Independent Opinions, News, and Reviews of Graphic Novels, Manga, and Comic Books
As a big fan of Tramps Like Us, I would love to see more manga aimed at women, not girls. Publishers Weekly points to an upcoming title that sounds very promising, Kiriko Nananan’s Sweet Cream and Red Strawberries from Central Park Media. (Strangely, although PW says it’s out this month, I can’t find information on the book on CPM’s site, and Amazon has no release date listed.) MangaBlog also noticed the article and adds some comments about pricing and library […]
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HarperCollins put out a press release today announcing that they would be handling Tokyopop’s bookstore sales and distribution as well as co-publishing adaptations of best-selling young adult novels. HarperCollins Publishers and TOKYOPOP today announced the companies will join forces in a unique co-publishing agreement to create a progressive new line of co-branded manga titles. The program will include several projects from bestselling author Meg Cabot, whose HarperCollins novels have sold more than six million copies to date. In addition, HarperCollins […]
Read moreI had seen MangaBlog calling Viz sexist for pricing Shojo Beat (girls’) titles at $9 while Shonen Jump (boys’) titles were $8. I didn’t pay much attention because 1. I’m used to it. Women’s haircuts are more expensive than men’s regardless of amount of hair. Women’s shirts, even when visually the same as men’s, cost more to dry clean. Women are charged more when variable pricing applies in certain industries, like cars. Etc. 2. it seems like something of a […]
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As a followup on the rumors surrounding recent Tokyopop layoffs, Heidi MacDonald (link no longer available) posted word from their editorial director: We have not told any OEL creators to stop working on their projects as a result of Aaron’s departure. The projects that Aaron was supervising are being reassigned immediately to other TOKYOPOP editors who will provide continuity. Meanwhile, Lyle at Crocodile Caucus (link no longer available) has thoughts on OEL production schedules and marketing. The OEL titles are […]
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You’ve probably already heard that Tokyopop laid off six? eight? people at the end of last week. (Reports conflict on the total.) Heidi pointed to a Publishers Weekly piece, which focused on the departure of the vice-president in charge of sales and marketing due to different forecasts on the future of the manga business. Mike Kiley, the editor-in-chief, was quoted as wanting to make changes to stay profitable in a maturing, more competitive market. An editor was also let go. […]
Read moreDavid Taylor puts into words something I’ve been wondering myself: does American manga have a “Big Two”? (link no longer available) When it comes to the superhero-oriented direct market (often erroneously referred to as the “mainstream”), the big two publishers are DC and Marvel. It used to be, when it came to manga, the big two were Viz and Tokyopop. Now jump forward to the beginning of 2006, and for me I think it is a bit of a stretch […]
Read moreA small-town friend of mine had noticed that his Suncoast store had cleared out all of their manga. (I mention the “small town” because that was one of his few outlets for browsing.) Now, ICV2 is reporting that they are “exiting the category” and returning all of the books due to their parent company’s bankruptcy. I stopped into my local branch yesterday, and when I asked, the clerk, without prompting, told me something similar, only she also said that the […]
Read moreDavid Welsh has launched a great idea: a site for trading manga. I’ve already signed up, because I have a stack of manga I’m not interested in keeping and a list of what I’d like to try. The books are easy to swap this way because of their mostly uniform format, which mails easily for not much cost.
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