Tokyopop – New Works and Old Ones Licensed

To start off, we’ll mention a quick, easily overlooked tidbit– on the tails of the success of Yonen Buzz and Gothic Sports, Tokyopop has decided to license In the End, by Pink Psycho, and Evergrey, by Mary Hildebrandt & David Boller for release in America this February and March.

In the End can be pre-ordered here, with the ISBN 978-1427807182.
Evergrey v1 can be pre-ordered here, with the ISBN 978-1427807151.

Tokyopop isn’t slowing down anytime soon, it seems–  three new series have been announced, along with a photobook and a behind-the-scenes book. Images from all 5 books can be seen here.

Daemonenjunge Lain (Demonboy Lain) by Natalie Wormsbecher (December 2007)

Natalie Wormsbecher’s first book was Summer Rain.
The shy girl Ari makes a most unusual acquaintance one day When she walks under an old oak tree, a boy literally falls on her head, claiming quite seriously to be a demon.
Because Ari helped him after his fall, he wants to thank her by protecting her and never leaving her side. Ari, on the other hand, is not at all happy with this idea, and her slightly irritable boyfriend Mark definitely isn’t…

Tylsim by Reyhan Yildirim (March 2008)

The young hero Auru sets off one day to find a mysterious stone for a dark person who commissioned him. During his travels, on which he’s accompanied by his dragon Kita, Auru not only meets a pretty but somewhat moody witch and a fear-inducing giant spider, but also a broom in human form…
Wonderfully detailed characters, suspenseful adventures, and a big chunk of humor make Tylsim a real treat.

Stupid Story by Anna Hollmann (March 2008)

The beginning of Anna Hollmann’s Stupid Story was is known to some readers from Paper Theatre (from Schwarzer Turm). Starting in March, the complete story will be published in two volumes from Tokyopop.
Enough with being an outsider! Yanik is new at school, and wants to finally belong. When he meets Alan, he wants nothing more than to be as popular and desired as this girl-magnet. But when Alan kisses Yanik to prove to his female admirers that they have no chance with him, his admiration turns into dislike. At a party, at which Yanik is forced to dress as a girl, the two meet again. Alan falls in love at first sight with the pretty “girl”, not knowing who is really in front of him…

Liberty – Raised out of Dirt by Nheira (December 2007)

As part of the duo Pink Psycho, Nheira took part in the creation of In the End, one of the most successful manga Tokyopop has developed in Germany so far. Even in Japan, the volume has found fans.
In December, the artist, author and musician now puts out his first solo project. The volume (working title: Liberty – Raised out of Dirt) offers a collection of illustrations, short stories, manga, lyrics, and photos, which thematically revolve around the three levels: heaven, earth, and hell.
The complex project is being realized with the help of the two Japanese fashion labels HIDEROCK and GLAMOUR PUNKS, which created tailored and welded new outfits for the photoshoot.
Star photographer Susumu Miyawaki transformed all of this into breath-taking photos. Miyawaki-san has created a reputation for himself with his works on cover-images for known magazines such as Shoxx, Foolsmate, etc.

Yonen Buzz United (special volume) by Christina Plaka (December 2007)

The large format special volume Yonen Buzz United presents 128 pages of unpublished illustrations, sketches of the main characters, new character designs, and two exclusive short stories that grant unusual and spectacular glimpses into the Yonen Buzz universe. A detailed interview with the exceptional mangaka Christina Plaka offers interesting information about her working habits, her love of music and art. On top of that, short background info and comments on all the drawings and illustrations in the book leave no wishes unfulfilled.

ST does Free Comic Book Day!

You read that correctly– Schwarzer Turm is taking part in “Free Comic Book Day” by offering 5 free copies of Paper Theatre v5 in their forum! Answer five multiple choice questions (post your answers in this thread) before midnight. Good luck, and never fear: if you lose or aren’t eligible to enter, you can buy a copy of Paper Theater v5 here.

Also free: Schwarzer Turm’s anthology Kappa Maki has posted a complete story from volume 1 as a pdf! A Punk’s Tale is by Stella Brandner, who is currently working on IDOL, an ongoing story running in Carlsen’s monthly anthology Daisuki. May’s issue, which contains chapter 1, can be bought here.
In other Schwarzer Turm news, they recently posted samples from Tokyopop’s Manga Fieber v3. Check out the post for samples from artists who have been published in Schwarzer Turm’s various anthologies!

Schwarzer Turm – New anthology

To correct an earlier post, it looks like Paper Theatre 5 won’t be coming out this month, but should be in stores by April.

