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.


(more…)

direct student decisions bankruptcy loans court

[citation needed] However, in loan auto connecticut commercial airlines have prevented the use of cell phones and laptops, due to the fact that the frequencies emitted from these devices may disturb the radio waves contact of the airplane.

A couple of notes on downloadable content. ICv2 had an interesting chat with Viz’s Senior Vice President of Strategy and Business Development, Dan Marks, who talks about Viz present and possible future forays into downloading manga and anime. Part 1
Part 2
Marks points out the big differences between Japan and the US, in large part a technological one since they are years ahead of us on the whole cel phone thing:

One, it’s a mature market. On the magazine side manga sales have been decreasing for probably eight to 10 years. The way the cell phone is used in Japan would boggle the mind of most Americans. That has cut into manga sales for years. I don’t know if it’s illegal downloads and the availability of the content digitally, actually that may help in the long run. In the United States, manga sales have been growing for the past years and are projected to continue to grow because it’s not a mature market — we’ve barely broken into the market. As far as the effect of downloads in Japan, yeah, it may have hurt, but the market had already hits its peak. In the U.S. there’s so much room to grow, hopefully it doesn’t affect the U.S. market that much.

§ Although it has nothing to do with comics, we found this link (sent by Abel Padilla) interesting as well: It seems romance titan Harlequin is making all of its books downloadable — a fairly groundbreaking move for a traditional publisher. Although it’s not comics, Harlequin’s serial genre novels are consumed (albeit by a different audience) in ways very similar to superhero and manga fans.

“It’s every single line, every single title, so it’s over 120 titles a month,” Malle Vallik, Harlequin’s director of digital content, told Quill & Quire magazine, an industry publication. Harlequin will become the first Canadian publisher to do such a thing, Vallik said. The company thought the move was necessary to be relevant to younger readers who can download to laptops or cellphones, she added.

Vallik also feels that the digital format will allow some confidentiality — gone will be tell-tale piles of romance novels on bedside tables.

Harlequin sold more than 130 million books in 2006.

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).

(more…)

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.

PR:

VIZ Media, one of the entertainment industry’s most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, has licensed the Shonen Jump DEATH NOTE anime series to Adult Swim for domestic broadcast beginning Saturday, October 20 at midnight (EST) on the network’s popular Adult Swim block of programming. New episodes will follow each week thereafter.

Shonen Jump DEATH NOTE is a suspenseful mystery, inspired by a 12-volume manga counterpart (published in North America by VIZ Media), and follows the adventures of Light Yagami, an ace student with great prospects but who is bored out of his mind. All of that changes when he finds the Death Note, a strange notebook dropped by a rogue Shinigami death god named Ryuk. Any human whose name is written in the notebook dies, and now Light has vowed to use the power of the Death Note to rid the world of evil. But when criminals mysteriously begin dropping dead, the authorities send the legendary detective L to track down the killer. With L hot on his heels, will Light lose sight of his noble goal - or his life?

The unique storyline and complex characters, combined with visually stunning animation by Madhouse, made Shonen Jump DEATH NOTE one of the most popular anime series in Japan and anticipation for the North American release has built steadily since VIZ Media first began publishing the manga series. Shonen Jump DEATH NOTE also spawned two successful live-action films, set for domestic distribution this year by VIZ Pictures, and a plethora of related posters, toys and action figures. VIZ Media will further release Volume 1 of DEATH NOTE, containing 4-episodes, on DVD on November 20.

“The domestic broadcast debut of DEATH NOTE has been patiently awaited by fans across the country and we are pleased to team with Adult Swim to facilitate it,” states William Germain, Director, Animation Production, VIZ Media., “The mix of drama, mystery and action has already made the Shonen Jump DEATH NOTE manga a hit and the anime series takes the characters and plot to the next level with a captivating visual style. We look forward to fans tuning in each week for the latest adventures of L and Light as they struggle to outwit each other and demonstrate conflicting ideas about right and wrong.”

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:

VIZ Pictures, an affiliate of VIZ Media LLC that focuses on Japanese live-action film distribution, has announced that it has licensed from Nippon Television (NTV) the North American theatrical and DVD distribution rights to the live-action feature film DEATH NOTE and its sequel, DEATH NOTE: THE LAST NAME, based on the DEATH NOTE anime and manga series which have gained massive followings in Japan and North America. VIZ Media is the exclusive North American publisher and distributor of the DEATH NOTE anime and manga series.

