Electronic Manga/Novel News Roundup
Humberto Saabedra
Digital Manga Publishing has announced availability of new titles on the Amazon Kindle under the DMP and Juné imprints. Hit read the rest for the list and full details.
Vampire Hunter D Vol. 1
Vampire Hunter D Vol. 2
Let’s Draw Manga: Shoujo Characters
Let’s Draw Manga: Yaoi
Juné imprint
Novels:
- Better Than a Dream
- Gentle Cage
- Immoral Darkness
- Body Language
- Like a Love Comedy
- S Vol. 1
- Caged Slave
- A Promise of Romance
Manga
- Il Gatto Sul G Vol. 1
- Awaken Forest
- Lost Boys
- Sugar Milk
- Endless Rain
- Love Training
- Party
There are now over 40 titles which include the above and Rieko Yoshihara’s Ai no Kusabi: The Space Between Vol. 1: Stranger boys-love novel which was DMP’s first offering in the Kindle Store.
North American publisher Go! Comi and application developer Zeitgeist Games have developed and released an iPhone/iPod Touch application version of Japan Ai: A Tall Girl’s Adventure in Japan graphic novel written by author Aimee Major Steinberger which is now available on the iTunes App Store for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch.
Announced in a press release last week, the complete 190-page comic journal of Steinberger’s travels in Japan is available for US$0.99 for a limited time. In addition to the same pages as the print version of the book, the application adds a voice phrase dictionary and a photo gallery.
The Japanese telecommunications and computer developer Softbank Creative and the publisher Harlequin have announced in another press release that they have launched their Harlequin Comics Magazine as a free application for the iPhone and iPod touch.
The electronic magazine is in Japanese,and is available outside of the Japanese App Store for download. The first “issue” features two Japanese manga adaptations of Harlequin romance novels: Mayu Takayama’s adaptation of Sharon Sala’s Yoru wa Betsu no Kao novel and Hinoto Mori’s manga version of Carole Mortimer’s Setsunai Himitsu novel with new installments being added next Tuesday and every Tuesday thereafter.
Following up, romance literature publisher Harlequin Books has previously launched a traditional monthy print magazine in Japan this past January. Harlequin had also previously announced in 2005 that Dark Horse Comics would sell its manga in North America, although it took the distribution of its North American titles back internally the following year.
Finally, Harlequin and Softbank Creative previously announced last March that they would offer Harlequin manga online in Japan via Yahoo! Comic Japan and other major Japanese internet and mobile phone portals.
Sony’s Connect online store had been selling Harlequin manga in English for the proprietary Sony Reader device since 2006 with Dark Horse as its distributor. Three titles are still available on the Connect store, but Dark Horse released its last new Harlequin manga title in May of 2006 with no new releases available on the service since then.
