Thoughts (vicariously) from NYCC

I may have been in NYC, but was regrettably unable to haul myself down to the Javits in time to feverishly liveblog every industry panel and/or hover around the Vertical booth to wax poetic about Black Jack to Steve Vrattos. Then again, who needs this so called “attending” or “physically going places” thing when there are plenty of eloquent folks on the internet to recap what they did? If you haven’t already, head on over to PopCultureShock for a nice writeup of days one, two and presumably three by PCS captain Kate Dacey, whose succinct wrap ups offer a nice overview of the day's action. (And yes, I would still think PCS is the go-to place for good coverage even if I didn't..you know..write..there..) For blow-by-blow panel coverage, cruise on over to Gia's blog, or if you want the official press releases, Brigid Alverson is throwing them online along with some eloquent con coverage at MangaBlog. There’s plenty of the usual who-got-what licensing news, but a few themes stand out this year:

-The Global Move
Seems east-west fusions are hotter than ever, and the OEL and non-Japan comic market is picking up a bit of steam. It was hard to miss Viz’s hot ticket announcement of a deal between Stan Lee and Hiroyuki Takei, and although the preliminary art and plot seems a little dubious, I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt before condemning it terribly in some D review several months from now.* Additionally, seems like Viz is looking to pick up a few OEL creators of its own, hopping on board the TP homegrown title business plan. (Although I’ve been hearing trickledown tales of stormy relationships between some of TP’s creators and the company in question….remains to be seen how Viz will handle their respective talent.) Speaking of Tokyopop, the “youth culture brand” behemoth now comes packing full color, full size graphic novels from a bevy of non-US countries. It’s definitely an interesting move on their part: on the one hand, I’m inclined to applaud them for bringing what sounds like pretty good foreign fare into their catalogue, and for pioneering an idea that doesn’t make me cringe slightly. (Re: DJ Milky poetry books, Lament of the Lamb movies…) Seems like the HarperCollins co publishing deal is proving a fruitful environment for the OEL scene. On the other hand, I worry about how they’re going to approach these new acquisitions in terms of marketing: are they looking to siphon off readers from their manga line? To snap up new readers from the indie graphic novel demographics? To cross pollinate between the two? Remains to be seen. Del Rey, meanwhile, is looking to do some Viz-esque comic cribbing by plugging Marvel into a few OEL manga series, as announced earlier this year. I’m not sure how I feel about X-men shojo, but it certainly sounds much better (initially) than that Avril Lavigne OEL did.

*Tokyopop, my doubt wears thin in your department. That global graphic novel line better be the most impressive thing Stu Levy ever clapped eyes on…

Companies Getting Things I Wouldn’t Expect
First up in the “whoa, Tezuka!” department is a license not from Vertical, but from DMP, for a lesser known Tezuka work titled “Swallowing the Earth.” Somewhat unusual, considering Tezuka licenses are usually a Vertical department, but hey, Viz got “Phoenix,” so it’s not an entirely Vertical-centric license market. (Although I’d love to know if Vertical was ever actually interested in the property.) The biggest conundrum seems to come from Dark Horse, who appear to be publishing a Clamp “Clover” omnibus- and I was distinctly under the impression that TP held that license… (read: they published all four books initially, although they’re now out of print.) It’s clear DH has been engaged with Clamp, as they’re publishing those dual-country mangettes by them in the near future, but I was unaware they were snapping up expired [?] licenses for Clamp properties already extant in English. Don’t get me wrong, the omnibus sounds like a brilliant idea for Clover, but what’s next? “Wish” or “Tokyo Babylon” omnibi from Dark Horse? And what happened to that Clover license anyway?

Light Novels: On shaky legs, but here to stay
Despite the murky status of many of TP’s light novels (goodbye Kino’s Journey), apparently the market still has enough carrying capacity for a few more light novels. First is Yen’s announcement of the eight volume “Haruhi Suzumiya” series (I imagine there was a scrabble for those rights) followed by Del Rey’s “The Case of the Dragon Slayer” and TP’s Bizhengast and Princess Ai novels. Not to judge, but, historically, some of TP’s OEL titles and light novels have been historic lows for the company. Putting the two together…well, maybe it’ll work out like negative numbers. Multiply two of ‘em together and they become a positive? I am inclined to wonder how the light novel market is doing (is there a market?) since TP has frozen two and canceled one already, presumably due to sluggish sales. Maybe it’s slow to catch on- or maybe it’s simply not as viable as previously thought. Either way, we’ll be seeing more in the future, albeit possibly in discount bins…