And Schwarzer Turm’s 4th “Manga Spezial” is in the works, and should be out by June!  Titled Blütenträume (“blossom dreams”), it’s a collection of six shoujo-styled short stories, and the in-progress cover can be seen here.  The following artists make up the anthology, with the cover done by Natalie Wormsbecher (Summer Rain).

Nurgül Güler
Julia Kutsch
Peggy Potkowa
Katalin Stappenbeck
Kassandra Steinbeck
Simone Xie

Chibi & Fireangels news

Leipzig Bookfair is approaching! A number of books are being released just in time for the event, including the first Chibi box. When they were first unveiled, a number of fans weren’t fond of the cover designs, and expressed their dislike in the Carlsen forums. Perhaps in response to that, the cover of Judith Park’s LUXUS has been changed (the old version is still visible on Amazon)… though hers was the cover most people said looked best!

Fireangels Verlag has added two licensed works to their line-up, which were originally published in English by Yaoi Press. Lime Law 2 should also be coming out this month, and for those interested in applying, Fireangels is always looking for more submissions (English page is here).

From Schwarzer Turm, Hungry Hearts v1 and Paper Theatre 5 should be coming out in time for Leipzig Bookfair as well.

Paper Theatre 5 preview

 

Tina Lindhorst, artist of Drachenschnee (one of the Chibis that should be coming out in May), has updated her gallery with a few sample pages (click “next” for more- pages are right-to-left) from an upcoming short story that will be in Paper Theatre 5, from Schwarzer Turm. The story is by Franziska Steffen, as is Drachenschnee. She also mentions that she’ll be doing the cover image for this volume of the ongoing anthology.

Various Artist Updates

Rather than report on anything from the publishers, here are a few interesting posts by the artists of the German “global manga” scene themselves.

Marie Sann (artist of Sketchbook Berlin, from Tokyopop) recently posted a photo of herself- various pinups from her manga are visible in the background.

Irina Frisorger, aka Rin, also has a blog- and being a contributor to Manga Fieber 3 (from Tokyopop), she posted about the newsletter announcement that went out- unlike our post, however, hers has the self portrait she did for the release! Rin has also had an ongoing story in the Paper Theatre anthologies (v2-4), called Wunjo.  She has posted a wallpaper and page sample, which can be seen here. Wunjo is visually one of the stronger pieces in Paper Theatre, and while it’s currently on hiatus, it will be interesting to see where she takes it in the future.

Anike Hage’s homepage recently went back online, so any fans of Gothic Sports should be sure to check it out. She’s one of Tokyopop’s stars, to be sure.

Don’t forget that Judith Park and the head of Daisuki will be taking part in an online chat run by AnimeY tomorrow between 6 and 8pm (CET).

Tokyopop – Manga Fieber 3

The names of those who will be in the third volume of Tokyopop’s original short story collection have been released. The artists listed have been in a variety of publications- Paper Theatre (v1-4) and The New Masters of Fantasy 2005. Contests they’ve won include Manga Stars 2005, Manga Magie IV, and Mangatalente.  The next newsletter should have more info on the stories themselves.

We made you wait a long time, and neither questions nor bribes could break our silence. But now is the time- we’re announcing the participants of the third Manga Fieber volume.  Here, finally, is the list of the most talented artists the German speaking area currently has to offer:

Kou Aikawa – homepage – animexx
Jelka & Rieke Blendermann – animexx & animexx
Casey – animexx
Claudia Flor – homepage – deviantart
Irina Frisorger (Rin, Rinpix) – homepage
Janine Görss – animexx
Simone Xie – homepage

Schwarzer Turm Anthologies Update

Fans of Anike Hage & followers of the various anthologies put out by Schwarzer Turm should be sure to check out http://www.kappa-maki.de – the cover of what appears to be a first volume is now fully visible. More info will be available in January.

Schwarzer Turm also has some news on the latest releases. The cover of Paper Theatre 4 was done by Elyon Sommer, and the anthology contains a new chapter of Magic Mütze, and conclusions to Related, Kuro’s Destiny, and Wunjo, as well as the debuts of Asja Wiegand, Marika Paul, and Nurgül Güler. The volume also contains a special preview: a complete fairytale from Grimms Manga, a one volume work by Kei Ishiyama that’s coming out soon from Tokyopop.
The second volume of Schwarzer Turm’s “Manga Special” line, 200g Hack, is also out. 200g Hack, like Es war keinmal, is a themed anthology– but rather than being takes on fairytales, 200g Hack explores the horror genre. Unlike Paper Theatre, 200g Hack is in western reading direction.

Merchandise- Carlsen, EMA, Schwarzer Turm, Tokyopop

Merchandise for global manga seems to be almost unheard of in America… thankfully, that’s not the case in Germany. Let us know if we’ve missed any!

