Tag Archives: vertical inc.

Today’s New Digital Releases Features Over 80 New C0mics from DC, Yen Press, VIZ Media, Kodansha, and more!

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Batman #108

Today is one of two new comic book days and comiXology has you digital comic needs covered. Check out the individual releases below by the publisher or get shopping now!

Abrams Comicarts

Behemoth

comiXology Submit

DC Comics

Fantagraphics

Harlequin

HarperCollins

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Kodansha

Marvel

Scholastic Graphix

Seven Seas

Vertical

VIZ Media

Yen Press

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Kodansha Comics, Vertical Comics, and Vertical, Inc. Announce New Upcoming Titles

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Kodansha Comics

Kodansha Comics, Vertical Comics, and Vertical, Inc., three leading imprints for Japanese novels and comics in translation, have announced their upcoming slate of new titles today, running the gamut from new manga series to re-releases of classics.

Vertical Comics announced the highly anticipated manga adaptation of NISIOISIN’s blockbuster Bakemonogatari series by acclaimed creator Oh! Great (Air Gear). The series will begin October 2019. Another major announcement was a new novel by the acclaimedMonogatari franchise creator, Hanging High School, the third book in the Zaregoto series, in September. Fans have clamored for the next episode in the series since the release of the second book in 2018, preceded by the hit first volume in 2017. During the announcement, Vertical revealed new cover art by VOFAN, the star illustrator of the Monogatari Series, for Makoto Shinkai‘s Voices of a Distant Star (novel), to release in July, and for VOFAN’s own full-color artbook previously only published in Taiwan, Colorful Dreams, to release in October. Vertical also added Seraph of the End: Guren Ichinose Resurrection at Nineteen, the prequel novels of the hit manga series for their light novel lineup in December 2019. 

The publishers unveiled three new highly anticipated box sets. The Monogatari series will see a “Season 2” box set later this year from Vertical, Inc. To coincide with the work’s 25thanniversary, Kodansha Comics will re-release CLAMP’s Magic Knight Rayearth in two beautiful three-volume hardcover box sets. The first is due Fall 2019, and on top of the three volumes of manga, each will include one full-color art book of rare pieces by the creators and an additional bonus item to be revealed.

Also coming to the box set format is the bestselling fantasy epic Fairy Tail, which will see its first 11-volume box set released this fall, with two per year to follow. Kodansha also announced Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest, the sequel to Fairy Tail, which this summer will continue the adventures of Natsu, Lucy, Erza, and the entire magical guild, with layouts and story by creator Hiro Mashima.

In another addition to a beloved Kodansha Comics series, Cells at Work! CODE BLACK will be released this summer. Where the original series followed a Red Blood Cell and a White Blood Cell through a (relatively) healthy body, this spinoff is set in one that’s falling apart, with smoking, drinking, fatty liver, gout, and more intimate ailments to deal with. The book will carry a “surgeon-general’s warning” that it’s only for ages 18 and up!

Joining Yuri Is My Job!, Kodansha’s premier yuri (girl-girl romance) manga title that debuted this January, Kodansha will publish If I Could Reach You, a serious yuri title about a teenage girl coming to terms with her own sexuality through her crush on her brother’s wife. Vol. 1 is coming this fall.

Kodansha will publish the manga adaptation of the online game Granblue Fantasy, which featured design work and music by key creative figures from the Final Fantasy series and has proven a global hit. The manga, by cocho and Makoto Fuugetsu, will begin this fall. Finally, Kodansha will bring to print the digital-first title Drifting Dragons, about a “whaling ship” that floats through the air and hunts dragons! Vol. 1 is coming this holiday season. 

Multi-National Manga Anti-Piracy Coalition Formed

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Official Press Release

Media Release — Today a coalition of Japanese and U.S. publishers announced a coordinated effort to combat a rampant and growing problem of internet piracy plaguing the manga industry. “Scanlation,” as this form of piracy has come to be known, refers to the unauthorized digital scanning and translation of manga material that is subsequently posted to the internet without the consent of copyright holders or their licensees. According to the coalition, the problem has reached a point where “scanlation aggregator” sites now host thousands of pirated titles, earning ad revenue and/or membership dues at creators’ expense while simultaneously undermining foreign licensing opportunities and unlawfully cannibalizing legitimate sales. Worse still, this pirated material is already making its way to smartphones and other wireless devices, like the iPhone and iPad, through apps that exist solely to link to and republish the content of scanlation sites.

Participants in the coalition include the 36 members of Japan’s Digital Comic Association, Square Enix, VIZ Media, TOKYOPOP, Vertical, Inc., the Tuttle-Mori Agency and Yen Press. Working together, the membership of the coalition will actively seek legal remedies to this intellectual property theft against those sites that fail to voluntarily cease their illegal appropriation of this material.

“It is unfortunate that this action has become necessary,” said a spokesperson for the group. “However, to protect the intellectual property rights of our creators and the overall health of our industry, we are left with no other alternative but to take aggressive action. It is our sincere hope that offending sites will take it upon themselves to immediately cease their activities. Where this is not the case, however, we will seek injunctive relief and statutory damages. We will also report offending sites to federal authorities, including the anti-piracy units of the Justice Department, local law enforcement agencies and FBI.”

The coalition stated that it has currently identified thirty sites targeted for action.

Participant members of the Digital Comic Association include: Akane Shinsha, Akita Shoten, ASCII Media Works, East Press, Ichijinsha, Enterbrain, Okura Shuppan, Ohzora Shuppan, Gakken, Kadokawa Shoten, Gentosha Comics, Kodansha, Jitsugyo No Nihonsha, Shueisha, Junet, Shogakukan, Shogakukan Shueisha Production, Shodensha, Shonen Gahosha, Shinshokan, Shinchosa, Take Shobo, Tatsumi Shuppan, Tokuma Shoten, Nihon Bungeisha, Hakusensha, Fujimi Shobo, Fusosha, Futabasha, France Shoin, Bunkasha, Houbunsha, Magazine House, Media Factory, Leed sha, Libre Shuppan.