Yet another best selling author James Patterson, is setting up his own toon/graphic novelly/manga deal. Patterson has sold some 140 million books, so that is a lot of books. One deal is with Yen Press (PR in the jump) which will serialize his “Maximum Ride” YA series in their manga anthology, Yen Plus.

He’s also pacted with with Curious Pictures:

…the Gotham animation studio known for Disney’s “Little Einsteins,” is teaming with James Patterson Entertainment to produce longform animated media based on the author’s books, graphic novels and original concepts.

The pair’s first project is the film “Beer Belly and Fat Boy,” about a slacker who is secretly an assassin controlled by evil corporations. Like “300,” the pic will blend human actors with all-digital backgrounds, aiming squarely at the vidgame-and-comedy-inclined young male demo.

As interesting as all that is, the article also contains this little nugget:

[Curious] is doing animation work for a toon Michel Gondry is co-directing with his son, Paul, an up-and-coming artist.

Michel Gondry ‘toon! We are there.
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You think it was spring the way folks are pacting up. A very big manga business deal is being announced today, but you’ll have to read Publishers Weekly daily for the scoop. In the meantime, a close reading of the NYAF programming schedule reveals….this:

Del Rey & Marvel Comics
Join Del Rey Manga and Marvel Comics for a special announcement!
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Sunday, Dec 9
Manga Panel Room

Are they announcing a new Hulk-flavored onigiri? What!

We’re going to spend much of the next four days at the Javits center for the inaugural New York Anime Fest, kicking off today with Milton Griepp’s ICv2 Conference on Anime and Manga. This is a major event from Reed Exhibitions, which also puts on NY Comic-Con (and a sister company of PW, which hosts this blog.) Big anime events in New York have had a spotty track record in the last few years, but all of the big publishers and producers are in for this one, there are lots of guests, and a wide array of events, including the American leg of the World Cosplay Summit!

You can see the HUGE lineup of programming here. Guests are here.

To be candid, we’re not too well prepared for this show. All signs point to a big success, but since it’s a new show on the calendar, we didn’t prep for it much. We were all “Oh, it’s baby Max;s first birthday!” and “Oo, Elisa and George are having a holiday party!” and now it’s “Panel panel panel and then drinks with soanso and dinner with soanso!” But that’s okay. We will be bringing you extensive coverage from the floor. ANN, Brigid Alverson, Kai-Ming Cha and the other top manga journos will all be there as well, and we’ll link to their sure-to-be excellent coverage.

In lieu of a big preview, here are two links from Pop Culture Shock: Five things to do at New York Anime Fest and Erin Finnegan’s New Manga Map of NYC

In the world of manga, Takehiko Inoue is a mega-superstar. His basketball manga SLAM DUNK was so successful it made he sport itself more popular in Japan. It’s sold over 100 million copies worldwide and has been voted the #1 all-time manga. VAGABOND, telling the legend of swordman Miyamoto Musashi has also been a smash hit. He’s even been listed among Japan’s top tax-payers.

Mangaka of his level rarely come to America and it’s even more rare for them to do press with American outlets (or usually, any press at all.) Thus when Inoue-sensei came to New York to paint a mural for the new Kinokuniya Books on 6th Avenue, and Viz made him available for interviews, it was a singular chance to talk to one of the world’s most successful cartoonsits. This opportuniy was so unusual that The Beat decided to team up with PW Comics Week’s Kai-Ming Cha for a tag team interview! You can read the first part of the interview here.

The occasion was also to announce the launch of a major initiative to publish Inoue’s work here in the states. SLAM DUNK will soon appear in tankubon format; VAGABOND has finished its 25 book run, but will have a new omnibus edition next year; and Viz has announced an American edition of REAL, a manga about wheelchair basketball players.

Inoue’s website even has a section in English where you can read his blog (his latest posting takis about his trip to New York), and the complete run of BUZZER BEATER, another basketball comic, is also online.

The interview time was brief, and due to the constraints of translation, the interview itself is short, but Inoue-sensei was very engaged and engaging, and the entire event definitely opened doors — both ways.

