25 Manga Milestones: 2000 - 2009

In retrospect it seems like a no-brainer: some teens like reading young adult prose novels. Some teens love reading manga, and some teen readers like both. So why not bring the two together and see what happens? TokyoPop asked this question in 2007 and teamed up with HarperCollins to develop original manga-influenced graphic novels based on some of HarperCollins' bestselling novels for young adults. The manga-versions of Erin Hunter's Vampire Kisses novels have generated strong sales.

Recently, Yen Press joined the party with their adaptations of bestselling young adult novels like Gossip Girl, Maximum Ride and Twilight (a.k.a. "the license to print money").

In March 2007, the New York Times Books section did something that no other major American newspaper has done: it created weekly bestseller lists just for graphic novels. But not just that -- it created three separate lists, including one that spotlighted purely manga.

While the first few weeks of the list were notable for being almost all Naruto, all the time, having some weak descriptions for the titles featured on the top 10, and the occasional head-scratching glitch, The New York Times Graphic Books List has offered readers a weekly glimpse into what's hot, what's new and what's selling big without paying for a $$$ Bookscan subscription.

Prior to 2000, only a few readers in the know were hip to yaoi manga, that sizzling genre of stories about boys getting romantic (and often much more) with other boys. By 2007, there were at least nine companies publishing yaoi manga titles and Yaoi-Con, a convention that caters to boys love manga and anime fans. The latest volume of Junjo Romantica was the first boys love title to make the New York Times top 10 manga list in July 2009.

As of 2009, several smaller BL publishers have gone out of business or severely scaled back operations, but with Digital Manga Publishing and TokyoPop's BLU imprint going strong, and even Yen Press publishing a few boys love titles, yaoi manga is here to stay.

There are lots of great manga artists, but only a handful can claim "superstar" status in American fandom. One of those is CLAMP, a creative quartet who has pumped out some of the most popular series ever published in the U.S. From Magic Knight Rayearth to Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, CLAMP has developed a huge stateside following. So it was big news in 2006 when they were the Guests of Honor at Anime Expo.

In recent years, more Japanese comics creators have taken time off from their busy schedules to meet their fans at U.S. conventions, including Tite Kubo (Bleach), Kazuo Koike (Lone Wolf and Cub), Arina Tanemura (Gentlemen's Alliance Cross) and Yoshihiro Tatsumi (A Drifting Life) -- and with any luck, more will follow in years to come.

One of the most chilling recent developments in the manga world was the arrest of Christopher Handley, an Iowa manga and comics collector who was charged with "possessing manga containing 'objectionable content" that caught the attention of a postal inspector.

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund assisted Handley in his defense, but despite recommendations from his CBLDF advisors, Handley opted to enter a guilty plea in his case to bring it to an end. Handley faces up to 15 years in jail, and the forfeiture of his entire collection. The CBLDF website expressed their disappointment with this turn of events, and offered hope that this case did not provide significant precedent in future cases against comics collectors.