Tina Anderson at Gynocrat writes that Viz’s plan for original manga has been put on hold, following the departure of guiding editor Marc Weidenbaum:

Weidenbaum’s departure has been confirmed independently, but the fate of Viz’s original content line would leave a huge gap. Tokyopop’s once-aggressive original manga program has dwindled to nothing, as, for instance, a post from Becky Cloonan regarding the second volume of her well-received EAST COAST RISING makes clear:

And a lot of you are probably wondering, “Oh, Becky! When O when is East Coast Rising v2 coming out?” and to that I can only say I don’t know. I have kept quiet since they decided not to print it last year, but I’m very close to finishing it; about 30 pages away from completion, I’m just waiting on the “go” from TP. Every time I think we get close to making a deal, something happens that makes it seem like it won’t go through, so right now I’m just waiting. Hopefully I’ll have some good news about it soon, but in the meantime I’m treating it like a pet project that one day I might see printed…


Viz’s entry into the original field was seen as a huge move by the giant — and the talent is certainly there to produce some interesting books. Let’s hope the program is on hold and not scuttled.

1 COMMENT

  1. and the talent is certainly there to produce some interesting books.

    I got the impression their mission was also to develop original animation series as well. I wondered how that would hold up these days after hearing from a friend of mine who’s project had been green-lighted by Nickelodeon, but was contacted soon after and told that due to budget cuts, the new series’ development was cut in half.

    If Viz was looking for talent in order to develop original multi-media content, I guess now wouldn’t be the time for it. :(

  2. Ugh. I’ve been waiting for ages for East Coast Rising. The way TP has treated Cloonan is one of many reasons I can’t trust them. Bah. Screw them. There are tons of better publishers out there to go to publish OGNs at. Hell, Cloonan and company are republishing their Pixu anthology at Dark Horse.

    Of course, I’m one of those sticklers who insists that none of those books are manga. I’d say graphic novel novel is the better term. There’s no need to mix languages. For heaven’s sake, have some respect for your country’s own output and don’t slap some Japanese word on it as if it makes it any better. There’s a fair difference between publishing new work and just republishing popular Japanese titles like Viz and TokyoPop are used to.