PWCW: You’ve also done work for Shiseido cosmetics - commercials where you paint large scale pictures on huge swaths of paper.  Can you talk about your development as an artist?  How did you go from drawing for something so compact like a comic, to something so large like in the Shiseido commercials?

Takehiko Inoue: I’m an artist so it’s basically the same.  It’s all drawing.  But when it’s so large scale like in the Shiseido commercials, it’s like a sport.  I have to think ‘how do I move this brush to draw a straight line?’  It becomes more physical.


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We missed this the other day, but a Dragonball Z movie has been confirmed with Stephen Chow to produce and James Wong (The One)to direct. Justin Chatwin (War of the Worlds) stars as Goku, and James Marsters (Spike on Buffy) plays bad guy Piccolo.

Based on the manga by Akira Toriyama, Dragonball Z has been a multi platform sensation in books, video games, toys and cartoons. We’ve never been able to make sense of it, but that must mean it’s good! According to the THR piece, it’s generated some $4 billion in worldwide licensing. We’re happy to hear of Chow’s involvement, since he’s one of the finest moviemakers on the planet for this kind of action genre romp.

Our advice to Chatwin? Stock up on the hair gel!

The New York Anime Festival is fast approaching (December 7-9) and the programming  schedule has just been posted.

Even if you’re not a manga or anime fan there’s lot of interest here, including Milton Griepp’s ICv2 Conference on Anime and Manga on the 6th, and panels on Gekiga and other types of manga during the show.

The New York Anime
Festival is sponsored by ADV Films, Anime Innovation Tokyo, Anime Insider, Anime Network, Anime News
Network, AnimeNEXT, BookExpo America, Diamond Book Distributors,
Entertainment Consumers Association, FUNimation Entertainment, ICv2,
ImaginAsian, Kinokuniya Bookstores, License! Global, Manga Video, New York
Comic Con, NEW YORK - TOKYO, Newtype
USA, Publishers Weekly, Starz
Media, THINK Corp, TOKYOPOP, Video
Business, VIZ Media, Wedge Holdings, Wizards of the Coast, and the World
Cosplay Summit.
 

The New York Anime
Festival’s Guests of Honor include Peter Fernandez, Corinne Orr, Kobun Shizuno,
and Aimee Major Steinberger.  The
New York Anime Festival’s musical guests include HAPPYFUNSMILE, UNICORN TABLE,
and Voltaire.

Disclaimer: NYAF is put on by the same folks as the New York Comic-Con and BEA, who we’ve worked with in the past and they are owned by the same parent company as PW.

Via Same Hat!

The Times Online (UK) looks at Hataraki Man, a controversial manga by Moyoco Anno that examines gender roles:

For decades the Japanese comic industry has done a roaring trade in cartoons that chronicle the miseries and triumphs of the salaryman. Anno’s comic is a deliberate role reversal. The mould-breaking comic, Hataraki Man (Working Man), tracks the agonising day-to-day trials of a woman trying to balance the modern desire for a career with the dead weight of traditional Japanese social values. It has become so popular that it has been made into an animated cartoon for girls and a prime-time television drama for women.

Hiroko’s adventures have also become the basis of a bestselling lifestyle guide for the modern working woman, teaching the art of remaining feminine during the fight for equality and showing how to cope with truculent bosses, difficult coworkers and unsupportive partners.

Speaking of Japanese society, Simon over at Icarus quoted a rather interesting stat the other day:

I can’t quite remember how I came about this link, but condom maker Durex has released the results of its global survey on how frequently people are having sex. 87% of respondents in Greece say they have sex at least once a week, making them the busiest country in the survey. The least active country? Japan, at 34%.

Svetlana Chmakova announces that Volume 3 of DRAMACON is in the can and coming out in about a month.

A couple of announcements from the upcoming New York Anime Festival. First the announcement of a number of web guests, and also an ICv2 conference:

Pop culture publishing and consulting company ICv2 has announced its first ICv2 Conference on Anime and Manga: “Inside the Otaku Generation” at New York Anime Festival (NYAF), the new event being launched by the organizers of New York Comic Con.

