Haikasoru Announces Publication of "Red Girls: The Legend of the Akakuchibas"

VIZ MEDIA’S HAIKASORU IMPRINT DEBUTS A RIVETING MYSTERY THRILLER IN RED GIRLS: THE LEGEND OF THE AKAKUCHIBAS

An Aimless Girl Finds Direction As She Uncovers The Strange Legends And Shocking History Of Her Extraordinary Family

VIZ Media’s Haikasoru literary imprint has announced the release of its newest book with the publication of RED GIRLS: THE LEGEND OF THE AKAKUCHIBAS on April 21st, 2015.

Author Kazuki Sakuraba delivers a textured, multi-generational mystery that follows an aimless girl’s quest to find meaning and direction in her life as she uncovers the history, secrets and strange legends of her unique family.

RED GIRLS: THE LEGEND OF THE AKAKUCHIBAS will be available in print in an English edition from Haikasoru for $15.99 U.S. / $18.99 CAN. An eBook edition also will debut on April 21st for $9.99 (U.S. / CAN) for the Amazon Kindle, Apple’s iBooks Store, Barnes & Noble’s Nook Book Store, the Kobo eBooks Store, and the Google Play store.

When the outlanders abandoned a baby girl on the outskirts of a village, few imagined that she would grow up to marry into the illustrious Akakuchiba family, much less that she would develop clairvoyant abilities and become matriarch of the illustrious ironworking clan. Her daughter shocks the village further by joining a motorcycle gang and becoming a famous manga artist. The outlander’s granddaughter Toko—well, she’s nobody at all. A nobody worth entrusting with the secret that her grandmother was a murderer. This is Toko’s story.

“Toko Akakuchiba is an ordinary woman, from an extraordinary family.  When Toko sits to write her family history, she uncovers the truth about her grandmother’s past, and the woman’s clairvoyant powers,” says Nick Mamatas, Editor. “Author Kazuki Sakuraba skillfully creates an atmospheric multi-generational saga set amidst the turmoil of Japan’s postwar era. Readers will be swept up in the engrossing story of this legendary clan!"

Author Kazuki Sakuraba was born in 1971 and began publishing while still in college. Her early Gosick light novels were bestsellers and her adult fiction is also popular and acclaimed throughout Japan. RED GIRLS: THE LEGEND OF THE AKAKUCHIBAS won the Mystery Writers of Japan Award in 2007 and Watashi no otoko, a suspense novel about an incestuous relationship, won the Naoki Prize for popular fiction in 2008.

For more information on RED GIRLS: THE LEGEND OF THE AKAKUCHIBAS and the Haikasoru imprint, please visit the dedicated website at www.haikasoru.com.


About VIZ Media, LLC
Headquartered in San Francisco, California, VIZ Media distributes, markets and licenses the best anime and manga titles direct from Japan.  Owned by three of Japan's largest manga and animation companies, Shueisha Inc., Shogakukan Inc., and Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions, Co., Ltd., VIZ Media has the most extensive library of anime and manga for English speaking audiences in North America, the United Kingdom, Ireland and South Africa. With its popular digital manga anthology WEEKLY SHONEN JUMP and blockbuster properties like NARUTO, BLEACH and ONE PIECE, VIZ Media offers cutting-edge action, romance and family friendly properties for anime, manga, science fiction and fantasy fans of all ages.  VIZ Media properties are available as graphic novels, DVDs, animated television series, feature films, downloadable and streaming video and a variety of consumer products.  Learn more about VIZ Media, anime and manga at www.VIZ.com.

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Webcomics Update: Grumble #1 Page 22

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Manga Creator Aya Kanno Announced for Toronto Comics Art Festival 2015

Toronto Public Library & The Beguiling present The Toronto Comic Arts Festival 2015

Announcing Featured Guest Aya Kanno!

Author of the hit manga Requiem of the Rose King and Otomen

TCAF 2015
@ Toronto Reference Library, 789 Yonge Street
Saturday May 9, 9am-5pm
Sunday May 10, 11am-5pm
Free to attend
www.torontocomics.com

TORONTO, CANADA—The Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF) proudly announces that international manga superstar Aya Kanno will attend the 2015 Festival as a Featured Guest! Aya Kanno is the author of the Blank Slate, the New York Times bestselling series Otomen, and the newly-released Requiem of the Rose King, all published in English by VIZ Media. Kanno will participate in a variety of programs at the Festival including a feature interview, panel discussion, and book signing sessions. Aya Kanno will attend TCAF 2015 with her editor Yuri Yamamoto of Akita Shoten, and with the support of VIZ Media.

