Webcomic of interest alert – Christy Lijweski, creator of the recently concluded RePlay (published by Tokyopop) has put up the first few pages of her new webcomic, Samurai Host Club.

“Assassins, Mafia wars, gunfights, massive bleeding, hookers and hosts. Maybe a samurai or two thrown in for good measure. Mature content for violence, language, sex and other hot sh–.”

Not much there so far in its infancy but still well worth a look-see for those who enjoyed her gritty characters, sharp art style and well dressed guys with guns in past works. While I don’t personally read many web comics, I’ll definitely be keeping my eye on this one. You can also see more of Lijewski’s artwork on her DeviantArt page, including promotional images for Samurai Host Club.

Yen Press has had submission guidelines on their website for some time now but in their most recent issue of Yen+, they’ve published a more specific call for proposals from artists:

“Are you a professional artist working in a style heavily influenced by manga? Then YEN PLUS wants to talk to you! One of the primary aims of a manga anthology is to help to develop talent at a professional level, and YEN PLUS is no different. Going forward, we are going to be featuring short stories commissioned from professional artists and developed with the YEN PLUS editorial staff in the magazine. The goal is to give creators a feel for working with us (and vice versa), a sense of the experience of serialization in a monthly anthology, as well as exposure to a broad reading audience.

It’s worth pointing out that this is not intended to be a “pitch” for a long-running manga series. This is simply an exercise. YEN PLUS would likely request, among other things, first serial rights for inclusion in the magazine, the rights to display the work on our website promotionally as well as the first option to develop the concept with you into a longer project in the event of an enthusiastic response to the work. (It may not be a pitch, but you never know…SOUL EATER started out as a short story just like this!

Interested? Here’s what you need to do: Send a proposal for a 30 page manga story along with 5 to 10 completed sequential renderings of that story to the editorial staff of Yen Press.”

Karen already sums up what makes this sound like a pretty sweet deal for up-and-coming artists over at Japanator. Though there isn’t a lot mentioned here contract-wise, it does sound like Yen Press is more open to allowing creators to maintain rights to their work plus the proposal length sounds great – a perfect size for the editors at Yen to get an idea of what you’re proposing without the artist needing to spend months of their life putting an entire finished piece together. Amen to that!

Yen Press is currently publishing Canadian-creator Svetlana Chmakova’s Nightschool in their Yen+ anthology alongside their continuously growing library of books from around the world.

Author/Artist: Nina Matsumoto
Publisher: Del Rey
Rating: Teen (13+)
Release Date: November 2009

Synopsis: “Yokai are Japanese spirits, and young Hamachi is fascinated by them. Now he continues his quest deep into the Yokai realm in the hopes of finding Madkap, the kappa he believes has killed his grandmother. Armed with nothing but a sacred rope and a lucky kappa’s foot, Hamachi has made two friends to help him on his journey: Lumi the talking lantern, and newly awakened, the umbrella that once belonged to his grandfather! Their first stop is the home of the legendary fox spirit the Ninetails, who promises to help in Hamachi’s quest if Hamachi can retrieve three lost items. But can Hamachi really find them, or does the Ninetails just want Hamachi to fail so he can keep the human boy as a pet?”

This book of Yokaiden opens with a handy exposition for those who may be picking up this second volume prior to the first; told via a short comic. Though perhaps a little taxing to those already familiar with the story, it shows the artist’s attention to audiences of both sorts and does so in a manner more entertaining than a simple paragraph recap. Regrettably the new material doesn’t feel nearly as ingenious.

Read more…

Since the earthquake that struck Haiti quickly nabbed media attention around the world, support has been flooding in from every corner of the globe. The internet is certainly no exception and many artists have opened commissions and auctions to sell their services and work for charitable donations in support of Haiti.

Two well known manga-style artists have also done just that. Christy Lijewski (artist of RePlay!, published by Tokyopop) and KOSEN (artist of Saihoshi, published by Yaoi Press) have each put up a piece of their original artwork on eBay with all proceeds going to a Haiti support charity. Great art for a great cause!

Christy Lijewski is selling the original copic-coloured artwork commissioned by Tokyopop for the cover of the third and final volume of RePlay. The auction ends January 23, 2010.

KOSEN is selling an original copic-coloured drawing of the character Yinn from their boys’ love fantasy series, Saihoshi. The auction ends January 19, 2010.

Two new contest calls are out for artists so sharpen your pencils and dust off those tablets (though may you artists out there keep your tablet much better dusted than mine!).

