On the very day before San Diego–Tuesday, July 22nd–Del Rey Manga’s own original shojo series, Kasumi makes its debut.

Our sample copies just arrived today, and with such a feeling of accomplishment…and excitement. They look just beautiful! After having spent months looking at scripts, pencil sketches, and files for inked and toned artwork, it’s somehow dazzling to see these same images inside an actual book. I’ve heard some authors remark that the publication of their book doesn’t feel quite real until the book is in their hands; editors often feel the same way, too. Like Del Rey’s other original series, Kasumi was selected on its extraordinary merits–a book that was just so good we had to find a way to share it with everyone else.

And, thanks to manga’s new superheroine, Kasumi creator Surt Lim, we’re having a contest to celebrate Kasumi’s release. The prize: a super-kawaii custom hair clip–the very same clip that our heroine, Kasumi, wears in the manga. Stop by Del Rey Manga’s booth to play!

And check out the Kasumi website for more details on the contest, preview images, character bios, a blog by the creators, and more!

So the news is out: Kodansha has formed its U.S. office. This has been the subject of a LOT of speculation over the past couple of weeks, with people making all sorts of predictions based on very little information. And I suppose I really shouldn’t blame those speculators; all they had to go on were some anonymous comments out there on the internet.

Well, it’s business as usual at Del Rey Manga. We’re continuing to license manga from Kodansha, and as has been stated elsewhere, we’ve just about wrapped up our licenses for 2009 and are now starting to work on 2010. In a few weeks at the San Diego Comic-Con we’ll be announcing some of those new licenses, and we’ve got some really exciting new manga series planned. Then we’ll have a few more announcements at the New York Anime Festival in September… pretty much like we’ve always done. Also, we will continue to publish all of our manga. Kodansha has not pulled any licenses back from us.

2009 is a big year for us, since it will mark our fifth anniversary. More on that later, but suffice it to say that we plan to keep publishing manga for the foreseeable future.

Thank you to all our fans, past, present and future!

Okay, so here’s what I’ve got so far for the panel on Friday:

1. Talk about contracts.
2. Explain the Del Rey editorial structure.
3. Bring visual examples of Del Rey’s books.
4. Tell what Del Rey Manga wants.
5. Identify the current trends.

Okay, this is helpful stuff. I’ll throw a few more things in there - some specifics on how to pitch, and the merits of using an agent - and I think we’ll be good to go.

In other news, David Welsh has officially annoyed me by writing:

Then ponder this recent entry on Del Rey’s weblog by publisher Dallas Middaugh stating that the company’s AnimeNEXT panel won’t feature any announcements, favoring a focus on the process of submitting work to Del Rey. (Of course, it’s entirely possible that Del Rey is saving its licensing announcements for the bigger publicity glare offered by the San Diego Comic-Con in July.)

Which refers to what I wrote in this post:

Let me say up front that I won’t be announcing any new acquisitions on that day (sorry, we’ve got all those announcements saved for San Diego Comic-con next month)

So, yes, David, that is entirely possible.

Ah, ignore me. I’m in a crabby mood today. I still love ya, man.

So here’s the deal: When AnimeNEXT starts up next Friday, June 20, yours truly will be there performing the comedy stylings of the Del Rey Manga panel. Let me say up front that I won’t be announcing any new acquisitions on that day (sorry, we’ve got all those announcements saved for San Diego Comic-con next month), but if you’ve ever attended one of my panels, you know I don’t usually lack for stories to tell.

But I’m going to take a slightly different tack in this panel, and I need some guidance. I’m going to spend a fair amount of time talking to people about what we look for in submissions, and try to offer some advice for how to break into this industry. What would help me most would be knowing exactly what it is you want to know. Do you want me to talk about the pitch? The contract? What’s selling, and what’s not? If you’re attending and there’s anything in particular that I can help you with, now is the time to tell me. That way I can be prepared next week.

If you’re going to be attending the panel - which is Friday at 5PM, by the way - post anything you want me to talk about in the comments on this blog, and I’ll do my best to fit your requests into my little talk.

I’m not known in my family for being an adventurous eater, although I’m better at it than some. Still, people change, and as I’ve grown older I’ve discovered a willingness to try new things that just wasn’t there before. So on this last trip I finally had some real Japanese sushi.

First, you need to understand that something like 20% of the world’s supply of fish come through the Tsukiji Market. (Or at least that’s what my boss told me. He has a tendency to exaggerate sometimes.) Regardless, that means that you can get some seriously fresh fish in Tokyo. Little did I know that on this trip, I was going to learn what fresh really meant.

