San Diego may host the show with the biggest Hollywood presence, but this past weekend New York showed that it is still book country. With Random House, Hachette, Harry Abrams, HarperCollins and other trade book publishers in attendance, the New York Comic-con had the feel of a publishing trade show buoyed by charged consumer exuberance of comics and pop culture fans. There were big announcements by Viz Media and Del Rey; plans for a new line of color graphic novels by Tokyopop and a new content deal between Japanese publisher Square Enix and Yen Press.

Stan Lee (l.) and editor Takanori Asada

Manga publishers even took some inspiration from the superhero category. Viz Media announced a joint project with Stan Lee and Shaman King creator Takei that was launched in Japan over the weekend and will eventually hit American shores. Del Rey Manga has already announced their co-publishing deal with Marvel, but they were on hand with images of the shojo manga version of the X-Men; in addition to announcing the creative team behind the venture’s forthcoming Wolverine manga. (Antony Johnston of Stormbreaker and Point Blanc will pen the series while Tomb Raider artist Wilson Tortosa will provide illustration.)

Del Rey also has other original manga-inspired projects in the works that will be published his year including Kasumi by Surt Lim, and Yokaiden by Nina Matsumoto whose manga version of the Simpsons gained recognition on the web. Asked why they are pursuing original work when they have a licensing partnership with Kodansha, one of Japan’s premier manga publishers, Ali Kokmen pointed out Del Rey is a general interest publisher—not just a manga publisher—and that their job is to “bring new voices to readers.” Kasumi is slated for July release, Yokaiden for November.

Tokyopop launched a new imprint, Tokyopop Graphic Novels, which will be a line of full-color graphic novels by manga-inspired creators from around the world. TokyoPop publisher Mike Kiley anticipates the line will have cross-over appeal with American comics readers.

Yen Press announced a new deal with Japanese publisher Square Enix (the publisher behind Full Metal Alchemist) to serialize Square Enix properties in Yen Plus, Yen’s forthcoming manga anthology magazine. The magazine will be dual sided—one side reading right-to-left for the Japanese stories; while the other side reads left-to-right for their OEL manga titles and Korean manhwa. Yen co-publishing director Kurt Hassler said that Yen Press intends for the magazine to compete with Shonen Jump, Viz’s popular (the circulation is over 200,000) monthly periodical that serializes Viz’s upcoming manga releases. Hassler said the magazine will be available in Barnes & Noble and Borders stores, as well as major chains such as Target and Walmart. Finished issues of the magazine will be available July 29th, in time for San Diego Comic Con.

Yen Press also announced the acquisition of the popular Haruhi Suzumiya manga series and a line of prose novels based on the property. The prose titles will be published starting in April 2009 in a partnership with Little Brown Books. Hassler said he looks forward to Yen Press’s entry into, "professional prose publishing" and said that The Haruhi Suzumiya manga titles will be released in four month intervals.

Stephen Vrattos and Jessica Hatakeda at the Vertical booth

Vertical Inc. had advance copies of Osamu Tezuka’s much aniticipated Dororo which disappeared very quickly. Dororo will be published later this month. (Apparently creators Scott McCloud and Dan Goldman were quick to pick up copies for themselves.) Tezuka’s Apollo Song and MW have been nominated for this year’s Eisners.

At the Digital Manga Publishing booth, Peter Fernandez, the original voice actor for the Speed Racer animated series, autographed copies of DMP’s new restored Speed Racer boxed set, which were selling very well. DMP’s Boys Love titles were also selling strong. DMP has been publishing 8-11 titles per month under their June imprint, which specializes into yaoi or Boys Love. 801 Media, their sibling Yaoi company, puts out one a month of more explicit material. DMP’s Eric Rosenberg noted that girls were coming over to the booth and buying one of everything from the Boys Love list. DMP’s Rachel Livingston said, “We’re focusing on stuff that we can do well,” pointing out its yaoi line. It’s hard to compete in the mainstream.”

