Viz

Masashi Kishimoto, creator of the 205,000,000 copies in print Naruto comic, will be making an extremely rare appearance at this year's New York Comic Con with two special signings—one at Books Kinokuniya and one at the Tribeca outpost of Barnes and Noble. It's not only Kishimoto-sensei's first appearance in the US, it's also his first con appearance ever. And probably one of the few times he's left his house during the 18-year run of the international smash hit. We're kidding a little about the leaving the house bit, but as we've mentioned here many times in the past, manga creators can lead a pretty monastic lifestyle, even with the help of assistants. Since Naruto ended last year, he's been busy with various manga about Boruto, Naruto's son, and also writing the Naruto movie, but hopefully he's been enjoying some time off.

  By Nick Eskey Nintendo has a number of popular game franchises that have evolved and grown into rich stories and mythologies. None though come close to the world of “Legend of Zelda.” Ever since the...

Former Dreamworks SVP Brad Woods has joined Viz Media as Chief Marketing Officer. Woods also has Mattel and Warner Bros. on his resume. At Viz he'll oversee strategies for expansion into multiple channels. Inaddition to it's well known print manga products. Viz also has streaming, online, film, TV and many other home entertainment branches, so hiring a veteran exec to look at all this stuff is a good move.

A seaside town is haunted by a terrible, terrible stench—and soon much more in Junji Ito's classic horror manga GYO. Originally published in Japan in 2001 (and in English in 2003), Viz is bringing...

Smith and Robbie talk Suicide Squad, Reynolds teases fans, and Hamm adapts a Japanese short story

Junji Ito! Junji Ito! Junji Ito! Japanese horror master Ito has been avoiding the genre of his greatest triumphs—Uzimaki, Tomie, Gyo— for eight years, but he has a new book out, and Viz will bring...

Want to find more about how graphic novel publishers are approaching the massive changes in comics readership and marketing now underway? Then fire up your computer tomorrow at 1 pm EST for a webcast with these industry experts.

I know we've been slacking a bit with 31 Days due to the horrors of New York Comic-Con, but it's full sped ahead to the pumpkins now. And here is the best thing you will hear today, tomorrow or possibly in a lifetime: Japanese Horror master Junji Ito Is doing a Pokemon collaboration. Yeah that's right. The creator of Uzumaki, Museum of Terror, the Long Hair in the Attic and much more, is doing POKEMON. The news was announced in Japan as a "Collaboration," you know, like Tokidoki doing Marvel, except terrifying and unspeakable. It's called “Kowapoke,” which means “Scarypoke” and a single phone wallpaper image has been released thus far. That's Banette, cute little Banette, admittedly not the nicest Pokemon, now all Kowapoke'd up. T-shirts are being given away in Japan now because life is unknowable and terrifying.

The BIG big manga news at New York Comic COn is the appearance of Takeshi Obata, creator of Bakuman, Death Note and All You Need is Kill, the manga adaptation of the recent film that had the wrong title. It's exciting that so many huge manga-ka are coming to America. To celebrate, Viz has a ton of exlcusives and special at the show so get your manga fix at their booth, with Princess Mononoke, Helly Kitty and Death Note.

Neon Alley's Viz'z free streaming media platform, is adding a bunch of choice Sailor Moon,  Sailor Moon Crystal, Bleach, Naruto Shippuden, and Ranma 1/2 episodes, which you can see in the release below. You can...

After a long wooing period, Viz has finally joined Comixology. Viz has its own ebook portal for manga and so was no stranger to digital, despite the difficulties inherent in getting Japanese material on...

Designer Courtney Utt, who was responsible for some of Viz's most distinctive covers, passed away recently at the age of just 37 following a long battle with brain cancer. You can see much of...