353
Backers
$17,032
pledged of $6,500 goal
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Funding Successful
This project successfully raised its funding goal on February 13.
Pledge $5 or more Pledge $5 or more
Six issues of the Astro Boy Magazine on eManga.com (an $18 value) or $10 worth of online manga at eManga.com and your name on an acknowledgments page on the DMP Platinum Web site. Thanks for supporting awesome manga!
Pledge $25 or more Pledge $25 or more
The $5 reward plus a copy of the complete "Barbara" by Osamu Tezuka.
Pledge $35 or more Pledge $35 or more
Barbara Plus: The $25 rewards plus a PDF copy of the DMP Platinum Digital Companion to Barbara, with bonus art and commentary on the manga. This digital companion will be available EXCLUSIVELY to backers of this project -- those who wait to buy at retail will miss out!
Pledge $60 or more Pledge $60 or more
The Complete DMP Platinum Pack: The $35 reward plus a new copy of "Osamu Tezuka's Swallowing the Earth" and a two-volume hardcover box set of the complete Speed Racer manga.
Pledge $60 or more Pledge $60 or more
Barbara Plus Five: The Barbara Plus reward and 5 volumes of any manga from the list to the left OR one extra volume from the list and a second copy of Barbara to share with family, friends or even your local library.
Pledge $60 or more Pledge $60 or more
Barbara Plus T-SHIRT: The $35 reward plus an original Tezuka tribute T-shirt made and designed in the USA and printed exclusively for Digital Manga by Forward Printing in Oakland, CA!
Pledge $70 or more Pledge $70 or more
Barbara Producer Pack: Your choice of the $60 rewards PLUS membership in the Barbara Production Committee: receive periodic updates on the production and get a chance to weigh in on the logo and cover art, and have YOUR NAME printed in the Acknowledgments section of the book!
Pledge $110 or more Pledge $110 or more
Producer + POSTER: The Barbara Producer Pack plus a limited-edition Tezuka tribute poster screen-printed exclusively for Digital Manga at Two Rabbits Studios right here in Los Angeles (artist will be finalized soon)!
Pledge $110 or more Pledge $110 or more
Producer Plus Eight: Either of the $70 rewards plus 8 more volumes of manga from the list to the left.
Pledge $145 or more Pledge $145 or more
Muse Pack: One of the $110 rewards plus a copy of Swallowing the Earth SIGNED to you by forward author, respected writer and friend of Tezuka Frederick L. Schodt; a personal thank-you note from Digital Manga President Hikaru Sasahara; your name at the TOP of the acknowledgments page in the book and a tour of the Digital Manga office next time you're in LA!
Project By
Connected as Hikaru Sasahara (35 friends)
Digital Manga, Inc. (DMI) is one of the industry's most unconventional and innovative companies, specializing in building corporate and cultural bridges from Japan to the Western Hemisphere - specifically through the licensing, importation and preparation of anime (Japanese animation), manga (Japanese comic books) and related merchandise for the North American mainstream and subculture markets. In this capacity, DMI serves as a catalyst for the expansion of Japanese pop culture institutions into global arenas.
I'm not sure why Amazon has a release date in September. We haven't changed our release date.
There is now a pre-order page for Barbara on Amazon with a release date in September. If this official (and not some placeholder) I think it's time for an update.
Curious about the status of this project. It's been quiet.
Another update should be coming this week, if all goes according to plan. Thanks for your patience!
When will we be seeing another update on the progress of this project? I'm curious to know how everything is going :)
February has come and gone, but I still haven't gotten my $5 reward. Has anyone else?
Still having trouble with those codes?
Rose of Versailles sounds like a hell of a plan, because it would be a bit less speculative if DMP were able to contact Ikeda...
Other things I'd love to see: Tezuka's 'Midnight,' or 'Rainbow Parakeet.' Anything we haven't already got into English by Fumi Yoshinaga. And, since you asked about manhwa, Tokyopop did a really shoddy translation of the first two volumes of a really beautiful manhwa called 'Hotel Africa' - it's one of my favourite things ever, and it really, really deserves a license rescue... perhaps crowdsourcing would be the only way to do it, since it was promoted and sold badly in the first place. Another really lovely manga which was owned by a defunct publishing house was 'Song of the Hanging Sky.' I want to keep reading so, so badly, but there's no anime, no scans... nothing.
I'll be sending out the eManga.com rewards in the next few weeks. We've had a little technical trouble issuing the codes.
Ben
When do we get our eManga stuff?
@Gregory thanks for elaborating on that. It sounds like an interesting read that I really hope can be brought over sometime, though I can see where it would be problematic. I guess I can look for it around the time Song of the South gets a US video release (I'm still amazed it had a theatrical rerelease recently enough for me to have seen it as a child).
Yep Michael, you're missing the most obvious issue - touchy racial stuff. digitalmanga is alluding to the story "The Snake Has Two Heads". Tezuka imagined a "future world" of the late 1990's where the USA has an equal population of Whites and Blacks. The story is about a white racist gangster who's young son decides, after hearing the truth about his father, that he'd rather be black than white. The father, after losing his son "debases" himself to seek aid from the Black police inspector and is turned upon by his gang. In the end, the young son (in black body paint) rushes to his father just as he gets flattened by a truck.
If you look at it from a late sixties, Japanese take on the civil rights movement going on in the USA at the time, it's quite interesting. All the good guys are black, all the bad guys are white. Of course... the black guys are BLACK... like "as midnight in a mine a mile underground black" and caricature-ish (although when aren't Tezuka's characters caricature-ish?), and I believe the Black police inspsectors name is "Punky"... so it might be dicey.
