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Digital Manga's Clockwork Apple Kickstarter Reaches Stretch Goal to Reprint Barbara

North American publisher Digital Manga's Clockwork Apple Kickstarter campaign reached its second stretch goal to print Osamu Tezuka's manga Barbara on Wednesday.

Digital Manga successfully funded a campaign to publish Barbara in 2012. The English release of Barbara was nominated for an Eisner award in 2013.

The Kickstarter's initial goal was to publish Tezuka's short story collection Clockwork Apple in English, and its first stretch goal was to publish Tezuka's Brave Dan. As of press time, the Kickstarter has earned US$22,900 with seven days remaining.

Digital Manga also added a third stretch goal on Wednesday to reprint Tezuka's Swallowing the Earth. The company will reprint the manga if the Kickstarter reaches US$28,400.

Digital Manga published Swallowing the Earth for mature readers in 2009, and used Kickstarter in 2011 to reprint the book.

Digital Manga describes Swallowing the Earth:

Amidst the chaos of World War II, two Japanese sailors hear of Zephyrus, an utterly captivating woman in the South Pacific. Many years have since passed, and now Zephyrus has resurfaced in Japan, wielding her mysterious power over all men to exact revenge for their crimes against women since the beginning of time! Gohonmatsu Seki is the only man with the ability to resist her allure, but even he seems ill-equipped to save his gender!

The stretch goal titles will be printed on the same higher quality paper as Clockwork Apple.

Digital Manga also used Kickstarter to raise funds to print Tezuka's Ludwig B and and Captain Ken manga. Most recently, Digital Manga funded its release of Tezuka's Alabaster manga through Kickstarter.

Digital Manga's Kickstarter campaign to publish Tezuka's 13-volume The Three-eyed One manga and seven-volume Rainbow Parakeet manga failed to meet its US$380,000 goal last year. Digital Manga president Hikaru Sasahara said that he originally wanted to use Kickstarter to fund 50-70 books a year, but has switched to a goal of 20-30 volumes in order to lower the cost of publishing including licensing fees, advanced royalties, labor, and other expenses. He added that he would like to launch a new campaign for one to five books almost every month, with a week or two in between each campaign.

Thanks to Daniel Zelter for the news tip.