Big news out of Comic-Con, shared via none other than our good friend and webcomicker extraordinaire, David Gallaher (you have to actually Google most of his work as it’s largely behind a Flash-based, link-hating site, but search it out you should).
It appears that Yen Press and several Japanese publishers are gearing up to bring manga to the U.S. in a big way, as big as, say, Comixology’s push to distribute digital comics for the big comic book publishers based in the U.S.
Yen Press brings with them a localized version of their iPhone app which features a great deal of manga, while the publishers have come together to form JManga.com, a destination for the hottest and most popular manga, coming straight from Japan. The Yen Press app is already available in the App Store and JManga.com should be launching in near future, but given the ridiculous popularity these works already enjoy here, it’s not hard to imagine something like this being a huge hit with the target audience.
Admittedly, I do not find myself in that group, but with mainstream American comics gaining increased traction in the digital arena (despite being largely derivative and exhaustingly recycled), a move like this is sure to do at least a few favors for a type of comic that has already permeated several forms of American entertainment.
SDCC 2011: Yen Announces 3 Licenses, Publishers Unveil JManga.com, Brigid Alverson (MTV Geek Blog)