for February 2010:
Portrait of M and N (Vol. 01) – Tachibana Higuchi
Alice in the Country of Hearts – Unknown
Likely related to recent Domo-promotion news, Tokyopop also has a listing for Domo 7/11 Exclusive. No real idea what that is, but it’s atleast being sold to us considerably cheaper than whatever the heck these are: Pop Display — 2009 Volume 3: Chibi Vampire and Pop Display — 2009 Volume 4: Domo 7-11 Box. $431.68 Canadian? Alrighty then.
In updates on older news, Amazon now lists Yen Press’s upcoming omnibus re-release of Azumanga Daioh. The book is dated for December 2009 and with a 672 page-count. You can see the listing on Amazon.ca and Amazon.com.
For those who can’t wait to get a hold of Viz’s VizBig omnibus release of Inu-Yasha (sporting unflipped pages), Amazon also has that listed now as well. A 576 page-count with the first volume due out November 2009 can be seen at both Amazon.ca and Amazon.com.
For the Battle Royale fans out there, Viz looks to be re-releasing the novel. Viz originally released a copy of Koushun Takami’s brutal survival drama novel in early 2003. This new listing has the same description and page-count as the 2003 release so it’s likely a reprint over a formal rerelease if the information on Amazon is indeed correct.
And finally, I checked back on a weird listing for something called Yellow 2: Episode 1 that originally popped up on Amazon.ca earlier this month. The listing has been tweaked slightly, including to my memory, the additional information that the book is only 60 pages long. That’s pretty tiny for a graphic novel, and even more curious is that to my knowledge Makoto Tateno (still) hasn’t done a sequel to her popular boys’ love series, Yellow. Until now…?
While this is purely speculation on my end (for a listing that may or may not even be accurate), it reminds me a lot of Dark Horse’s upcoming release of CLAMP’s mangettes, with the smaller page counts released over numerous ‘episodes’. I can’t help but ponder the possibilities: could Digital Manga could be hopping on the simulataneous release bandwagon and could we see some exciting news in the future regarding more potential titles like this from them? Time will tell!
Deadlines for submissions to appear in the upcoming CLAMP Fan Appreciation Book have been posted over at the clamp_now LiveJournal community. Submissions are due between July 11 to July 25th of this year and must be sent to the person in-charge of overseeing contributers in your specific country/area.
You can check out the full post to read the details including submission guidelines and contact information.
Looks like I’ll have more than SDCC to prepare for that month! Here is me telling myself I will try to get some shiny artwork done for it. Fingers crossed! I’ve no doubts it’s going to be a lovely book when it’s done, full of much love and appreciation for CLAMP and the lovely work they’ve shared with us over the years.
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XXXHolic (Vol. 13) – CLAMP
Published by DelRey
The bulk of XXXHolic‘s thirteenth volume keeps its focus on Kohane, the young pychic driven to perform despite the relentless hounding of skeptics by her Mother. While previous volumes with Kohane have disappointed slightly in their deviation from focus on Watanuki, here in the eleventh book all the tension that’s building surrounding Kohane and her Mother comes full circle in a climatic resolution.
Kohane herself is an adorable character and one that invokes a great deal of sympathy for her rushed maturity and daily emotional hardships. Despite Watanuki and Domeki rushing to her aid, everything collapses when she exposes her Mother on live television leading to some violent confrontations. From these moments of uncertainity to Kohane’s later reflection and tears, there were no pages that didn’t make me feel something, be it the want to shake the book in hopes of detaching Kohane’s Mother from her vice-grip on an already injured daughter, to wiping away a tear when Kohane finally has a chance at happiness.
But it isn’t all deviation from Watanuki, especially after previous events have left him in flux with his own perception of existence. Here he truely begins to understand his position, or at least give it more considered thought, and it leads to him realizing just what exactly in life is important to him, including his faith in Domeki. It was a little sad seeing Watanuki’s melancholy expressions lamenting what he stands to lose, but then the moments where Domeki’s intentional badgering to get a distracted rise out of him becomes all the more appreciated.
All of this combined with some exquistely delivered plot revelations guaranteed to keep readers eagerly awaiting future volumes, and the gorgeous stylized simplicity of CLAMP’s artwork, XXXHolic continues to be one of my favorite manga series currently running. The mystisism remains suspenseful, the characters entertaining and the emotions never short of moving.
Review written April 4, 2009 by Lissa Pattillo
Book purchased instore from Chapters
Thanks to the sharp-eyed CLAMP fan nokiirat at the fan community, CLAMP_Now, we now have our first glimpse of CLAMP’s mangette artwork. The image was originally posted along with the Mangettes: Gate 7 listing on Amazon.jp.
Personally I’m happy to see that the art style still has a look distinctly similar to that of XXXHolic, one of CLAMP’s currently running series, which means CLAMP fans can likely assume that it’s Mokona, one of the four-woman team, who’ll be head artist. Though it’s always fun seeing if CLAMP will take a different artistic style with their new series’, I don’t think I’m ready to give up the sleek visuals of XXXHolic and Tsubasa just yet.
Back in December, Amazon.ca gave fans their first real glimpse of the new mini-series, being simultaneously published in North America, Japan and Korea in 2009, with a description for this first installment, Gate 7.
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Manga-ka: CLAMP
Publisher: DelRey
Rating: Teen (13+)
Released: January 2009
Synopsis: “The princess has been betrayed and her body sent to Fai’s frozen home world of Seresu. In order to follow Sakura, the wrecked remains of the band of travellers must pay their price to the witch. And once they arrive, Fai will have to confront the one he’s been fleeing – and the horrific truth of his past!”
Volume twenty of Tsubasa is a big eye-opener for the series as readers learn just how layered all these overlapping foreshadowed plans really are. After the dramatic climax of the last volume, the characters have a lot to deal with, and even more to take in, when Yuuko appears before them to help explain what transpired. The series continues to delve into darker and darker territory with some disturbing revelations about Fai’s past and their climatic effect on his life now (and the lives of his companions). With a new perspective and altered task at hand, that which remains of the title crew bands together to travel to Fai’s country.
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