Entry tags:

dramaqueen, icekuinion, mediablasters, new titles, pwcw, yen

How to Turn ICE into Yen (PWCW)
Confirming some rumors I had heard as early as BookExpo, PW's Comics Week's Kai-Ming Cha reports that new manga publisher Yen Press has absorbed ICE Kunion and will be bringing back all licensed titles starting in 2008. Part of the deal brokered by Yen Press Co-director of Publishing Kurt Hassler was to also bring in ICE Kunion's former Editorial Director JuYoun Lee as Yen's new Senior Editor. Lee will not only handle all of the Korean properties that were under ICE but she will now be in charge of all of Yen's titles - licensed and new works. Lee will also edit Yen's coming anthology.

At Yen Press, Lee will oversee all projects—from Korean manhwa and Japanese manga licenses to original projects. “I wanted to bring on a senior editor with lots of practical experience with manga and manhwa in the Asian market,” said Hassler. “That’s not something you can find here. Ju-Youn was already working on translated [Japanese] material and original material.”

In the article Hassler states that Yen will be phasing out the ICE brand name and all books will be under Hachette's Yen Press imprint. Books will be solicited for May 2008 and they will be distributed through Diamond (direct market) and Hachette (to bookstores).

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KM Cha-sempai also confirmed that DramaQueen LLC will be launching their mysterious yet to be named "action line" in the near future. Korean title Spam Mail Hunter (previously found in a Consortium listing) will be their debut title. Managing Editor Tran Nguyen mentioned that the publisher is looking to diversify a bit from their yaoi roots. DramaQueen is apparently looking for a name for the imprint. I would suggest sending ideas to info@onedramaqueen.com.

KM also noted that MediaBlasters announced two new titles at Otakon. One is a quirky bishojo manga about fujoshi called Mousou Shoujo Otaku-Kei. Contrary to PWCW's info this is not a yaoi title. This is a series about yaoi fans that imagine the boys in their world as gay couples! This series is currently being released in Japan in the same magazine as High School Girls and Kodomo no Jikan. MediaBlasters also has picked up the rights to a title called Family. The first series that comes to mind is Watanabe Taeko's (Kaze Hikaru) josei series from Shogakukan about an American family called the Andersons... Some how I don't think MediaBlasters (or anyone else for that matter) would go for a title like that. If anyone has a clue which Family this is let me know. I'll try to contact Frankie to get details.

MediaBlasters

妄想少女オタク系　 by: 紺條　夏生 Mousou Shoujo Otaku-kei by: Futabasha/Comics High 3+ vols/seinen

ファミリー by：　XXX Family by: XXXX XXX/XXX