The ninja ladies are on the scene, taking notes and taking names so that you can put those last-minute touches on your Uryu Ishida costume without missing any important announcements. Over the next few days, Erin and I will be posting the latest anime and manga scoop from NY Comic-Con, as well as a summary of industry panels from ICv2’s Graphic Novel Conference.

Click here for DAY TWO coverage!

Up first: licensing news from Net Comics, Viz, and Tokyopop.

NET COMICS
In a presentation called Heart and Seoul: The Unique World of Netcomics, company president Heewon Chung introduced Dokebi Bride creator Marley; offered a brief history of his company, from the 1998 founding of eComix, its Korean parent, to the 2006 founding of Net Comics; and unveiled six new series. Some fun facts gleaned from the presentation:

• In its first year of American operations, Net Comics introduced 31 new series, 24 of which reached print.
• 86 volumes of manwha are available through their pay-per-view system. To no one’s surprise, Net Comics’ two most successful online titles–Let Dai and Boy Princess–fall into the category of boys’ love. (Both series’ print counterparts are posting robust sales figures as well.) Several series–including Almost Highly Classified–are available in their entirety for free. (That’s online, folks. Borders will expect you to pony up the money for the print edition.)
• 57 volumes of manwha reached bookstores in tankubon format. Chung reported that distribution remains a challenge, especially for novella anthologies such as 9 Faces of Love.
• Nearly 2,000 people routinely visit the Net Comics page to read manwha and post reviews.

Chung then unveiled some of their most promising titles for 2007, including Kyungok Kang’s sci-fi classic In the Starlight; Two Will Come, a supernatural romance, also by Kyungok Kang; Roureville, a new BL title likely to appeal to Let Dai fans; 100% Perfect Girl, a soonjung title that’s being serialized simultaneously in Korea and the US; CLICK, a gender-bending comedy that will be making the jump from web to print thanks to a strong response from site users; and 10, 20, and 30, a slice-of-life drama examining the lives of a teenage girl, her twenty-something cousin, and the girl’s mother, a single woman in her 30s. The first chapters of all these series can be viewed online for free (follow the links).

Best bets: In the Starlight (perfect for Moto Hagio and Keiko Takemiya fans), 10, 20, and 30, and Two Will Come

VIZ
Viz offered a no-frills panel to announce summer and fall releases, preview future issues of Shojo Beat and Shonen Jump, and dodge my questions about Black Jack. First up was a brief overview of Viz’s best-performing titles of 2006. Not surprisingly, the list was dominated by series with a connection to Shonen Jump, from Naruto to Dragon Ball. In descending order of popularity, they are:

Naruto
Full Metal Alchemist
Bleach
Ruroni Kenshin
Death Note
InuYasha
One Piece
Dragon Ball
Ranma 1/2
Hana Kimi

Having shared the not-so-surprising news that “kids like the Naruto!”, the panelists offered an imprint-by-imprint breakdown of new series:

• Viz Signature will be offering two new/old series: reprints of Junji Ito’s horror classics Gyo and Uzumaki. Two words: land shark!
• Viz Media will be publishing two series perfect for commitment phobes: the eight-volume Togari (July) and the one-volume Portus (October).
• Shonen Jump adds the twenty-three volume Hoshin Engi (June) to its roster, while Shonen Jump Advanced adds three new series: Gin Tama (July), a long-running series documenting one samurai’s attempt to score dessert and vanquish aliens; Pretty Face (August), a six-volume gender-bending comedy featuring karate, cross-dressing, mistaken identity and plastic surgery; and Strawberry 100% (July), a nineteen-volume ode to fruit-print underpants and filmmaking.
• Shojo Beat has three new offerings as well: the two-volume Millenium Snow (April), a vampire love story that earned the MM4MM seal of approval from editor Urian Brown; Yurara (June), yet another “I see dead people” teen melodrama; and love.com (July), a seven-volume series documenting the ups and downs of a friendship between an impossibly tall girl and a very short boy.