First off Viz Media is looking for fan art submissions for upcoming volumes of St. Dragon Girl. Via Twitter (@viz_media): “AM: Calling All Artists! Fan Art needed for future volumes of St. Dragon Girl manga.” The most recent volume of St. Dragon Girl is volume five and it’s available on store shelves this week.

Meanwhile over on her DeviantArt journal, Svetlana Chmkova is holding a contest for fan art to potentially appear in the next volume of her currently running series, Nightschool. Winners will be published in the third volume of Nightschool, due out from Yen Press in April 2010, and will be sent signed copies of the book when it’s released. All entries must be submitted to Yen Press by the fast-approaching deadline of December 28th along with a fanart consent form available on their webpage.

A press release out today revealed that Yen Press will be releasing a manhwa version of James Patterson’s Daniel X.

Readers will likely recognize the author as the creator of Maximum Ride, which Yen Press is currently releasing an adaptation of with artist NaRa Lee. The artist for Daniel X will be Seung-Hui Kye whose series Recast was published by Tokyopop. Hachette, Yen Press’s parent company, is releasing the original Daniel X novels, which are science fiction aimed at older teens.

“Fifteen-year-old alien hunter Daniel X is on a mission to finish the job that killed his parents to wipe out the world’s most bloodthirsty aliens on The List. At the number-one spot, The Prayer is Daniel’s ultimate target. With mind-blowing skills like telepathy and the ability to transform and create, Daniel’s got more than a few tricks up his sleeve. Along with his friends Willy, Joe-Joe, Emma and Dana, Daniel hunts down the aliens on The List one by one. But as he battles towards his top target he can’t forget one thing: he’s got a host of aliens to fight, but on their lists there’s only one name at the top… and that’s his.”

The Daniel X manhwa will originally be serialized in Yen Press’s Yen Plus anthology with the first volume to be released in summer 2010.

So what do you think? Personally I was more happy to hear in the press release that Maximum Ride has proven so successful for Yen Press – the excitement of another James Patterson series is lost on me since I’d never heard of the author before Yen Press announced Maximum Ride. Still, I’ve heard a lot of good things about Seung-Hui Kye’s Recast, and having never had the chance to read it, will be vaguely interested to see how Daniel X turns out, even if it is being built out of what sounds like a mountain of cheese (see plot synopsis above).

Creator: Svetlana Chmakova
Publisher: Yen Press
Rating: Teen (13+)
Release Date: October 2009

Synopsis: “Schools may lock up for the night, but class is in session for an entirely different set of students. In the Nightschool, vampires, werewolves, and weirns  learn the fundamentals of everything from calculus to spell casting. Alex is a young weirn whose education has always been handled through home schooling, but circumstances seem to be drawing her closer to the Nightschool. Will Alex manage to weather the dark forces gathering?”

Alex begins her quest to discover what happened to her sister, a staff member at the city’s secret night school, who mysteriously vanished leaving not even a memory behind in the minds of most. Her sister’s place of employment is the first stop, but to wander the school halls, Alex must first become a student.

Read more…

Some boys’ love news snippets today with submission closures, convention schedules and an undead publisher still looking to make a return:

Yaoi Press has recently updated their info page to inform propestive creators that their submissions are currently closed. This is a uncommon state for Yaoi Press which has spent the majority of its time open to new stories by writers and artists. The page does however offer up an honest and open look at why their submissions are currently closed and assurance that they still have previously submitted works on file.

Word has been circulating for a while about Digital Manga’s big yaoi title announcement, promising many happy fans, and that they’ll be making said-announcement at the upcoming Yaoi Con. Today Digital Manga has posted their Yaoi Con schedule including their industry panel and signing times for special guest, Makoto Tateno (see art above).

Digital Manga has also sent out a press release about signed and framed Makoto Tateno artwork which will be available for sale both at Yaoi Con and on their online shop, Akadot.

And lastly, in an odder turn of events, DramaQueen has updated its online shop to showcase what they’re calling a “Rebirth Sale”, offering up several of their back issue books for cheaper prices along with a message that suggests they’re still working on the comeback that they’ve promised for so long. Hmm… sounds sort of familiar.

I won’t beat the proverbial horse on this one but suffice to say DramaQueen hasn’t done anything to win readers’ sympathy or support in the past two years but I suppose it’ll still be interesting to see if they ever do release another book. Still, as much as I’m all for supporting the industry, it’s my honest opinion that shoppers should stay away from ordering through DramaQueen’s online website. The risk is simply too high that prospective buyers will only join the line of people still waiting for DQ to pay their dues.

