My favorite thing I bought at the con: a Gurren Lagann jacket. (My favorite free swag? Tie between Del Rey’s Fairy Tail slap bracelet and Vertical’s Blackjack syringe/pen.)

Okay folks, here it is– all of the new manga/anime licenses and announcements that were made at New York Comic Con (that I picked up, and I may even have some things listed as new that aren’t, so feel free to correct me if so).

801 Media
- Licensed Ze by Yuki Shimizu.
- Licensed Koi wa Aserazu by Mio Tennohji.

Bandai Entertainment:
- Licensed Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
- Licensed Gundam 00.
- Licensed Ghost Slayers Ayakashi manga by Yaeko Ninagawa.

CMX:
- Licensed Classical Medley by Sanae Kana.
- Licensed Astral Project by Marginal.
- Licensed Suihelibe! by Naomi Azuma.
- Licensed Fire Investigator Nanase by author Izo Hashimoto and illustrator Tomoshiya Ishikawa (thanks to Nebs for the creator names).
- Licensed Jihai by Toshimi Nigoshi.
- Licensed Venus Capriccio by Mai Nishikata.

Del Rey Manga:
- Licensed Gakuen Prince by Jun Yuzuki.
- Licensed Samurai 7 by Mizutaka Zuhou, inspired by Akira Kurosawa’s movie.
- Licensed Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei by Kouji Kumeta (!)
- Licensed The Case of the Dragon Slayer novel by Kadano Kouhei.

Digital Manga Publishing:
- Licensed Swallowing the Earth by Osamu Tezuka.

FUNimation:
- No new announcements.

TOKYOPOP
- Licensed the Kyo Kara Maoh! light novels by author Tomo Takabayashi and artist Temari Matsumoto.

VIZ Media:
- Will publish Stan Lee and Hiroyuki Takei’s lovechild ULTIMO, presumably in Shonen Jump; details not released.
- Releasing the Hunter x Hunter anime in season box sets.
- Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z are both going to be released in VIZBIG format.
- They’re releasing a new Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo series.
- Black Lagoon is confirmed; first volume due in August.

Yen Press:
- Licensed The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya manga; will also release the novels jointly with Little, Brown Young Adults.
- Licensed Soul Eater by Atsuki Ohkubo; will run in Yen+.
- Licensed Nabari no Ou by Yuki Kamatan; will run in Yen+.
- Licensed Higurashi no Naku Koro ni by Karin Suzuragi and 07th Expansion; will run in Yen+.
- Licensed Bamboo Blade by Masahiro Tohtsuka; will run in Yen+.
- Licensed Sumomomo Momomo by Shinobu Ohtaka; will run in Yen+.
- Licensed man hua Wild Animals by (?); will run in Yen+.
- Yen+’s first issue is coming out July 29th and will be 460 pages; cover price is $8.99 and a 12-issue (1-year) subscription will be $49.97.

Once again, if I missed anything/got something wrong, please feel free to correct in the comments or via e-mail :)

More technical difficulties, but I think I’ve only missed previous announcements and stuff– Jim Chadwick and Asako Suzuki are running the panel; they’re on Classical Medley which is one I’m NOT familiar with, but the previous titles were all stuff I knew.

Next up is Astral Project from Enterbrain, a mature title from author Marginal, a pen name of Oldboy creator Garon Tsuchiya’s.

Also a cutesy title called Suihelibe! (say that ten times fast) about an alien girl who comes to earth to hunt certain monsters. A boy who wants to re-establish his school’s biology club agrees to help and together they start up the new club.

Fire Investigator Nanase is a “hidden gem” they hope we’ll like, about a rookie fire investigator whose parents died from arson. It should hit streets January ‘09.

Jihai, by Flat Earth/Exchange creator Toshimi Nigoshi, has also been licensed…wait, this one isn’t new. Have any of these been new? I don’t really know any of them anymore so I’m not even sure. =P Sorry guys. I can only google so fast.

Next up are Venus Capriccio by Mai Nishikata and the manga of Ballad of a Shinigami (Seven Seas has the light novels).

That’s it for the titles, new and old, so now they’ll open it up to the Q&A. They are looking into doing some cross-promos with FUNimation for Shin-chan– FUNi has a sampler at their booth and there’ll be a slip for the manga in with the new DVD box set.

Someone just asked if they have thought about releasing manga that’s a bit smaller than a standard American manga; CMX’s Shin-chan is actually slightly smaller than the Japanese copies, and for the rest of the books they’re trying keep everything the same trim sizes.

On Shin-chan they’re mostly doing footnotes but they’re keeping translation notes at the end in mind if necessary.

Someone else just asked why their Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo translated title (The Girl Who Ran Through Time) has a different name than the recent popular anime film, whose translated title is The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. Apparently the story for the latter is slightly different than the former’s, though both are based on the same concept.

With Shin-chan, they went with the Japanese name Crayon Shin-chan and FUNimation dropped the “Crayon” for reasons everyone doesn’t know. (I’d hazard a guess that it was so no parents thought Shin-chan was a show for little kids, personally…) They also aren’t calling one character “Action Bastard” (although they’re rating it M so they could if they wanted). They decided that in the manga’s world, a show called “Action Bastard” doesn’t make any sense (because his mum wouldn’t let him watch it anyway) so they’re calling it “Action Mask” instead.