VIZ Pictures will open DEATH NOTE and DEATH NOTE: THE LAST NAME in a series of special screenings at Austin’s Fantastic Fest 2007, September 20-27, and at the 2007 Vancouver Asian Film Festival, November 1-4. Theater information follows at the end of this release and future screenings will continue throughout 2008. VIZ Pictures also plans to release DEATH NOTE and DEATH NOTE: THE LAST NAME on DVD in the summer of 2008.

(more…)

ICv2 continues it’s series of interviews with newsmakers with Viz Sr. VP Liza Coppola:

What are you looking at for 2008 in terms of your manga output versus 07?

For 2008, we’re looking at the same number of titles. What we’re looking at doing is really honing down the titles, and it’s not going to be a sampling of every single category. We’re probably going to concentrate on a few different segments of the market.

We’re really looking into what exactly are Shonen Jump titles, what exactly are Shojo Beat titles, and just really trying to define what that strategy would be to appeal to that market. I think a lot of the problems that publishers have is they do the whole “slash” thing (it’s a romance/horror/science fiction/fantasy), so we need to learn how to segment down a little better. At Viz, something we’re looking at for 2008 is building a much more overall rounded program. It’s not just dropping a title out there in publishing and finding that audience, but it may be finding a different distribution channel for the anime, it may be that the manga comes to you in a completely different format. I think for 2008, we’re taking a really good look at our properties and really building them more as brands versus one-off properties.

More:
Part 2
Part 3

Brace for a Naruto invasion, as Blog@Newsarama reports

Viz Media unleashed “Naruto Nation” last week, releasing three volumes of Masashi Kishimoto’s international phenomenon into the book market. So, it should surprise absolutely no one that all three cracked USA Today’s Top 150 Books list: Vol. 18 at No. 116, Vol. 17 at No. 123, and Vol. 16 at 131. Meanwhile, the 17th volume of Natsuki Takaya’s Fruits Basket fell 42 spots at No. 76.

Meanwhile the official pr gives more info:

The accelerated publishing begins next week with NARUTO manga vol. 16, 17 and 18 ALL releasing on Sept 4th ($7.95 each) AND - every third vol of each month will get a sheet of 4 NARUTO stickers (while supplies last) (i.e. in Vol 18, 21, 24 and 27)

NARUTO Anime Profiles (episodes 38-80) releases on Sept 20th ($17.99) AND The long awaited release of …. NARUTO THE MOVIE: NINJA CLASH IN THE LAND OF SNOW - releases on September 4th ($24.98)

AND here’s all the Exclusive offers: for NARUTO THE MOVIE: NINJA CLASH IN THE LAND OF SNOW BEST BUY - comes with a mouse pad ($24.98) BGI (Borders and Waldenbooks) - Lenticular cover ($24.98) TransWorld (FYE and Suncoast) - exclusive NARUTO lunch Box ($29.98)

(more…)

Demos of Latest Anime Action Video Games in Booth 4113, Screening of NARUTO™ the Movie, and Two Eisner Award Nominations for NAOKI URASAWA’S MONSTER Highlight This Year’s Show

VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry’s most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, has announced a bevy of special events, interactive games, artist appearances, a special theatrical screening, and speaker panels for the 2007 Comic-Con International. Comic-Con is renowned as the nation’s largest comic book and science fiction event and takes place July 26-29 at the Convention Center in San Diego, CA. VIZ Media will be located in Booth 4113.

(more…)

Manga superstar Arina Tanemura (FULL MOON, KAMIKAZE KAITO JEANNE, and the recent GENTLEMAN’S ALLIANCE) will be making an appearance at the Vix booth.

VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry’s most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, will celebrate the work of famed manga artist Arina Tanemura throughout the month of July with a rare personal appearance at the 2007 Comic-Con International, plus a bonus short story and special cover (both by Tanemura) for the August issue of SHOJO BEAT magazine, which goes on sale nationwide on July 17. Tanemura is the creator of the mega-hit shojo series FULL MOON and the recently debuted THE GENTLEMEN’S ALLIANCE †.

Tanemura will make a personal appearance during the 2007 Comic-Con International in San Diego, CA to meet fans in VIZ Media’s Booth #4113 on Saturday, July 28. She will further discuss her work and experiences as a manga artist during the SHOJO BEAT magazine panel discussion set for Saturday, July 28 at 1:30pm. To further honor her visit at Comic-Con, VIZ Media will give an exclusive shikishi (four-color hard poster) of THE GENTLEMEN’S ALLIANCE † as a bonus to fans who purchase one of the following products at VIZ Media booth: 1) Any Tanemura manga volume, or FULL MOON DVD; 2) SHOJO BEAT’s August Issue; or 3) an annual subscription of SHOJO BEAT.

