Breaking News: Yen Press Licenses Thermae Romae

th1

Paging David Welsh — yet another of his license requests has just been granted! On Friday, Yen Press announced that it will be publishing Mari Yamazaki’s award-winning comedy Thermae Romae. The story focuses on a Roman architect who makes a fortuitous discovery: the tunnel beneath his favorite spa leads to present-day Japan, providing him a [...]

Breaking News: Shonen Jump is Going Digital

Shonen_Jump_Dec_2008

VIZ Media made a big announcement at New York Comic-Con today: they are discontinuing the print edition of Shonen Jump magazine and replacing it with an online edition. The new digital anthology will be called Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha, and will debut on January 30, 2012. Readers will be able to subscribe to a full [...]

PR: VIZ Media Announces Its SDCC 2011 Schedule

20thcentury9

VIZ may not have a big presence at East Coast conventions, but they always put on a big show at San Diego Comic-Con with a fancy booth, special guests, and newsworthy licensing announcements. This year promises more of the same, with booth giveaways and a panel featuring Hisashi Sasaki, the editor-in-chief of Weekly Shonen Jump. [...]

Breaking News: No Longer Human Announcement Premature

At the request of Vertical, Inc., I am posting this press release regarding one of their licensing announcements from New York Comic-Con, Usamaru Furuya’s No Longer Human. Vertical is actively negotiating the rights to this property with its Japanese publisher, Shinchosa, but has not finalized the deal just yet. Here’s what Vertical had to say: [...]

NYCC 2010: Days Two and Three

beasts

The weekend’s biggest news: everybody’s going digital. On Friday, Dark Horse announced a new online initiative, to be rolled out in January 2011. Dark Horse will host its own storefront, rather than relying on a third party such as ComiXology, and will make the comics available for a variety of platforms and web-browsing devices. Individual [...]

NYCC 2010: Day One

Walking the show floor at the Javits Center yesterday, I was painfully aware of how much NYCC’s identity as a comics convention is being eroded. Attendance seems as robust as ever, with legions of cosplayers mobbing the convention center, but more space was given over to gaming than in previous years; the most popular booths [...]

Manga Programming at SDCC 2010

distantthumb

The lowdown on Fanfare, Fantagraphics, Vertical, and more!

The Manga Critic Goes to Washington!

washington_thumb

Posting will be light over the next few days, as I’m headed down to Washington, DC to participate in the annual American Library Association conference. (And for the record, no, I’m not a librarian, nor do I play one on TV, the radio, or the internet — I just like to talk about books!) I’ll [...]