Vertical
SDCC ’10 | Vertical to bring Felipe Smith and cute cat
Felipe Smith's Peepo Choo
The manga publisher Vertical, Inc., is bringing Felipe Smith, the creator of Peepo Choo, to SDCC and Otakon this year. Smith, an American, started out drawing global manga (MBQ) for Tokyopop. He moved to Japan after winning the top prize the Morning International Manga Competition, being offered the opportunity to draw a manga for Kodansha’s manga magazine Morning 2.* The result is Peepo Choo, the three-volume story of a foreigner’s adventures in Japan, and Vertical is closing the circle by publishing Peepo Choo in English—the first volume is due out this week. The press release (full text below the cut) notes in passing that Smith is developing a new manga for Kodansha, so the relationship must be working out.
As if that weren’t incentive enough to visit Vertical’s booth, they will also be announcing their new licenses at SDCC, although they don’t have a panel. I chat with Vertical’s marketing director Ed Chavez fairly often—I have known him since he was blogging at MangaCast—and I’m quite sure that whatever he has to announce, it will be remarkable. And for those who prefer the cute, they will have some adorable Chi’s Sweet Home swag, tying in with their new all-ages book about a lost cat adopted by a family in a pet-free apartment complex.
- July 15, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Crowdsourcing manga licenses
Saint Young Men: Not coming soon from Vertical
Ed Chavez, the marketing director for manga publisher Vertical, Inc., came into the business from the fan side—he ran one of the first manga podcast blogs, MangaCast, back in the day—and he has shown a knack so far for picking books that get fans excited, like Twin Spica, Peepo Choo, and Chi’s Sweet Home. So when Ed gets on Twitter, he’s not just touting his company’s latest release (“Tell me what you like best about Title X!!”), he is asking people what they want—and sometimes explaining why they can’t have it.
It’s licensing time again, so Ed is accepting suggestions from the public, and his former intern Ko Ransom compiled the Twitter conversation into a single page. It makes fascinating reading for those who are fascinated by the ins and outs of manga licensing. For one thing, many titles are off limits because the Japanese publisher has exclusive deals with American licensors; since Shueisha and Shogakukan own Viz Media, for instance, don’t look for Vertical to be publishing any of their titles.
There are other constraints as well: Ed won’t consider long series, 18+ titles (bookstores won’t carry them) or 4-koma manga. And while he would love to publish Saint Young Men, a comedy manga about Jesus and Buddha living together in a Tokyo apartment, the chances of that look slim for now. “i’ve asked its editor and he has said it will not be published in the US at this time. not until the readership changes here,” Ed says. But if that ever does happen, he added, the editor wants him to be the one. If nothing else, the conversation is a reminder that there are plenty of good manga out there waiting to be brought to English-speaking audiences—if only we can persuade Ed (and his counterparts elsewhere) to license them.
- June 7, 2010 @ 10:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Manga: Some good news for a change
Osamu Tezuka's Ayako, licensed by Vertical
The month of May brought a volley of bad news for the manga industry—the shutdown of CMX, layoffs at Viz, and Go! Comi slipping beneath the waves for the last time. But some observers are finding reasons for optimism nonetheless.
Dark Horse director of new development Michael Martens told PWCW’s Kai-Ming Cha that manga sales are up 13%, thanks to a mix of established adult series (Berserk, Gantz) and their new CLAMP ominbuses, and Ed Chavez of Vertical told Bookgasm’s Rod Lott that his company saw an 18% increase in revenues last year, due in large part to strong sales of Osamu Tezuka’s Black Jack.
Marten’s comment was made at BEA, where Cha found plenty of manga publishers hawking their wares. The two big guys, Viz and Tokyopop, didn’t have booths, but Viz CEO Hidemi Fukuhara was there to rub shoulders, Del Rey, Dark Horse, Yen Press, Japanime, and small-but-powerful Fanfare/Ponent Mon had reps at the show, and Fantagraphics was handing out galleys of their first Moto Hagio manga. And apparently, things were going on behind the scenes: Cha noted that BEA is mainly a trade show, so people were there to do business as much as to exhibit on the floor.
While larger publishers are having troubles, tiny Vertical is bringing over a number of fan-pleasers (Twin Spica, 7 Billion Needles, Peepo Choo,, Tezuka’s Ayako) and one manga they hope will break out to a wider readership, Chi’s Sweet Home. And Chavez notes that their best seller, Black Jack, has defied the usual law of diminishing returns:
Those laws affect every title, but BLACK JACK has now twice bucked that trend over the last 12 months. Last summer, BLACK JACK, already six volumes into its run, began to gain readers, with orders surpassing the two previous volumes. We are seeing the same trend for VOLUME 10, where orders are as high as they were around this time last year.
What’s next? The BEA picture suggests that the remaining manga publishers are still in the game, and with Yen Press planning new announcements at San Diego (and Fantagraphics flying in Moto Hagio for the event), the industry could be finding its footing again. Stay tuned.
- June 1, 2010 @ 11:30 AM by Brigid Alverson
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Akira, Vol. 1
Publishing | Kodansha confirms what virtually everyone has known for quite a while now: that the publisher — Japan’s largest — is setting up shop in the United States, establishing an office in New York City. Kodansha USA Publishing will launch Kodansha Comics with Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira and Shirow Masamune’s Ghost in the Shell, two titles that had been licensed in North America by Dark Horse. The company will focus on translating its sizable backlist, but views original publishing as one of its “eventual ambitions.” David Welsh provides a little commentary. [Publishers Weekly]
Publishing | BOOM! Studios has signed a deal with Haven Distributors to distribute second printings of all of the publisher’s monthly titles to direct-market retailers. [BOOM! Studios]
- October 6, 2009 @ 07:16 AM by Kevin Melrose
What Are You Reading?
Welcome to another edition of What Are You Reading, where we glance over at our bedtables, pick up a comic or two and wave them about in the air in front of your face.
Our special guest this week is Tucker Stone, better known as the force behind The Factual Opinion and one of the new contributors to the Savage Critics. He’s also got a column over at Comixology.
To find out what Tucker and everyone else is currently reading, click on the link below. Go man, go!
- March 15, 2009 @ 10:00 AM by Chris Mautner
Missed it: Words Without Borders celebrates comics
Excerpt from 'A Drifting Life'
Words Without Borders, “The Online Magazine for International Literature,” is celebrating the graphic novel all this month with loads of previews of new and upcoming books from a variety of publishers, including Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s A Drifting Life, the fourth volume of Osama Tezumka’s Black Jack, Diane Obomsawin’s Kaspar, The Pig by Riccardo Falcinelli and Marta Poggi, Blizzard in the Jungle by Jo Hak-Rae and Ri Chol-Geun and Ari Folman and David Polonsky’s adaptation of the Academy Award-nominated film Waltz with Bashir. There’s also an interview with Polonsky if you’re so inclined.
- February 9, 2009 @ 04:15 AM by Chris Mautner