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Author Archive for Lissa Pattillo

BLU Titles Available for Purchase at eManga

By Lissa Pattillo on Thursday, October 14, 2010

As of today Tokyopop and Digital Manga are collaboration buddies and offering a number of Tokyopop’s BLU boys’ love titles over on Digital Manga’s digital eManga website. You can check out the press release for the details.

There are a bunch of things about this that makes me happy – 1) Manga publishers working together is awesome. 2) BLU titles, which are some of the most expensive out there, are only $5.99 in full on eManga. 3) There’re even a couple of not-yet-in-print titles up there for the extra eager. 4) Even those like me who aren’t too keen on the reading-comics-on-screen option can still find this useful with the Sample feature which makes good use of eManga’s smooth software to test out some titles before buying.

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Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: Boys' Love/Yaoi, DMP, Manga, Tokyopop

PR: DMP and Tokyopop bring twelve new titles to eManga.com!

By Lissa Pattillo on Thursday, October 14, 2010

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Gardena, CA (October 14, 2010) – Digital Manga, one of the manga industry’s most unique and creative publishers, is proud to announce an online collaboration with TOKYOPOP, a leading manga publisher and pop-culture digital entertainment company. The partnership will launch with the addition of twelve new titles from TOKYOPOP’s BLU Manga yaoi imprint to eManga’s online library.

The BLU Manga yaoi will be available for purchase through eManga’s online manga service, emanga.com, which streams content through an Adobe Flash player, allowing readers to access their library wherever they have an internet connection. Originally sold for $14.99 in print, the BLU volumes will be available on eManga.com for $5.99, making it more affordable than ever to read old and new favorites.

The first twelve BLU titles will include: Liberty Liberty! by Hinako Takanaga, Calling by Miu Otsuki, Croquis by Hinako Takanaga, Cute Devil by Hiro Madarame, Isle of Forbidden Love by Duo Brand, Blood Honey by Sakyou Yozakura, Love Knot by Lemon Ichijo, Madness volumes 1 & 2 by Kairi Shimotsuki, Scarlet by Hiro Madarame, Secretary’s Love by Tohko Akiba and Stray Cat by Halco.

For more information about our eManga system and to begin reading right away, visit www.emanga.com and click on the TOKYOPOP tab under “publishers”.

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Categories: Press Releases
Tags: Boys' Love/Yaoi, DMP, Hinako Takanaga, Tokyopop

Vertical’s Announcement of No Longer Human ‘Premature’

By Lissa Pattillo on Thursday, October 14, 2010

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Vertical has made an announcement on their website today that their license announcement of Furiya Urusama’s No Longer Human was “prematurely disclosed”. The license was originally announced just this past weekend at New York Anime Fest.

“Due to a communication error between the company’s New York and Tokyo offices, the property was falsely presented as slated for publication. While the licensors for this series and Vertical are currently actively in contract negotiations, the North American rights have not been secured. Vertical, Inc. will continue to work with the rights holders for No Longer Human with hopes to properly acquire the license, and it apologizes to all parties involved in this unfortunate and unintentional error.”

This isn’t the first time this has happened with Vertical in particular. News of their acquisition of Osamu Tezuka’s Ayako was out to the public prior to finalizations of the contract after the listing appeared on Amazon and, in an unrelated event, was revealed by a representative at one of their Vertical Vednesday presentations.

Incidents like these always make me wonder – what kind of guidelines do companies generally follow when it comes to proper handling of yet-to-be-finalized titles? For a good while, and still to some point today, it was common place to find out new licenses some time before they were officially announced simply by searching the newest manga additions on sites such as Amazon, RightStuf and AAAAnime. But in some instances it’s even been said the revelation of said titles immediately jeopardizes the license itself. Why then do companies make the thus presumably very risking decision to submit these books to distribution channels so early?

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Categories: Licensing
Tags: Manga, NYAF 2010, Vertical Inc

PR: Viz Media Offers a Haunted Tale in New March Story

By Lissa Pattillo on Wednesday, October 13, 2010

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BEAUTIFUL WORKS OF ART ARE HAUNTED IN NEW MANGA SERIES
MARCH STORY FROM VIZ MEDIA

Evil Lurks Beneath The Surface of Great Masterworks And Only One Demon Hunter Can Vanquish The Fiendish Spirits In A Dark New Tale From The VIZ Signature Imprint

San Francisco, CA, October 13, 2010 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry’s most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, will release the supernatural manga (graphic novel) series MARCH STORY on October 19th. The latest addition to the VIZ Signature imprint, by Hyung Min Kim with artwork by Kyung Il Yang, is rated ‘M’ for Mature readers and will carry an MSRP of $12.99 U.S. / $16.99 CAN.

