Vertical Inc., a small New York house specializing in Japanese literature and classic manga, is launching an imprint focusing on contemporary manga, with plans to add staff and increase the number of the Japanese popular culture titles on its list. The house will launch the as-yet-unnamed manga imprint in summer 2008 and will add five staffers.
Launched in 2002, Vertical had mixed results with its original list; went though a period of reevaluation and cost cutting in 2004; and refocused its program on horror, psychological thrillers, crime fiction and classic manga. The house has also added business books and narrative history. Vertical has also garnered critical note and some commercial success by publishing classic manga titles by legendary creators such as the late Osama Tezuka and Keiko Tekemiya.
Vertical editorial director Ioannis Mentzas said the house had always planned to publish a mix of literature and Japanese comics, "although we didn't plan to publish as much manga as we have." The company gained a new set of Japanese investors at the end of 2005 and Mentzas cited the new investment and the "explosive sales growth" of manga in the U.S. as driving the decision to launch a contemporary manga line.
The imprint will focus broadly on shojo manga for teen readers. Mentzas acknowledged that acquiring licenses for these titles has become very competitive. "It's nearly impossible to get good licenses now, but we'll do it," he said. Three of the new staffers will run the new imprint. The house will continue to publish classic manga under the Vertical imprint.
Vertical will publish about 30 books in 2007 and expects to eventually publish around 60 books a year once the new imprint is fully operational. Most of the increase will be manga. Vertical titles are acquired by Mentzas and Vertical president Hiroki Sakai, who is based in Tokyo.
Among the house's bestselling titles are The Cute Book, among a series of "Japanese cute" craft titles from Aranzi Aronzo, a duo that uses cartoons to guide the creation of stuffed dolls; a series of sudoku titles (Higher Sudoku and O'Ekaki: Paint by Sudoku); vol. 1 of Buddha by the late Osama Tezuka; and mystery/horror novelist Keji Suzuki's The Ring. After working to recruit translators qualified to work on business and history titles—most translators prefer fiction, said Mentzas—Vertical branched into business nonfiction with The Honda Myth by Masaaki Sato and history with Nanami Shiono's Mediterranean trilogy, a three-volume narrative history of 15th-century Europe.
Big books coming out this year include Boy, a collection of prose short stories by actor and film director Takeshi Kitano; and classic manga from Tezuka (MW)and Keiko Takemiya(Andromeda Stories) in the fall. Mentzas has big expectations for The Blade of the Courtesans by Keiichiro Ryu (Nov.), a historical romance set in the Endo period (1600—1800) that examines geisha and samurai culture.
"It's the rare historical novel popular with young Japanese readers," said Mentzas. "Prostitutes and fighting," he quipped, "usually lead to bestsellers."