Scott (the boss) and I went to a great sushi place in the hotel one night. It was fantastic, but we noticed that what we were receiving was pretty different from what the Japanese locals were eating. Unfortunately, we didn’t pick up on that until late in the meal, but Scott was really disappointed. So when our Japanese-speaking colleague (Mutsumi) joined us for dinner a couple of nights later, we went back for round two. And this time, Mutsumi explained that we wanted the Japanese course.

Lots of good food there. Sea urchin, tuna, squid, to name just a few. The squid was so fresh… well, the chef pikced up a piece of squid and looked at us and said “You want to know how fresh this is?” Then he slapped it down on the cutting board - and it squirmed. It was so fresh that the nerve endings were still working. The old me would have skipped over what turned out to be a tasty delicacy. And if the old me would have had trouble with that, he would probably have run screaming from the room with the next course.

The chef brought out three live shrimp. He lined them up - and then he sliced their heads off. He ripped off the carapace, cleaned off the meat, applied a little wasabi and rice, and slid them over to us. Still moving a little. And they were tasty.

A little later, they brought out the heads, which had been deep fried. Mm, shrimp brains!

I always worry that I’m going to embarrass myself in this blog… the more worldly among you may be laughing at my quaint country ways. But I’ve always been more of a meat-and-potatoes guy, so this was a big shift for me. A squirmy, delicious shift…

Speaking of things I don’t know, which I actually do a lot, and of which there are quite a few, the Rev. Paul L. Vasquez wrote a comment in yesterday’s blog post about the Sumo matches I saw last week. In it, he tries to explain why the cushions were thrown at the end of the match, but his explanation only left me more confused. I was only kidding when I said people did it because sitting seiza style was uncomfortable, but apparently it happens “when the yokozuna lose”.

Dude. From the post: My brain, Sumo wrestling, barely fill a thimble.

In fairness, I should point out that most sports leave me mystified, not just Sumo wrestling.

While most of last week was spent in a lot of long meetings, there was some time available to have fun and do a little touristing. And while it has never actually occurred to me to attend a Sumo match while in Japan, the opportunity presented itself in a big way: One of the executives at Kodansha asked us if we would like ringside seats. To which we could only say: Yes. Yes, we would.

Now, what I know about Sumo wrestling could fill a thimble with room left over for a shot of espresso. (I don’t even know if you’re supposed to capitalize the S in Sumo; it just seems more respectful, somehow.) The actual matches themselves are amazingly short - as little as 10 seconds, never more than about a minute. But the stuff that comes in between lasts for five to ten minutes. I imagine it would be like watching American football if you’ve never heard of the game before: You get that the ball has to go from end to end on the field, but all the time spent watching referees make hand signals and coaches yelling wouldn’t make much sense.

It’s tempting to make jokes about the outfits, but since any one of these guys could clearly crush me down small enough to fit in that thimble I mentioned, I’ll just point this out: Before the matches begin, the wrestlers march out in aprons emblazoned with the logo of whatever company is sponsoring them. Just like Nascar.

We even had a celebrity sighting. We saw a lot of pictures being taken in the audience in between matches, so I walked over to see what was up. Guess who it was? Don King! Not that my pictures are any proof. You’ll just have to take my word for it.

Everyone sat on cushions on the floor, which was excruciating for a gaijin like myself. But apparently even the locals felt this way, as when the final match ended, everyone picked up their cushions and hurled them across the stadium!

And then we left for sushi, but that’s a story for another time.

Rory Root passed away while I was in Japan last week.

I met Rory 20 years ago while I was a student at UC Berkeley. His store, Comic Relief, was packed with comics and books from around the world. I bought my first manga from Rory, and I remember when he encouraged me to try some zines from a then unknown artist named Adrian Tomine. Overall, being in his store made me feel the way I do now when I wander into the manga aisles in Japan; a sense of wonder at all the material out there that I’ve never seen before. Rory’s life’s work was to create a store that was rich with art from around the world, and to expose everyone to work they’d never seen before.

In the early nineties, frustrated by my inability to get a job in the comics industry, I published a fanzine of my own called the Bay Area Comics Review. I’ve mentioned it a few times here. When I created it I knew nothing about layout, so when it came time to design the thing I cribbed from Comic Relief’s own publication, Boing. While the content was different, the layout was identical. I showed it to Rory, and he called me on it immediately. And then asked me what he could do to help make it a success.