(more…)

A common topic amongst comics pundits is how Marvel and DC flood racks with tie-ins and sequels and prequels and so on. Well, it seems Viz is taking a page from that playbook, but this time with the #1 comic around the world, the mighty, unstoppable Naruto. Viz will be releasing THREE new Naruto books a month from September to December. The move allows the American releases to catch up to the Japanese schedule. The move will be accompanied by a significant marketing campaign.

More from the PR:

The new publishing schedule will carry the series up to Volume 27, after which there is a significant break in the story arc: Two and a half years pass, and we find Naruto taller, older, and wiser. To support NARUTO NATION, VIZ Media’s SHONEN JUMP magazine will continue to serialize the NARUTO series, will provide in-depth background information for fans about the developments in the accelerated manga, and will begin to feature the new adventures of the older Naruto beginning in the January 2008 issue (estimated in stores December 4, 2007).

The specific manga release schedule is as follows:

September 2007: NARUTO Vols. 16-18
October 2007: NARUTO Vols. 19-21
November 2007: NARUTO Vols. 22-24
December 2007: NARUTO Vols. 25-27

Complementing the increased manga momentum, VIZ Media will expand the catalog of other related NARUTO offerings with a variety of releases this fall and winter. September will see the release of the NARUTO ANIME PROFILES: Hiden Shippu Emaki, and the launch of the full-color Ani-Manga series that will depict the storyline of NARUTO THE MOVIE: NINJA CLASH IN THE LAND OF SNOW, which is also set for a special theatrical engagement this summer. In October VIZ Media will publish a gorgeous UZUMAKI: ART OF NARUTO edition that will be a must-have for any collector and also NARUTO MISSION: PROTECT THE WATERFALL VILLAGE!, the latest addition to the collection of NARUTO novels under the VIZ Fiction imprint. A fourth edition of the NARUTO COLLECTOR magazine will be released this fall, focusing on the manga and on the release of the first NARUTO game for the Xbox 360.

(more…)

Via press release:

TOMY Corporation and D3Publisher of America, Inc. (D3PA) today announced that NARUTO™: Clash of Ninja 2 for Nintendo GameCube™ has qualified as a Player’s Choice title, which is reserved for the best-selling games available for the Nintendo GameCube. Based on VIZ Media’s hit anime series SHONEN JUMP™ NARUTO and first released in September 2006, NARUTO: Clash of Ninja 2 is now available at a new low price of $19.95 MSRP. According to the NPD Group, NARUTO: Clash of Ninja 2 has been in the top 5 best-selling Nintendo GameCube games by month five out of six months since its release.

“The NARUTO brand has been a hit in North America since the TV series first debuted in September of 2005 and with the momentum increasing, our expectation is that 2007 will be a banner year for NARUTO on Nintendo platforms,” said Laura Yoshioka, senior marketing manager, TOMY Corporation. “Not only will NARUTO: Ninja Council 3 be the first NARUTO game for the Nintendo DS™, but in the fall of 2007 TOMY and D3PA will be releasing the first ever NARUTO game for Nintendo’s Wii video game system – NARUTO: Clash of Ninja MVZ.”

“We have been very pleased with the continued success of NARUTO on the Nintendo GameCube,” said Kim Motika, vice president of worldwide sales and operations, D3PA. “With the new pricing at $19.95, NARUTO: Clash of Ninja 2 for Nintendo GameCube™ will find an even larger audience.”

Where will you find Naruto, the nation’s #1 comic, at NYCC? Why at Viz!

VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry’s most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, announced a bevy of activities, events and new anime and manga offerings for all the hot properties fans are excited about at the 2007 New York Comic-Con show.

(more…)

Gonzalo Ferreyra upped to VP Sales, Publishing & Home Video. He replaces Dudley Jahnke, who left last month. Moneka Hewlett is also now Director of Sales, Publishing, Sales, and Brian Ige
has been promoted to Director Of Sales, Home Video

Ferreyra assumes his new position immediately and will oversee all VIZ Media’s book publishing and home video sales efforts in North America and Canada. He will continue to report directly to VIZ Media’s President and CEO, Hidemi Fukuhara. In addition to Ferreyra’s promotion, Brian Ige, formerly Sales Manager, has been named Director of Sales, Home Video, and Moneka Hewlett has joined the publishing division as Director of Sales. Previously Hewlett held the Director of Consumer Marketing position for VIZ Media’s Magazines Division. Both Ige and Hewlett will report to Ferreyra.

