It's Japan vs. Korea as Manga Becomes Manwha
by Calvin Reid, PW Daily -- Publishers Weekly, 6/30/2005
Looking to raise the profile of Korean manga (known as manwha) in a U.S. market crowded with Japanese titles, three Korean media companies are joining together to form Studio ICE, a co-publishing venture that will publish Korean manga titles in the U.S. beginning in the fall.
Studio ICE is a first for Korean publishers, but it is part of general push by Korean media firms (Korea will be the guest country at Frankfurt this year) to highlight their intellectual property to an international market. The three publishers—Sigongsa, Seoul Cultural Publishers and Haksan—are among the largest media companies in Korea. Studio ICE is also modeled after manga publisher Viz Media, which is co-owned by Shogakukan and Shuiesha, two Japanese publishing and entertainment media companies.
Kuo-yo Liang, v-p of sales and marketing at DBD, said Studio ICE will offer a selection of the bestselling Shojo (girls manga) category as well as yaoi, a subcategory of shojo, fantasy, romance and adventure titles. Liang said Studio ICE will preview the line at the San Diego Comic-Con next month. Studio ICE will launch with 4 books in October and publish 2 titles per month. Almost all manga are published in multi-volume series; new volumes in these series will be released every 3 months. Diamond Book will handle distribution.
While the U.S. manga market continues to grow, the rapid increase in titles has caused a shelf squeeze and some increase in returns. And so in a market growing saturated with manga titles, not all in the trade are as optimistic about the Korean entree. Jim Killen, manga and graphic novel buyer at Barnes & Noble, said, “I think hard core fans will be interested, if the stories are good. Casual readers may not."Korean manga, he says, doesn’t yet have the media or the readers in terribly high numbers, while Japanese manga "has built an audience that is waiting for each new volume.”|
|
