Links: Digital manga news

Are Japanese publishers finally getting serious about combating piracy? Nearly 40 Japanese companies have banded together to launch JManga, an online manga reader that will include a mixture of free and paid content. Brigid Alverson has a summary of the JManga Comic-Con panel.

Sean Gaffney offers a thoughtful round-up of manga-related news from SDCC 2011. As Sean notes, this may be the first time in recent memory that none of the manga publishers made a big, splashy licensing announcement at Comic-Con; instead, companies such as VIZ Media focused more on how they were distributing comics than which comics they were distributing.

In her latest Tech Friday column, Manga Mom and GC4K contributor Lori Henderson praises VIZ’s new digital manga initiative, Vizmanga.com. “This is the equality and freedom that manga needs to be really be successful in the digital realm,” she argues. “And Viz is doing it right.”

How does the Square Enix manga site stack up against the newly launched Vizmanga.com? Melinda Beasi is on the case.

And speaking of online manga reading services, Ed Sizemore test drives a new app that promises English-speaking readers access to dozens of Osamu Tezuka’s best-loved stories.

Reviews

Johanna Draper Carlson on Anne Steelyard, The Cape, Lords of Death & Life, and Telling Tales (Comics Worth Reading)
Kevin Hodgson on Athena: Grey-Eyed Goddess (Graphic Classroom)
Michael Hicks on Baltimore, Vol. 1: The Plague Ships (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Karen Maeda on Basic Anatomy for the Manga Artist (Sequential Tart)
Michael Hicks on Batman & Robin, Vol. 3: Batman Must Die! (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Chris Wilson on Benny and Penny in The Toy Breaker (Graphic Classroom)
Rob McMonigal on Captain America: Man Out of Time (Panel Patter)
Rob McMonigal on vol. 5 of Cat Paradise (Panel Patter)
Johanna Draper Carlson on Invincible Iron Man #506: Fear Itself (Comics Worth Reading)
Anna Neatrour on vols. 3-4 of Kamisama Kiss (Manga Report)
Rob Clough on Level Up! (The Comics Journal)
Karen Maeda on vol. 5 of Library Wars: Love & War (Sequential Tart)
Nathan Wilson on The Little Endless Storybook (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Kate Dacey on vol. 1 of Magic Knight Rayearth (The Manga Critic)
Greg McElhatton on Malinky Robot: Collected Stories and Other Bits (Read About Comics)
Brigid Alverson on Mameshiba on the Loose! (MTV Geek)
Anna Neatrour on vol. 1 of Moon and Blood (Manga Report)
Anna Neatrour on vols. 3-4 of The Story of Saiunkoku (Manga Report)
Danica Davidson on Taro and the Carnival of Doom (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Michael Hicks on Uncanny X-Force: The Apocalypse Solution (Graphic Novel Reporter)

Filed under: Manga, News