With the news that Dark Horse Comics was joining up with ComiXology, I was curious to see what the first blush list would look like when all was said and done with the launch. With a ton of material added, we wanted to break out the manga side of it. The publisher isn’t moving their singles to ComiXology, at least not yet, and their focus on the trade side makes sense since you want to get in there with the already released material, expand your market and then work with ComiXology’s parent company of Amazon, where ComiXology has been bringing a lot of material across the board that really makes the Kindle device more useful. ComiXology continues to work across multiple platforms, so it’s not Kindle specific and you can read on the web as well.
As part of the announcement, Dark Horse Comics has added at least 170 volumes of manga on the service, all at varying price points, that are worth checking out. Some of them have been out of print for years, making them very easily accessible now.
Appleseed (5 volumes with Appleseed ID)
Plot concept: You can’t have a perfect society without perfect people, and the only perfect people are the ones you can manufacture. The governing body of Olympus, an urban utopia created from the ashes of World War III, is about to bring paradise crashing down around their ears as they seek to regulate the minds and bodies of the human race… or fully replace them with cyborg substitutes.Deunan and Briareos, still new to the city, find themselves in the unlikely position of having to hold together this house of cards. Their strategy? Destroy the old foundation and pray everything stands while new underpinnings are forged!Story and art by Shirow Masamune.Printed in the original Japanese right-to-left format!
Astro Boy (8 volumes)
Plot concept: Built by a brilliant scientist to replace his lost son, but with powers beyond imagination, Astro Boy fights for the oppressed and helpless – human, alien, or robot.
Black Magic (1 volume)
Plot concept: Today, the planet Venus is a literal hell of furnace-like temperatures and dense, poisonous atmosphere. But millions of years in its past, Venus teemed with life and with a civilization far advanced to our own. The Nemisis supercomputer controls government functions, with bioroid “executors” created to carry out the system’s utopian edicts.But trouble brews even in paradise as different executors vie for control of Nemesis, forcing the governing system to secretly create Duna Typhon, a super-bioroid “sleeper,” raised among the human populace and ready to use her awesome powers should Nemesis be co-opted to turn paradise into paradise lost.Story and art by Shirow Masamune.Printed in original Japanese right-to-left format!
Blade of the Immortal (6 volumes)
Plot concept: To end his eternal suffering, he must slay one thousand enemies! Manji, a ronin warrior of feudal Japan, has been cursed with immortality. To rid himself of this curse and end his life of misery, he must slay one thousand evil men! His quest begins when a young girl seeks his help in taking revenge on her parents’ killers . . . and his quest won’t end until the blood of a thousand has spilled!
Blood+ (6 volumes)
Plot concept: Saya Otonashi, a seemingly normal high school student, suffers from amnesia and she can’t remember the past year of her life. One day, after a man appears and gives her a katana sword, her destiny begins to be revealed. Soon she finds herself fighting the latest threat to humanity – Chiropteran monsters, ravenous immortal creatures that can change their form, disguising themselves as human beings. They feed off blood and hide themselves within the human world. An organization known as the Red Shield has been waging a private war to wipe them out and now the struggle has grown. Saya’s journey for the truth has begun.
Blood-C (3 volumes)
Plot concept: Saya Kisaragi is a kindhearted, if somewhat clumsy, student who trains by day to perform standard religious duties at her father’s shrine — but she becomes an unstoppable, monster-slaying swordswoman by night! The saga that began in Blood: The Last Vampire and the Blood+ anime series continues here!
Bride of the Water God (17 volumes)
Plot concept: When Soah’s impoverished, desperate village decides to sacrifice her to the Water God Habaek to end a long drought, they believe that drowning one beautiful girl will save their entire community and bring much-needed rain. Not only is Soah surprised to be rescued by the Water God — instead of killed — she never imagined she’d be a welcomed guest in Habaek’s magical kingdom, where an exciting new life awaits her! Most surprising, however, is the Water God himself… and how very different he is from the monster Soah imagined.
Cardcaptor Sakura Omnibus (4 volumes)
Plot concept: Fourth-grader Sakura Kinomoto found a strange book in her father’s library — a book made by the wizard Clow to store dangerous spirits sealed within a set of magical cards. But when Sakura opened it up, there was nothing left inside but Kero-chan, the book’s cute little guardian beast, who informs Sakura that since the Clow cards seem to have escaped while he was asleep, it’s now her job to capture them!
