Publishers Weekly recently posted an exclusive sneak preview of the latest CLAMP manga series Gate 7, giving North American fans their first look at this new fantasy series due out October 25, 2011 from Dark Horse.
In this 10-page excerpt, readers are introduced to Chikahito Takamoto, a high school student touring the historic Japanese city of Kyoto. While he's visiting a shrine, Chikahito stumbles into a mystical realm where he encounters three people in flowing robes, including Hana, an androgynous child-like mystic. According to the story synopsis provided, Chikahito will be joining forces with these mysterious mystics to battle "violent elemental beasts."
The announcement of Gate 7 answers a question that has been lingering out there for several years: What ever happened to the CLAMP "mangettes" project Dark Horse announced several years ago? Gate 7 is the latest series from CLAMP, and according to Michael Gombos, Dark Horse Comics' Director of Asian Licensing, it is the story that was initially intended as shorter format graphic novels that would be released concurrently in Japan, Korea and North America. So instead of getting this story in several 80-page installments, CLAMP fans will be able to buy the first 200-page volume of this series for $10.99.
In a recent interview with Brigid Alverson posted on MTV Geek, Gombos explained that the change of plans was largely due to changes in the manga publishing business climate in North America.
""Initially, the buyers at the bookstores loved the idea--a great serial, much like American comics, and you get to read the manga exactly as it comes out in Japan! But times changed, and in 2008, the publishing marketing took a dive, and it seemed that value-packaging was what was working. Indeed, we're seeing this as true as our CLAMP omnibus editions (sometimes collecting 3-4 volumes of Japanese material in to one English edition) are moving extremely well."
"Bigger, value-priced packaging is moving well for books, and the smallest I'd go nowadays would be a 150+ page trade (in terms of manga). If you're interested in serialized chapters, it simply has to be available digitally."
Does that mean that Gate 7 will also be available through Dark Horse Digital Comics for desktop or laptop computers, iPad, iPhone, iPod or smart-phone mobile browsers? It remains to be seen, but given that Dark Horse is already offering Lone Wolf and Cub and Samurai Executioner via their Digital Comics platform, the prospects for reading Gate 7 digitally seems promising.
Gate 7 joins the rest of Dark Horse's CLAMP manga line-up, including Chobits, Card Captor Sakura, and Magic Knight Rayearth (which has been pushed out to a July 2011 release).
Image credits: © CLAMP, © Dark Horse Comics
Comments