latest wave of CMX titles (KKJ, KC02, Tenryu 3)

[bakedleech]

The latest books from CMX look nice! The ones I'm talking about include Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne 1, Kikaider Code 02 1, and Tenryu the Dragon Cycle 3. I really like what they've done with the new, smaller logo and cover designs (eliminating the diagonal/kanji theme that was present in their first wave of books). Color pages are present, the inside printing looks nice from a brief flip-through and there aren't any cover stiffness issues. The cover of KKJ1 is very nice as well, with a mostly matte finish but a shiny finish over Jeanne. While they certainly got off to a bad start, I think the vast majority of their titles are beginning to be treated quite well and that they have gained enough experience in the market to put out some really nice product.

P.S. no TenTen plz, save it for its own thread.

[Collectonian]

Cool...I'm looking forward to when my KKJ ships from eCampus (though that won't be till December cause it got grouped with FruBa 12 and Kare Kano 18) /images/graemlins/cry00000.gif

[Gatts]

Kaitou Jeanne... darn, looks like I'll actually have to buy something from CMX afterall.

[wakuchan]

I just hope Kikaider shows up at Waldens soon *sigh* (according to Amazon, it's *still* not released. Argh.) I'll get KKJ at some point as well. The new designs sound really nice, though!

[ShadrachAnki]

Well, I'm definitely going to keep on the lookout for KKJ, although I may not be able to start collecting it for a few months yet. Hopefully any color pages it contains won't be limited to just the first print run; that would be disappointing.

How do the new cover designs and layouts compare with the original Japanese? Every publishing company seems to have different takes on how that should be handled, so I'm curious.

~Shadrach Anki

[bakedleech]

Here's the original JP cover.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/...155&s=books (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/4088561007/ref=dp_image_0/103-7191139-2691807?%5Fencoding=UTF8&n=283155&s=books)
CMX's version takes the inside picture and puts the name on the cover. The image of Jeanne in the foreground is the shiny part.

Here's the Kikaider Code 02 cover, also showing the new tiny logo placement. Kikaider Code 02 ships shrinkwrapped.
http://www.dccomics.com/media/covers/4249_400x600.jpg

[jennwenn]

That's great news. I'm glad to see CMX are slowly integrating the smaller logo design into all their titles. It looks like they at least listened to consumer response on how hard it is to find CMX manga with a big logo and mis-shelving of CMX titles! (Or you know, maybe that wasn't their reasoning but I'm glad all the same.)

[bakedleech]

It's been incredibly difficult to find an actual cover image of KKJ. So I bought a copy and scanned it myself!

http://www.public.iastate.edu/~eboote/kkjeanne.png

Be aware that the white line between the cover and the spine is an artifact of me making 3 scans and stitching them together. You don't really get any impression of the shiny spots on the cover. Jeanne and the logo on the cover, the name and picture on the spine, and the name and picture on the back are all shiny while the rest is matte.

[Collectonian]

[ QUOTE ]
bakedleech said:
It's been incredibly difficult to find an actual cover image of KKJ. So I bought a copy and scanned it myself!

http://www.public.iastate.edu/~eboote/kkjeanne.png

Be aware that the white line between the cover and the spine is an artifact of me making 3 scans and stitching them together. You don't really get any impression of the shiny spots on the cover. Jeanne and the logo on the cover, the name and picture on the spine, and the name and picture on the back are all shiny while the rest is matte.

[/ QUOTE ]

Wow that is NICE! I like the new CMX spines. I have a feeling it will help stop the mishelving at some bookstores of CMX titles ;-) How is the translation looking?

[marieta]

[ QUOTE ]
Collectonian said:
[ QUOTE ]
bakedleech said:
It's been incredibly difficult to find an actual cover image of KKJ. So I bought a copy and scanned it myself!
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~eboote/kkjeanne.png

[/ QUOTE ]
Wow that is NICE! I like the new CMX spines. I have a feeling it will help stop the mishelving at some bookstores of CMX titles ;-) How is the translation looking?

[/ QUOTE ]
I agree, that looks really nice. /images/graemlins/happy.gif And the "CMX" is definitely a logo now instead of a title. Overall it's MUCH more appealing. Now if only KKJ would hurry up and arrive at my store. It wasn't in tonight's shipment, alas.

[bakedleech]

I have no mastery of Japanese or familiarity with the source material, but it read smoothly. Maron is introduced as a 16 year old high school student. I don't think her grade/year in school is mentioned other than that. When Chiaki is introduced in the box incident, Maron exclaims "he's hot!" which didn't read particularly Japanese but sounded like it got her meaning across. SFX are all overlaid in a very organic way, not boxy or obvious. "Kaito Jeanne/Sinbad" is used throughout the story as a name, as are -san, -kun, and -sensei. Chiaki/Sinbad's angel is introduced as "Access Time, the dark angel." I don't know what Miyaki was actually cooking in chapter 4, but it's translated as spaghetti. Mangaka notes in the sidebars are kept throughout with a girly-handwriting style font. After the story are introductions of the 3 assistants working on the book and a one page manga from each of them. If you are familiar with the source version and have any specific questions feel free to ask, I'll do the best I can to answer them. /images/graemlins/happy.gif

[Collectonian]

Tha names and ages sound consistent with the anime, at least, so sounds like it is fairly good. Now I just gotta keep waiting for my copy. /images/graemlins/catgirl0.gif

[doink-chan]

In the original, Miyako was cooking gratin. However, apparently in Japan, gratin will often include pasta. So "spaghetti" isn't really much of a stretch.

I'm glad the translation is good, though. I can't wait to get my copy.