Chobits (2 volumes)
Plot concept: Some people buy their personal computers based on style . . . and in near-future Japan, the hottest style for your “persocom” is shaped like an attractive android! Poor student Hideki, fresh off the farm and trying to get into a Tokyo university, has neither money nor a girlfriend — then finds a persocom seemingly discarded in an alley. Taking the cute robot home and activating it, Hideki finds her affectionate, but amnesiac, able only to say the word “Chi” — and so he names her. But who is this strange new persocom in his life? Instead of being his digital assistant, Hideki finds himself having to teach Chi how to get along in the everyday world, even while he and his friends try to solve the mystery of her origins. Is she one of the urban-legendary Chobits — persocoms built to have the riskiest functions of all: real emotions, and free will? * A crossover hit for both female and male readers, CLAMP’s best-selling manga ever in America is finally available in omnibus form! * The Chobits Omnibus Edition contains sixteen bonus color pages!
Crying Freeman (5 volumes)
Plot concept: He is Yo Himomura, deadly assassin for the 108 Dragons, the Chinese Mafia. But to the criminal underworld who fear him, he is known as Crying Freeman, the killer who sheds tears at the fate of his victims. Young, handsome, sensitive, an artist, Yo has been hypnotically programmed by his Dragon masters to kill on command: he cannot resist his masters’commands to kill, his masters cannot stop his tears of remorse. Written by the legendary Kazuo Koike, creator of Lone Wolf and Cub, and illustrated by the incomparable Ryoichi Ikegami, Crying Freeman is adult manga at its most challenging: dark, violent, morally complex, erotically charged, and regarded worldwide as one of the classics of adult graphic fiction. Dark Horse Manga is proud to present Crying Freeman, yet another of the jewels in the crown of manga classics, presented in its original right-to-left reading orientation. FOR MATURE READERS
Dominion (1 volume)
Plot concept: Welcome to the future of vast bio-constructed cities with crime so severe that the cops drive tanks! For top tank-cop Leona Ozaki (and her trusty tank, Bonaparte), the day-to-day is a tall order already, but when the villainous and sexy (and super-powered androids!) Puma sisters become duly deputized officers of the law and are assigned to “help” Leona catch Urushi-Maru, “The Skyscraper Pirate,” things are bound to get out of hand, especially in the midst of a full-on, tank-on-tank streetfight between Leona and a corrupt arms manufacturer bent on getting the city’s police tank contract! Produced by international comics superstar Shirow Masamune, creator of Appleseed and Ghost in the Shell, Dominion is an ecological-dystopian-police procedural adventure/comedy as only Shirow can create!
Drug and Drop (2 volumes)
Plot concept: The story of Drug & Drop picks up right where Legal Drug left off! Kazahaya awakens from a disturbing dream of the sister he had to part from, Kei–covered in blood and clutching him close to her. If it’s a case of seeing spirits, there’s one young man Kazahaya and Rikuo can go to for advice–a special guest character CLAMP fans know from xxxHolic and Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle–Kimihiro Watanuki!
Ghost Talker’s Daydream (6 volumes)
Plot concept: Ghost Talker’s Daydream is a horror anime created by Saki Okuse and Sankichi Meguro. It tells the story of Misaki Saiki, a young woman with a troubled past, who is a professional dominatrix in one of Tokyo’s most exclusive S&M clubs. However, her real money is something she likes even less than being a dominatrix. Ever since childhood, Misaki had the ability to see and communicate with ghosts, and that talent is put to use by the Livelihood Protection Agency, who has Misaki paired with Souichiro Kadotake, a martial-artist who happens to be deathly afraid of ghosts. Using her gifts, Misaki is able to help troubled departed spirits to resolve what is troubling them and allow them to move on to the afterlife. If all THAT isn’t odd enough, Misaki is an albino AND a virgin!
