Viz to publish domestic manga, Tokyopop goes Bande-Dessine!

http://www.mangablog.net/?p=1481 Brigid Alverson of MangaBlog has posted news of Tokyopop licensing colour, oversized graphic novels from China and France, including 2 BD series. If they are choosing the oversized format, expect TinTin sized GN's, and it looks like Pixie, a manga styled BD series will be one of their debut titles.

I'm curious if we'll eventually see them branch into licensing more of these, as well as more colour manhua.

http://www.mangablog.net/?p=1480 They've also posted news of VIZ's being open to graphic novel submissions- this news has been floating around for a bit, but this is the first convention-announced information I've seen.


EDIT-Update, found via Publishers Weekly's The Beat blog-

http://www.publishersweekly.com/arti....html?nid=2789

Apparently, these will be 7x10 GN's, not quite BD sized, but still big enough for the slight price increase above normal manga. Tokyopop will be marketing it as a colour manga line, so I expect we'll mostly see manga-style BD and Manhua, though I wonder how broad their interpretation will be, as many BD artists have a lovely animated style.

It also looks like they'll be pulling series for the line from Editions Delcourt http://www.editions-delcourt.fr/ , who publish a wide range of anime-influenced comics looking on their site, such as Nini, along with french editions of japanese manga, Soliel [who are also publishing titles with Marvel], and manhua publisher Xiao Pan.