Purikura are those tiny little photo-stickers that’re so popular in Japan… and apparently, CarlsenComics has designed a few frames! On the left is one for their monthly-manga-mag, Daisuki, and the one on the right is for Jibun-Jishin, a single volume work by Nina Werner. We haven’t seen any info about were you can find these photo booths… the only knowledge we have about their existance at all comes from these two samples, found on the sites of Nam & Tram Nguyen and Nina Werner.
Nina Werner’s work seems to be a popular choice for merchandise- characters from Jibun-Jishin grace the back of a windbreaker that’s offered on their site- buy enough of their manga (or get a 1 year subscription to Daisuki), get a free jacket!
She also has pencil boards being given out as prizes as part of Animexx‘s advent calendar, but we haven’t been able to find any images.

All we’ve seen so far from EMA is merchandise for the works of DuO- Mon-Star Attack & Independent. The stickers came with Mon-Star Attack v1, and the highlighters are currently being sold all over Europe. If you buy Independent v1, one comes attached, but there are five designs in all. Images are from DuO’s website and Stabilo.com. Stabilo is a sponsor of ComicCampus, an annual manga contest. On their site, you can also find a “comic creator“- make your own comic, with characters from Independent!

Schwarzer Turm is a big fan of merchandise. They have a wide array of stickers, buttons, shirts and postcards available for their manga anthologies, like Paper Theatre. The homepage of The Royal Walchs (the team behind Magic Mütze) has a number of photos of various merchandise, so check ’em out here.

A pair of postcards seem to come with every volume of global manga Tokyopop Germany releases. The above are the sets we received with our volumes of Gothic Sports v1 & Iscel v1. The books themselves contain a number of color pages, in contrast to the releases states-side.
And everyone loves Nintendo DS, right? Tokyopop artists Anike Hage & Marie Sann paired up with eBay and Nintendo, and each designed a DS. Five were made of each design, which were then sold to the highest bidders on eBay, with the money going to charity. Images are from Marie Sann’s homepage, and an Anike Hage fansite, with the latter copyright Guido Mudersbach and AnimeY. Tokyopop has also expressed an interest in making a line of shirts that look like the soccer uniforms in Gothic Sports.

Tokyopop.de Nov. Newsletter

Tokyopop sent out their November newsletter, and there’s info on Triple Witching Hour, Gothic Sports v2, and Yaru, the new series from the creators of Evergrey. For a more extensive summary of Yaru, check out Lime Manga‘s description. The studio is based in America, despite their works being published in Germany, and so anyone interested in what they’re working on can check out their update-blog without needing a translator! ;3 Be sure to take a look for a larger version of the Yaru cover.

PummelDex mentions that Tokyopop will be advertising their global manga works in Schwarzer Turm‘s Paper Theatre. Volume 4 of the anthology will have a preview of Grimm’s Manga, a single-volume work by Kei Ishiyama that’s being released by Tokyopop in April. Paper Theatre 5 will probably have an excerpt from Nathalie Wormsbecher’s Summer Rain, also a single-volume work, which will be released in spring by Tokyopop.

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Evergrey, by Mary Hildebrandt and David Boller, managed a strong start over the last few weeks, and Studio Lime’s work placed in the top 50 right away.

We’re all the happier to announce a new project by Studio Lime, that will be done alongside the continuation of Evergrey.

The name of the new project is Yaru, and it’s being drawn by Mary Hildebrandt [the writer behind Evergrey]. It’s about Rae, a skater-girl, who falls in love with Eric [the English summary says Billy…], a popular high school football player. The only problem is that all the girls love Eric, and he’s currently dating the hottest cheerleader in school!
One day, Rae, who’s more of an outsider, stumbles across the cursed Ouija board, and with it, three unhappy souls. The klutzy Rae falls into the real chaos that soon begins… Is there still time for Eric?

This comedy is planned for three volumes, and the first volume will be released in May.

Olga Rogalski provides a dark and delightful game of confusion in her debut manga, Triple Witching Hour. The twins Demien and Yunna have been connected since early childhood by more than mere family-ties. When Demien dies in a motorcycle accident, Yunna’s life spirals out of control. To her, it is as if she has lost her other half. Then the unbelievable happens: When Yunna gets home one day, Demien suddenly stands in front of her…

Is Yunna hallucinating in her grief, or is there something else behind Demien’s appearance? See for yourself in Triple Witching Hour – the first chapter is available on the Manga Player.

Triple Witching Hour will be released this month.

There is lots of new stuff to read on the Manga Player. You can find the first chapter of the second volume of Gothic Sports [images from the first volume are currently showing up, though], which will be released in January. The first chapter of Triple Witching Hour can be read online, as well as the second chapter of Evergrey.