So Yen Press’ Yen Plus anthology is due out on July 29th, but the promised subscribing tools never surfaced. Now Nebs has spotted the scoop on what’s up with that: subscriptions will NOT be available for the first issue. However, they WILL be available in time for the second issue, and they promise to make the first issue as easy to find at retailers as possible.
But the subscriptions will only be available in the US and Canada.
It’ll be a minute before they actually get going, but here shall be the post. Not that you care about my state, doubtless, but I’m hungry– these three-panel-in-a-row deals are fun but a little rough on the meal schedules.
Hokay, the usual team: Rich Johnson, Kurt Hassler, someone whose name I can’t spell (sorry!), intern Abby (wearing wings), and…crap, I missed the last name. I’ll get back to you on that.
They just mentioned they had cancelled the top secret panel, which was apparently the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya license, woot. Once again, they’ve got the manga, and they’ll also publish the light novels in conjunction with Little, Brown & Company in their Young Adult line.
More news on Yen+, the company’s upcoming monthly anthology magazine, which is debuting in July. It’ll be a whopping 460 pages, with a list price of $8.99, which I think is a pretty excellent price point. It’ll also include exclusive content from Square Enix, and will read from both directions. Cool beans.
Yen+’s titles will include various Square Enix titles, including Atsushi Ohkubo’s Soul Eater (yay!), and they will lead up to the tankobon with Ohkubo’s previous work B.Ichi in October. Next up: Nabari no Ou, another new anime. I’m liking the anime considerably better than I expected, so I’m excited to hear about that! ♥
TPBs of these titles for all of these come out in ‘09, by the way! Also in Yen+ (and getting tankobon in ‘09): Sumomomo,Momomo, which is another favorite of mine, by Shinobu Ohtaka. So far, Yen+ has just sold me about five copies to hand around to friends, seriously. Bamboo Blade! This anthology is seriously epic as far as I’m concerned.
Next up: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, and that’s the end of the right-to-left Japanese material. Now the left-to-right OEL stuff, starting with Maximum Ride. And can I just say that their intern really does look a lot like the gal in their art? Maximum Ride will also be in a Free Comic Book Day sampler on May 3rd, btw.
Svetlana Chmakova’s Nightschool was, of course, the first title announced for Yen+. Moving on to Korean materials: Pig Bride is first, by KookHwa Huh and SuJin Kim, followed by Jack Frost by JinHo Ko. Whew.
Moving on from Yen+ are some more TPBs, including Chinese man hua Wild Animals.
In the Q&A now: they’re looking at Chinese man hua creators from all over, not just Taiwan.
For Yen+ they’ll be releasing the first few chapters over several months in the anthology before moving it on to tankobon releases, at which time their spot will be vacated in the anthology.
The Haruhi novels will not be watered down for American audiences, though the text will be edited for readability (literal translations of the novels can read kind of awkwardly to mainstream audiences).
Yen+ will have subscriptions available, for $49.97 for twelve issues/one year, as opposed to a $107.88 cover price.
Oh, and that’s it. They’re done. Wow. I get food now! ♥ See you back in a bit for DMP!
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.)
At the Yen Press booth, they had something other than Haruhi posters– Soul Eater posters! Since it’s a Square Enix title, it’s not too surprising– Yen has other Squenix titles, like Spiral and Zombie Loan –but given that the anime seems poised for serious success, it’s a pretty solid license from Yen. Combine it with The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and you’ve got some major plays from team Hassler & co.
For the record– I popped by the TOKYOPOP booth and asked about Kino no Tabi, given the slight confusion earlier (see the comments). Kasia told me that there is still hope for Kino no Tabi and that the license has NOT been killed yet. She also told me that after Slayers volume 8 they are done with the series officially.
Also, I should know better than to announce something like Yen Press acquiring the Haruhi manga when I’m in a rush– they have the light novels as well! The first volume of the manga is due out in October ‘08, and then be published every four months (at least until they’re caught up).
