New York Anime Festival and ICv2 Conference on Anime and Manga

Go! Comi

Go! Comi was represented at the New York Anime Fest by chief executive officer David Wise and two authors of its original comics: Masque of the Red Death's Wendy Pini and Japan Ai's Aimee Major Steinberger. The bulk of the panel was taken up by promotional trailers and other materials for these two works. Masque of the Red Death is a science fiction take on the classic Edgar Allen Poe short story. Go! Comi is serializing Pini's version online and plans to eventually begin releasing it in book form. Japan Ai is a humorous graphical dairy of Steinberger's trip to Japan. In its pages, she looks at such highlights of the trip as being introduced to Japanese bathrooms, using a public bath, and simply being a foreigner who stands over six feet tall without heels.

Earlier in the week, after listings for what appeared to be several new Go! Comi manga licenses were noticed on Amazon.com, Wise denied — tongue-in-cheek — the report but mentioned that "the truth" about them may or may not be revealed at the panel. Unsurprisingly, as the hour opened, he confirmed that his company has acquired the rights to translate and publish in the United States Shioko Mizuki's Three in Love, Yūko Ichijū's Bogle, Lay Mutsuki's Yggdrasil, Toriko Gin's Song of the Hanging Sky (Go! Comi's first title licensed from publisher Enterbrain, Inc.), and Tomomasa Takuma's Kurogane Communication, which was adapted into a 24-episode television series that was released in America by Media Blasters and broadcast on ImaginAsian TV. Takuma is also the artist of Go! Comi's TRAIN+TRAIN. Wise did mention that the dates listed for all of the manga's listings on Amazon are incorrect, and that instead of specific publication dates, Go! Comi tends to think in terms of "release months."

In addition, Go! Comi will be publishing the Ultimate Venus manga from Takako Shigematsu, the author of its successful Tenshi Ja Nai!! release.