NYAF will bring together more than 120 exhibitors, and will feature the latest in anime, manga, Japanese cinema, music, and games, as well as the best of anime-influenced comics, animation, and film from around the world. NYAF will be held on December 7-9, 2007 at the Jacob K. Javits Center in New York City.

The ICv2 Conference on Anime and Manga: “Inside the Otaku Generation” will be held on Thursday afternoon, December 6, 2007 at the Javits Center, on the eve of NYAF.

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The manga onslaught continues, as PW reports that the 800-900 outlet strong Trans World Entertainment chain had contracted with wholesaler Bookazine to add manga to such places as F.Y.E, , Coconuts, Sam Goody, Suncoast and Planet Music.

Bookazine established its separate pop culture program, Popazine, two years ago and hired John Davis, former director of book sales at Central Park Media, to head it. Since then Bookazine’s sales of pop culture-related titles, including manga and graphic novels, have jumped, according to Bookazine executive v-p Richard Kallman. In 2006, pop culture/graphic novels were 5% of the company’s overall business. This year, Davis projects, Popazine will grow to 7% or 8%.

In some ways the story is a reminder of how far we’ve come in five or six years — in the olden days the idea of ANY mass market retailer carrying comics, manga or Bazooka Joe bubble gum comics would have been clutched at by every comcis true believer as the straw that showed there was life outside the world of longboxes. Now, the story comes with its own history of ups and downs — you may recall that Suncoast/Musicland went bankrupt in 2006, causing all sorts of problems for anime and manga companies. TWE eventually acquired Suncoast, and now they are back in the manga business.

It’s this cycle of bust and boom in the retail market that really shows how entrenched comics, manga and graphic novels really are now. There is no one setback that will hold us back, only a continuing march.

Manga for the rest of us: IDW previews Umezu’s REPTILIA. Much more in link.

One more manga post! Over at Sporadic Sequentialcultural anthropologist and Japan-based manga expert Matt Thorn explains why manga is so exacting:

Sure, there’s a wide variety of subject matter in manga, and more variety of drawing styles than many people realize, but there are countless structural details that most readers (both Japanese and non-Japanese) are completely unconscious of, and yet which are necessary to make a manga “feel right.”

Much more of great interest in the link, including concrete examples.

UPDATE: Even more in this follow up!

And speaking of Manga, Fox Atomic has a movie based on the Japanese novel and manga GOTH in the works. JT Petty is slated to write the script. We like Anime News Network’s description of the plot best:

Itsuki Kamiyama, a student with normal look, who obsessed with death and murder around him, together with Yoru Morino, his female classmate, who has the same hobby with Itsuki, they solve the strange cases of murder. However, Itsuki also obsessed with something else of Morino

But see.

Forget about the US Open, the World Series, or the Westminster Dog Show — New York is about to get a new competition which will knock the world on its Goth-Lolita clad ass: The World Cosplay Summit’s USa Preliminary round is coming to the NY Anime festival this December!

The New York Anime Festival (NYAF) today announced a major partnership with the World Cosplay Summit, the leading international cosplay event which takes place annually in Japan and attracts an audience of cosplay enthusiasts and professionals from many countries all over the globe. The World Cosplay Summit features the very best cosplayers in the world competing before famed anime and manga creators. Previous notable judges have included Leiji Matsumoto (Galaxy Express 999) and Go Nagai (Cutie Honey). Countries which participated in the 2007 World Cosplay Summit included: Brazil, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, South Korea, Mexico, Singapore, Spain, and Thailand.

“We are focused on making NYAF a broad cultural event which embraces the many aspects of anime and recognizes its influence around the world,” notes John McGeary, Show Manager for NYAF. “This partnership is perhaps one of our most significant steps on the road to doing that. The World Cosplay Summit is nothing less than the Super Bowl of all cosplay. We’re very proud to offer American cosplayers the chance to have their costumes and talent recognized on both a national and international stage.”

Festival organizers note that the partnership will provide NYAF with the opportunity to stage the World Cosplay Summit’s Official USA Preliminary Round. The winners of the convention’s Masquerade will receive a free trip to Japan to represent the USA in the World Cosplay Summit Finals in Summer 2008. The New York Anime Festival is the only American anime convention approved to be part of the World Cosplay Summit.

