Manga at Comic-Con 2009: Friday to Sunday

SDCC runs July 23rd through 26th this year.

As San Diego Comic-Con International continued this weekend, the latest news regarding newly acquired manga licenses and releases has surfaced. At the close of the convention today, so far we have news from CMX Manga, Dark Horse, Viz Media, Del Ray, and Yen Press.

CMX Manga
Opening the day for Sunday’s programming, CMX Manga announced that the creator of their highly anticipated manga adaptation of Batman, Yoshiro Natsume, would be signing copies at the DC Comics booth. The rest of the panel proceeded to announce all their new titles including The Battle of Genryu: Origin, Deka Kyoshi by Tamio Baba, Rampage, and Shisso Holiday. The list does not stop there; for their shojo titles they announced A Tale of an Unknown Country by Natsuna Kawase, Oh! My Brother by Ken Saito, The Lizard Prince by Asuka Izumi, The World I Create, Stolen Hearts, My Darling! Miss Bancho by Mayu Fujikata, and Diamond Girl. In addition to all of these, CMX also announced titles that should be released sometime in 2010, including Polyphonica: Cardinal Crimson, Nadeshiko Club, Nyankoi!, The Phantom Guesthouse, Tableau Gate, and 51 Ways to Save Her.

The Japanese cover for Kobato by CLAMP.

Yen Press
A lot of exciting new licenses were announced by Yen Press. They include titles that were adapted from animes, including Darker Than Black and Romeo X Juliet. Also included were Black Butler (Kuroshitsuji), Bunny Drop, Sasameke by Ryuji Gotsubo, Omamori Himari by Milan Matra, and My Girlfriend's a Geek. Not to be left out would be Otome by Yuuki Fujinari, Dragon Girl by Toru Fujieda, and Natsukashi Machi no Rozione by Sumomo Yumeka. The most exciting license, however, was CLAMP’s Kobato, which is about a magical girl who has the power to heal others.

Dark Horse
The Saturday panel for Dark Horse began with news on their new “Western comic” releases. It includes a variety of projects featuring some big names in literature, music, and film like Janet Evanovich and Joss Whedon. Then, in continuing with their recognition of CLAMP’s 20th anniversary, the latest classic series to receive omnibus editions include Card Captor Sakura, Magic Knight Rayearth, and Chobits. These massive editions are planned to include 800 pages of content covering three to four volumes each.

Studio Ghibli's Ponyo will be adapted into a manga.

Viz Media
In an extensive panel covering many of their current properties, Viz Media began with details about their new logo, Shonen Sunday, modeled after the extremely popular Japanese edition. To be released simultaneously is the magazine’s website, shonensunday.com, which will release chapters online prior to being printed. The titles aimed to be included are Rumiko Takahashi's RIN-NE, Kekkaishi, Yuu Watase's shonen project Arata: The Legend, Maoh: Juvenile Remix, and Hyde and Closer. Some exciting titles from Studio Ghibli were announced, covering comic versions of Ponyo and Hayao Miyazaki's book Starting Point, covering his work from 1979 until 1996. You can expect to find that on shelves August 4th. Viz’s other properties like “Vizkids” and Shojo Beat line of titles received new series as well. Last to be announced were new titles like What a wonderful world! for their Signature line.

Del Ray
This panel covered the company’s manga and comic divisions. A lot of the new titles announced are not scheduled for release until next year. The X-Men franchise will be seeing a shojo-inspired manga called X-Men Misfits. Other shows will be seeing manga adaptations like Ben 10: Alien Force, The Secret Saturdays, and Bakugan. M. Night Shyamalan's The Last Airbender, the film based on the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender, will also be translated into manga form. Existing titles to be released include Ninja Girls by Hosana Tanaka, Moyashimon by Masayuki Ishikawa, and Four-Eyed Prince by Wataru Mizukami. Several other projects were announced like a historical prospective of CLAMP and a manga adaptation of the hit book Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.