Thank Goddess!

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Thank Goddess!

06/17/2010 3:59pm

It seems that recently, it has been some trying times for manga: DC's manga imprint CMX ceased operations just a few weeks ago, VIZ laid-off 60 employees last month, and several other, smaller publishers — namely Go! Comi and Aurora Publishing — have also closed their doors in the past years. Being that these companies are — in some respects — competition, you'd think people might be leaping with joy at this news, but this isn't the case. In the instances of the former two companies, Dark Horse is doing substantially different things, and, well, my colleagues and I have friends at these companies that we care for as human beings, and want the best for them.

Dark Horse, however, has been sticking to what it does best: great manga — actual manga from Japan — and doing well. If you have been paying attention to any industry news, you probably know, but at any given time, just about half (sometimes more) of Dark Horse's bookstore sales are manga. In the last fiscal year alone, Dark Horse's manga sales were up 13%, and I attribute this to not only good titles, but consistently good titles.

One such title (and, currently, the longest-running continuing manga in the English language) is Oh! My Goddess! . While not an explosive, trendy seller, it has a consistently-avid fanbase of very loving followers, and consistently delivers great stories with loveable characters, and has been doing so nearly a decade-and-a-half. In fact, many of Dark Horse's titles were around before any said "manga boom," and indeed, before the term "manga" was even part of the daily-use pop culture lexicon. One might attribute the length is has been around in English to the fact that it is a long series in general, and while that's true, I can't help but think about the 1000+ other titles that have come-and-gone (many times, prematurely), while titles like Oh! My Goddess and Blade of the Immortal stood their ground.

We're happy to be publishing the English-language's longest-running manga series, and really appreciate the fans that consistently head to their book- or comics-shops to pick up Oh! My Goddess! and great other titles.

Dark Horse has never made claims to be the biggest publisher of manga, or to have the most titles, but that's fine; happiness and stability come from, well, consistency.

Michael Gombos has worked for Dark Horse Comics for six years. He is currently a Level 23 Director of Asian Licensing with a +3 Litigation Avoidance.

Dark Horse Comics

Thank Goddess!

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