New York Comic Con 2016 has featured good choices of manga appearances. Publishers also made new license announcements on the said event.
On the first day of the show, during the ICv2 Insider Talks conference, CEO Milton Griepp has made an estimate of 2015 total manga sales - which amounted to $85 million. There is a 13% increase to the sales as compared to the previous' year sales. Even if the sales did not exceed to the 2007 sales, which is $210 million, the sales in 2015 is the third consecutive year that they have increased sales.
A report from Publishers Weekly quoted Griepp saying that their manga sales in the US have already increased for three consecutive years already. Last year their biggest new titles were "Tokyo Ghoul" and "One-Punch Man" from Viz. Other titles have also done well; therefore the overall market has been growing. The digital distribution is becoming more important since more publishers have found out new ways to have fans go into digital manga reading.
Viz Media director for sales and marketing, Kevin Hamric has mentioned that North American sales at Viz went up to as high as 18% YTD. It also went up as high as 44% in the UK. Amidst the Pokemon Go gaming trend, Viz has been reprinting all volumes of the original Pokemon adventures print series. The two top-selling series were also published again by Viz. This was published along with Assassination Classroom, which is another hot series.
"Attack on Titan Anthology" will be debuting on bookstores on October 18. It will be featuring short comics from famous lineup of Western artists. It is based on Hajime Isayama's Attack on Titan. The contributors for this comic adaptation includes Scott Snyder, Batman writer; Gail Simone, Birds of Preywriter writer; and Faith Erin Hicks, Eisner Award winner, according to Kodansha Comics.
There were special guests featured in the Viz booth. It included voice actors from animated series RWBY. It is the first American anime-style series to debut in Japan.
