LOOKING AT THE DARK HORSE - HARLEQUIN MANGA TEAM-UP

[MattBrady]

Officially announced at this year’s Book Expo America, Dark Horse Comics has joined with Harlequin to publisher the romance publisher’s manga adaptations in the US market.

For Dark Horse, the move marks a serious infusion of manga titles that can easily be called shojo (i.e. “girls comics” or manga titles aimed at a younger, female readership). For publishing juggernaut Harlequin (144 million books sold in 2003, for example, and over 4.95 billion books sold since the company was formed), the move allows some testing of the comic waters.

We sat down with the editor of the DH-Harlequin manga line, Shawna Gore to talk about the partnership between the companies and what can be expected in the coming months.

First off, the titles that Dark Horse will be bringing to the US market aren’t necessarily new. As with the bulk of manga titles being released by American publishers, the Harlequin manga titles have already seen publication in Japan, where Harlequin has seen over 250 titles published via its licensee Ohzora Publishing.

“These are Japanese manga adaptations of best-selling Harlequin Romance titles,” Gore explained. “Harlequin licensed hundreds of their best selling novels to be adapted into manga by the Japanese publisher Ohzora. They’ve been adapted by some of Japan’s up and coming manga artists as well as top-selling manga artists. There are some well known names on the manga side as well as the American side – if you know your Harlequin writers – in these titles, so really, they’re already a blend of East and West.”

As for how Dark Horse ended up with the partnership and titles in the first place, Gore said it came after Harlequin had made it known that they were looking to partner with an American company in order to bring the titles to the US.

“Our vice president of licensing, Anita Nelson, had met with someone at Harlequin, and heard about these manga that they had been producing in Japan,” Gore said. “Around the same time, someone from Harlequin was shopping the books around for a home here in the US. I don’t know all the elements of how they got here, but in the end, they landed on my desk.”

While Dark Horse has a strong manga program, recently, it has left the shojo side of things to other publishers. As Gore sees it, the Harlequin books are a step in turning the tide somewhat, and expanding the publisher’s overall manga lineup. “A long time ago, we did Oh My Goddess!, and in some ways that was a shojo title, but it really doesn’t fit into what has become the ‘standard’ shojo titles that you see coming from a lot of other publishers these days. Since that time, we’ve published more non-shojo titles, which are great, but it left a little bit of a void. Even when adapting the Harlequin manga was proposed, we had some editors who didn’t know what exactly to make of it, because it’s not Trigun, Akira or Blade of the Immortal. That’s not to say they didn’t get it, just that they weren’t used to working with this type of material.

“On the other hand, I found the idea fascinating, and really wanted to see it and get it rolling. I mean, a publishing juggernaut married to manga in this fashion? That’s cool.”

Keeping with the different is good approach, Gore explained that, in general, Harlequin manga contain elements that have become known as classic shojo characteristics – unexpected developments, attractive protagonists, mysterious, romantic strangers, hidden twists, and all the rest.

And, according to Gore, there had already been some crossover.

“Following the announcement at BEA, we saw a lot of shojo fans talking on boards about the titles, and we’ve also seen that more than a few shojo fans coming out and saying that for years, they’ve been closet Harlequin Romance fans, so it seems to be a nice pairing that will be well received once our titles hit the shelves.”

And while shojo readers are the obvious core audience for the Dark Horse/Harlequin titles, the two companies are working on marketing plans that will reach out to readers of Harlequin’s prose novels as well.

“We think we have a good plan in regards to reaching manga and shojo readers, and presenting the books in such a way that they’re going to be really enticing to people who know and love shojo,” Gore said. “The area we obviously have a lot of room to grow in is the Harlequin readers, so we’re looking at ways to reach out to them and getting them to look at manga. There’s also going to be a challenge in reaching out to Harlequin readers in that we’re presenting these books in standard Japanese format, that is, reading right to left instead of left to right. So – a 34 year old woman who loves Harlequin novels might still find making the jump a challenge, but we’re working on that.