Kurosagi Corpse Delivery (13 volumes)
Plot concept: Your body is their business! Five young students at a Buddhist university, three guys and two girls, find little call for their job skills in today’s Tokyo… among the living, that is! But all that stuff in college they were told would never pay off – you know, channeling, dowsing, ESP – gives them a direct line to the dead… the dead who are still trapped in their corpses and can’t move on to the next reincarnation. The five form the Kurosagi (“Black Heron” – their ominous bird logo) Corpse Delivery Service: whether suicide, murder, accident, or illness, they’ll carry your body wherever it needs to go to free your soul! The kids from Kurosagi can smell a customer a mile away – it’s a good thing one of the girls majored in embalming!
Lady Snowblood (4 volumes)
Plot concept: From the pen of Kazuo Koike, of Lone Wolf and Cub fame, comesLady Snowblood. A story of pure vengeance, Lady Snowblood tells the tale of a daughter born of a singular purpose, to avenge the death of her family at the hands of a gang of thugs, a purpose woven into her soul from the time of her gestation. Beautifully drafted and full of bloody, sexy action, Lady Snowblood lives up to its title and reputation. · From Kazuo Koike, writer of Lone Wolf and Cub, Crying Freeman, and Samurai Executioner. FOR MATURE READERS
Legal Drug Omnibus
Plot concept: Kudo Kazehaya’s name evokes the wind; given to warn him that one day he, too, might disappear. He almost thought his time had come, lying in the snow–until he was rescued by the dark, handsome and equally mysterious Himura Rikuo. Now they both reside where Rikuo works, the Green Drugstore, a place that dispenses not only medicine but the secret powers of both Rikuo and Kazehaya, as the pair embark on missions into the paranoramal at the bidding of its strange proprietor, Kakei. All three of the original Legal Drug manga are collected into one beautiful Dark Horse omnibus edition!
Lone Wolf & Cub (28 volumes)
Plot concept: A samurai epic of staggering proportions, the acclaimed Lone Wolf and Cub begins its second life at Dark Horse Manga with new, larger editions of over 700 pages, value priced. The brilliant storytelling of series creator Kazuo Koike and the groundbreaking cinematic visuals of Goseki Kojima create a graphic-fiction masterpiece of beauty, fury, and thematic power.
Magic Knight Rayearth (2 volumes)
Plot concept: Umi, Hikaru, and Fuu are three schoolgirls out on a field trip to Tokyo Tower, whisked suddenly away by a strange voice and light to Cefiro, a world full of spirits and sorcery. They were summoned here through the last remaining strength of the Princess Emeraude, who hopes that they are the trio destined to become the magic knights legend says can save her realm! But how are a bunch of junior-high-school kids supposed to defeat the dark might of the sinister Lord Zagato . . . with only an exceedingly strange bunny creature named Mokona as their guide . . . ? * An early crossover hit, Magic Knight Rayearth was made into both an anime TV and a direct-to-video series. * Unavailable for over four years, the Magic Knight Rayearth series has sold close to 200,000 copies in the US alone! * Another successful omnibus edition from CLAMP (Clover, Chobits, Cardcaptor Sakura). * Contains twenty-five bonus color pages!
MPD-Psycho (11 volumes)
Plot concept: MPD-Psycho, the most-requested manga series in recently memory, has found a fitting home at Dark Horse Manga, where it will be presented uncut and uncensored in all of its controversial and unflinchingly grotesque glory! If Takashi Miike’s MPD-Psycho television series still has you confused and reeling, the original manga series that inspired the show is sure to take you on a longer, darker journey into madness. Enjoy the 11-volume MPD-Psycho series for all of its absurd twists, sci-fi touches and inventive torture scenes, but you’ll also be mesmerized by the plethora of odd conspiracies and case files found in Otsuka and Tajima’s uncontrollable, urban horrorshow. In MPD-Psycho Volume 1, police detective Kobayashi Yousuke’s life is changed forever after a serial killer notices something “special” about him. That same killer mutilates Kobayashi’s wife and kick-starts a “multiple personality battle” within Kobayashi that pushes him into a complex tempest of interconnected deviants and evil forces. Earning praise for its consistently shocking plotlines and Tajima’s clean, arresting art style, MPD-Psycho is the manga event of the decade!