Among the quiet villages and towns of 18th century Europe, demons known as the Ill hide within the most beautiful works of art and are sparked to life by the torment of their creators. Attracted by their jewel-like allure, unwary viewers can find themselves possessed by the Ill and will be driven to horrific acts of violence. Only the hunters of the Ciste Vihad can dispel the Ill. March is one such hunter, tracking the Ill from town to town to find the antiques that contain the demons before they can possess anyone. If the worst has come to pass, March’s full powers are unleashed to battle the fiendish Ill.

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Categories: Press Releases
Tags: Shonen Sunday, Viz Media

NYAF 2010: Dark Horse

By Lissa Pattillo on Wednesday, October 13, 2010

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Dark Horse had its comic panel on Friday of New York Anime Fest, and while the time given to manga-related info stayed around the 3 minute mark out of the hour long panel, they still had two new license announcements to make that are bound to please fans of some of their most popular titles.

Bloodlines Battlefront is by Yasuhiro Nightow, the creator of Trigun. The manga originally ran in the same manga that serialized Gantz, which feels a bit indicative of the tone this story will have. The story takes place in a post-apocalyptic New York city where a vampire, werewolf and zombie work together to defend survivors living there from otherworldly creatures.

Drifters is by Kouta Hirano, the creator of Hellsing. This series is about a man who after being fatally injured in a battle, is whisked away to a strange dimension, inhabited by humans and fantasy creatures alike, where characters based on historical figures battle against both strange creatures and one another. It sounds like this series will have an overlaying tone of humour like Hellsing did as well.

Dark Horse will also be releasing Shinjuku Azul which is a sequel volume to their previously released illustrated novel, Shinjuku by Christopher “mink” Morrison and Yoshitaka Amano (artist best known for their Final Fantasy character designs).

Prior engagements meant I had to leave the Dark Horse panel a bit early, after which time they discussed upcoming plans for digital distribution. For more information on this, I recommend checking out Deb Aoki’s round-up of the panel.

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Categories: Licensing
Tags: Conventions, Dark Horse, Manga, NYAF 2010, Trigun

Swag Bag – Ninjas, Pets and Used Fairy Tales

By Lissa Pattillo on Tuesday, October 12, 2010

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It’s going to take me a while to sort through all my manga swag from New York Anime Fest this past weekend, and who knows how long for a proper installment of Swag Bag – but before I traveled down to the US for some con adventures, I hit my usual Wednesday haunt at Strange Adventures to pick up some new and old titles.

My most anticipated, and thus quickly picked up, titles were the newest volumes of two of my favourites – Pet Shop of Horrors (Vol. 07) and Shinobi Life (Vol. 06). It was another long wait for Pet Shop of Horrors, and to my dismay, I found this particular volume a bit of letdown comparatively. I mean, it was still great because it’s Matsuri Akino but definitely not the series’ best. Shinobi Life proved as satisfying as ever though. I love how carefully it’s crafting a plot that could easily become confusing in another’s hands. Will the schoolgirl and ninja ever find their happy ending?

To my luck that day, a box of used manga had just been deposited in the store with a whole bunch of well-kept books looking for a new home. While the individual who owned the books prior seemed to have very similar tastes to myself (ie: very little there I didn’t already own unfortunately), there were still a few goodies to pick up:

Looking for some new series to start, I picked up the first volumes of The Chronicles of the Grim Peddler (which was fantastic fairy-tale manhwa) and Monochrome Factor (which I haven’t read yet). I also bought the first two volumes of Mushishi after having read them at the library and enjoyed them, plus the anime was really good. Lastly I got volume three of 07-Ghost, firmly establishing to me that this series still doesn’t make any sense. Ah well, I gave it three volumes – character designs are still pretty though!

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Categories: Features, Misc, Swag Bag
Tags: 07 Ghost, Del Rey, GoComi, Manga, Tokyopop

NYAF 2010: Vertical Inc.

By Lissa Pattillo on Sunday, October 10, 2010

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Saturday evening at New York Anime Fest sported an industry panel by Vertical Inc. It was your standard one-hour panel but they made it count with a couple license announcements and a whole bunch of other information.

The panel was run by marketing director, Ed Chavez, and Vertical editorial director, Ioannis Mentzas. Sitting in on the sound box was the bug-eyed Chi plushie (belonging to the namesake series’ creator), which has become a staple at Vertical events since the toy was left behind at SDCC.

On the note about the plush toy, they noted that they’ve been taking photos of fans with the cat at various events and, with individuals’ permission, would like to one day release a postcard book of the pictures. That being said, the Chi plush will also be making an appearance at MangaNext.

There were two new titles announced during this panel.

The first is a new Osamu Tezuka title called Book of Human Insects. ~~It’s a fairly hefty series at ten volumes with each one currently planned to be sold at $29.99.~~ The book will be 360 pages and is slated for release on July 26, 2011 at a price of $21.95. (Thanks to Kate Dacey for the correction) The original title of the series was ‘Human Metamorposis’ and it tells the tale of a woman who repeatedly changes her profession, and subsequently her entire identity, which direly affects those around her.

