New manga from creators of Sketchbook Berlin

According to AnimeY, Tokyopop announced that Marie Sann and Guido Neukamm have a new series in the works. Krähen (Crows) will be two volumes long, the first of which should be out by the end of the year.

The blog Manly Manga and More recently posted Carlsen’s Bestsellers for 2007— fans of Chibi should be excited to see that four titles made the top 20: Luxus, Drachenschnee, Raccoon, and White Pearl. All four are from the first Chibi set. The blog does mistakenly say that all Chibi titles use a super-deformed art style, though.

Quite a few books are set to come out at the annual Leipzig Bookfair. One of these is Schwarzer Turm’s Hungry Hearts v2, which contains a short story called “Zweigeteilt” that might be of interest to readers of this blog!

Y Square English Review

The English reviews keep piling up!  Y Square has a new review up at Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review.

 I haven’t been a teenager for a long time and school is (thankfully) a distant memory as well. Consequently, there was nothing there that engaged me at all. I read the whole thing but there was nothing there that made me want to keep reading.

Apologies and some Licensing News

Sorry for the lack of updates, everyone– I’ve been devoting every moment of my time to trying to break into the business myself!

Here’s a few bits of information I’ve spotted, though, for those interested in titles that have been licensed for release in the USA.

Yen Press has a new and improved website, and on their long list of titles one can spot Y Square Plus. There’s no more info up yet (release date, ISBN…), but I’ll try to let you know when I find it!

Also licensed but not widely announced: Tokyopop’s In the End. ActiveAnime did an advance review, and has little bad to say.

There is a great deal of mature subject matter in this story. It is not for the faint of heart or those hoping for neat endings with pretty bows to tie things up nicely. Although the men in this manga are drawn exquisitely and with edge, that edge is a part of the story and the riveting illustrations. A look that is a cross between punk and Goth, the dark drawings have detailed designs that are uncommon in most manga and have a unique texture to them that is absorbing to look at.

Y Square English Reviews

With Y Square’s release in America being one of publisher Yen Press’ first releases, many are jumping to review it. Here are a few samplings of what we’ve seen.

About.com: Deb’s Manga Blog

German-Korean manga artist Judith Park has a nice style – the boys and girls are cute and there are lots of lovely details on almost every page. But pretty pin-ups can’t hide the fact that Y Square’s characters are one-dimensional, their dialogue is stilted and the plot is all over the place.

Comixmix: Manga Friday

 Y Square is a lot more conventional, and not as much goofy fun as Sundome is. I also expect that Y Square will be much more popular, especially with young women who either haven’t quite made the big jump to full-on yaoi or young women who prefer their boy-on-boy sexual tension to remain unresolved.

Dystopia Bag

German publishers continue to prove that they’re much more willing than American pubs when it comes to selling merchandise of their global series. Carlsen has come up with a Dystopia-themed bag, and are promoting it through Daisuki, the monthly anthology the series was originally serialized in. Sign up for a year of Daisuki, and get a limited edition bag with art from Judith Park’s first series!

New Releases & Chibi 3 from Carlsen

First: Chibi box 3! They’ll be released in April, at the same Chibi price of only €1.95. The fourth box will be released the following September.

UMBRA by Natalia Zaitseva
TURNOVER by Marika Paul
DIE SPUR by Helen Aerni
MASTERMINDS by Jeffrey Gold
LEGACY OF THE OCEAN by Marika Herzog
A DEMON’S KISS by Rebecca Jeltsch

ALLE GUTEN GEISTER by Laura Müller & Marco Paal
Volume 1 comes out August 2008, €6.

CHOCHIN by Franziska Steffen & Tina Lindhorst
Carlsen’s first global boys’ love title, out from the bestselling Chibi duo behind Drachenschnee. Chôchin is described as “shounan-ai, fantasy, dark, comedy” by its creators, and is a single volume work due out next September, also for €6.

KEYLA by Nicole Klementz & Nhung Vu
A two volume work, Keyla is a suspenseful and humorous fantasy work, visually described as a mix between manga and Disney. Keyla is the first series by Nicole Klementz and Nhung Vu, and volume one comes out next April, for €6.

New Carlsen 2 vol Manga

Carlsen just sent out their newsletter!

KEYLA from Nicole Klementz & Nhung Vu
Planned for two volumes, we present KEYLA, a fantasy global manga that’s rockin’. Volume one appears in April!

Judith Park signing session in Koblenz
Saturday, December 8, 1-4pm at the Sammlerecke in Koblenz. This’s where we’ll be reserving a copy, if we can. ^^
Sammlerecke Koblenz
Hohenzollernstr. 40
56068 Koblenz

The winners of Manga Magie 2007
12-17 years old
1. Julia Kutsch (16) from Petersberg, won 500 Euro
2. Natalia Schiller (17) from Landsberg/Lech
3. Laura Fernandez Exposito (16) from Lahnau

18-26 years old
1. Team: Annelie Kretzschmar (22, from Berlin) / Maren Marmulla (19, from Dortmund), won 1,000 Euro
2. Anke Grunwald (19) from Leipzig
3. Luisa Velontrova (19) from Luckenwalde.

Covers & Artists

Which cover is better?! Tokyopop is wondering which cover the fans like best for the upcoming release of Stupid Story v1, by Anna Hollman (available March 2008). You’ve got til the end of the month to let them know which you prefer! We’re fans of version 1, personally. ;/

From AnimeY: The names of two of the artists taking part in Chibi box 3 have been revealed! Look forward to books from Natalia Zaitseva and Marika Herzog.

Yen Press Interview

YaoiSuki recently interviewed Yen Press, and there was a brief mention of Y Square and global BL. Who knows, maybe this is a hint that they’ll be licensing Y Square PLUS as well?

YS: Yen has some global manga in its repertoire, specifically Y Square by German-born Judith Park, as well as your acquisition of ICE Kunion’s manhwa titles. Do you have any plans to release global boys love manga?

KH: Funny you should mention Y SQUARE as I think it is a book that a lot of BL fans will truly appreciate. There are a couple of nods in there to the BL community as it were…and it’s just a hilarious book. So far as releasing BL from countries other than Japan is concerned, we’re really open to anything that reflects the artistic and storytelling quality we feel fans should expect. […]

Boys Love authors in Germany take note! You may be next~

The English version of Y Square can be purchased here.

Drama CDs Update

Both EMA and Carlsen have ventured into the realm of CD versions of their original series: EMA with Catwalk and Mon*Star Attack, and Carlsen with Dystopia and Y Square. Both publishers are working with Cocomico Records, and so far there are audio samples of Catwalk and Mon*Star Attack up for your listening pleasure.

You can purchase the CDs on Amazon.de by following these links:

Y Square Audio CD – ASIN: B000VWOUI0 – €7.95
Dystopia Audio CD – ASIN: tba – €7.95
Catwalk Audio CD 1 – ISBN: 978-3770468621 – €6.95
Catwalk Audio CD 2 – ISBN: 978-3770468638 – €6.95
Mon-Star Attack Audio CD 1 – ISBN: 978-3770468645 – €6.95
Mon-Star Attack Audio CD 2 – ISBN: 978-3770468652 – €6.95