Tor Books and Seven Seas Entertainment are joining forces to create a new manga imprint within Tor. The new Tor/Seven Seas imprint will “showcase the efforts of both companies working together to jointly acquire and co-publish some of Japan’s best-selling and most exciting manga series, light novels, and other fiction.” Tor will also start distributing Seven Seas titles in early 2008.
Tor Publisher Tom Doherty said of the partnership: “We are so pleased to be working with Seven Seas; their mix of science fiction, fantasy, humor, romance, and adventure is an excellent complement to Tor’s bestselling and award-winning genre fiction publishing program.”
Answering the question “why?” Tor said “manga, the Japanese version of comic books, is a publishing phenomenon that, in 2006, represented a $4.4 billion market in Japan and a $175-200 million market in the US. The distribution and publication of select Seven Seas titles will also give Tor an opportunity to become a flagship publisher of ‘light novels,’ a type of book new to American manga and genre-fiction fans. The light novel launch will feature Ballad of a Shinigami, Pita-Ten, and Strawberry Panic, and will debut in March 2008.”
Seven Seas President Jason DeAngelis said “Our partnership with Tor will enable us to push the envelope even further and expand the manga market, bringing all sorts of new and varied content to fans.”
In August 2008, Tor and Seven Seas will publish their first collaborative venture under the Tor/Seven Seas imprint, the manga version of Afro Samurai. It will be written and illustrated by Takashi Okazaki. The manga is the basis for the Spike TV anime series that premiered in 2007 featuring the voices of Samuel L. Jackson, Ron Perlman, and Kelly Hu. “The publication of Afro Samurai will kick off a multi-platform promotional campaign, including an Afro Samurai video game by Namco and the launch of Spike TV’s second Afro Samurai season, both slated for fall 2008.”
Three-year-old Seven Seas publishes manga, manga-inspired novels, illustrated juvenile fiction, and more, and is one of the only publishers that produces original manga content in the US. Tor Books is 27 years old, and is probably the largest publisher in the sf/f/h field.