To mark the upcoming print release of Tokyo Ghoul volume 2, out August 18, Viz has made a substantial preview (over 130 pages) of Tokyo Ghoul volume 1 available at VizManga.com for a limited time. The horror series by Sui Ishida is “about the dark world of the flesh-eating Ghouls that live in secret all around us.” It won him the Young Jump 113th Grand Prix award in 2010 and debuted as a series in Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in […]

The World’s Greatest First Love: The Case of Ritsu Onodera was announced last June by SuBLime, and the yaoi community was happy. (The series was announced four years ago from Tokyopop but never came out before they shut down their publishing arm.) There’s a devoted fandom for works by Shungiku Nakamura (and an associated anime), and the plan was to release all eight books in the series bimonthly, starting in February 2015. Except things didn’t work out that way. Volume […]

Jason Thompson, author of Manga: The Complete Guide, has a new project. He’s put together a Kickstarter for Mangaka, which he describes as “the fast and furious game of drawing comics”. Currently, he’s about halfway to his goal of producing the first print run. I don’t know a lot about game Kickstarters, so I don’t know if $40-50 (depending on how early you pledge) is a typical price point or not, but the concept sounds fun. It’s like Pictionary, but […]

Frederik Schodt, author of the essential Manga! Manga!: The World of Japanese Comics as well as The Astro Boy Essays: Osamu Tezuka, Mighty Atom, and the Manga/Anime Revolution, will be in Madison this afternoon giving a talk titled “Osamu Tezuka and Astro Boy: Creating the Modern Manga/Anime Complex”. It will take place from 4-6 PM in Van Hise Hall, Room 104, at UW-Madison. It’s sponsored by the UW-Madison Comics Club, who also have a Tumblr. The Facebook event page elaborates […]

Ed Chavez, Vertical Marketing Director, tells the truth on their Ask.fm channel when answering reader questions. One recent topic caught my eye, when someone asked Why do you think shoujo manga isn’t in demand? Isn’t Fruits Basket the best selling manga series in the US? Aren’t the majority of manga buyers female ? After acknowledging that shojo manga is popular, particularly for Viz Media, Chavez lists out some of the signs that the genre has faced a pullback: …while most […]

Now that Vinland Saga is returning, it’s about time that Makoto Yukimura’s earlier series Planetes becomes available again. (It was previously published by Tokyopop, which no longer functionally exists in this country.) Dark Horse will be putting out Planetes Omnibus volume 1 in late December of this year. According to an interview with editor Brendan Wright (link no longer available), there will be a total of two volumes with “many more color pages than the Tokyopop editions.” Also, “they’re being […]

I’m awfully glad I kept that copy of Vinland Saga volume 6 on my Amazon wishlist, because I could see when the due date switched to September 1 of this year. (Gives me time to catch up on the volumes I haven’t read yet!) Previously, the Viking series had been on indefinite hiatus, but I’m thrilled to see it will be continuing. (Which ties into hints the publisher was making.) Preorders can currently save 25%, too. Show Kodansha there’s demand […]

Dark Horse has now revealed the cover for the upcoming first Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service omnibus. Out in August, the $19.99, 640-page volume will reprint the first three books of the series. If you’re familiar with the series, this cover should look very familiar — it’s the cover to volume 1 with the tagline “your body is their business!” replaced by a banner that says “omnibus edition”. Although it can be gory, I enjoy the series by Eiji Otsuka and […]