DC Comics' manga imprint, CMX, will publish two manga titles from Japanese publisher MediaWorks, and the imprint also announced the first titles to come from Flex Comics, the Japanese manga and digital comics venture DC announced in June.
CMX is publishing Go West and Dokkoida?!—both by Yu Yagami, the mangaka behind Hikkatsu! a comic sci-fi series published by Go! Comi. Go West is a four-volume Wild West parody that will launch in November 2008. Dokkoida?! is a three-volume comedy about a diapered superhero that spoofs alter egos and secret identities. Volume 1 will appear in February. The Dokkoida?! anime series is already available in the U.S. through Geneon Entertainment.
CMX’s director of manga, Asako Suzuki, hopes that fans of the anime will also enjoy the comic and vice versa. Suzuki says that CMX likes to license multiple titles from the same creator, something that the company has done with VS and Go Go Heaven!!, both by Keiko Yamada. "I think when [American readers] look at the art, they categorize it, they notice it. Art style is an identification of the books," she said. Suzuki added that if readers recognize and are drawn to the art style, they'll read other books in the same style.
"We're trying to build some momentum," CMX manga editor Jim Chadwick said of the two Yagami series. "With Dokkoida?! maybe the anime fans will read it. We'll do some promotion for Go West. Hopefully, one thing will build on the other."
CMX will also bring out two one-shot manga titles licensed through its investment in Flex Comix, the online Japanese manga publisher, in 2008. CMX will release Zombie Fairy in January and Leader's High in March. Chadwick describes Leader's High as a Harry Potter-type manga set at a school for young, aspiring magicians where the headmaster's son is an unwilling student. Zombie Fairy is about a boy who awakens a 400-year-old girl from a deep sleep and brings her to live with his family. "We want to give readers a taste and feel for Flex comics,” said Chadwick. "The material feels fresh and new. People in the States may not be used to it."
DC Comics invested in Flex Comix earlier this year, in what Chadwick calls a "corporate strategy for two corporations to work together. [Flex Comix] is on the cutting edge of technology. It's unlimited what we can do together." In Japan, Flex Comics has already adapted its manga for cellphone download. At this past summer's San Diego Comic-Con, CMX had cellphones featuring Flex manga. "It's not just a manga panel on a cellphone screen,” said Chadwick. "They really take advantage of the technology." But for now, Flex manga is not available for cellphones in the U.S., and CMX will take a more traditional publishing route with Flex, bringing its work to American readers in print editions.