“That said though, a lot of the comics that we’ve picked for the first round are ones that are by authors who are well known in America to Harlequin readers, as well as artists who are known to manga and shojo readers. I also went through and made sure that our first books hit all the right romantic notes – attractive lead characters, a strong, beautiful heroine, a mysterious, sexy man…I had that in mind when I was picking the titles out. All told, if a traditional Harlequin novel reader takes a few steps our way towards the manga, we’re doing everything we can to make sure that they’ll find something they’ll find very familiar once they cross the bridge between prose and manga.”

Title-wise, the line itself will carry the moniker “Harlequin Ginger Blossom” which will, according to Gore, allow readers to know both the source (Harlequin) and the Japanese influence (Ginger Blossom). Likewise, with “Harlequin Ginger Blossom” in front of each title, the various books coming out will be racked together on shelves.

The first two titles that will see release in early December are Harlequin Ginger Blossom: Response by Penny Jordan and Takako Hashimoto; and Harlequin Ginger Blossom: Girl in a Million by Betty Neels and Kako Itoh.

Both of these titles, as well as forthcoming books will carry the same trade dress, which will see all Harlequin Ginger Blossom titles grouped into one of two categories: violet and pink (the colors will be reflected in the books’ trade dress).

“As they initially explained to us, Harlequin has material that is racier and steamier, as well as stories that are more innocent and sweet,” Gore said. “As we were reading the books, we decided that we’d approach our marketing and packaging that way, so we’ll have two lines: a violet line, which is racier and a littler sexier, and a pink line, which is more on the innocent side, and better for younger readers. That said though, it is Harlequin, so even in the violet line, it’s not going to be very sexually explicit…by typical manga standards, even the violet line isn’t very racy. The standards we’re applying are sticking more to the standards that the Harlequin readers are used to, so they know what to expect.”

After the initial two titles, Gore said that Dark Horse has nine more to choose from for its future releases.

“Initially, we licensed 11 titles, six of which we’re contracted to release,” Gore said. “We did this so that we have a larger pool to choose from once we got them over into the states and started to translate them, because we were approaching this cautiously. When we were looking at them and deciding, we had the Harlequin source material, and the printed Japanese versions, so we had to make a few educated guesses as to what will appeal to an American audience. We’re getting our translations in now, and while we know what books we want to do for our first six, in choosing 11, we have five on reserve, in case one doesn’t work out as well as we’d hope.

“With all of this, we’re kind of wading into the pool gradually. So far, it’s been a lot of fun to work with Harlequin, because they’re really looking to keep a sense of the fun and romance in their books throughout all their work. If readers support this line with the excitement and buzz that we’ve already seen around the initial release, then I think we’re going to have a long future together with Harlequin.”

[Drewsander]

Uhmm…

Hmm…

Would anyone object if I just said “First post” and left it at that. I know, I promised I’d never do the ‘first post’ thing again, but what the hell else can I say about this development? Harlequin comics?? That’s some scary sh*t!

Will there at least be some hard ass fights in amongst all the huggin’ and a kissin’?

Didn’t think so

[bcondray]

What a fanatstic way to bring new FEMALE readers to comics...someone should give bonuses all around to those involved...I'm suprised it hasn't been done sooner...now if all those other publishers of romance would hok up with the likes of DC, Archie, Image, Marvel, Devil's Due etc...... Think of the benefits to the industry and readership.

[Libby]

*cries*

This Dark Horse guy has no idea what he's talking about!!! "Oh My Goddess" is in no way a "shoujo" title. It's a shounen harem manga! It had some crossover appeal, but was still 100% shounen. And the attitudes of the editors kinda scares me. Wouldn't it have made sense to hire an editor -- or just a consultant! -- who was familiar with shoujo?

And they're deluding themselves if they think the traditional romance-reading housewives are going to buy these.
The idea is just too wierd! Penny Jordan is well-known and liked... but Betty Neels wrote stories about British girls and Dutch doctors, waaaay back in the sixties. She died over 4 years ago. I can't imagine her books are all that popular still.

And this:

"That said though, it is Harlequin, so even in the violet line, it’s not going to be very sexually explicit…by typical manga standards, even the violet line isn’t very racy. "

This guy doesn't know anything about romance novels. >_< Many HQ romances are VERY explicit. Maybe the sex was toned down for the manga, and that's why he has this impression. But it still irritates me that he did no research into romance novels at all.