“We’re so happy to be able to welcome Aya Kanno to North America for the first time,” enthused Festival Director Christopher Butcher. “To my mind Kanno’s work really reinforces what TCAF is all about: unique, diverse voices and great comics! Shoujo manga, or ‘girls’ manga, doesn’t really get the respect it deserves in general, and Kanno’s work is specifically great, smartly interrogating the medium and its approach to gender, sexuality, and storytelling.”

Aya Kanno’s best-known work in North America is the romantic comedy series Otomen, which ran for 18 volumes, frequently appearing on the New York Times bestseller list. The romantic comedy series explores a wide variety of characters that rebel against traditional gender roles in Japanese society, starting with the titular character who is an Otomen (“otome,” Japanese for young girl, combined with the English word “men”). Kanno’s newest work is the just-released Requiem of the Rose King, a dark fantasy retelling of Shakespeare’s Richard III and Henry VI, which continues the manga creator’s exploration of gender, sexuality, and identity, but this time in the context of historical and literary fiction.

Aya Kanno will join a very diverse array of Japanese manga creators already announced for TCAF 2015, including the cartooning duo Gurihiru (Avatar: The Last Airbender), gay manga originator Gengoroh Tagame (The Passion of…), and indy manga creator Ken Niimura (Henshin, I Kill Giants).

A full schedule of Aya Kanno’s appearances at TCAF 2015 will be announced in April, 2015.

The Toronto Comic Arts Festival 2015, Saturday May 9, 9am-5pm, and Sunday May 10, 11am-5pm, @ Toronto Reference Library, 789 Yonge Street. Attendance is FREE to the public. Select guest bios and images are available upon request. Please send all inquiries to media@torontocomics.com.

SPONSORS:
The Toronto Comic Arts Festival would not be possible without the assistance of our sponsors and partners, including presenting sponsor Toronto Public Library and primary sponsor The Beguiling Books & Art.

TCAF is produced with the support of the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council.

We would also like to acknowledge funding support from the Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario.

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, which last year invested $157 million to bring the arts to Canadians throughout the country. Nous remercions le Conseil des arts du Canada de son soutien. L’an dernier, le Conseil  a investi 157 millions de dollars pour mettre de l’art dans la vie des Canadiennes et des Canadiens de tout le pays.

TCAF would like to recognize VIZ Media LLC for their support of the Festival. For more information on VIZ Media’s publications, please visit viz.com.

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Final Book In Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's "Nemo" Trilogy Now in Comic Books Shops

Alan Moore & Kevin O’Neill present NEMO's final voyage down a RIVER OF GHOSTS

MARIETTA, GA — Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill’s LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN reaches a new milestone today, as Top Shelf Productions & Knockbout releases the grand finale of the NEMO spinoff trilogy, a pulse-pounding 56-page hardcover entitled RIVER OF GHOSTS.

In 2012, with the stunning conclusion of Century, the top-selling third volume of the League saga, creators Moore and O’Neill brought their literary-crossover saga to an incredible climax. Critics called it “magnificent,” a “glorious creative tapestry,” and “arguably one of the greatest comics of all time.” The authors might have been tempted to stop there and rest on their laurels... but one character, Captain Nemo’s steel-hearted daughter Janni, demanded the spotlight for herself, and a spinoff was born!

With a classic two-fisted spirit of adventure, the Nemo graphic novels have followed the terrifying pirate queen in her confrontations with unearthly Antarctic horrors (in 2013’s Heart of Ice) and mechanical metropolitan monstrosities (in 2014’s The Roses of Berlin).

Now, Top Shelf Productions and Knockabout Comics present what may be the Captain’s final voyage! It’s 1975, and our aging heroine is beginning to display a tenuous grip on reality. Pursuing shadows from her past—or her imagination—Captain Janni Nemo steers her wondrous ship Nautilus on an obsessive journey into the tropical mysteries of the Amazon, in a last attempt to put to rest the blood-drenched spectres of old. What awaits? New allies, outrageous enemies, inscrutable youths, impossible creatures, and a truly flabbergasting final battle. Don’t miss Nemo: River of Ghosts — available today wherever books and comics are sold.