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Anime News Network picks up a story from a Belgian tabloid reporting that two identical messages linked to Death Note were left near severed body parts discovered Friday in the forest of Belgium’s Duden Park.

According to the newspaper, the two paper sheets both say “Watashi wa Kira dess,” an apparent misspelling of the Japanese phrase “Watashi wa Kira desu,” or “I am Kira (Killer).” This is a catchphrase from writer Tsugumi Ooba and artist Takeshi Obata’s Death Note suspense manga series, in which a high school boy discovers a notebook which allows him to kill people by writing their names in it.

It is unknown if the body parts belong to the same person.

Via PR, news of a new legit venture to allow fans to create their own scanlations:

Manganovel Corporation and Toshiba Corporation today announced that they will bring the universe of Japanese manga to the global market with the launch of “Manganovel,” an on-line service that allows readers not only to download and read manga in Japanese but to post and offer for sale their own translations of content. The service started beta testing in June this year, and is now officially ready to take manga characters to anime lovers around the world. The site can be accessed at: URL: https://www.manganovel.com .

“Manganovel” will serve as a distribution source for Japanese publishers, and go beyond that to create a community of readers. In a world-first for the comics industry, members will not only be able to download and read Japanese versions of manga, but, by making full use of the potential offered by Web 2.0, be free to upload and even sell their own translations of the comics. Potential readers can get advice on the quality of any individual translation offered on “Manganovel” by reading the comments of other readers on the site’s discussion boards. The whole operation will offer secure digital rights management with “MQbic” (Multi-cubic), digital copyright protection technology developed by Toshiba.

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Freaky manga-ka legend Kazuo Umezu is getting another shot in America via REPTILIA, due this October from IDW, which is making its first foray into manga publishing:

Just in time for Halloween, IDW Publishing brings Japanese horror legend Kazuo Umezu’s seminal manga work Reptilia to America next month, translating the 40-year-old terror classic into English for the very first time as IDW continues to expand its publishing line.

“This is our first manga project,” says Chris Ryall, publisher and editor-in-chief of IDW, which reinvented American horror comics several years ago with the blockbuster miniseries 30 Days of Night, to be released as a major motion picture from Sony in the same month that IDW unveils Reptilia. “We wanted to do something unique for our first effort to bring Japanese manga to the States, and considering our past success in creating horror hits, it made sense to publish something from the man who is considered the father of horror manga in Japan.”

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Viz sends out PR trumpeting the success of their “Naruto Nation” event — NARUTO is 1, 2 and 3 on the Bookscan GN schart:

VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry’s most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, has announced that NARUTO manga volumes 16, 17 and 18 occupied the first, second and third positions on Nielsen BookScan’s noted Top 50 Graphic Novel list for the week ending September 23, 2007. The trio of latest volumes from the popular ninja action series has remained in the top three spots on the BookScan Graphic Novel list for four consecutive weeks. More than 2.3 million NARUTO manga volumes have been sold domestically since the series launched.

Further expanding the favorable manga sales news for the week of September 23, VIZ Media titles occupied a total of 33 of the Top 50 spots on the Graphic Novel list. Various NARUTO titles, including previous manga editions and a recently released NARUTO ANIME PROFILES: EPISODES 38-80 book, swept 14 of the Top 50 listings. Some other notable VIZ Media placements include BLEACH Vol. 20 (at number 10), DEATH NOTE vol. 1 (at number 11), THE BEST OF POKÉMON ADVENTURES: RED (at number 12), THE GENTLEMEN’S ALLIANCE † Vol. 3 (at number 15) and FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST Vol. 14 (at number 17).

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NPR’s On The Media looks at the cultural impact of manga:

Manga is Japan’s ubiquitous art form; a kind of comic book equivalent that illustrates everything from tax preparation to hard-core fantasy. But it is its growing success outside Japan that’s highlighted its new utility, what Japanese politicians are calling ‘manga diplomacy.’ Roland Kelts, author of Japanamerica, explains why politicians are recognizing the form as a powerful cultural export.