After almost a year’s silence, and a sudden though exciting mini-announcement to kick it off, Viz Media is now accepting proposals and submissions for original series. A posting on Viz Media’s blog offered just as few details as the Twitter posting that originally let me know, but at least the concept itself is pretty self explanatory. Have a story or series that you’ve been working on and believe is ready for publication? Put together a pitch package and submit to Viz for consideration!

Last we heard anything substantial about Viz’s original pitch project was back in February when news circulated that Viz Media was putting their original submission project on hold. It previously had a short run when Viz held portfolio reviews at SDCC 2008 and more recently when Viz Media editor Eric Searleman appeared alongside other comic industry folk for panels and portfolio reviews at the Savannah College of Art and Design.

Creators and the curious can download their Pitch Submission Release (PDF) which is to accompany all submissions to Viz Media. It also includes the physical address of where to send your material.

What I’m curious about now, same as I was when they originally shared that they’d begin actively seeking this kind of original material, is what kind of stories we may see from this endeavour. Are they looking for any particular genres? Certain age targets? Minimum or maximum lengths? Straight to graphic novels or serializations? Things are pretty vague right now but if Viz recieves a good amount of submissions, it’ll be interesting to see if they put some suggestive guidelines in place.

Simon from Icarus Publishing brings up excellent points about the incredible circulation power that Viz’s Shonen Jump magazine has to offer and the likelihood that creators could retain their copyrights to the works submitted. With the growing popularity of Viz’s online manga reading websites, Shonen Sunday and IKKI, there’s also a great potential for original works to be offered to new readers in the digital format as well, offering Viz a chance to promote and ‘test the waters’ without immediately committing to print. This is similar to the benefits both Tokyopop and Digital Manga have recently begun to really dig into with their current online releases of material from creators around the world.

Personally I’m really eager to see what kind of stories and artists come out of the woodwork to submit. Hopefully we’ll see some returning faces along with some great new talent. Best of luck to those who submit – take your time, do your best, aim to impress and have fun!

Digital Manga has been busy since their eManga website had it’s fairly-recent revamp, adding numerous titles from DMP’s large library of titles. Lately however they’ve begun branching out, adding several titles from creators around the world.

Most recently they’ve added the first volume of Games With Me, a historical boys’ love story written by Tina Anderson and drawn by Linsley Brito. I’ve had the opportunity to read Games With Me and really enjoyed it. The characters are interesting, not falling into your stereotypical character molds, and the art is beautiful and really polished. I definitely recommend taking the time to read it and am thrilled that Digital Manga is working with the creators to offer it to English-readers for the first time (the story has yet to be published in English).

“Ex-Civil War surgeon George Callahan is a man haunted by his past. Unwilling to deal with the demons of his childhood, he turns to opium and finds back-alley employment with the heartless brothel keepers of San Francisco’s Chinatown. In Volume 1 of this gorgeously illustrated gay historical drama, Dr. George Callahan searches for a Chinese woman from his past, and soon finds himself unwittingly drawn to dim-witted male prostitute Jun, whose own life is complicated by the unwanted attentions of an aggressive bouncer named Roan Baxter.”

You can check out the complete press release sent out by Digital Manga for more information about the release and the creators.

Digital Manga has also added two Yaoi Press titles to their online manga rental website: Yaoi Press’s Yaoi Hentai, volume one and volume two. If you’re a yaoi fan and love a good comedy, there’s plenty for you in these books. They’re collections of short stories that range from funny to flashy and never without a heaping dose of 18+ material to earn the books their name.

And when you’re through there, of course don’t forget to check out the other eManga titles up for reading as well, including several books that haven’t been released yet (and most of which you can read a sample of for free!). Guaranteed to win you over to some fun purchases and leave you curious to see what titles will appear in their selection next.

Yishan Li, established manga-inspired artist, has posted on her website the cover for an upcoming adaption of the bestselling teen girl novel, The Clique. Yen Press will be publishing the manga-style adaptation “mid next year” and Yishan Li is the artist commissioned for the book which stars five girls in junior high who form the schools “A-List Clique.”

A listing for this adaptation of The Clique originally appeared on Amazon early in the year but was retracted by request of the company until the work’s publication was finalized.

Like Yen Press’s Maximum Ride, and the upcoming adaptation of Twilight, the original Clique novels, written by Lisi Harrison, are published under an imprint of Hachette, the parent company of Yen Press.

09/17 Edit: Yen Press has now issued a press release officially announcing their Clique manga project with Yishan Li.