And they're making "educated guesses" about which books to translate???? Why don't they just do like REAL BOOK PUBLISHERS and get focus groups together? Then they could just ask, "35-year-old housewife, what do you think?" "16-year-old shoujo reader, would you ever in a million years read this?" Would it be that hard?

I have no idea why I'm so pissed off about how Dark Horse is handling this... Maybe I just got out of the wrong side of the bed this morning... Or maybe I'm just irritated that something I've always been interested in -- romance comics -- could turn out to be such a total disaster, when it doesn't HAVE to And you know that if Dark Horse messes it up, they'll be all, "Oh, this just proves that romance and comics don't go together." I was so excited about this... and I'll still give the books a try... but I wish that the guys at Dark Horse would do more research.

[Nat Gertler]

Originally posted by bcondray
...I'm suprised it hasn't been done sooner...now if all those other publishers of romance would hok up with the likes of DC, Archie, Image, Marvel, Devil's Due etc......

Marvel and Harlequin actually planned a line together a while back, but no books were actually released.

[d. emerson eddy]

Originally posted by Libby
...but Betty Neels wrote stories about British girls and Dutch doctors, waaaay back in the sixties. She died over 4 years ago. I can't imagine her books are all that popular still.

...and you'd be wrong. Harlequin is republishing all of Betty Neels' back catalogue at a rate of four every quarter and they sell better than any of the other Harlequin lines and titles.

Just because I'm in a reductio ad absurdum mood right now, lets replace the names in your argument with something else:

"...but William Shakespeare wrote stories about British kings and Danish knights, waaay back in the Elizabethan era. He died over 300 years ago. I can't imagine his plays are all that popular still."

[Libby]

Originally posted by d. emerson eddy
...and you'd be wrong. Harlequin is republishing all of Betty Neels' back catalogue at a rate of four every quarter and they sell better than any of the other Harlequin lines and titles.

I had no idea! I couldn't find any information about her online, I just figured she was a nobody. (Because if you aren't online, you must not exist... >_>;;; ) Anyway, yeah, I was in a bad mood yesterday, not quite thinking clearly. >_< Good to know that she's a popular and well-know author (and I'm guessing a really good writer, too).

[Crispy]

I still don't understand the deal with this... The target female manga audience doesn't read romance novels... especially not Harlequin ones, which are generally some of the corniest out there. To add to that, the artists have a very old-school shoujo style that IMO will not appeal as much as the newer styled artwork to the growing number of young girls reading shoujo manga.

[bcondray]

Originally posted by Crispy
I still don't understand the deal with this... The target female manga audience doesn't read romance novels... especially not Harlequin ones, which are generally some of the corniest out there. To add to that, the artists have a very old-school shoujo style that IMO will not appeal as much as the newer styled artwork to the growing number of young girls reading shoujo manga.

Do/have you read any current Harelquin novels? I have not so i have no idea as the quality of the current novels they publish...

[Libby]

Originally posted by bcondray
Do/have you read any current Harelquin novels? I have not so i have no idea as the quality of the current novels they publish...

I've read a LOT of Harlequins, and I'd say at least 67% of thier bad reputation is undeserved. Sure, there's corniness, and bad writing, and unrealistic plots, blah blah blah. But they tend to be really, really fun anyway. It's pretty much exactly the same as shoujo manga... Most are fun, disposable entertainment, some are truly terrible, and some are really wonderful. The problem is that Harlequin's "corny" reputation is so widespread, that new readers won't even give them a chance.

I agree with Crispy that the art style seems outdated, from the previews that I've seen. It's not going to win over any reluctant readers.

