Manga Steve Jobs is a woman
Chocolate Apple 1991-2011, a manga released at the just passed amateur manga show Comiket -- which drew some 500,000 people -- presents the author's heartfelt appreciation of the late Steve Jobs and his creations, while portraying Jobs as a cute Japanese girl.
Bandai Entertainment reorganizes, ceases publishing manga, DVDs, and Blu-rays
Well, that didn't take long.
2012 has claimed its first publishing casualty as Bandai Entertainment has announced they will be canceling their manga and home entertainment publishing to focus on licensing their brands as they undergo a restructuring.
Their Facebook and Twitter accounts will also be shut down.
Gantz to end in 2012
Gantz, Hiroya Oku's popular, super-violent manga about a team of operatives and their mysterious missions, is ending its run in Young Jump next year, it's being reported. More than 30 volumes of the manga have appeared in Japan -- in the US, Dark Horse is up to volume 20. It's also been adapted into a TV series and two movies.
Sales Charts: unBoxing Day 2011 (and a surprising discovery)
Some online sales data for 12/25 and 12/26 from IBM, a Top Ten list from Amazon's Kindle graphic novel page, and a surprising discovery! Read on!
Coming Attractions: Fall 2011: Random House, Part Two
I hope this has been worth the wait! Here are the independent publishers Random House distributes, and there are some lesser known (but quite good) titles here!
Actual Asian person Ken Watanabe potentially offered role in AKIRA remake
The long on-again, off-again life action Akira movie is decidedly on again at Warners, with Jaume Collet-Serra to direct the Steve Kloves script. Given that AKIRA is a worldwide classic of anime and Japanese film in general that hugely influenced both animation and the cyberpunk movement, it seems ripe for reinvention in that Hollywood way.
And of course, also in that Hollywood way, despite the story being set in and infused with Japanese culture, because American moviegoers are all white and cannot be persuaded to pay money to watch Asian people on the screen, the film is being moved from New Tokyo to "New Manhattan " (essentially New New York) and replacing all the Asian characters with white people if casting rumors are true.
Live action AKIRA is GO once more at WB
After many starts and stop -- an Albert Hughes directed version had the plug pulled after pre-production had already started earlier this year -- Warner Bros has greenlit a live action AKIRA remake again. This time Jaume Collet-Serra (ORPHAN) is set to direct. The movie apparently got new life after the budget was cut to a practically spartan $90 million.
NYCC Announcements: Yen Press Adapts NYT YA Bestsellers
Yen Press has announced two manga style adaptations of bestselling YA novels: Sherrilyn Kenyon's Chronicles of Nick and Cassandra Clare's The Infernal Devices trilogy. HyeKyung Baek...
NYCC Announcements: Viz Takes Shonen Jump Digital, Syncs Closer to Japanese Original
This is interesting. Viz is migrating Shonen Jump to a digital edition that's only 2 weeks removed from the Japanese original. (And you can...
Terrifying earthquake hits Stately Beat Manor
Yeah like the rest of you East Coasters, we just had a little wee temblor. My mind refused to believe it was happening, preferring to think that it was a big truck driving by or the Second Avenue Subway rattling by...except that doesn't exist just yet. Having been in the Northridge quake, I knew it wasn't serious...yet, but the idea of the piles of books in Stately Beat Manor tumbling down filled my heart with dread. But the cat didn't even wake up.
Hope the folks closer to the epicenter are okay. Virginian Colleen Doran tweeted:
With Borders gone, manga industry looks to new markets
Remember manga? It's still around, even if it isn't the juggernaut it was in the olden days. The big, big news in manga this week was the launch of Jmanga.com, best described as what if Marvel, DC, Random House, Dynamite, and Fantagraphics all teamed up to create their own comiXology. After years of sitting around anxiously watching piracy take a toll, the top Japanese publishers have finally banded together to create their own LEGAL online portal. The site just launched this week, and there been a ton of talk. J.K. Parkin has a great round-up of much of the reaction but it hasn't been universally loved:
One Piece set record with 2 million sold in 4 days
Eiichiro Oda's ONE PIECE continues to be the fastest selling comic book of all times, with the new Vol. 63 selling at a record breaking clip:
A previous volume of ONE PIECE, #60, set another record by selling 3 million copies in an 8-day period.Eiichiro Oda’s “One Piece” manga continues its strong sales record with the latest volume 63 passing the 2 million sales mark just within 4 days of its release. This amazing result outshine the performance by Vol 60 & Vol 61 which only managed to pass the 2 million mark after 1 week.