Ferreyra brings to VIZ Media over 16 years of experience in the book publishing industry, and was previously Director of Sales for Home Video with VIZ Media. Prior to joining VIZ Media, he served as Director of Sales and Marketing for Ten Speed Press. His background includes working at Borders Group, Inc. in various capacities including Buyer and Associate Director of Bargain and Custom Publishing.

“We are pleased and excited to have Gonzalo Ferreyra take on this new critical role at VIZ Media,” states Hidemi Fukuhara, CEO of VIZ Media. “He has demonstrated and proven his expertise in handling the sales arena, and he will no doubt be as much of an asset on the publishing side as he was on home video. We are confident that these changes in the Sales department will continue to strengthen our partnerships with retailers and our distributor, Simon & Schuster, as we continue to build the future of Japanese manga throughout the world.”

“I am very excited to take on this new responsibility given my background in publishing sales,” adds Ferreyra. “Manga is the fastest growing arena in the publishing industry, and it’s great to be part of the continued growth of such best-selling titles as NARUTO, BLEACH and DEATH NOTE. The changes in the sales department, with Brian Ige and Moneka Hewlett moving into their new roles, will allow us to focus more clearly on the two product categories and better serve our retail partners. The wealth and diversity of all our titles allows us to grow and develop manga as a category and to continue to develop new readers for our shojo titles and key imprints. I look forward to making a substantial contribution to VIZ Media’s success on the publishing side while continuing to grow our home video business.”

Publishers Weekly has word of a personnel shift at VIZ:

Dudley Jahnke has left Viz Media and Viz CEO Hidemi Fukuhara has taken over his duties overseeing sales and marketing at the manga publishing house. Gonzalo Ferreyra will take over direct responsibility for book and DVD sales and will report to Fukuhara.

After a long search, DC has hired a VP for trade sales, Publishers Weekly reports. Sue Pohja, former v-p of trade sales for Langenscheidt Publishers, Inc. takes the post vacated by Rich Johnson, who left in June.

Pohja will also work with DC Direct, DC’s merchandising unit, to oversee sales and marketing of toys and collectibles to book and mass market retailers.

V-p of sales, Bob Wayne, who Pohja will be reporting to, told PW she was hired for her background in “fast-growing product categories,” and her ability to “provide suggestions to buyers on how to market, merchandise and promote in new, break-out ways.”

While Pohja has been responsible for sales and marketing for such Langenscheidt lines as Berlitz Travel and Reference and Insight Travel Guides, she also has book retailing experience. Prior to joining Langenscheidt, she was a buyer and store manager at Barnes and Noble.

Marc Weidenbaum, an early comics mole over at Tower Pulse! where he edited the back page comic strips, has been named Vice President Magazines and Editor-in-Chief of SHONEN JUMP Magazine and SHOJO BEAT Magazine, according to a press release at Active Anime.

Marc Weidenbaum started at VIZ Media as the Managing Editor of SHONEN JUMP and was promoted to Editorial Director, when he helped launch the successful NARUTO Collector series of magazines. Previous to joining VIZ Media he was an Editorial Director at Citysearch.com and editor at Pulse!, the magazine published by Tower Records, where among other things he edited the comics pages for a decade and founded Tower’s first online publication. He has edited comics that have appeared in such books as Adrian Tomine’s Scrapbook (Drawn & Quarterly) and Justin Green’s Musical Legends (Last Gasp). He also wrote the afterword for VIZ Media’s award-winning manga SEXY VOICE AND ROBO.

The Honolulu Star Bulletin look at Akira Toriyama’s DR. SLUMP. Toriyama is best known for creating the international blockbuster DARGON BALL Z, but his earlier creation, DR. SLUMP, is intelligible to even the more casual reader, a sometimes vulgar and yet warm comedy about a wacky doctor who creates a little girl robot — hijinks ensue, but because they live in a town populated by an amazing assortment of oddballs, the invention never flags.

[E]ven if Toriyama had never created “Dragon Ball,” his career still probably would have been deemed a success in the eyes of his Japanese audience. The reason: a pair of characters named after Japanese rice crackers, Dr. Senbei Norimaki and his robot girl, Arale Norimaki. (Yes, the name technically should be “AraRE,” but Toriyama’s drawings of her show her name written on her cap and bag in English with an “L” instead of the second “R.”)

“Dr. Slump,” which ran in Weekly Shonen Jump in Japan from 1980 to 1984 and now is being translated and released in America by Viz, was Toriyama’s breakout hit. Unlike the harder-edged action/sci-fi tone that much of the “Dragon Ball” series takes, “Dr. Slump” has a much more lighthearted feel to it. When the first page shows Arale’s head yawning while on the assembly table and saying “Bo-ring” as Senbei works on her, you know you’re in for quite a ride.