NY Comic-Con 2009: Manga News & Quotable Quotes

The crowds of comic fans are gone, the banners are taken down and everyone is either catching a plane or nursing a hangover. Yes, New York Comic-Con 2009 is over, and according to the show organizers' official blog, over 77,000 fans came out to check out the movies, the celebrities, the video game demos, the toys and to a lesser extent, the manga and anime that filled this weekend with fun. So if you've been following my griping, sniping, raves and faves on my Twitter feed, you know these things:

THE BIG NEWS, PLEASANT SURPRISES & MINOR GRIPES

• The big buzz announcement? The return of Yotsuba&! by Kiyohiko Azuma -- the long awaited volume 6 will arrive in stores in September 2009 thanks to Yen Press. The roar of excitement and happiness in that room was not matched by any other announcement at any other manga /anime panel, period.
• Yen Press' Saturday panel was packed, and Kurt Hassler and crew delivered the goods by announcing new titles worth cheering for and giving out free manga and Soul Eater key holders. Attention all other manga publishers: Check out the Yen Press panels and see how these usually plodding PowerPoint presos can be done. Ideally, it should be a fun way to connect with your readers. It shouldn't be like a lecture for a required course presented by the teaching assistants.
• The other "wow!" announcements mostly came from VIZ Media, who announced sophisticated, grown-up new releases for Fall 2009, including All My Darling Daughters, a josei manga series by Fumi Yoshinaga (Antique Bakery, Flower of Life, Ooku), What a Wonderful World by Asano Inio (Solanin), GoGo Monster by Taiyo Matsumoto (Tekkon Kinkreet).
• The promise of a new series from Rumiko Takahashi (Inu-Yasha, Ranma 1/2) that sounds like it'll be released in the U.S. very close to its publication dates in Japan. Woo!

• Chinese manhua artist Benjamin (Orange) made an appearance at the TokyoPop booth and wowed fans with his rapid-fire illustrations done only with florescent highlighter pens.
• Del Rey Manga added a xxxHolic fan book and a Tsubasa art book to their Fall 2009 line-up as part of the CLAMP 20th anniversary celebration. With so much CLAMP product due out this year, including the reissue of Clover and their "mangettes" project with Dark Horse, it'd be almost criminal if this superstar manga-ka collective doesn't make it to San Diego Comic-Con 2009 to celebrate the occasion.
• Also new and notable: King of RPGs by Jason Thompson (Manga: The Complete Guide) and Victor Hao -- a kind of twisted Hikaru no Go shonen-style adventure/comedy story about role-playing game fanatics due out in December 2009 from Del Rey Manga.
• The AX alternative manga anthology from Top Shelf has moved out its release date from Summer 2009 to December 2009, due to some production issues. Not to worry, as this extra time will make it extra good, right guys?
• TokyoPop's sole new manga announcement was their new original Domo manga collection due out in Fall 2009 featuring NHK's iconic lil' brown critter with an attitude. They're looking for fan art now, so go to www.tokyopop.com/shomethedomo for the details on how to enter.
• No new manga announcements from Vertical, due to their recent financial crunch, but they're working on snagging some titles, including some that are high on their wish list, Jungle Emperor by Osamu Tezuka and Rose of Versailles by Riyoko Ikeda. In the meantime, enjoy their new collection of cookbooks, including one by Iron Chef Chen Keniichi, that are filled with truly yummy-looking photos.
• Speaking of food, Javits Center's offerings are grossly overpriced, inedible, and must be avoided at all costs.
• Sunday is the *real* celebrity day at NYCC, because it's when celebs like Jon Stewart (The Daily Show) and DMC (of Run DMC) come out to bring their kids (and their inner geek) out to play.

I'll be posting more thorough reports on the Yen Press, CMX, Del Rey and VIZ Media panels later, as well as some of the "state of the industry" panels once I sift through my notes. But in the meantime, enjoy these soundbites from some of this weekend's special guests and presenters:

THE QUOTABLE QUOTES AND MEMORABLE QUIPS

• "If there's a license that is lapsed, and it's good, we'll consider it. That said, we're not looking into cherry-picking lapsed titles from other publishers. But if a great title falls in our lap, like if VIZ wants to drop Naruto, we'd consider picking it up!" (laughs all around the room) - Kurt Hassler, publishing director of Yen Press, after announcing picking up Yotsuba&! from ADV
• "Dude, that was five years ago." - Dallas Middaugh, Associate Publisher of Del Rey Manga after a fan asked about the past mini-controversy about Del Rey considering 'censoring' the fanservice-heavy comedy, Negima!
• "Tim Gunn is the model for our version of Magneto. He makes it work." - Raina Telgemeier, talking about X-Men: Misfits, Del Rey Manga's shojo manga reinterpretation of Marvel's merry mutants.
• "We're in a little different situation than DC and VIZ, in that we're not part of a billion dollar company. We're in different situation. We have to be very careful about the decisions we make, because the wrong one can put us out of business." - Stuart Levy, CEO of TokyoPop at the "Selling Good Books in a Bad Economy" panel.
• "Music and movies are bigger industries, and they have bigger budgets, bigger legal arms and they haven't been able to squash this. We need some way to convince people it's worthwhile to pay for this. If we're going to live digitally, we need to figure this out quickly." - John Cunningham, Vice President of Marketing at DC Comics talking about digital comics and illegal downloads/torrents at the "Selling Good Books in a Bad Economy" panel.

More to come soon as I start posting my better late if ever panel reports and some photos from this weekend's fun! Thanks for the fun, NYCC! Can't wait to see how you'll top yourself next time when New York Comic-Con moves to its new fall timeslot in October 2010!

Image credit: © Deb Aoki, © Reed Exhibitions, © Kiyohiko Azuma / MediaWorks