Yen Press walks the walk on anthologies

Ms. Alverson has a huge scoop today… MangaBlog reports that Yen Press will be launching an anthology comic magazine featuring international licensed works and original offerings produced in-house.  Stories will be serialized regularly in the monthly magazine, then collected into trade paperback format.

The as yet unnamed anthology will be in light company when it launches in 2008… Shonen Jump/Shojo Beat from Viz follow the Japanese industry standard magazine-to-trade model; DramaQueen’s also in the anthology game with Rush; and then there’s a certain small, forward-thinking, fan favorite manga publisher working in a niche genre that publishes magazines twice a month whose name escapes me… ummm… errr… aaaargh… you know, what’s his face.

Anyway, in light of this, the potential of Legardere’s acquisition of French manga publisher PIKA is suddenly far more obvious.  And in many ways, this magazine may have a bigger impact on the American comics market than Jump or any other anthology offerings, due to its unique combination of original and licensed works, the company’s deep pockets, and the distribution power of its parent company.  The magazine already looks promising based on the licenses alone, but one important factor missing from many failed anthologies is a strong editorial staff.  If they can get that in order, Yen Press has a great chance to take strides towards making what has long been merely optimistic conjecture and theory, into a reality… a brand new, successful, domestic, mass-market comic anthology.

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It’s still early, but the Spartan war epic 300 currently enjoys a 100% rating at Rotten Tomatoes.  Woot!