Weekly Shonen Jump
Comics A.M. | ‘One Piece’ takes two-week hiatus due to illness
One Piece, Vol. 69
Manga | Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump has announced that One Piece will go on hiatus for the magazine’s next two issues because creator Eiichiro Oda has been hospitalized for a peritonsillar abscess, a complication of tonsillitis. The popular series is expected to return June 10. One Piece, which has been serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump since 1997, has sold more than 280 million volumes in Japan alone. [Anime News Network]
Creators | Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly share their thoughts (and sometimes disagree) on their own world, the comics world in general, and digital media. [National Post]
Comics A.M. | Shonen Jump Alpha becomes Weekly Shonen Jump
Weekly Shonen Jump
Digital comics | Today, Viz Media marks the first anniversary of the launch of its digital magazine by changing its name from Shonen Jump Alpha to Weekly Shonen Jump (the same as its Japanese counterpart) and going to simultaneous release of most series with Japan as well. Editor-in-Chief Andy Nakatani talks about the changes as well and looks back at how the magazine has done in the year since it changed from a print monthly to a digital weekly. [ICv2]
Digital comics | The U.K. children’s comic The Phoenix just became available internationally with its release as an iOS app, and I interviewed Russell Willis of Panel Nine, which created the app, about the challenges involved. Panel Nine has also published Eddie Campbell’s Dapper John comics, David Lloyd’s Kickback, and the works of underground cartoonist Hunt Emerson as standalone apps, and Willis has big plans for more digital indy comics in the future. [Good E-Reader]
Weekly Shonen Jump is getting its own Tokyo theme park
Namco Bandai Group next summer plans to open the first theme park dedicated to Weekly Shonen Jump, the manga anthology that’s home to such blockbuster series as Bleach, Naruto and One Piece.
According to Anime News Network, the park will cover 1.52 acres on the third floor of the Sunshine City World Import Mart Building in Tokyo’s Ikebukuro commercial and entertainment district. The building already houses Namco’s Namja Town indoor park, which features themed dining, carnival-style games and a haunted house.
Although the new park’s name hasn’t been revealed, a floor plan (below) offers a preview of its features: separate areas devoted to Dragon Ball Z, Naruto and One Piece, a “Heroes’ Arena” with a rotating theme and roster of properties, food sections, and licensed merchandise shops.
Namco, best known as a video-game developer and publisher, will be the main operator of the theme park, which will be developed with the help of Weekly Shonen Jump editors. Anime studios Toei Animation and Pierrot also will be involved.
Several Japanese resorts and amusement parks already have attractions devoted to Naruto and One Piece, and an unlicensed One Piece theme park reportedly is being built on 329 acres in China.