New York ComicCon 2007

Tokyopop

New York Comic-Con's Tokyopop panel was introduced by one of the company's editors, Lilian Diaz-Przbyl. She was joined by several writers and artists behind some of Tokyopop's original titles, such as Dramacon, Divalicious, and My Dead Girlfriend.

After talking with each of the panelists about the manga they write and draw, Lilian began a presentation of the major Japanese, Korean, and original titles Tokyopop will be working on in 2007. After various production delays, Clamp no Kiseki will be returning to store shelves, with volumes scheduled for July, August and October. Unfortunately, the cardboard packaging used on the volumes released so far has been extremely expensive, and one of the major reasons for the production delays. The new release will use different packaging, but the price will be reduced by Ten Dollars, to $19.95. Other projects that will see their next volumes released through the year include the second volume of Jake Forbes' Return to Labyrinth, the Dark Crystal manga, Wild Adapter, Gravitation EX, Mugen Spiral (August), Vampire Doll (May) and Trinity Blood. The first volume of Tactics will be in stores in April, and the first volume of Aqua, in October. Peacemaker is also scheduled for release in 2007. As previously announced, Tokyopop is partnering with Harper Collins to publish manga based on the Avalon High, Vampire Kisses and Warriors novels. Tokyopop will also continue translating and releasing Japanese novels, both those related to anime and manga properties. The two series of Trinity Blood novels will start in April and August respectively. Each subsequent volume will come out six months after the previous in the series. Thus, a new Trinity Blood volume will be hit the stores every three months. The 12 Kingdoms novel is also slated for publication in 2007, as is Chain Mail, which so far has no anime or manga connection.

Finally, as the panel drew to a close, Lilian moved into a string of license announcements. New Tokyopop manga include King of Thorn, Brave Story, Monochrome Factor, Kingdom Hearts II, Cherry Juice, Kodamono Damono, Heaven!!, Pick of the Litter, Missing, Kuruzaki no Hana, and Baku. And further expanding its line of fiction titles, Tokyopop will be translating and publishing the Full Metal Panic! and Welcome to the N.H.K. novels, as well as Calling You, and original novels Alex Unlimited and Ai-chan Chronicles. Beyond manga and novels, Tokyopop is translating the Fruits Basket fanbook (scheduled for a September 2007 release), and, after a redesign of the tokyopop.com website to promote fan-created content, is now looking to add further features interactive features. These will include online manga with a variety of sound and other effects, as well as fully animated shorts based on some of Tokyopop's existing properties.