TOKYOPOP TO PUBLISH DIGIMON MANGA

[MattBrady]

<a href="http://classic.newsarama.com/Other_Publishers/DIGIMONCOVER1.jpg" target="_blank"><img width="175" height="273" alt="DIGIMON artwork courtesy of TOKYOPOP." hspace="2" border="0" src="http://classic.newsarama.com/Other_Publishers/DIGIMONCOVER1_t.jpg" align="right"></a>Press Release

<blockquote>Leading U.S. manga publisher TOKYOPOP® will bring one of TV’s hottest animated series to the printed world of graphic novels. The company will publish and distribute DIGIMON in 100% Authentic Manga (right-to-left) form. The DIGIMON manga series is TOKYOPOP’s second manga title from the Disney Publishing Worldwide portfolio – the Monsters, Inc. manga was released last month just after the blockbuster film’s DVD hit American store shelves.

DIGIMON will launch as part of TOKYOPOP’s growing portfolio of successfully established properties, including top-sellers Cowboy Bebop, Chobits, GTO and Real Bout High School. TOKYOPOP continues to ship hundreds of thousands of books monthly to major retailers nationwide, including Waldenbooks, Borders, Wherehouse Music and SUNCOAST.

“TOKYOPOP is thrilled with the success of our existing manga properties, and we are confident that this exciting new acquisition will complement our line-up,” said John Parker, TOKYOPOP’s President and COO. “We look forward to continued success with Disney Publishing Worldwide.”

Currently airing on the ABC Network, DIGIMON is an exciting animated action-adventure series filled with fantasy, humor and surprises. The story follows seven ordinary kids who gain “digivices” that transport them into the Digital World. Once there, they make companions called Digimon, and must battle evil Digimon monsters, such as Devimon, Etemon, Myotismon and the Dark Masters. DIGIMON makes the unimaginable seem real, while teaching kids about teamwork and friendship.</blockquote>

[Franklin Harris]

TokyoPop is the most exciting company in comics from a business standpoint. They've gone from being an also-ran to beating Viz (the longtime U.S. manga leader) at its own game and breaking new ground in getting well-packaged, low-priced graphic novels into new outlets like Suncoast and Sam Goody. (Viz is doing that latter, too, but not as successfully.) But I can't help but think that a "Digimon" series is about 2 years too late.

[BLACK]

[quote]Originally posted by Franklin Harris:
<strong>TokyoPop is the most exciting company in comics from a business standpoint. They've gone from being an also-ran to beating Viz (the longtime U.S. manga leader) at its own game and breaking new ground in getting well-packaged, low-priced graphic novels into new outlets like Suncoast and Sam Goody. (Viz is doing that latter, too, but not as successfully.) But I can't help but think that a "Digimon" series is about 2 years too late.</strong><hr></blockquote>

I don't know if it's exactly 2 years too late as Dark Horse was publishing it for some time before TokyoPop acquired the rights to publish Digimon. The only difference here is that DH's Digimon was not the original Japanese version. I'm not too sure, either, if DH had the same amount of venues as does TP in distributing and selling Digimon so maybe it's for the better that TP has it, even if there isn't as big an appeal right now for Digimon as there was before.

peace.

[StarSaber]

Sweetness yet more manga goodness to purchase.