“These are Victorian-influenced pulp fiction tales, and that’s enough, but they are also monuments to world-building as Moore and O’Neill construct enormous fictional amalgamations from the literature of the past. No one else has ever done it nearly as well as these two.” — Comic Book Resources

“Perfect, potent adventure comics, cramming in crazy amounts of characters while maintaining  an addictive forward plot momentum.” — Heeb Magazine

“A wonderful concluding chapter to an excellent series. Moore and O’Neill have done that rare thing of creating a spinoff that actually betters the original.” — Pipe Dream Comics

IN STORES TODAY: Nemo: River of Ghosts • 56-page hardcover • $14.95 (US) • ISBN 978-1-60309-355-2 • Diamond code JAN151622

Also available:
Nemo: Heart of Ice • 56-page hardcover • $14.95 (US) • ISBN 978-1-60309-274-6 • Diamond code DEC121247

Nemo: The Roses of Berlin • 56-page hardcover • $14.95 (US) • ISBN 978-1-60309-320-0 • Diamond code JAN141334

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century • 256-page hardcover • $29.95 (US) • ISBN 978-1-60309-329-3 • Diamond code MAY141615


TOP SHELF PRODUCTIONS, based in Marietta, Georgia, has published critically acclaimed and popularly beloved graphic novels since 1997. Now an imprint of IDW Publishing, Top Shelf continues to showcase the vanguard of the comics medium, publishing works of literary sophistication, visionary artistry, and personal resonance.

IDW PUBLISHING is an award-winning publisher of comic books and graphic novels, renowned for its diverse catalog of licensed and independent titles. Based in San Diego, California, IDW publishes some of the most successful and popular titles in the comics industry, and operates such acclaimed imprints as the Library of American Comics, Yoe! Books, IDW Artist’s Editions, and Top Shelf Productions.

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Black Mask Studios Announces "Space Riders #1"

Black Mask launches a new comic: SPACE RIDERS #1

From the galactic core to the outer quadrants, one name strikes terror in the hearts of evil beings everywhere: the Space Riders! Sailing the cosmos in the Skullship Santa Muerte, Capitan Peligro and his fearless crew deal harsh justice to the scum of the galaxy while searching for the forbidden truths of the universe! Fabian Rangel Jr (Doc Unknown) and Alexis Ziritt (The Package) bring you a new and exciting space adventure that will destroy your brain! (in a good way)

Artist: Alexis Ziritt
Writer: Fabian Rangel, Jr.
In stores April 1, 2015

SPACE RIDERS is a love letter to the psychedelic space operas of Heavy Metal, Moebius, and EC Comics, but done with a modern twist. Artistic genius and obvious lunatic Alexis Ziritt is doing psychedelic work like no one else in comics, and rising start writer Fabian Rangel, Jr. is making a name for himself with his hugely successful Kickstarters for his pulp adventure series DOC UNKNOWN. Together with designer Ryan Ferrier they form the perfect team to make comics unlike anyone else is making right now.

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"The Black Hood #2" in Comic Book Stores Today (Wed., March 25, 2015)

First Look - The Black Hood #2

NEW SERIES FROM DARK CIRCLE! “The Bullet’s Kiss, Part 2” The acclaimed crime series continues with another dose of deadly noir by two masters of the genre. When you steal from the underworld, the underworld will come looking for you—even if you’re a cop. Greg Hettinger has unwittingly crossed the city’s most fearsome drug lord—a man only known as “The Connection,” who sends two of his most fearsome lieutenants after Greg. It’s one thing to have trouble come knocking on your front door. But it’s another when it’s already inside your house…

Script: Duane Swierczynski
Art: Michael Gaydos, Rachel Deering, Kelly Fitzpatrick
Cover: Francesco Francavilla
Variant Covers: David Mack, Howard Chaykin
On Sale Date: 3/25
32-page, full color comic
$3.99 U.S.

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"Inhuman" Writer Charles Soule Announced for 2015 Baltimore Comic-Con

(Photo of Charles Soule by Seth Kushner)

Charles Soule Comics to the 2015 Baltimore Comic-Con

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND - The 16th annual Baltimore Comic-Con will be held on September 25-27, 2015 at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore's historic Inner Harbor. In 2015, we are welcoming back to our show for his 3rd visit rising comics star Charles Soule.

Originally from the American Midwest, Soule received his undergraduate degree in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, and went on to live in the Philippines, Singapore, and Hong Kong before returning to the States to live in New York. Returning to school, Soule graduated with a law degree from Columbia Law School, and is a practicing attorney in New York City.

