Hey everyone! Let’s all head over to GoManga.com! I hear they’ve got a Boogiepop Dual preview up!
This is a little old, but I just found it: A blogger at Tokyopop gives a primer on all the manga publishers.
Over on Guns, Guys, and Yaoi, Tina chats with ceena from Hatena about western manga in Japan. Ceena explains:
We Japanese consume fish a lot. And Japan is an island surrounded by seas in which we can fish. Still, we import a vast amount of fish from all over the world, because we love fish and enjoy the differences of tastes.
Good analogy.
Yotsuba&! fans, better get in line, if there’s anything to this post at Ikimashou,
According to my contact at Borders, the chain has over 50,000 people on a notify list for the fourth volume.
Maybe they should make it an online exclusive.
LOL!!! Hah. I wondered when this would become an issue.
The dreaded moment all manga fans hate because most don’t understand it… the all caught up wait. Well as more titles are picked up early in their runs this is going to be an issue its good in one way because it helps with shelf space issues. Bad in others because like Del Rey found out the mangaka could completely change the content on you (GatchaGatcha) or the mangaka could even go on a break (ADV’s Gunslinger Girl had sporatic chapters for a year before the mangaka started cranking them out again and ADV has had trouble releasing these also).
Now if ADV could only release manga that are not waiting for new volumes.
From Manganews: • Boogiepop DUEL preview from Gomanga [ Click Here ][ Source:Manga Blog ]
Broccoli Books: “Cons: One of the reasons for the book slips might have been the quality of the binding. Poor binding materials means that broccoli books can easily fall apart. Their small size in comparison to other manga’s also leads to more eye strain.”
This is the first time I’ve heard either of these issues, and I’ve never heard of the first point. If anything, the main complaint we get is that our binding is too stiff, not that it falls apart. The stiffness is mainly due to the direction of the paper grain. The reason why we offer dust jackets is that they’re a nice bonus for fans. It has nothing to do with the quality of our books.
Also, our books may be 5/8″ shorter than Viz or Tokyopop’s books, but they’re much closer to the original Japanese sizes, so there isn’t any need for strange cropping. I’m guessing that because of the height difference those taller books will chop more off at the sides.
I believe our books to be some of the best printed in the business (even better than Del Rey, who gets credited as having “excellent” print quality). They’ll easily out last all of the newsprint printed books out there (a large majority of manga printed).
Chris McDougall
Broccoli International USA
Just to make my comment a little clearer, I was responding to the Tokyopop primer. I never even heard about it either until I read about it here since I hardly ever go to the TP website. I realize now that it seemed I was responding directly to Brigid’s post, so my comment looked kind of awkward. I hardly ever make comments (I’m just the graphics guy and not a PR rep, afterall), but I felt that some things needed to be cleared up. I’d just rather comment it on a blog that encourages intelligent discussion like this one, Love Manga, Mangacast, etc. Keep up the good work, Brigid.
Thanks, Chris. I have to confess it took me a minute to remember where I had seen that comment. For the record, I agree that Broccoli books are better produced than most. The bindings are a bit stiff, but the paper quality is exceptional. And I think it’s brilliant to offer dust jackets by mail—it’s the perfect solution to the Air Gear problem.
Chris, I actually am of the same mind when it comes to preserving the original Japanese dimensions or keeping it comparable. The 5″ x 7.5″ size might be the standard that TP and others use, but most Japanese manga just aren’t meant to be that size!
I’d rather have the book be the same width and a little shorter, but not have to crop any of the art needlessly. You also end up blowing up the art and causing other art problems in the process. Kind of sad. I wonder why people don’t talk about that problem more.