Eep, where has the time gone?! Oh right, I lost it in the obscurity of an internet-less world for two weeks moving into a new apartment. But now I return! Apologies for that little gap in updates, the first in two years and hopefully (if possibly?) the last. Lots of spiffy stuff has happened in the past week, including Tokyopop’s second webinar, news of Kodansha’s cutting ties with them and a variety of other goodies that always make Brigid of MangaBlog a mangaverse blessing.

I already made a quick post to appease the eager fans of Chi’s Sweet Home, to the later disappointment of Vertical’s denial of license, but that wasn’t all Amazon had to offer my return to the internet. It likely goes without saying that my Amazon posts are consistently the most visited on my site so I suppose it works out that my first posts after a (albeit short) vacation, cater to those fan-wants.

Del Rey was the company with a bunch of new updates on Amazon.ca this week. The first interesting find was a new license listing for Ikeda Miyoko and Kikuto Michiyo’s Yokai Navi Runa, a multi-volume story about a bracelet and a girl and boy who turn into a cat and an owl. That’s the extent of my understanding so fans of the series please feel free to elaborate.

More interesting than this to me however, was a few listings for what looks like upcoming Del Rey omnibi for currently running series. Hell Girl volumes 7-9 are listed as one book of 624 pages, as are volumes 8-10 of Mushishi, volumes 6-7 of Psycho Busters and volumes 3-5 of Orange Planet. All are series Del Rey is currently publishing one volume at a time.

With several manga companies requiring some belt-tightening to keep things financially doable, it’s nice to see a company take an alternative route to series cancellation. 624 pages is pretty hefty but fans of both series will undoubtedly be thrilled to recieve so much in one go. On top of that, both books are listed at $24.99, only ten dollars more than one individual volume. Good deal!

Other new listings of note are Del Rey’s books based on the movie based on the series Avatar: The Last Airbender. The two books, Avatar The Last Airbender and The Last Airbender were announced in detail at this year’s San Diego Comic Con.

Author/Artist: Nina Matsumoto
Publisher: Del Rey
Rating: Teen (13+)
Release Date: November 2008

Synopsis: “Yokai… Japanese spirits. Most people fear them, and a few people even hunt them, thinking they are horrible monsters to be destroyed at all costs. But young Hamachi wants to be friends with them! He sees them as mischievous creatures that could c-exist peacefully with humans if only given a chance. When his grandmother dies under mysterious circumstances, Hamachi journeys into the Yokai realm. Along the way, he encounters an ogre who punishes truant children, an angry water spirit, and a talking lantern. Will Hamachi be able to find his grandmother’s killer, or will he be lost forever in another world?”

Yokai – friends or foes? Young Hamachi believes potential friends so he disagrees with what the people of his village think of them; they can’t all be bad after all! But when vengeance is taken on his demon-loathing Grandmother by the very beings Hamachi has been supporting all this time, what’s a child to do?

Read more…

Author/Artist: Judith Park
Publisher: Yen Press
Rating: Teen (13+)
Release Date: August 2009

Synopsis: “Dionne is best friends with her older brother, Lyon. Even though things don’t always run smoothly in their family, nothing in the world can shake them as long as they can rely on one another! But one day, an unexpected misfortune brings their seemingly bright world into disarray… and Dionne fears she may never be understood and loved again. When her parents offer their shocking solution, her emotions only become more tangled. Will Dionne ever be able to recover from this tragedy?”

Lyon is Dionne’s whole world, the perfect big brother and her only true escape from the loneliness she feels at the neglect of her parents. When a tragedy strikes that takes him away, both she and her best friend, who just recently began dating Lyon, must deal with the loss. But, on top of that, Dionne must learn to accept something else… Lyon’s never-before-known clone! Dun dun duuuun…

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Author: Raina Telgemeier & Dave Roman
Artist: Anzu
Publisher: Del Rey
Rating: Teen (13+)
Release Date: August 2009

Synopsis: “High school student Kitty Pryde has always been the odd girl out. A mutant, she was born with strange powers, magical talents that make her the class freak. But Kitty’s world is changed when she’s invited to study at Professor Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, a special home for mutant teens. There’s just one catch: Kitty’s the only girl at the all-boy school, and she ends up just feeling like a freak all over again.”

Kitty Pryde is a young teenager with a secret: she has the ability to phase through solid objects. Confused and apprehensive, she is invited to be the first female student in Xavier’s Institute, a private school for ‘the gifted’. There she meets an assortment of characters, and though they may have their strange abilities in common, not all have the same agenda for being there. But, when surrounded by pretty boys and being the only girl, Kitty has more than her own problems in mind in this intentionally shoujo-styled re-imagining of Marvel’s X-Men.

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