I encountered Rory every year at comics shows. Sometimes we would talk about what we were both reading, other times we’d talk about the type of glue used in binding Viz trade paperbacks. I’ve encountered a lot of frustrated people in the comics industry, but Rory wasn’t like that; his criticism was always, always constructive. I learned a lot about the business from listening to him, and I learned a lot about comics from shopping at Comic Relief. Rory’s passion for comics, and his dedication to simply getting more people to read them, were unmatched. We have lost a truly great voice for this medium that we all love so much.

Rory never missed a beat. My final communication with him was last February when I started writing about Bay Area Comics Review. I promised my readers that I would go into great detail about the fanzine, how it was made, and the effect it had on my career. Rory read that blog entry and wrote to ask me “If when you discuss your newsletter, Boing comes up please remember that Alex Amado and Corey Bridges were the editors. Both have gone on to much success in the computer world.”

Rest in peace, Rory. You made the world a better place with your passion, caring and humor.

I’m flying to Tokyo tomorrow morning, so I haven’t got a lot of time right now. Just wanted to stop off and let you know I will be blogging from Japan for the next week, with pictures and all, so it should be interesting. Certainly more interesting than the blank space you’ve seen if you’ve been coming by to read the blog recently!

But to tide you over, here is how I spent “Bring Your Kids to Work Day” a couple of weeks ago:

Yep, that’s me in there. It’s how I really spend my time when I say I’m in a “meeting”.

I love doing panels at cons. If you’ve ever stopped by a Del Rey Manga panel, I hope that’s self evident. I ham it up something fierce, and I tell a lot of stories about some of the funny things that happen when you’re an American manga publisher.

Example: Sayonara, Zetsubou Sensei. When we announced this one last month at the NYCC there was an audible gasp from the crowd and even a few cheers. We knew it was on people’s radar, but this was gratifying nonetheless. So here’s the story I told about the title. American manga publishers always come up against this problem eventually - do you translate the Japanese title into English or not? There are valid arguments on both sides. The Wallflower is known in Japan as Yamatanadeshiko Shichihenge, for example. Now, my personal feeling was that Sayonara, Zetsubou Sensei was fine as is. Most Americans know the Japanese word sayonaraand most manga readers know the word sensei. That just left “Zetsubou”, the main character’s name (which also means “despair”), and I was confident readers would be able to work this one out.

Our sales department voiced a concern, and we were able to convince them it would be fine. But then our Japanese licensors voiced the same concern and asked us to change the title. We threw a few around. “Goodbye Teacher Despair” came up along with a few others, but nothing really stuck.

In the end we compromised; we would keep the original Japanese title but we would add an English subtitle. I was quote proud of what we came up with. It was a title that captured the story and the humor of the book. When the book hits stores early next year, you’ll be able to buy Sayonara, Zetsubou Sensei: The Power of Negative Thinking. I hope you enjoy it.

But speaking of panels, I did another panel last month just before the Comic-Con. I was invited by Gina Gagliano (who I’m convinced is the most connected person in comics) to speak to a group of teens at the New York Public LIbrary about comics and manga. I was joined by Laura Hudson of Comics Foundry. Now, I’m more used to giving talks at cons, where the audience is friendly and well-versed in not just manga, but the business of manga. And I know the business of manga, and that’s why it’s so easy to do panels at cons.

This wasn’t like that. I mean, it was still easy, and the kids were great, and Laura was great, and it was loads of fun. I’d do it again in a heartbeat. But there I am trying to talk about how manga gets published when one kids yells out: “Is Superman an illegal alien?” And Laura and I get into a heated debate about whether this is the pre- or post-crisis Superman, and the kids are eating it up. Next question, “Who would win in a fight, Hulk or Juggernaut?” was easily handled. And so on through the evening. My inner comics nerd was allowed to blossom in a way it hasn’t for many year, and it was good. Damn good.

It’s a big day tomorrow - it’s Free Comic Book Day! And Del Rey will be there in style with a preview of In Odd We Trust, which can be found in the Dabel Brothers sampler. In Odd We Trust is a collaboration between best-selilng author Dean Koontz and manga superstar Queenie Chan. Be sure to check it out.

Plus! Yokaiden author Nina Matsumoto will have her Simpsons story in the Bongo Comics sampler! You must check this out as well! I command you!! (Sorry, I was reading an article about Jack Kirby earlier.)

BTW, I completely suck for not blogging for so long. I’ll get back on the wagon on Monday with many, many stories to tell. (That’s the one good thing about not blogging for so long.)