The novels will actually be published by Little, Brown Books for Young Adults jointly with Yen, and the first volume is due out in April 2009. They didn’t mention how much time will be between them all, but they’ve got all 9 to date. And yes, they really did say it’s “Hannah Montana meets Heroes.” I’m so, so sorry. I can only assume they’re hoping to seriously mainstream it.
Here I am, packing up to go to New York for NYCC, I literally have to leave the house in five minutes. I finally get to my computer– just to shut it down and pack it up –and what do I hear? Yen Press has licensed The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya manga. (I was expecting Bandai Entertainment to pick it up, too, like they did with Code Geass.)
Anyway, ANN and ICv2 (primary, but saw ANN’s first thanks to the six trillion e-mails I got) report that they’ve pick up the manga– the Gaku Tsunagu version, of course, not the short-lived and unpopular Mizuno Makoto version –through the fourth volume (there are five to date).
Curse my timing! Though at least it wasn’t the announcement of the light novels. Still waiting on those…*eyes various publishers*
Oh yeah, stuff besides that whole “manga is over” thing happened at ICv2. According to Myriad Issues reports that there was much discussion of fansubs, with more and more people jumping onto the Sevakis bandwagon of proactive replacement of fansubs rather than lawsuits (Rob will back me up that I’ve been saying the same thing for a year! Ah, to be Justin Sevakis).
Rich Johnson of Yen Press apparently came out and said that manga scanlations help book sales instead of hurting them– I’m guessing a significant portion of this is due to the fact that your average manga is half the price or less than your average DVD and usually contains more actual content.
Time to get our Yen on! So far they’re just talking about their upcoming releases.
Now they’re going to talk about the ICE Kunion manhwa titles, since Yen acquired the company’s licenses. They books are going to start reprinting, and new books are going to come out starting in May– which means I finally get Bring It On and One Thousand and One Nights. Finally finally finally!
And now, new licensing announcements: first up, Shoulder a Coffin, Kuro, which is a 4koma comic strip by Satoko Kiyuduki.
Next up is Ume Aoki’s 4koma Hidamari Sketch, to be titled Sunshine Sketch.
Third is Suzunari!, by Shoko Iwami, another 4koma about a spunky schoolgirl who takes home a…catgirl. Who is her twin, except for the cat parts. Spiffy.
Yet another 4koma called Astro, which is a school slice of life– but not about schoolgirls; it’s about a group of faculty.
Now they’re talking about their previous yaoi announcements, all by Lily Hoshino. Now Yen Plus, their upcoming anthology. Titles other than the previously-announced Nightschool by Svetlana Chmakova include Jin-Ho Ko’s Jack Frost and…Pig Bride by Kook-Hwa Huh and Su-Jin Kim.
There will be a grand total of 12 series in the anthology and all 460 pages will cost $8.99. They’re working on getting it out at newsstands and there will also be a subscription. Oh, and they’re hoping to publish 70 titles in 2008.
The end!
Or so says Al Kahn, whose credibility is shot by the fact that he works for 4kids, which…isn’t a manga company. Regardless, Kahn was at the ICv2 conference here in NYC today (no, I didn’t to go; yes, I’m mad) and reportedly declared that “manga is over.” He meant in Japan, apparently.
He apparently got into a bit of a debate about it with Rich Johnson, of the *cough* newly-established U.S. manga publisher Yen Press. And then Gen Fukunaga of FUNimation apparently tried to declare a cease-fire that lasted the rest of the panel, unfortunately for spectators!
So what do you guys think? Manga sales ARE down in Japan. Is it all over?
Just caught this on my way to bed - apparently Svetlana Chmakova - creator of the very popular OEL manga DramaCon as well as a new title for new publisher Yen Press, Night School - is waiting for a green light for a show on Cartoon Network.
An adaptation of DramaCon, perhaps? Or something completely new? I’m not especially an OEL fan, nor a big fan of what I’ve seen of Chmakova’s works (admittedly, that’s very little), but I think I’d try to tune in for an OEL anime on Cartoon Network to see what it’d be like.
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