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Author Archive for Lissa Pattillo

PR: Viz Media Manga Makes Holiday Gifting Easy!

By Lissa Pattillo on Monday, November 14, 2011

VIZ MEDIA SHOWCASES A DIVERSE COLLECTION OF NEW MANGA RELEASES TO MAKE UNIQUE GIFT SELECTIONS THIS HOLIDAY SEASON

New Releases For BAKUMAN｡, BLUE EXORCIST, DEATH NOTE,
D. GRAY MAN, NURA: RISE OF THE YOKAI CLAN, VAMPIRE KNIGHT And More Among The Best-Loved Series That Are Sure To Top Holiday Wish Lists

San Francisco, CA, November 14, 2011 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), the largest distributor and licensor of anime and manga in North America, offers a wide variety of unique art books and manga (graphic) releases – several of them brand new series – that make ideal gift selections for even the most discriminating fan this holiday season.

From the debut of Natsume Ono’s TESORO and the brand new shojo series, DAWN OF ARCANA, by Rei Toma, to a box set of the recently concluded FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST, to the latest editions of popular ongoing titles including BAKUMAN｡, BLUE EXORCIST, DEATH NOTE BLACK EDITION, NURA: RISE OF THE YOKAI CLAN, and the recently launched PSYREN, there will be plenty of aspiring young manga artists, spirit bending exorcists, royal romantic intrigue, charming stories of bonds between friends & family, tales of alchemy and more to complement everyone’s holiday season this year. And for the fan that has been especially good all year, don’t miss two gorgeously illustrated art books for D.GRAY-MAN and VAMPIRE KNIGHT. Each is filled with vivid character art, concept drawings, and insightful artist commentaries and also includes a full-color poster.

Read more…

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Categories: Press Releases
Tags: Bakuman, CLAMP, Dawn of the Arcana, Fullmetal Alchemist, Shoujo Beat, Vampire Knight, Viz Media

Digital Manga Acquires, Hires and Seeks More Fans’ Help

By Lissa Pattillo on Saturday, November 12, 2011

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Digital Manga‘s newsletter came out yesterday and had an assortment of interesting news to share – some great, some neat and some that just left me scratching my head in confusion.

The company has licensed a new boys’ love title – Docchi mo Docchi by Nozomu Hiiragi. It’s a one-shot title about two men employed at the same company. Both are well known with the ladies and rivals at their jobs. When the two somehow end up in bed together, the big question becomes who’s meant to be on top?

Digital Manga also noted that they’ve acquired the license to the third volume of Dog x Cat. Neither title has a release date yet.

The newsletter also reminded readers of job listings posted on Digital Manga’s website. Those currently listed as new and ‘permanent’ there are: Manga-Comic Editor/ Production Associate, PHP Developer, Accountant, Production Associate, Graphic Designer/Marketing Assistant and E-commerce Sales Associates.

The weird news of the week from Digital Manga though is that they’ve launched a Kickstarter program to fund a second-printing of Osamu Tezuka’s Swallowing the Earth. Kickstarter is a site where individuals or groups can start up a funding project where they look to the community to pledge money to support it. I’ve seen this work successfully for independent creators who don’t have the initial means to afford print runs but a company size of Digital Manga doing it?

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Categories: Editorials, Licensing
Tags: DM Guild, DMP, Kickstarter, Manga

PR: DMP Books Go Mobile on Apple App Store & Android Market

By Lissa Pattillo on Thursday, November 10, 2011

2 Comments »

Digital Manga brings the Digital Manga Publishing store to the Apple App Store and Android Market

DMP Books go Mobile

Gardena, CA (November 10, 2011) Digital Manga Inc., one of the manga industry’s most unique and creative publishers, is proud to announce the all new Digital Manga Publishing Store app now available for the iPad and Android tablets! With the successful release of the Vampire Hunter D Store app, Digital Manga is moving forward with their next new app for buying and viewing the rest of their manga e-book library!! So if you love books published by DMP, download this app. The store app will carry titles from the main DMP imprint, the all-popular Juné and 801 Media imprints, and the all new Digital Manga Guild imprint! The store app also has its titles categorized by genre and type, including instructional books, foreign editions and American comics. Take all your favorite titles with you anywhere on your iPad or Android tablet.

The Digital Manga Publishing Store app carries its titles as complete volumes. Pricing for most typical 200pg manga e-books range from $8.99 to $10.99, instructional books at $12.99, and titles in other categories will vary. Additional titles will continue to be added to the store app every month, so check regularly.

