DARK HORSE BUYS STUDIO PROTEUS

[MattBrady]

Press Release

Dark Horse Comics has announced it will purchase manga publishing and production house Studio Proteus under a pending agreement. Dark Horse has worked with Studio Proteus co-publishing manga since the publication of Dark Horse’s Outlanders in 1988, and together they have produced nearly 60,000 pages of material. The acquisition will also include all Studio Proteus manga previously published with Eclipse and Innovation. Studio Proteus’s Toren Smith will retain the company’s name.

“We have had a fantastic run with Toren Smith and Studio Proteus,” commented Dark Horse President Mike Richardson. “With the assistance of Studio Proteus we have presented some of the finest manga properties ever produced, including Lone Wolf and Cub, Akira, Oh My Goddess, Blade of the Immortal, and Ghost in the Shell, among others. We look forward to Toren’s assistance on future manga projects.”

“Manga sales have exploded over the last five years,” explains Toren Smith of Studio Proteus. “We’ve seen 20% and 30% growth each year. Frankly, the manga marketplace has gotten too big for a little guy like me to handle. I felt it was best that the business end of things transfer over to a company with the resources and experience to deal with this large and challenging new market.”

Smith will not be leaving manga behind. “I’m not sure I could handle the withdrawal symptoms,” he joked. “I’ll be translating select titles for Dark Horse, such as Blade of the Immortal, and working with them as a consultant.”

For a complete listing of Dark Horse manga titles please visit www.darkhorse.com

[United Comics]

Originally posted by MattBrady
Press Release

The acquisition will also include all Studio Proteus manga previously published with Eclipse and Innovation.

Does this mean we'll finally get to see a TPB of Mai, The Psychic Girl?

[Jamie S. Rich]

Originally posted by United Comics
Does this mean we'll finally get to see a TPB of Mai, The Psychic Girl?

Viz did three volumes of Mai. I just checked Amazon, and they're still available. A lot of the early Eclipse manga was done by Viz, before they broke off and formed their own company.

[beta-ray]

Verrry interesting... Hope they can produce even more... Will they still be able to do stuff like the translations in Intron Depot? I know Masamune is planning more volumes...

[Pikachu007]

Does this also mean Adam Warren will finally finish DirtyPair Vs. Predator??? Or any DP for that matter??

Pikachu

[Cartoon Jay]

Originally posted by United Comics
Does this mean we'll finally get to see a TPB of Mai, The Psychic Girl?

They (Eclipse, I think) published four very nice manga format (small size and slipcovers) trades that collected the wole story. One of the nicest jobs I've seen done on an imported manga. But Mai is a great story that deserves to bee seen, so I'd liek to see it back in print as well. And with teh excellent job DH has done on the Trigun and Akira collections, I may have to buy new copies.

[Logan X]

Sounds interesting, even though I'm not really a manga fan.

[pmginn]

Maybe they can publish Ohikkoshi? I am dying to read that! Hiroaki Samura is a comics master!