News broke today that Tokyopop was shutting down it’s publishing division as of May 31, 2011. While the news comes as a shock, no can say it wasn’t a complete surprise. The warning signs were there, with the round of layoff in February, and the bankruptcy of Borders, their biggest outlet. For 14 years they entertained and frustrated fans with new ventures and a catalog that can be called interesting to say the least. But now, we must say goodbye to a long standing pillar in the manga industry, and truly agree that it is an end of an era.
On Tuesday, May 18, DC Comics announced that CMX would cease publishing on July 1, 2010. CMX had a turbulent start, with the controversy of editing/censoring of Tenjho Tenge, but with the right staff behind it, it became a company that licensed and released solid titles that appealed to everyone. But DC has pulled the plug, citing the “challenges” in the marketplace right now. So now we must say good-bye, just as CMX was finding its legs and bringing out some really interesting titles. Katherine Farmar: Noooo! Swan! It isn’t finished yet! ARGH! …okay, I’ve calmed down now. This is sad but not exactly unexpected news. CMX was always a Cinderella for DC — the neglected, barely-promoted stepdaughter that the bigwigs didn’t seem to know existed most of the time. And that’s a terrible shame from my point of view, because CMX published some seriously good titles. I have a particular interest in the works of the Year 24 Group — the legendary, groundbreaking shoujo artists all born in 1948 who changed the face of manga in the 1970s — and CMX was one of the few publishers/imprints to give us English-language versions of their works. Swan and From Eroica…