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Categories: Press Releases
Tags: Boys' Love/Yaoi, DM Guild, DMP

Velvet Fantasies: Project H & Sublime Add New Mature Titles

By Lissa Pattillo on Thursday, November 10, 2011

2 Comments »

Two new manga licenses today, both coming our way via the power of social media. SuBLime and Project-H each announced one new title via their Twitter and Facebook accounts.

Velvet Kiss (2 volumes) – Chihiro Harumi
Publisher: Project-H Books (Rated 18+)

“Nitta Shin finds himself saddled with a sudden, crushing debt. His loan agent tells him he can escape repayment if he keeps a particular woman company. He gradually learns that this arrangement might not be as easy as he once thought.” – DigitalManga

Oku-san’s Daily Fantasies – Takatsuki Noboru
Publisher: SuBLime (Rated 18+) – Digital Only

“Oku-san often buys useless stuff online, but not because it’s his hobby, but because this way he can see Sudou Riki, the good-looking delivery man. Not being able to do anything about his crush, he can’t help but fantasize…” – BakaUpdates

Velvet Kiss currently has no release date but will be in print. Oku-san’s Daily Fantasies is currently a digital only release scheduled for December. SuBLime reps remind us that strong digital sales could potentially mean print for their currently digital-only title someday.

I’d never heard of Oku-san’s Daily Fantasies until now but it seems to have quite a bit of fan excitement behind it and sounds pretty silly (in a good way!). Drama and sex is great and all but I love a fun comedy sometimes.

And has anyone looked closely at the Project-H logo before? It’s pretty clever – a cascading circular nosebleed over top an open book. I only just gave it a good look today and I was pretty entertained by it. Pervy and still visually classy.

My thanks to Sean for the heads up regarding the Velvet Kiss license.

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Categories: Licensing, News
Tags: Boys' Love/Yaoi, Manga, Project-H, SuBLime

Otaku USA: On The Shelf – November 9, 2011

By Lissa Pattillo on Wednesday, November 9, 2011

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Wednesday! New comics day! You can read the list of new manga volumes out this week over at my On The Shelf article at Otaku USA.

There’s a bunch of new Digital Manga titles shipping this week, and Viz Media has released their new original-orientation, newly translated and highly spiffy looking omnibus edition of X. CLAMP really owns the omnibus market here don’t they? Their works are definitely setting a standard!

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Categories: On The Shelf, Release Lists
Tags: Bandai, Boys' Love/Yaoi, CLAMP, DMP, June, Kodansha Comics, Otaku USA, Vertical Inc

PR: NEC BIGLOBE Android App, SUGOI, Now Available in Canada

By Lissa Pattillo on Tuesday, November 8, 2011

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NEC BIGLOBE Android™ App, SUGOI BOOKS
Now Available in Canada!

Tokyo, November 8, 2011 – NEC BIGLOBE, Ltd. (BIGLOBE), one of Japan’s leading Internet service providers, announced today that its digital bookstore Android app “SUGOI BOOKS” has begun offering manga titles, both in native Japanese and translated into English, in Canada.

SUGOI BOOKS expands its service into the Canadian market with a library of more than 500 titles, featuring authentic manga books translated into English, and English-language comic books by IDW Publishing. Titles include: “Appleseed” by Masamune Shirow, “STOP!! HIBARIKUN!” by Hisashi Eguchi, ”Kaze No Jin” by Hiroshi Motomiya, the “TRANSFORMERS” series, the award-winning “Locke & Key” series, and the “True Blood” series. Original manga such as “Hell of the Girl”, “Rashomon”, “Hachiko”, “Portrait of Hell”, and “The Setting Sun” are also available.

To commemorate its service launch in Canada, BIGLOBE will give away 300 free tickets that can be used to buy manga chapters through Thursday, December 1 at midnight (PST) to anyone in Canada and the United States, who downloads the app and registers an account on SUGOI BOOKS.

BIGLOBE intends to achieve an annual sales of 10 billion yen in the year 2013, by expanding its manga library to 50,000 books at the end of 2012, continuing to grow global distribution by launching its bookstore around the globe, and by providing its service on multiple platforms including iPhone, Windows Phone, and BlackBerry.

