Monday, January 12, 2004

Switch-hitting: Also at Publishers Weekly, Heidi MacDonald files a brief feature about Dark Horse's success with English-language manga, and its move toward "authentic manga":

"[VP of Business Development Michael] Martens said Dark Horse, which publishes many manga titles in the traditional reading style, is considering switching completely to the 'authentic' format. The forthcoming and much anticipated Ghost in the Shell, Vol. 2 (Aug.) will be right-to-left and DH will reissue the original GITS, Vol. 1 (June) in the new format and with a smaller trim size. Popular, long-running series such as Oh My Goddess, Martens said, may be reformatted. 'We're studying it. We don't want to alienate longtime readers,' he said."

"... the success of Tokyopop and now Viz and other manga publishers convinced Martens to embrace the original Japanese style. 'We were told by the bookstores repeatedly that there's a new manga reader out there. We wanted to find that audience while still trying to maintain our policy of sticking to good stories,' said Martens. 'The authentic format has really clicked and broadened our audience.'"