VIZ Debuts IKKI, New Online-Only Manga Magazine

When VIZ Media mentioned that they were putting "placing their resources elsewhere" when they announced the end of the print edition of Shojo Beat magazine, it only took a few days until it became clear where those resources where going, if only in part: their new online manga magazine, IKKI.

Based on the artistically innovative Japanese magazine from Shogakukan, VIZ Media's free, online-only version of IKKI launched with the first chapters of Children of the Sea, and an interview with creator Daisuke Igarashi. As their tagline promises, IKKI will strive to showcase "comix like you've never seen," including more titles to follow soon including:

• Bokurano: Ours by Mohiro Kitoh
• House of Five Leaves by Natsume Ono
• Dorohedoro by Q Hayashida
• I'll Give It My All... Tomorrow by Shunju Aono

According to Publishers Weekly's article on IKKI's online debut, the current version of the SigIKKI.com site ("Sig" for VIZ Signature) is only a hint of what's to come when more features and stories will make their debut around the time of San Diego Comic-Con 2009 in late July 2009.

Here's how VIZ describes IKKI, its history and the kinds of manga it features:

"Originally begun in 2000 as Spirits Zoukan IKKI—a special, bi-monthly tie-in publication to Big Comic Spirits magazine—the current form of the magazine took shape when it was re-launched in 2003 as Gekkan ("Monthly") IKKI. Under the leadership of editor-in-chief Hideki Egami, IKKI has since then built a catalog of titles notable for its diversity. From action to comedy to drama, from slice-of-life stories to surrealist fantasies, the one common thing these works share is an uncommon emphasis on creative quality and on pushing the boundaries of the norm."

In other words, IKKI spotlights manga that is geared toward older teens and young adult readers who prefer sophisticated, artistically innovative and thought-provoking comics, similar to alternative / indie / graphic novels comics in America and Europe.

To give readers a taste of what this might mean, SigIKKI.com is featuring the first few chapters Children of the Sea, a beautifully-drawn, fascinating story about a young girl, her encounters with two boys who were raised by dugongs (sea mammals that are similar to manatees) and a mysterious phenomenon that may be related to all three teens: fishes are disappearing from aquariums and from the seas. The complete first volume of this graphic novel is due to hit the stores in July 2009, but the first two chapters are available now for free at SigIKKI.com, with new chapters to follow weekly.

VIZ Media senior editorial manager Leyla Aker is hoping to bring the best stories from the Japanese edition of IKKI to U.S. readers in a new way, by serializing stories online and then offering the most popular series as printed graphic novels. "We’re dipping our toe in the water," said Aker. "We’ve never done this before. No one has."

With IKKI, VIZ is making use of their online manga viewer that they're currently using to preview new Shojo Beat and Shonen Jump manga titles, and to serialize new chapters of Rin-Ne by Rumiko Takahashi at TheRumicWorld.com. With several print magazines already calling it quits in the past year and numerous other manga magazines like Pulp, VIZ's prior foray into edgy and innovative manga magazines, only a memory, is this new online-only magazine format the wave of the future?

Image credit: KAIJU NO KODOMO © 2007 Daisuke IGARASHI / Shogakukan