The second title is No Longer Human by Furuya Usamaru. This is the artist’s most current work. The series itself is three volumes long and will be $12.95 a volume. The first volume will be 208 pages and will be released September 13, 2011. The story is based off a novel written by Osama Dazai about a man named Oba Yozo who struggles with his need to hide behind a false personality as he suffers from the trauma of a sexual childhood experience.

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Categories: Licensing
Tags: 7 Billion Needles, Black Jack, Conventions, Manga, NYAF 2010, Vertical Inc

NYAF 2010: Yen Press

By Lissa Pattillo on Sunday, October 10, 2010

3 Comments »

Yen Press’s panel today at New York Anime Fest kicked off the longest string of manga-related panels at the event this year. It was also the first event I sat in on that had the pleasure of being on the opposite wall of an anime-themed dance/scream-fest next door. Huzzah!

On the panel was Abby Blackman (editorial assistant), Kurt Hassler (editorial director), Ju-Young Lee (lead editor) and Tania Biswa (assistant editor). They received a good amount of applause right from the start which was nice to see.

After brief introductions, they kicked off a slideshow with the following info:

With the Light (Vol. 08) – The upcoming final volume of With the Light. It includes the material the late-Keiko Tobe had been working on before she passed.

Soulless: An Alexa Tarabotti Novel – A licensed series of young adult fiction that Yen Press is looking to adapt into graphic novels. The original novels were written by Gail Carringer. Yen Press is currently seeking an artist for this project which will be serialized in Yen Plus. The series is set in a semi-steampunk Victorian England where a women with no soul is at odds with vampires and werewolves in a society that has accepted them.

During this point in the panel, Kurt Hassler pointed out that artist Svetlana Chmakova was in the audience and would be signing books at the end of the event. They also noted that her series Nightschool is having the fourth volume released this month and the most recent chapter was published in the newest Yen Plus installment.

Witch & Wizard – Another novel by James Patterson (creator of Maximum Ride and Daniel X), this is another new Yen Press adaptation in the works. Svetlana is doing the art for this series which they expect may begin serialization in Yen Plus by the year’s end The series is about two siblings who discover they have magical powers only after being charged with it as an offense.

Yen Press said they did have licenses to announce at NYAF but their contracts didn’t come in as expected so they were unable to announce anything further in regards to new titles.

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Categories: Licensing, News
Tags: Black Butler, Conventions, NYAF 2010, Yen Press

ANN Review: Arata (Vol. 03)

By Lissa Pattillo on Friday, October 8, 2010

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Another fairly recent Viz release, and one of my most anticipated current titles, I reviewed volume three of Yuu Watase’s Arata for AnimeNewsNetwork in September.

Unfortunately this third volume was a bit of a letdown. It progressed the plot well enough, and had some really well drawn fight scenes, but I kept finding myself confused as to what was going on. It had some scenes that should’ve been really dramatic yet they just fell flat, which was a shame. On the amusing side, this volume had several panels that screamed ‘I was drawn by an assistant!’ so loud that I couldn’t help but have a little chuckle. Poor funny looking background people.

Ah well, hopefully this was just a bump! Speaking of Yuu Watase though, I wonder when the next Genbu Kaiden comes out…

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: ANN Reviews, Arata, Manga, Viz Media, Yuu Watase

Kuriousity.ca, Site Tweakage and Onwards to NYAF!

By Lissa Pattillo on Thursday, October 7, 2010

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Now available as kuriousity.ca!

Hey everyone – a few quick notes today about some little tweaks and changes that I’ve made around Kuriousity lately. Most exciting news though first-off is that you can now reach our website with the URL – kuriousity.ca! Only took three years to get this address but finally something true to our Canadian -side and easier to remember!

In content-news, I’ve been working to clean up some of the static pages and my first stop was the dust-gathering Oh!Canada section. Clicking the Canadian flag in the header bar now leads a page that is both a link-hub to the relevant sections but also to those posts under the Canada category. Within Oh!Canada I’ve also revamped the Canadian Comic Shops page so that all provinces are on a single, easily-navigated page. Always looking for short reviews of stores around the country so send me an e-mail if you’d like to submit one.

Across the site, all posts now include an Author tag. All posts in the past have been posted by yours truly but now you can expect some news and editorial posts to go along with the reviews already provided by the rest of the fabulous Kuriousity crew! Some recent posts have been Andre’s sleuthing about DelRey that ended up preluding their transfer over to Kodansha, while Shannon has been sharing thirteen manga series she recommends for Halloween reading this October.

Expect some more changes, additions and hopefully helpful little tweaks across the site in the next couple of weeks.

As for this week however, I’ll be down in New York for New York Anime Fest to meet a ton of awesome folks, sit in on some panels, spelunk the vendors room and be a generally eager tourist in America’s Big Apple. Heading to NYAF this weekend as well? Let me know! I’m exciting to meet people. Expect updates on the site throughout the weekend, as well as quick updates to my Twitter account with any news or fun tidbits as they happen.

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Categories: Site Updates
Tags: Canada, Conventions, NYAF 2010