PR: Tokyopop Partners with Right Stuf and Gentosha to Rescue Hetalia

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Found via MTV Geek: Tokyopop has formed a partnership with RightStuf and Gentosha Comics to publish the first three volumes of Hetalia: Axis Powers. Tokyopop released the first two volumes shortly before closing its North American publishing division last year. Since then, CEO Stu Levy has been dropping hints on Facebook that Tokyopop was interested [...]

PR: VIZ Announces Two New Shojo Beat Licenses

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Stop the presses! VIZ Media has just announced two new shojo licenses for 2012. The first, Io Sakisaka’s Strobe Edge, sounds like a perfect fit with the Shojo Beat catalog: the story focuses on a fifteen-year-old girl who befriends the class hottie, only to learn that he has a serious girlfriend. (Man, I hate it [...]

PR: VIZ Adds Prince of Tennis to Digital Catalog

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VIZ Media just added three new series to its growing digital catalog, among them Prince of Tennis and Gengaku Picasso. I admit that Prince‘s appeal has always eluded me; I read a few volumes and found the principal character so bratty I had the urge to paddle him with a racket. Usamaru Furuya’s Gengaku Picasso, [...]

PR: DMP Releases Erementar Gerade on eManga.com

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Readers who are still mourning TOKYOPOP’s untimely demise, take heart: Digital Manga, Inc. has rescued one of the defunct publisher’s more popular shonen series, Mayumi Azuma’s Elemental Gelade (a.k.a. Erementar Gerade). In partnership with Erementar Gerade‘s Japanese publisher, DMP will be re-releasing the first twelve volumes of the series through its eManga.com portal. DMP also [...]

PR: Dark Horse Titles Now Available for the NOOK Tablet

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In December, VIZ announced that it had partnered with Barnes & Noble to sell graphic novels to NOOK readers. Now Dark Horse is following suit: yesterday, Dark Horse unveiled its first NOOK offerings, including such perennial favorites as B.P.R.D., Conan, Hellboy, Sin City, and Star Wars. Though this initial release list includes over 100 graphic [...]

PR: Yen Press Launches World-Wide Serialization of Soul Eater NOT in Yen Plus

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Back in the mid-2000s, fans’ most commonly cited reason for turning to scanlations was lag time: the English editions of popular series like Bleach, InuYasha, and Naruto were often five or ten volumes behind the Japanese releases, frustrating American readers’ ability to remain up-to-date with the latest plot developments. In 2012, we’re beginning to see [...]

PR: SuBLime Kicks Off 2012 with Tantalizing Digital Offerings

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Last summer, a listing for a Yaoi/BL Editor on the VIZ Media website sparked a rash of speculation among fans and industry watchers: was VIZ planning to launch a yaoi imprint? The answer came this fall, when VIZ announced a partnership with two Japanese firms — Animate, Ltd. and Libre Publishing, Ltd. — that publish [...]

PR: Explore the VIZ Manga Platform with Special App Promotion

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To encourage new iPad/iTouch/iPhone owners to try its digital manga platform, VIZ is running a sweet promotion from now until the end of the month: download VIZ’s iOS app and receive a free volume of manga. I’m a little disappointed to see the promotion is limited to the iOS app, as vizmanga.com is available to [...]

PR: Kickstart the Publication of Osamu Tezuka’s Barbara

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Last year, DMP became the first major manga publisher to use Kickstarter. Their project: raising funds for a new edition of Osamu Tezuka’s Swallowing the Earth, which quickly went out of print after it was published in 2009. Though manga pundits debated the wisdom of using Kickstarter, fans ponied up the cash for a second [...]

PR: VIZ Offering Free Digital Preview of Shonen Jump Alpha

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Shonen Jump Alpha doesn’t officially launch until January 30th, but VIZ is offering readers a sneak peek at the magazine with two free digital issues.”Issue Origins” will feature the very first chapters of Bakuman, Bleach, Naruto, Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan, One Piece, and Toriko, while Issue Zero will feature the newest chapters of [...]