Wonder(Con)ing

February 26, 2009

An announcement arrived in my inbox today saying that Viz was going to have a booth at Wondercon this weekend (2/27-3/1/09).  They will be pushing their Viz Signature and Vizkids line.

Now, I’m glad Viz is putting some time and effort behind these two lines.  They certainly can use them, being the newest and smallest of the Viz books.  Among titles mentioned for the Vizkids line were Pokemon, Legend of Zelda, and their new line of Chapter books for Naruto and Dragonball DEvolution.  I can’t be there, so if some one who reads this is, can you ask them something for me?

What happened to all the Pokemon manga?  There are like, only 6 or so volumes you can buy (we have them all).  But back in the early 2000’s, Viz had two floppies of Pokemon; Pokemon Adventure and Pokemon: Magical Journey.  Why haven’t we gotten volume releases of these?  Pokemon is still a hot property, at least if my kids are any indication!  They would both love to read more Pokemon!  My youngest would just devour the Pokemon Magical Journey!  We were able to find two floppies around the cover price, and she loved them.  What is wrong with Pokemon for girls?  And why can’t they put out more than just two volumes of Pokemon Adventure?  That thing has like over 30 volumes!  Viz has two hot sellers and they are just letting them languish!

Some people may bemoan media based properties, but they have their place.  And it’s not just to sell more toys/games.  Both my daughters love pokemon to the point that they draw their one and come up with stories about them.  If there is something that will stimulate their imagination like that, you can be sure, that as a parent, I will be buying more of the books.  We already get every Sonic the Hedgehog title because of that.  Pokemon would easily make that list too.

It just really, REALLY irks me that these titles get just the barest of coverage in manga, while TV and toystores blitz the kids.  If they are going to exposed to these things so much, at least make them read for some of it!

6 Comments

  • Heather Ward February 27, 2009 at 8:06 am

    Well my understanding is VIZ is creating new editions for Pokemon Adventures for $7.99 starting this summer. They have 3 books already out for Diamond and Pearl pokemon series which is part of the current series in Japan with vol 4 coming out in June. I don’t know where the Diamond and Pearl book fit, but I would guess around vol. 22 – 25. Also I do not think VIZkids books are put on the same shelves as most manga, instead I think it is placed in the children’s section.

  • Heather Ward February 27, 2009 at 8:18 am

    Ok, looking a little deeper, the Diamond and Pearl stories currently being released by VIZkids are from a different author than the Pokemon adv series. Also it seems an English version is available for the Pokemon series in Singapore by publisher Chuang Li and they are up to vol. 28, but it does look like VIZ is investing in Pokemon again at the wonderful price point of $7.99.

  • Deb Aoki March 1, 2009 at 12:46 pm

    I dropped by the VIZ booth at Wondercon, and they confirmed that they’ll be republishing the Pokemon adventures stories that you’re looking for starting in June 2009, with volume 2 to follow in August 2009. VIZ Kids Editor Annette Roman confirmed that these are the same Pokemon stories that were originally published as “floppies” back in the day and they’ll publish all the rest of the stories over the next few months/years. If you’re curious, the first volume of Pokemon Adventures should be listed on amazon under ISBN 978-1-4215-305-3.

    • Lori Henderson March 1, 2009 at 4:39 pm

      Thanks for checking and getting that confirmation Deb. No word though on Magical Journey Pokemon? That’s the one I’m really interested in. And not just because I have two girls (though my girls will inhale anything pokemon. 🙂

  • Deb Aoki March 3, 2009 at 8:12 am

    Yes, Annette confirmed that they will also be coming out with Magical Pokemon Adventures (the US title for those girl-centric Pokemon adventure geared toward girls.) I’ll have to look up the release dates tho.

    • Lori Henderson March 3, 2009 at 7:17 pm

      Awesome! Okay, I take it back anything bad I said about Viz over this (if I did). I’m glad they are finally getting these books out again!

Leave a Reply to Deb Aoki Cancel reply