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Forum - View topicNEWS: Dark Horse Drops Monthly Blade of the Immortal Issues
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Avacado Burger
 Posts: 85 |
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It's about time! You get way more out of the graphic novel format, than a flimsy 32 page "comic". I remember buying many of the Ranma manga in the comic format way back when, and it cost quite a bit...
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Beatdigga
 Posts: 4626 Location: New York |
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This is the future, even if DC and Marvel aren't exactly on board.
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hikura
Posts: 565 |
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It isn't surprising to me even though i brought the comic book on a monthly basis.I do not mind but i buy a lot of graphic novels but my shelf space is running out.I found the comic books were easier to store.
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CMB
Posts: 44 Location: Lock Haven, Pa. |
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That works for me, as I've been buying the trades from the start.
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GreenDragoon
Posts: 14 Location: Nashville, TN, USA |
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This makes a great deal of sense. I used to buy some Western comics (pretty much all Dark Horse series such as Hellboy and Star Wars) in the monthly format, but have long since stopped. There are just so many downsides to the "pamphlet" format - they're more expensive than trade paperbacks, they contain vast numbers of annoying advertisements, they're difficult to store, they're flimsy and thus fall apart very easily, they're too short to contain much of a satisfying story, etc.
I've purchased several of the collected volumes of Blade of the Immortal, and absolutely loved them. I never would have considered buying the monthly issues, and since that form of distribution is so uncommon these days in the manga world to begin with, I would imagine most other readers feel much the same. |
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kokuryu
 Posts: 915 |
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I would rather have the weekly anthology magazines like Shonen Ace and whatnot that come out in Japan...
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Berserkfury819
 Posts: 229 Location: Detroit Mi. Spider-Man is dead. R.I.P. |
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ABOUT FRICKIN TIME! Now if we can only get it unflipped.
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GATSU
Posts: 15594 |
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Berserk: And with numbers on the covers to tell them apart. Oh, and consistent pricing.
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Kagemusha
 Posts: 2783 Location: Boston |
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It was only a matter of time, and the editor has been hinting at it for months. As long as they stick with the high-quality trades I'm cool.
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Brand
 Posts: 1029 |
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As far as I know you won't ever see that, as the format they have now is the way the creator wants them to come out. They are not really flipped in the true sense either, they actually reposition the panels to be in English reading order. It is not just simply a mirrored image of the art, like other older manga titles. |
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arxane
 Posts: 447 |
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As far as I can see, Hiroaki Samura only requested that his artwork not be flipped, not necessarily that they rearrange the original artwork into left-to-right but still unflipped volumes. Remember, the series was published back when flipping was the norm, so I'm thinking Dark Horse thought of this method themselves to keep the left-to-right format while respecting Samura's wishes. The method used for "Blade of the Immortal" isn't without flaws, however. Some panels, because of how they're positioned together, require the need to be flipped, which might also require editing in the few flipped panels (like redrawing a scar on the correct cheek). Re-releasing the series would be a good idea, in my opinion. Not only because it makes the series consistent with most manga released today, but the volumes can have the same number of pages as the Japanese volumes do (the English versions currently have a smaller number of pages compared to the Japanese ones). Or perhaps Dark Horse could release the series in Omnibus editions, like they're doing with the original "Gunsmith Cats". |
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Turkishproverb
Posts: 43 Location: Pergatorio. |
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Now you see, I like that idea. You keep the origional format, and add a "SPecial" format with the origional desighn to keep both fanbases happy. |
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Fairyland
Posts: 1 |
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If I'm not mistaken, this is the final death of Studio Proteus's Toren Smith single issue handiwork and I'm glad for it! If you don't know anything about this, please check out the wiki about Studio Proteus for a quick update in history. I absolutely cannot see why some in fandom gives this man incredible admiration, as he had done quite a lot of insulting things to loose my respect.
If anyone was a fan of the old Studio Proteus website, you'd remember that he was a rude, extremely full of himself, arrogant person that detested the then modern USA fandom. Basically he was an elitist dinosaur slowly loosing touch with reality and you can see it with his posts that he was struggling to defend his actions with rudeness while his competition was winning. He thought his way of doing things was right based on his many years of doing things correctly when the hobby was growing and that what was happening around him was merely a fad that would soon die off. He firmly believed that he would end up the winner as his stuff was top notch respectable product and everyone else was crap. But, he was wrong. Very wrong. One of his biggest faults is not dropping that dreaded 32 page comic format and switching to a quick cheap graphic novel release format. I will bet that it was because he could not milk fandom for the $2.95 a book anymore and forcing them to wait over a year later to get the 16.95 GNs. Tokyopop and Viz, he insulted many times over for switching to smaller cheaper all graphic novel formats and not flipping the pages. He thought America would never tolerate unflipped manga for whatever reason. I could never see it. I personally remember the first unflipped comic manga (Evangelion) and I never found it that hard to get adjusted to. It only added to the mystery and alieness of Japan, which was cool! If I remember correctly, he did not think shoujo would ever be popular. I never understood why, but I'm sure he had reasons. He also hated manga based on famous (in the USA) anime. I think it was because his releases was always about what he perceived to be as high brow quality manga. He was not very fan friendly and did not like the fans liking series because they seen the anime first. He wanted to cater to people who read manga because of the true art form. That's really foolish thinking, as what better way to generate sales than to cater to the fans who want popular series? Another thing I remember him detesting with a passion was fan subbers of manga. I've actually had a friend that Toren tore into big time for saying he was a fansubber of Dragon Half manga and was interested in how to get a job as a translator there based on his work on that project. Oh, and I know he hated the other companies for leaving the sound effects untranslated and unedited. I can give him props on that one. I can go on and on if I had a better memory. Anyway, I don't know what happened after all the single issue sales tanked and faded away one by one. I became a Tokyopop and Viz supporter by then and Dark Horse was not on my radar other than Oh My Goddess. Obviously Dark Horse wanted greater control with the GN release schedule. I believe that they bought him out to do their thing in a more modern and profitable way. It's said he's an adviser and translator there, but I bet he's not too happy how things turned out. I've never seen any modern interviews about him and he seems to now be a forgotten part of history. So I'm glad that the last single issue manga comic format is gone. It was a format some 5 to 7 years dead if I'm not mistaken. In fact I was not even aware that any one was still releasing manga comics in this format anymore. I wish Dark Horse all the best with releasing all their BotI manga in the fan friendly format! |
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Rawshark
Posts: 28 |
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It says in the article, Mike Richardson, Dark Horse owner, preferred releasing the monthlies, not Toren Smith.
I'm kind of shocked from the lack of replies on this thread and seeing the sales consistently fall in the article. BotI is one of the best mangas released here and it seems like no one cares. Hopefully they'll announce unflipped rerelease of BotI and get some more publicity to this unfortunately overlooked series. |
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hagakure|returns
Posts: 407 |
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In case you didn't know, Blade of the Immortal has been released in graphic novel format for the past 9 years. So there was always a choice for those that don't want the 32page monthlies. |
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