Digital Manga Publishing has entered into a new partnership deal with Tezuka Productions to bring a solid backlist of Tezuka’s manga titles to the English speaking market. The slate of titles includes a lot of them that have not yet been adapted and published beyond the shores of Japan. The effort to do so will be done by utilizing Digital Manga’s localizing production, the Digital Manga Guild—to publish and distribute in digital editions.
“Tezuka Productions—the Japanese production studio founded by the Father of Manga, Osamu Tezuka, and brought to the anime and manga fandom famous works that stirred controversial, political and cultural awareness to the masses since the 50’s, for such titles as Astro Boy, Unico, Budda, Blackjack, etc.—specifically appointed the Digital Manga Guild to localize their library to English, and then eventually to other languages. Tezuka Productions believes that DMI’s Digital Manga Guild, which brings together the enthusiastic and energizing spirit of the manga/anime fandom in a co-op revenue share venture between Japanese publishers, manga localizers (comprised primarily of manga/anime fans) and Digital Manga, follows the spirit of community and membership, which is in-line with the same philosophy of Osamu Tezuka’s vision of his works through Tezuka Productions.”
“With over 250 of Tezuka Productions’ works untapped to the rest of the manga reading world, it’s the Digital Manga Guild’s privilege, pride and joy to be able to undertake this huge localization task and to help fulfill every manga translator, editor, and typesetter’s dream to work on such high profile projects. Digital Manga welcomes all localizers, especially Tezuka fans, to join the Digital Manga Guild, digitalmangaguild.com, and participate in the localization efforts to bring these great works to the rest of the world. Some of the most notable works DMG will start will be titles such as The Three-Eyed One, Vampires, Metamorphosis, Big X, and Rainbow Parakeet.”
Plans for publishing the backlist of titles are tentatively set for Spring 2014, first with releasing digitally, Digital Manga’s already published English Tezuka works—Barbara, Swallowing the Earth, Unico, Atomcat, and Triton of the Sea on eManga.com—in development in the eManga platform, will be a specially dedicated section for all things Tezuka.