The Japanese are at it again… Digital manga via Nintendo devices is in the news again. This time though, it’s from the people that it matters most; the manga publishers. From a news article from Manga Jouhou, the four largest manga publishers Kadokawa, Kodansha, Shueisha, and Shogakukan have formed a joint venture with a software house that will bring digital manga to the Wii console. The venture is called Librica and is the first serious step from the creators of the content to bring to a wider audience.
The Viz Media panel was the only manga related panel I chose to go for a few reasons. One, we were short on time since we were commuting, Thursday only had two that held any relation to manga, and none of industry, and I wasn’t impressed with the Shonen Jump Panel last year. It was all cheer leading, and no real news. And they tricked me this year! Last year the Viz industry panel was on Thursday, thus one of the impetus to change to going on Thursday. Instead, they put both the Viz panels on Friday, and nothing on Thursday! Why SDCC??
Well, we got through another day, filled with even more people and more lines. Yesterday, we had to spend an hour in line and just barely got to see the Dexter panel. Today, it took 30-45 minutes on the shuttle to get to the convention center. We got there at 10:15, and was 30 minutes early to see the Stargate panels. We were able to get in only because they were the first panels of the day, and we still were in the back. We waited for only 1/2 hour for the Viz Media panel, but were still at the back, and was totally denied from going to the MST3K 20th Anniversary panel. Over an hour before the panel, and the line was already filled to capacity for the room. We REAAAAALLLLLYYY wanted to go to that one. We’ve been fans for over a decade!
Well, we survived the first day of the Con. It was crowded, as I predicted, and it’s only the first day! Moving through the Exhibit Hall was difficult at times and nearly all the panels had a minimum 1 hour wait, and you still weren’t guaranteed to get in. We ended up missing the Doctor Who/Torchwood panel, so instead we spent most of the day in the Exhibit Hall. We took lots of pictures, and I’ll be posting some throughout the weekend. I stopped by most of the manga publishers tables, and I have to say, I’m pretty disappointed. Especially Viz. Last year, they had lots of manga for sale, so I could catch up on titles that I had fallen behind on. Heaven knows no one brings manga to a comic con. Who would want to buy comics at a Comic Con? This year, they decided to just push certain titles (Black Lagoon, One Pound Gospel, Vampire Knight, Bleach Collector Edition and the Shonen Jump Fifth Anniversary Collector’s Edition). It was a real letdown. They had other things going on at their booth. There was wall for people to post post-its with messages for Tite Kubo, a basketball hoop…
There is a lot of speculation going on about Kodansha and it’s reasons for joining the US Manga market. I think it’s a little premature to speculate now, but I guess that’s what bloggers and fans like to do. This is obviously something Kodansha has had in the works for a while. You don’t get $2,000,000.00 in capital without some planning, and to throw in my .02 about this, I would say it’s Tokyopop restructuring that has more to do with things than Kodansha wanting to “cash in” on the US market.
For a weekend, the news has been unusually busy. I open up Thunderbird, and find that 2 Tokyopop titles are not going to be printed. Rivkah has announced on her Livejournal blog that her series Steady Beat Volume 3 will not get a published book release, but will be put up as a web comic. Bettina Kurkoski has reported on her Deviant Art page the same for her series My Cat Loki, except she’s not even getting online publishing (Wah! I liked MCL! 🙁 ). So, what does this mean for Tokyopop’s Global manga?
In the article by Publisher’s Weekly, and picked up by AnimeonDVD.com, Tokyopop has pulled out of it’s exhibit space at the San Diego Comic Con. Some might see this as another sign of them going down. I see it as another smart move. Exhibit space has no doubt become very expensive at Comic Con International, as it’s at a premium. The Exhibit Hall (aka Dealer’s room as it was once called many, many moons ago), now takes up the entire convention hall first level. And the space Tokyopop has been getting for the last few years was an entire block, enough to fit at least 10 vendors in, but they weren’t doing anything really productive with this space. Maybe 1/4 of it was used for a local vendor to seel books (not them), the other 3/4’s was used for computers to log into their website (last year) and hold autograph sessions with their creators. For the money that they must have been pouring in, that’s not a very effective use of the space, if you ask me. Now, just because they pulled out of the Exhibit Hall, does that mean they won’t show up at the convention? Hardly. San Diego…
Jumping on the bandwagon once again, I’ll throw in another 2 cents about Tokyopop. No ranting this time though. I think this is a good move for Tokyopop. Attention can be divided up properly, and well as investment. Tokyopop has alway tried to be on the cutting end of bring manga to new technologies, something I wholeheartedly believe in. But, I think these new digital mediums may have been distracting to the publishing side, and the publishing may even have been at odds with the digital side. Separating the two may help both grow without having to worry what the other is thinking or may do to stop them. I think the reduction of releases is also a good idea. Quality is always better than quantity, and Tokyopop seemed to be doing the latter. I did some number crunching of TP titles at the end of 2007, and in just a 5 month period, they had 212 releases, with 37 new titles and 34 titles ending. About 1/6th of their titles monthly were either starting or ending. A lot of these titles were mediocre and short. As has been mentioned elsewhere, TP doesn’t have access to the super hot titles….
In case you missed it the first time around, Bookcloseouts.com has another sale on Tokyopop books. They range in 50%-75% off, but most of the books I’ve looked at are 60% off. That’s still only $3.99 a book. It’s a steal if there are some older titles that you’ve been thinking about getting. My suggestions: Pet Shop of Horrors Genju no Seiza Dragon Voice Dragon Knights Vampire Game Crescent Moon Planetes RG Veda – For Clamp Fans Clamp no Kisenki – For Clamp Fans Comic Party That should be a good start. Some of those series are only the first couple of volumes. For others, you can get a near complete run! The books are in good shape with maybe just a black mark on the bottom of the books to mark them for closeout. I couldn’t find an expiration date for this sale, but the last one was for a month, so I’m gonna guess the same for this one. On an unrelated note, but I wanted to point out that Walmart and Amazon.com has the One Piece Season One Uncut Collection for only $22.00. That’s half off the regular price! It’s only for half a season (13 episodes),…
With the start of the 2008 Book Expo America, Viz has announced a new addition to their Vizkids line, a sadly neglected line if you ask me. But today, they announced chapter books about who? Why, everyone’s favorite ninja, Naruto! They’re older brother are reading the manga, they’re watching the anime, with their Leaf Village Headbands. Those young ‘uns should be able to read about him too! And now they can. And I know this will sell. Taking my own kids to the bookstore always had them drifting toward the books with TV and movie character they knew. This will be no different. Press Release after the break
I may as well jump into the Tokyopop fray, as I’ve had a draft about the TP.com website sitting here for a while. I may as well add my two cents (rant) to the current discussion as well. Tokyopop’s Pilot Program pact has stirred up a lot of people in the last few days, with it’s casual language and questionable practices. But, is this really a surprise to anyone? Tokyopop is about as two-faced as you can get in the manga publishing industry. Their public face, the one they put out in press releases and at conventions, is one of a teen friendly publisher that is trying to help new artists get a break in the comics/manga industy, get them published, and give them a place to meet, talk and share their work online. Take a closer look at them, and you’ll see the truth that lies hidden underneath.
While going through some old ANN news feeds, I picked up a few news items I want to comment on: DS Vision to go live in June: This just sort of passed right by in one of thier Daily Brief posts, but I want to give it more attention. This was first announced last November, and now it seems to be coming to fruition.