Also on tap for 2007: an InuYasha art book (June) featuring character profiles, plot summaries, and a ten-page interview with Rumiko Takahasi; The Official Naruto Fanbook; and the 900-page YA novel Brave Story, a fantasy adventure of Pynchon-esque proportions. For more information, visit MangaBlog, where Brigid Alverson has just posted a nice wrap-up of the Viz panel that includes more licensing information and juicy quotes from the editorial staff.

Best bets: Gyo, Hoshin Engi, Millenium Snow, and Uzumaki

TOKYOPOP
Tokyopop, like Net Comics, invited artists and writers to participate in their presentation including Paul Benjamin (Pantheon High), Amy Mebberson (Divalicious!), Eric Wight (My Dead Girlfriend), James Barry (Lost Warrior), and Svetlana Chmakova (Dramacon). After each fielded a question from editor Lillian Diaz-Pryzbyl, the focus shifted to Tokyopop’s summer and fall publishing schedule. The big news: CLAMP no Kiseki is back from hiatus! Having found a simpler, more compact method of packaging the magazine and figurines, volume 7 will be in stores in June at a new, lower price point of $19.99. Also in the pipeline:

• Two Jim Henson manga will arrive in stores this year: volume 2 of Return to Labyrinth (October) and volume one of Legends of the Dark Crystal (November), both based on Muppet canon classics.
• The HarperCollins-Tokyopop partnership will yield three new series: Warriors, based on the popular novels by Erin Hunter (word to the wise: these warriors are cats, not Coney Island thugs); Vampire Kisses, featuring artwork by Rem, the very first winner of Tokyopop’s Rising Stars of Manga contest; and Avalon High, a sequel to the Meg Cabot (Princess Diaries) blockbuster.
• On the POP Fiction front, eight new titles were announced, including The 12 Kingdoms (March), Ai-Land Chronicles (August), and an original series Alex Unlimited. The girl on the Alex Unlimited cover bore an uncanny resemblance to Alanis Morissette, leading me to wonder if Tokyopop had licensed a Jagged Little Pill manga. Thankfully, the answer was no.
• Tokyopop will be using artist names to help “brand” their manga (i.e. Mitsukazu Mihara’s The Embalmer). Two artists getting the marquee treatment are Haruku Fukushima (Instant Teen: Just Add Nuts!) and Mizuki Hakase (The Demon Ororon). Look for new titles from both artists, including Cherry Juice (September) and Kedamono Demono (March) from Fukushima and Baku (September) and Kuruizaki no Hana (October) from Hakase.
• Other promising titles include new BLU series June Pride, Barefoot Waltz, Lovers in the Night, and Truly Kindly, a BL anthology by the ubiquituous Fumi Yoshinaga; three series inherited from other publishers: TACTICS (April), Peacemaker (August), and Aqua (October); and King of Thorn (June), Brave Story (June), and Monochrome Factor (July). Yes, it’s the same Brave Story that Viz is hawking in novel form.

Tokyopop’s other big announcement focused on digital media. Over the next few months, Tokyopop will be partnering with several companies to provide manga, games, and brief animated films to cell phone, PSP, and iPod users. We were treated to two demos: a pan-and-scan chapter of I Luv Halloween, complete with hammy voice-acting, sound effects, and cheesy music; and a brief animated prequel to A Midnight Opera with low-grade RPG graphics and equally hammy voice-acting. Holy guacamole, Batman! These were dreadful. I fervently hope that these aren’t made available through iTunes until they’ve been thoroughly vetted by their target audience. My guess: no self-respecting 14-year-old will be impressed.

But because I hate to end on a low note, here’s a bit of cool news for My Dead Girlfriend fans: Entertainment Weekly added Eric Wight’s new OEL series to its March 2nd Must List (see page 45). Here’s what EW had to say: “A high school misfit’s dearly beloved is dearly departed in this crisply illustrated, deliriously twisted manga from The O.C.’s comic wunderkind, Eric Wight.”

Best bets: Baku, Brave Story (love the Art Deco cover!), King of Thorn, Peacemaker, TACTICS

Next up: Go! Comi and Vertical, Inc.