GYAH. Manga-publishing pioneer Tokyopop has announced plans to close its US publishing division, effective May 31st. Tokyopop's film and TV development wing will remain open, and there's always hope that they will allow their licensed titles to be picked up by other publishers, but this is an ugly, ugly sign about the health of manga publishing in the U.S.Labels: Economy of Doom, manga, Publishing
2 Comments:
That is NOT good. I'm sorry to hear that. I always thought TokyoPop was the Cadillac of manga publishers in this country, so to speak. It was sad enough to see Shojo Beat go out a couple of years ago. That's really too bad.
5:58 AM
I'm friendly with my local comic shop owner, and he tells me they've been increasingly reluctant to stock manga because their distributor (Diamond Comic Distributors) will drop manga series if national sales drop below a certain point--WITHOUT letting store owners know that the series has been "discontinued" (or whatever they'd call it). I have no idea if/how Diamond's policy affects publishers like TokyoPop, but it's just one more irritating aspect of being a manga fan here in the U.S....
7:02 PM
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