Required Reading: Dark Horse on Manga

It's been a while since I've done a Required Reading-- more for lack of time than lack of materials to work with, I promise you! --but today an interview went up at ICv2 with Dark Horse's Mike Richardson. The interview is a 2-parter, but all the manga talk was in part two, and it's a pretty interesting read.

Without giving it all away, Richardson lays the popularity of manga in bookstores pretty squarely in the lap of female readers, a demographic that western comics have had a tough time grasping for decades. There are also a few tidbits about upcoming CLAMP projects-- including a hint that there are "some surprises" in store --as well as movie projects.

Now, before you read too far into things like I did-- I was really excited when Richardson sayd that "Dark Horse will be producing the series" when talking about the Hollywood adaptation of the Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service manga. "Series?" I thought. "Could they have a contract for more than one movie? Or maybe...maybe it got redeveloped into a TV series!"

Not the case, as I found after checking in with my pals at Dark Horse. He was referring to the manga series, although Richardson apparently followed up: "Naturally, we wouldn't mind if it turned out to be a series of films..."

Me either, Mister Richardson. Me either.