A Blank Slate: No Del Rey Manga After November?

At Kuriosity, Andre Paploo speculates on what’s going on with Del Rey Manga. He notes that they have no listings in the latest Previews catalog (for October, coming out tomorrow), and he couldn’t find any relevant entries at Amazon.ca for manga releasing after November.

He goes on to offer speculation as to what this will mean, including (journalism alert!) asking the marketing contact, who responds, “we have no comment at this time.”

Del Rey has had a mixed past year. After bobbling the release of Moyasimon, which was highly anticipated but delayed two months, they switched this year to mostly omnibus releases. During the summer, much loved marketing manager Ali Kokmen was laid off, leading to less information being available to concerned readers. They’ve been focusing more on graphic novel adaptations of works by already bestselling authors and licensed properties, although I was excited to see an expanded slate of listings last month.

I took that as a revamp bringing fresh energy, but the jaded might think that it was a last gasp. But I don’t think anyone can conclude anything until we see what spring brings. This time of year is traditionally slow for comic publishers, as the holiday sellers have already been offered in earlier catalogs, and purchases don’t pick up until April or so, which is at least four catalogs away. I can’t blame someone for jumping to conclusions, given the tough economic times and other publishers shutting the doors and going out of business, but I think this fear is premature.