[Thanks to Kevin for the link.]

Roland Kelts, author of Japanamerica, has thoughts on manga as a feminist issue, in comparing the number of “strong female characters” in anime and manga with real life gender roles:

Indeed, a foreign fan of manga and anime might be forgiven for assuming that Japan, creative nerve center for the artwork itself, is a global leader in gender equity.

Yet just last month, The New York Times ran a damning indictment of Japan’s actual treatment of women in the workplace, noting that in 2005, women held a mere 10.1 percent of all management jobs in Japanese companies and government. (The U.S. figure is 42.5 percent.) In the United Nations index of gender empowerment, a survey of 75 countries, Japan ranks 42nd, far below Asian neighbors such as Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines. The article predicts dire consequences for a nation with an anemic birthrate and looming labor shortages.

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ICv2 wraps up the first month of NARUTO’s assault on the graphic novel sales charts:

On the eve of the release of the second three-pronged barrage of Naruto volumes it appears that the first wave of Naruto titles has fared well during its first four weeks in the market. Naruto Vols. 16, 17, and 18 have remained in the top three spots on the BookScan list of graphic novel sold in bookstores for all four weeks that they have been in full release. Though it is difficult to compare sales totals exactly it appears that Volume 18 in the series has sold almost exactly the number of copies that Volume 15 (which was released by itself in July), while Volumes 16 and 17 have sold approximately 84% and 88% of Volume 15’s total respectively. Viz Media’s plan to release 12 volumes of Naruto in four months is calculated to synch the Naruto manga in the U.S. with releases in Japan (see “Naruto Goes Nuclear”).

More in link.

Anime News Networkreports that manga/anime sensation DEATH NOTE, will begin airing on Adult Swim beginning at midnight October 20th. The tale of a teen who fights evil with a death-dealing notebook has already been a worldwide hit in manga, anime, live action and novelized form.

[Via Blog@]

PR:

The New York Anime Festival (NYAF) is anticipating a significant launch when it opens its doors to the public on December 7th, 2007. While show officials acknowledge that it is still too early to accurately estimate the number of people who will attend, the early enthusiasm and anticipation for a New York City based anime event is, according to John McGeary, the Con Manager, “Both significant, and very real!” He notes: “We have been getting some great feedback about NYAF and we’re excited about our show. One of the key things we want to do is expand beyond anime specifically to embrace many aspects of Japanese culture. This will make our show unique and it will certainly make it popular to a broad community. The audience for anime and manga is already huge. By featuring many different elements of Japanese culture while still focusing on anime and capitalizing on the enormity of our New York City fan base, I’m feeling optimistic that we’ll have a very busy and stimulating event.”

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Mark Evanier on WHAT IF JOE MANEELY HAD LIVED. Maneely was Stan Lee’s favorite artist and might have had a interesting influence on the early years of Marvel had he not been killed in a freak subway accident:

First off, if Maneely had lived, Atlas/Marvel would have been a very different company. Actually, between him and Kirby and Ditko (Stan’s other favorite artist), there would have been little room for anyone else to draw for the firm. It’s apparently true that rising sales on Kirby-drawn comics — the ones Steven mentions but especially the western, Rawhide Kid — encouraged Goodman to keep publishing comics at a time when he was considering the abandonment of that marketplace. As I wrote in a recent Jack Kirby Collector, “Would it [Rawhide Kid] have gained readers if Stan had put Maneely on the book? Who knows? Sometimes, it’s not a matter of having a good artist but of having the right good artist and the right chemistry.”

§ Nadia Oxford at Mania.Com wonders if Manga Burnout is waiting in the wings

Will manga ever fall away from mainstream American culture? Elder members of the human race are fond of rattling off every fad that’s come and gone throughout their lives; hula hoops, Slinkies, Cabbage Patch dolls. It’s tempting to heap the likes of Pokemon on that pile, but can manga and anime be similarly filed away as faded memories?

Thankfully, her answer is “No.”

§ Jason Rodriguez begins video podcasting about POSTCARDS.

§ ACLU comics.