Publishers Weekly is reporting that Viz Media laid off “as many as 55 people”. In addition, it appears its small New York office, which had about 5 staffers, has been closed. The number of staff released represents about 40% of the employees at Viz Media. Declining sales in the US manga industry over the past two years are blamed, although manga still does well in comparison to other book genres. In a formal statement the company confirmed the layoffs although […]

Today’s schadenfreude opportunity: Nick Simmons, writer/artist of Incarnate from Radical Comics (and son of KISS member Gene Simmons, which might account for some of the glee in watching his downfall), has been caught copying various panels and dialogue from popular manga series, including Bleach by Tite Kubo. I found out about the plagiarism accusations from Robot6, which includes the news that Radical has “halted further production and distribution of the Incarnate comic book and trade paperback”. I assume that includes […]