Soule's comics writing career launched with the publication of his graphic novel Strongman from SLG Publishing in 2009. In 2010, Image Comics launched his comic, 27, a 4-issue mini-series, followed in 2011 by 27: Second Set.

In 2011, Soule started working for DC Comics, taking on such high-profile titles as Action Comics, Green Lantern, and Superman, and eventually writing runs on Red Lanterns, Swamp Thing, Legends of the Dark Knight, and Superman/Wonder Woman.

As of 2013, Soule began work for Marvel Comics, starting on Thunderbolts, and signing an exclusive agreement in 2014, putting out noteworthy arcs on Death of Wolverine, Inhumans, She-Hulk, and Wolverines.

Soule continues to pen creator-owned titles too, including Strange Attractors from Archaia and the ongoing Letter 44 from Oni Press, which was recently optioned for development by the SyFy Network. You can find his work this year on Marvel's Wolverines, Uncanny Inhumans, Inhuman, Inhumans; Attilan Rising, and Oni Press's Letter 44.

"It's really exciting for us to watch the progress of some of our guests as they really begin to catch the reader's eye," said Marc Nathan, promoter of the Baltimore Comic-Con. "Charles is definitely one of those guests who was a growing talent when we first met him, and will be a very busy man at the show this year, and we couldn't be happier for him!"

This year's confirmed guests for the show include: Neal Adams (All-New Captain America); Jeremy Bastian (Cursed Pirate Girl); Christy Blanch (The Damnation of Charlie Wormwood); Mark Buckingham (Fables); Cliff Chiang (Wonder Woman); Frank Cho (Jungle Girl); Steve Conley (Bloop); Amanda Conner (Harley Quinn); Katie Cook (Gronk); Darwyn Cooke (Richard Stark's Parker); John Gallagher (Buzzboy); Cully Hamner (Convergence: The Question); Dean Haspiel (The Fox); Jaime Hernandez (Love and Rockets); Klaus Janson (Superman); Dave Johnson (Inhumans: Attilan Rising); JG Jones (Strange Fruit); Denis Kitchen (The Best of Comix Book: When Marvel Went Underground); Barry Kitson (Empire: Uprising); Seth Kushner (Schmuck); Mark Mariano (The Other Side of Hugless Hill); Ron Marz (Convergence: Batman and Robin); Terry Moore (Rachel Rising); Tom Palmer (The Avengers); Jimmy Palmiotti (The Con Job); Dan Parent (Archie); David Peterson (Mouse Guard); Ron Randall (Convergence: Catwoman); Budd Root (Cavewoman); Don Rosa (Donald Duck); Stan Sakai (Usagi Yojimbo); Matteo Scalera (Black Science); Bart Sears (Bloodshot); Louise Simonson (Convergence: Superman - The Man of Steel); Walter Simonson (Convergence: Superman - The Man of Steel); Andy Smith (Earth 2); Charles Soule (Uncanny Inhumans); Ben Templesmith (Gotham by Midnight); Frank Tieri (Suicide Squad); John Totleben (Swamp Thing); Rick Veitch (Saga of the Swamp Thing); Mark Waid (Daredevil); John Watson (Red Sonja); Kelly Yates (Doctor Who); and Thom Zahler (My Little Pony: Friends Forever).

In the coming weeks, look for more announcements from the Baltimore Comic-Con. We are looking forward to highlighting our guests, the Harvey Awards, industry exclusives, and programming. The latest developments can always be found on our website, Twitter, and Facebook pages.

Contact Information
Please use the following e-mail addresses to contact the Baltimore Comic-Con:
press@baltimorecomiccon.com - for any general press inquiries or to be added to our PR distribution
registrar@baltimorecomiccon.com- for exhibitor, publisher, and Artist Alley registrations
harveys@baltimorecomiccon.com - for the Harvey Awards ceremony and banquet
general@baltimorecomiccon.com - for general Baltimore Comic-Con inquiries

About The Baltimore Comic-Con
The Baltimore Comic-Con is celebrating its 16th year of bringing the comic book industry to the Baltimore and Washington D.C. area. For more information, please visit www.baltimorecomiccon.com.

About The Harvey Awards
The Harvey Awards are one of the comic book industry's oldest and most respected awards. With a history of over 20 years, the last 10 in conjunction with the Baltimore Comic-Con, the Harveys recognize outstanding achievements in over 20 categories. They are the only industry awards nominated and selected by the full body of comic book professionals. For more information, please visit www.harveyawards.org.

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