[Tavisha]

I do think Dark Horse may be hoping to tap some part of the comic audience that has grown up entirely on enjoying manga styled romance comics, and that will give a more adult themed romance manga a try. But. I don’t think there’s enough of that audience out there in the English speaking world yet. There just hasn’t been enough generations of women who have grown up with the anime/manga style to appreciate it in all aspects of their literature. That said, I personally have never read a Harlequin romance book, but my Obaa-chan (grandmother) loves them. She’d always try to let me borrow them when I was a teen, but I would instantly become bored because it wasn’t a manga or a story that I cared about. I asked her why she liked them and her reply was “Because it has young people in them and they make me feel young and happy.” I know one of the greatest things about being surrounded with and working in the anime/manga style is, I never once think about my age. I always forget how old I am. For me, drawing and seeing something drawn in the style does trigger a flood of happy nostalgic feelings. I think the Japanese Harlequin manga romance line was intentionally made for the generation of Japanese women like myself, who grew up reading classic shoujo from the 70’s & 80’s. I don’t think this new generation of shoujo readers, especially the ones in the English speaking world, will embrace it or appreciate it since its not something they can feel a connection with or “nostalgia” for. I’ve already seen a lot of fandom snickers and jeers about the Harlequin manga proposal on-line. I’m sure a curious few will buy and try it. I know I’ll try it for the sake of supporting the premature-intentionally-good idea DH has and to finally let my Obaa-chan know that I read a Harlequin romance. ^____^*** But, as for these books being a first time comic to a 30-something-romance-reading non-comic reader? I agree, chances are very slim.

[Libby]

Originally posted by Tavisha
I think the Japanese Harlequin manga romance line was intentionally made for the generation of Japanese women like myself, who grew up reading classic shoujo from the 70’s & 80’s. I don’t think this new generation of shoujo readers, especially the ones in the English speaking world, will embrace it or appreciate it since its not something they can feel a connection with or “nostalgia” for. *snip* But, as for these books being a first time comic to a 30-something-romance-reading non-comic reader? I agree, chances are very slim.

Some really great points...

Wouldn't it be neat if HQ and DH had done romance novel adaptations using an updated version of the old 60's romance comic style? Quite a few of my online romance reading friends really liked those... So it would be nostalgic, and with a bit of a udpate, it could be cool enough for younger readers, too.

PS -- I've read some really really cute romances... want me to snail mail a few your way? There are like 500 romance novels lying around my house, I wouldn't mind giving a couple away at all.

[TimEG]

Originally posted by Libby
This guy doesn't know anything about romance novels. >_< Many HQ romances are VERY explicit. Maybe the sex was toned down for the manga, and that's why he has this impression. But it still irritates me that he did no research into romance novels at all.

And they're making "educated guesses" about which books to translate???? Why don't they just do like REAL BOOK PUBLISHERS and get focus groups together? Then they could just ask, "35-year-old housewife, what do you think?" "16-year-old shoujo reader, would you ever in a million years read this?" Would it be that hard?

I just want to note a few things here to Libby. First, this editor (yes, SHE is an actual editor for an actual publisher) is FEMALE!

Second, though she may not know the hard and fast rules of categorizing manga as shoujo or shonen (the crossover fooled her), she is a woman who loves comics and works professionally in comics.

So before you judge harshly, before you assume that all comics professionals are men, and before you even begin to presume how a "real publisher" goes about business, read all the points and try think outside of your individual perspective. I get the feeling that as soon as you read "shoujo" and "Oh! My Goddess," you got pissed off quickly feeling something along the lines of "that wannabe publishing company doesn't care about or understand what REAL manga fans want" mindset. And to some extent, it's true. But a person has to start from somewhere if they're ever going to understand the manga-reading community.

This is most certainly an experiment in publishing manga. And as a manga editor at DH, I can assure you that no focus group of manga readers would produce any kind of tangible result. Manga readers are disparate in their tastes, or at least that's what I've found when asking large groups of manga and anime fans what they'd like to see published.

Frankly, I'm interested in seeing how this turns out. I was one of those editors who wasn't quite sure what to make of the Harlequin line. But I'd love to see if it finds some interested readers, or makes new manga readers.

--Tim

[Libby]

Tim, I meant to apologize earlier for my post, because as I said before, it was written while I was in a very bad mood and lacking sleep. I've learned my lesson about staying away from message boards when I'm feeling inattentive and irritatable. ^_^;;;

Sorry again.

[TimEG]

I guess I was being a bit protective. I was just happy to see someone take up the HQ project, as it was outside of my realm of...undersanding.