MangaBlog’s Brigid asked a question about FlexComics, whether the comics were serialized in print in Japan or if they were digital. They started out being serialized and then eventually transitioned to digital. You can buy some of the book (as much as half) for a buck or two, and then buy a tankobon version now.

The Girl who Ran through Time iteration was apparently serialized in Shonen Ace but Chadwick notes that it feels shoujo to him, so it can probably appeal to both demographics.

Next comes a question about Zuda, a new effort by DC to reach out to the webcomic artists and readers, with no collaborations currently in mind. Tenjho Tenge (love CMX’s version or hate it) has caught up to the Japanese volumes so they’re waiting for Oh Great to finish up books to print them.

Apparently their booth is hidden in the Wild Storm section of the D.C. booth, with some free swag, so I guess I’ll have to pop by there tomorrow. They also now have a newsletter called CMXtra! that you can sign up for on the official website. (*is signing up now*)

Someone asked about 70s manga like Eroica, and Suzuki commented that in addition to 70s she is particularly interested in manga from the 80s, so maybe we’ll see some new licenses to that effect soon, seeing as she’s the acquisitions manager…

While I was waiting around for Bandai Entertainment’s big news, MangaBlog’s Brigid was chatting up VIZ folks– and learned that VIZ is going to be taking submissions for original graphic novels.

So, on today’s schedule: VIZ is having their regular panel at 11, Del Rey at 12, and Yen Press (I’ve been teased that there’ll be some more big news there) at 1. 3pm will be Digital Manga Publishing’s panel, which will feature lots of Speed Racer and some 801 Media as well. Then at 6pm Dark Horse is having a panel that I’m told is mostly comics news, but that there IS a significant manga announcement there as well. (I checked because Dark Horse is at the same time as The Girl Who Leapt Through Time’s showing…)

And after Dark Horse comes CMX.

So, to sum up: if you have questions for VIZ, Del Rey, Yen, DMP, Dark Horse, and/or CMX, go ahead and leave ‘em here and I’ll see what I can do about getting them answered. (I’m also going to go back to Bandai if I can to get some of those questions answered.)

The American Library Association has released its list of Great Graphic Novels for 2008, and ADV, TOKYOPOP, Del Rey, Go! Comi, CMX, VIZ, Dark Horse, Vertical, and Digital Manga Publishing all took home prizes this year.

For Del Rey it was Pumpkin Scissors 1, Alive 1 and 2, and Mushishi 1 and 2 (natch).

TOKYOPOP got honors for King of Thorn 1 and 2, VIZ’s Love*Com 1 and Kekkaishi 7 and 8 are mentioned, and ADV’s Yotsuba& volume 4.

CMX wins for Emma, of course, volumes 1-5. Dark Horse took home one for the well-received shoujo manga Translucent, and Vertical’s prize is for To Terra 1-3. Digital Manga Publishing got awards for Flower of Life, by Fumi Yoshinaga (who is an amazing mangaka, best known for her BL– unfortunately for her non-BL titles like Flower or Antique Bakery, which are phenomenal).

I think Go! Comi wins for the actual number of books mentioned: Train+Train 1-3 and After School Nightmare 1-5, a total of 8 books (versus Del Rey and CMX who got 5 each).

And finally, the well-regarded manga Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms by Fuyimo Kouno also made the list.

Also of note: Mark Crilley’s extremely manga-inspired graphic novel series Miki made the list for three volumes, and the first volume of SoHee Park’s manhwa Goong gives some last-second acclaim to the defunct ICE Kunion.

Original source: ALA
Secondary source: Blog@Newsarama

It’s amazing how much harder it is to be incessantly devoted to posting news when someone isn’t paying you a living wage to do it!

That said, it’s time to play more catchup. This time, though, just the fun/cool/weird shit. Here goes.

CMX announced a few new licenses, as well as confirming Crayon Shin-chan:

Alrighty, I’m waiting on the FUNimation panel, starting at 2:30 PST (forum thread is here, and I’ve been told that they will announce something significant, so they’ll have a solid trifecta of series from the three big summer cons). In the meantime, here are a few items making the blog rounds:

Well, okay, just one, but it’s a license so I thought I’d throw it out there for y’all before I headed off to sleep:

ComiPress notes that one new CMX title has already been announced thanks to D.C.’s new Flex Comics deal: Zombie Fairy (Kyonshi Senjo), by Daisuke Torii.

Sorry for the lack of posting yesterday, folks, but I am now in San Diego for Comic Con. There’ll be panels for TOKYOPOP - whose booth is HUGE, I swear to god they’re housing their staff in that thing - VIZ, FUNimation, ADV, Seven Seas, Broccoli, Del Rey Manga, and Dark Horse (though I expect they’ll be focusing more on their non-manga offerings). Yen Press will also be giving a launch panel, which should be fun even though it overlaps with the Kevin Smith panel slightly.

As of just now when I re-checked the schedule, the only big panel today is VIZ (though a TOKYOPOP rep will be at the GoComics mobile phone comics panel so I may pop in there too).

Tomorrow’s the big day, though: TOKYOPOP, Dark Horse, Broccoli, Seven Seas, and Yen Press and Kevin Smith. Saturday’ll be FUNimation, Del Rey Manga, and ADV, and Sunday is poor l’il CMX, all alone. It *looks* like I’ll be able to make it to all of these panels, so expect full coverage! Depending on how the Internets are at the convention center, I may also live-blog them on the forums.

I’ll get to the news as fast as I can, after a few more thoughts/predictions… Read the rest of this entry »