SDCC: VIZ
Heading to VIZ now…This is my last panel today. All I have left is a LOT of waiting to try and get into Kevin Smith, and then I’ll be at the Eisners reporting on manga wins (and losses).
okay, looks like Marc Weidenbaum and Mark Chang are back, plus some others: Eric, Beth Kawasaki, and Candace. Yes, I missed some last names. Sh!
Starting out with a recap of the shonen jump jump festa contest from earlier. The room is packed, btw. Apparently Kubo-sensei will only sign shikishi, no books or posters or anything.
Greg Oden will be around signing stuff at noon Sunday, for those who missed the Laker girls.
Eric is talking about VIZ’s original comics venture, so he’s going to talk about portfolio review stuff. He says they’re more interested in good comics than manga per se, and that storytelling is more imnmportant than visual style. They want to make comics that are relevent to the fans, and they favor episodic stuff. They’re hoping to reach the 18-30 dmographic generally but if they like something they’ll publish it. We’ll start seeing original stuff in Shojo Beat, generally with an autobiographical, Japan-themed stuff.
Moving on to anime, we’ll see if there’s anything new. In the meantime: Blue Dragon on Sept. 16, volume 2 in November…then Naruto, movie 2 out on Tuesday and 3 on November 11th. Bleach movie on October 14th. Buso Renkin final box set on October 7th…InuYasha season six box set December 2nd. Hunter x Hunter first box is Dec. 2008.
Death Note anime box set November 18th with the first 20 eps and 30mins of bonus content. Not to be confused with the manga box set mentioned earlier.
That’s it for anime, now for maaaaaanga. Starting with the same stuff from the shonen jump stuff: fifth anniversary, manga box sets as earlier, collector’s editions– hardcover first editions. Apparently Kubo is going to show off his home studio in the panel tomorrow.
Now vizkids! (no new manga either?) The diamond and pearl Pokemon manga, Pokemon activities and puzzle books Pokemon pocket guides, aaaaand…Naruto chapter books, prose books for ages 7-10, brand new and American-only, they’re not translations, and they have illustrations from the manga.
The Zelda manga is also part of vizkids, apparently, and it’s due in October. Also Bakegyamon, Happy Happy Clover (there was an anime!), Leave It To PET, Dinosaur Hour the gag manga, in 2009.
Shojo Beat…Fushigi Yugi in VIZBIG, along with Hot Gimmick. Heaven’s Will by Satoru Takamiya, not new I think, but January 09. Magic Touch, the massage manga, also January. Otomen, yaaaay! January 12th. Honey Hunt…and during the Shojo Beat panel they WILL show Vampire Knight clips but they do NOT have the license (yet)! Duly noted.
One Pound Gospel, back in print since Rumiko Takahashi has finally finished it. Black Lagoon in August, BUY IT! They have early copies at their booth, must. get.
ok, 2009 announcements…Gestalt, but I think that’s not new either. By Yun Kouga, btw. Dogs, Volume 0, by Shirow Mina, due out April 09, is that new? I think so, but not sure…then +kigami by Mase Motoro, due May 9th.
VIZ Signature…Takehiko Inoue’s REAL, due this month…Vagabond VIZBIG, 700 pages, starting September 2008…and then the Vagabond artbooks, September 16th…
solanin is coming out October 2008 by Asano Inio…Oishinbo, of course, which they’re publishing the seven a la carte editions rather than the hundred or so out in Japan. Coming January 09, with a couple of recipes in each book.
Okay, NOW new announcements.
20th Century Boys manga trailer. Is it finally time? Yes! Due out February 2009, bimonthly from there! Finally!
Next up, another Naoki Urasawa title, one I’m less familiar with: Pluto, a revisioning of Astro Boy (by, of course, Osamu Tezuka). Also out February 09, with bi-monthly releases. Please excuse my drool.
Only time for ONE question: a manga noob, who doesn’t understand why it akes so long to bring out the US editions. There are worse only questions, I guess…some titles, like Vagabond, are pretty close, they get the files before the books go to print in Japan, but mostly it’s the translation and printing process. They started publishing YuGiOh before the tankobon come out in japan.THE END BYE.
July 25th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
It’s a lot of fun to follow your live blogging–almost like being at the con myself. :) Thank you for your hard work!
July 25th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
I’m gonna say ‘Dogs’ is a new annoucement… only because it’s one of my favourite mangas by one of my favourite manga-ka and I would feel like a huge idiot had it been announced before and I never heard! That’s my take anyway ;)
Thanks for the blogs!
July 25th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
Nice work. Read these all day to help keep up. Just one request: Do the Eisners too!
July 26th, 2008 at 7:27 am
[...] the game), BakeGyamon: Backwards Game, Dinosaur Hour, Leave it to PET, and Happy Happy Clover. Gia liveblogged the Viz panel, which included lots of info about upcoming books that are already on the schedule. [...]
July 28th, 2008 at 7:16 am
Pluto is massively awesome and it’s rather unfortunate that a lot of people don’t know much about it. You can listen to a review of it I did a few years back at this link: http://tinyurl.com/56zwdw