Fanta manga print runs between 6~8K | Vampire abstinence parable dominates online sales charts

Spotted via MangaBlog… Sean Gaffney has an insightful post on why classic, fan favorite manga such as Kimagure Orange Road have a hard time getting licensed.  The problems aren’t always commercial.

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I love the Twilight manga, if for nothing else than being prime fodder for trolling various comic and manga boards.  Fellas, you don’t have to like it, but think of the amount of money Yen Press will be raking in… money that will go towards more manga licenses.

That said, this USA Today article does point out the potential pitfalls of making a new visual adaptation of the teeny vampire romance , when the fan base has already embraced the big-screen versions of lead characters Edward and Bella.  Author Stephanie Meyer has mentioned in various interviews that the graphic novel more accurately interprets her vision for the characters than the movies.

As of this writing, Twilight is number 14 on Amazon’s bestselling books list (#1 in the graphic novel sub-category), and has a front-page listing on Barnes and Noble, where it’s #9 overall.  Where is your god now, /co?

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Publishers Weekly covers Fantagraphics manga line, and includes one tidbit I have not seen elsewhere… the publisher expects the books to have print runs in the 6000~8000 range.

Also at PW, several comic retailers speak about the past year’s performance.  In particular, Andrew Neal of Chapel Hill comics mentioned that the median age of  manga buyers seem to be rising into the 30s, as younger readers have been siphoned off by online scanlations.  Fantagraphics waiting 4 years to launch its literary manga line doesn’t seem so stupid now, does it?

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Kitano “Beat” Takeshi, the comedian-artist-poet-actor-tv host who enthralled us by punching Omar Epps in the gonads in Brother, eviscerated samurai in Zatoichi, and turned on American tv viewers to the sadistic joys of Japanese game shows with Takeshi’s Castle/MXC, is headlining an art exhibition at Fondation Cartier in Paris.  You can see 10 photos of his paintings and sculptures at The Guardian.