Neon Genesis Evangelion: Shinji Ikari Rising Project (15 volumes)
Plot concept: Stunning, hot-headed Asuka Langley Soryu has been friends with Shinji Ikari since they were little. And she always sort of assumed they’d stay together – until the day the beautiful, brilliant Rei Ayanami showed up in class! When Shinji starts to get curious about Rei, Asuka needs to figure out if she wants to be just friends with Shinji, or something more. But why are so many people keeping an eye on these relationships – people like homeroom teacher Misato, school nurse Ritsuko, and Shinji’s mother – NERV’s chief scientist, Yui Ikari . . . ?
Neon Genesis Evangelion: Campus Apocalypse (4 volumes)
Plot concept: Dark Horse is proud to present the second manga series in its Neon Genesis Evangelion line, Neon Genesis Evangelion: Campus Apocalypse! Shinji Ikari’s parents are gone, and he lives with his legal guardian, Ryoji Kaji, while attending the private NERV Academy. But no one ever told Shinji about its secrets . . . or that he’d find his fellow students Kaworu, Rei, and Asuka out on the streets late at night — fighting with sword, spear, and whip against an enemy that looks very human, but who Kaworu insists are beings called the Angels . . . * Campus Apocalypse is straight from the pages of the stylish shojo magazine Monthly Asuka, home of Code Geass and Trinity Blood! * Features bonus color pages, your Evangelion fan art and letters, and special reader giveaways! * Neon Genesis Evangelion is another popular anime related tie-in from Dark Horse!
Oh My Goddess (6 volumes)
Plot concept: Alone in his dorm on a Saturday night, Nekomi Tech’s Keiichi Morisato dials a wrong number that will change his life forever — reaching the Goddess Technical Help Line. Granted one wish by the charming young goddess Belldandy — a wish for anything in the world — Keiichi wishes she would stay with him always! Complications are bound to ensue from this; the immediate first being the new couple getting tossed out of the dorm — it’s males only! As the hapless student and his mysterious “foreign beauty” ride around looking for a new place to stay — risking the different dangers of seeking shelter with an otaku convinced Belldandy is an imaginary woman, and a Zen priest convinced she’s a sinister witch — Keiichi’s still got his classes on Monday morning! How is his new “exchange student” companion going to be received on the N.I.T. campus? A little too well for normal life to ever return…
Old Boy (8 Volumes)
Plot concept: Ten years ago, they took him. He doesn’t know who. For ten years he has been confined in a private prison. He doesn’t know why. For ten years his only contact with the outside world has been a television set and the voice of his jailers. In time, he lost himself… changed… transformed himself into something else… something hard… something lethal. Suddenly one day, his incarceration ends, again without explanation. He is sedated, stuffed inside a trunk, and dumped in a park. When he awakes, he is free to reclaim what’s left of his life… and what’s left is revenge.
Path of the Assassin (10 volumes)
Plot concept: Path of the Assassin, called Hanzo no Mon in Japan, is the story of Hattori Hanzo, the fabled master ninja whose duty it was to protect Tokugawa Ieyasu. Ieyasu was the shogun who would unite Japan into one great nation. But before he could do that, he had to grow up and learn how to love the ladies! As the secret caretaker of such an influential future leader, not only does Hanzo use vast and varied ninja talents, but in living closely with Ieyasu, he forms a close friendship with the young shogun. · Published in original Japanese format and unretouched which keeps the art intact. · This is a fifteen-volume story starring the legendary ninja and Kill Bill reference Hattori Hanzo. · Each volume comes shrink-wrapped and carries an 18+ content advisory. FOR MATURE READERS
Samurai Executioner (10 volumes)
Plot concept: From the creators of Lone Wolf and Cub comes Samurai Executioner. It’s true! Before Koike and Kojima created Itto Ogami, they created Kubikiri Asa, better known to Lone Wolf readers as Decapitator Asaemon. He was the equal to Itto, bearer of the sword Onibocho, the man charged with the duty of testing the swords for the shogun. Samurai Executioner is based on the decapitator himself, in life before his fatal duel with Lone Wolf. Expect the same legendary drama, frantic action, and stoic samurai stature, combined with the exemplary art and storytelling that made Lone Wolf and Cub one of the most popular and influential comic books in the world! • Never before published in America, Samurai Executioner was the precursor to one of the most seminal works of manga, Lone Wolf and Cub! • Since the inception of its Lone Wolf and Cub publishing program in 2000, Dark Horse has sold over 800,000 copies! And the series continues to sell thousands per month! • FOR MATURE READERS.