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Categories: Press Releases
Tags: Canada

PR: Viz Media Debuts New Naruto Manga Ahead of Print…

By Lissa Pattillo on Monday, November 7, 2011

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VIZ MEDIA DEBUTS TWO LATEST NARUTO VOLUMES AHEAD OF PRINT COUNTERPARTS ON VIZMANGA.COM AND THE VIZ MANGA APP FOR iPAD, iPHONE AND iPOD TOUCH

November Digital Manga Update Also Sees Debut of
Natsume Ono’s RISTORANTE PARADISO And GENTE,
As Well As Updates to 17 Popular Series

VIZ Media continues to lead the digital manga (graphic novel) revolution with a variety of new titles just announced for November that are available to read online on VIZManga.com and also for digital download on the VIZ MANGA App for the Apple iPad™, iPhone™ and iPod™ touch.

Among the notable new releases will be the two latest editions of NARUTO – Volumes 54 and 55 – which will be made available on VIZ Media’s digital platforms several months in advance of their print counterparts. This is part of the SHONEN JUMP DIGITAL WARP, a speed-up of selection titles to bring North American readers up-to-date with Japanese releases to prepare fans for the debut of the digital WEEKLY SHONEN JUMP ALPHA in January 2012.

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Categories: Press Releases
Tags: Fushigi Yugi, Viz Media

PR: Very Vintage Vertical Vednesday Tasting The Drops of God

By Lissa Pattillo on Monday, November 7, 2011

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A Very Vintage Vertical Vednesday Tasting The Drops of God

(November 4, 2011 – New York, New York) – Following a successful launch of Tadashi Agi’s legendary wine comic, The Drops of God, the staff at Vertical, Inc. and New York-based wine purveyors BottleRocket have come together to bring the wines of The Drops of God to life!

On Wednesday, November 9th, BottleRocket will be hosting a wine tasting featuring many of the wines depicted by Shu Okimoto in this massively popular series. While most of the wines will focus on North American labels, wine and comic connoisseurs alike should find plenty to indulge in this evening as manga and Merlot mingle this evening.

After a brief introduction to the comic and the impact it made on both the comics and wine industries, BottleRocket’s knowledgeable crew will be pouring 6 wines featured in the series. Cheese, conversation and comics will follow on what should be a rare night where comics become reality.

Doors open at 6:00pm this evening, with the pouring starting at around 6:15pm.

Admission will be free and open to the public, however some of the featured wines will be limited so we suggest arriving early to try them all.

Books will also be available for purchase through BottleRocket. (Please make sure to pick up a copy to thank them for hosting this special event.)

Wednesday, November 9, 2011
from 6:00pm to 8:00pm
at Bottlerocket Wine & Spirit
5 West 19th Street
New York, New York

Attendees must be 21 and up.

RSVP on the Vertical, Inc. facebook page.
More info at the Vertical website, www.Vertical-Inc.com

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Categories: Press Releases
Tags: Vertical Inc

NYAF 2011: Manga Out Loud Podcast & Recap

By Lissa Pattillo on Sunday, November 6, 2011

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It’s been almost a month since New York Anime Fest with recaps and reflections still trickling out from the thousands who attended. 105,000, in fact. Wow!

Ed Sizemore invited Erica (Okazu), Melinda (Manga BookShelf) and I to be guests on his Manga Out Loud podcast. It’s posted online now and is part two of his New York Comic Con podcasts. We had a good conversation about what we did at the convention, how we felt it was handled by staff and organizers and about the discussion of legal issues surrounding comics.

The podcast got my brain turning again on my thoughts on the convention. Overall I found other elements of my trip to New York more fulfilling than the convention itself (dinners with awesome people! Kinokuniya! Book-Off!) but from an organizational point of view, I thought NYCC/NYAF was much better handled this year than it was in 2010.

My thoughts and some accompanying photos can be read below:

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Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: Conventions, Dark Horse, Gate 7, Kodansha Comics, Manga, Media Blasters, NYCC, One Peace Books, Podcast, Sailor Moon, Vertical Inc, Viz Media, Yen Press

Swag Bag: Mew Mew Manga Power

By Lissa Pattillo on Friday, November 4, 2011

2 Comments »

New York Comic Con may’ve been almost a month ago but I’m still digging myself out of the stacks of stuff I bought there. What I brought back from the ‘big apple’ remains a post for another day but October proved itself manga-behemonth enough in release count to ensure every release-day was another manga buying opportunity.

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