At last year’s New York Comic-Con, DC’s manga imprint CMX Manga was relegated to a small slot during the Wildstorm panel. This year, CMX director of manga Asako Suzuki and editor Jim Chadwick had their own time slot, albeit a late one (7 p.m. on Saturday) to review current titles and announce new ones. The highlight of the upcoming releases was the three-volume set of “side stories” for the well-received upstairs-downstairs Victorian-era romance manga, Emma, which will debut in March 2009.

Among the new titles are Classical Medley, an adventure story aimed at younger readers, by Sanae Kana; Astral Project, a mature title with supernatural overtones, by Old Boy writer Gallon Tsuchiya and Shyuji Takeya; and Kiichi and the Magic Books, an adventure tale by the writer/artist team Taka and Amano.

Both Classical Medley and Kiichi and the Magic Books were originally published by Flex Comics, the Japanese company that struck a co-publishing deal with DC/CMX last year. Flex titles are initially published online or as cell phone manga for free, then collected in a half-size preview volume before release as a full volume. Suzuki said this gives readers several opportunities to sample the story before buying the full-size manga.

Manga Retail: Too Many Titles?

Meanwwhile, on the trade side, the message coming out of the Emerging Trends in Manga Retailing panel at NYCC was very clear: the trend is to carry fewer manga titles even as the number of releases steadily increases. There are just too many titles for most stores, chain or indie, to carry. Owners of small stores see little point in competing with bookstore chains, and retailers who have prided themselves on their large selection of manga in the past are re-evaluating that commitment.

ICv2 CEO Milton Griepp moderated the panel, which included Gregory Bennett, owner of the four-store chain Big Planet in the Washington, DC, area; James Crocker, managing partner of Modern Myths in Northampton, MA; Matt Lehman, co-founder of Comicopia in Boston; Comicopia manager Shannon Outlaw, and Christopher Butcher, manager of The Beguiling in Toronto.

Both Lehman and Butcher said that until recently they were committed to stocking every manga in print, but the increase in the number of the titles coupled with the fact that some series simply don’t sell was forcing them to cull their shelves. Butcher estimated that his manga stock was growing at a rate of three feet of shelf space per month. “It’s ridiculous,” he said. “I don’t know how anyone could keep all that stuff in stock.” He did have a tip for retailers: He uses Billy bookcases from Ikea, which are deep enough to allow him to shelve extra copies behind the current manga.

“We used to carry a whole lot of manga until chain stores started selling a lot,” said Crocker. “Around that time, we got our POS [point of sale] system and found it wasn’t selling.” His rule of thumb: “If something hasn’t sold in six months, we pull the whole series, put it on the remainder table, and if that doesn’t sell, we donate it to the library.”

Lehman said he orders at least one or two of every new series, but if it doesn’t sell by volume 3 he will cut it off. Bennett said he does not order manga straight out of Diamond’s Previews catalog but prefers to wait a week or two to see what the buzz is.

Backlist emerged as an issue for retailers who do want to keep older series in stock but can’t order them from Diamond. “Publishers don’t often know when Diamond is not taking back orders” Butcher said. “Tokyopop might be sitting on cases of Love Hina, but those orders are closed from Diamond.” It would be helpful if there were a way to ask publishers whether a title is actually out of print or simply not being carried by Diamond, he said.

The retailers were united in their distaste for shelving manga by genre, although Bennett said he shelves children’s manga in a children’s section along with other comics. Comicopia has a section entitled “Manga for people who hate manga,” which features manga such as Battle Royale, which may appeal to a broad range of customers. Crocker endorsed the wisdom of this, noting, “Every single person who I sold all 28 volumes of Lone Wolf and Cub to swears they are not a manga person and don’t read manga.”

Lehman said he offers a special deal on series that non-manga readers may like: 40% off the first volume, plus a money-back guarantee. “We have sold several runs of Eden,” he said, “and not one person has returned it.”