@digital manga I can really only think of two things that would fit into that category: depiction of sexual activity involving children and copyright/trademark clearance issues. Is there something I'm missing?
And Mary: I have read The Crater and I really enjoyed it. There are some stories in it (well, one in particular) that might be problematic to publish in the U.S.
We are absolutely going to be putting out another Tezuka title. Perhaps something with a lighter tone, since that's something people have been requesting.
So excited to have the chance to support English distribution of more Tezuka masterpieces! Will Digital Manga ever look into bringing over some of his short anthologies, like The Crater and others?
Very happy to help bring over a previously untranslated work of Tezuka's.
More updates coming soon. Just a little longer!
Wow.. missed Swallowing the Earth.. making it up with Barbara.. and excited!!!!
200%! Woooooooo! Thanks everyone!
200%!
Matthew, good news about Adolf. Vertical announced they're doing that back in October, but I don't think there's a release date for it yet.
Unico would be great but I would also like a republishing of Adolf too.
Oh, yeah, Unico would be awesome! I'm looking forward to the DiscoTek DVD release of the two movies in May :D
I am crossing my fingers for Unico next, kthanks :) Can't wait to get Barbara!
Monique, I would like to second the vote for Galaxy Express 999. Another Leiji Matsumoto work I would really love to see is "Battlefield", the source material for the "The Cockpit" OVA that was released here on VHS. I've wanted that one brought over ever since I read an excerpt from it in Fred Schodt's book "Manga! Manga!: The World of Japanese Comics".
Oh! I just finished looking through other comments so I hope its ok if I post again. I just wanted to say I would also love seeing Gegege no Kitaro, Rose of Versailles, and work by Moto Hagio (I loved Drunken Dream and Other Stories). And of course more works by Tezuka :)
Has anyone mentioned Galaxy Express 999? I know VIZ once published part of the series, but I was a bit young back then and missed out on it. Always wanted to read it though.
I absolutely love reading old and classic comics, especially classic manga! Thanks so much for doing this DMP. :) So much respect! :D
That's great to hear! I look forward to the survey!
We will definitely not be raising the pledge levels, but a hardcover edition is an interesting idea. Not all of the backers may want it, which makes me hesitant to offer any guarantees at this point, since we did say we would print it in paperback. It seems safer to wait until we can conduct the survey at the end of the campaign so that everyone can have their voices heard. (But at least from a cost standpoint, the way things are going we probably won't have much trouble doing a hardcover release if that's what people want.)
If you're taking suggestions for future releases, I'd like to put in a word for Tezuka's "Alabaster."
I did not think you would have another kickstarter up so soon. glad to see this is working so well for you guys, it must be exciting to see all this enthusiasm to get these books printed
Fantastic to see that there is so much interest for more translated Tezuka works. Just wondering if anyone else likes the idea of compact paperback editions, in the spirit of their Japanese counterparts.... Makes for lighter work when moving your collection from home to home to ???
Fingers crossed for works by Moto Hagio being considered for translation.
If this makes enough money I would like a hardcover release.
13 dollars for international shipping? Seems rather pricey, but this is such a good manga.
Well although I know nothing of the situation there is a difference between no interest and abject refusal. If she simply has no interest then that isn't stopping anyone negotiating.
And to clarify my earlier statement is there a pledge goal where the final release will be as a hardcover instead of a paperback... e.g. 15k-20k... higher or whatever. A point at which the pledges will offset the cost of doing a HB release, not sure how much more that requires.
I don't want to dampen anyone's enthusiasm, but there is very little hope of getting Rose of Versailles in English. I know a couple of people who have tried to the license the book and the mangaka, Riyoko Ikeda, simply has no interest in seeing it in English. Sorry. I've already decided to get the French editions myself.
I would like to an omnibus of Vampires, Unico, and whatever Helen McCarthey says is good.
A hardcover edition - nice idea. I would up my backing amount for something like that :)
So is there a funding goal whereby we shall get a hardcover =)
@digitalmanga - I can't wait to see the finished product, what a difference a day makes, yesterday it was just under 6,000 and now it is above 8,000, this is amazing!
I'm so happy to see this fully funded already! This is the first of Tezuka's work I've purchased, so I'm looking forward to reading it. I love the model you guys are using, and I do hope you can get ahold of "Rose of Versailles." I'd gladly contribute toward a translation of it!
Alexander: Right now on my desk there is a big pile of classic manga by female artists who are underrepresented in the U.S. My hope is you will not have to wait very long to see a shojo or josei title on Kickstarter.
YAY this getting over 100% funded is the best thing I have heard all day
Too true, and I think josei would do really well here in the US.
@digitalmanga - This is a great way to start with the Kickstarter campaign for newly published manga in English. My request for future content is just more josei manga - there are plenty of series to choose from, and not a lot published in the USA.
I third the Rose of Versailles. I am a sucker for works that have been vastly influential on their respective media.
I'd ask for Gegege no Kitaro but that one seems more complicated by a large margin.
Ooh -- I should dig out my copy of Shuna no Tabi!
I second the suggestion for an English release of The Rose of Versailles. I'd love to see that one!
@digitalmanga: Lineage is the one that my friends all still talk about, particularly since it's hard even for us to track it down through Korean bookstores here. I'm not sure what happened after ADV closed down its shop to the license though. And for Japanese classics - I'd like a good copy of Rose of Versailles in English or a translation of Hayao Miyazaki's Shuna no Tabi.