Dark Horse Manga Editor Carl Horn Informs and Entertains at PSU Workshop


Portland State University's Center for Japanese Studies hosted a workshop titled "The Business of Adapting Japanese Comics for the U.S. Market". The main speaker was Dark Horse manga editor, Carl Horn, and it was a packed house at Smith Memorial Union.

After an introduction by co-author of Saying Yes to Japan and PSU professor, Tim Clark, the stage was given to Carl Horn, and he spent a good hour giving the audience a brief and very funny history of manga publishing in America, and details on how a Japanese title reaches English-speaking audiences.

Although in the US readers are accustomed to the 32 page full-color "floppies" (of which Dark Horse also publishes) Japanese readers are more accustomed to telephone-book sized weeklies or monthlies holding dozens of chapters of different stories from different writers and artists. Initially, manga publishers in the US brought manga in the floppy form American audiences were used to, but has moved to the tankobon style, collecting many chapters into a single, novel-sized volume. These are usually 200+ pages. Since the manga boom of the last five years we are seeing more "omnibus" collections of tankobon, which might be 400 to 600 pages, but are in a single volume at a better value.

The number of volumes of manga released every year in America has been rising over the recent years. In 2007 there were 1468 volumes of manga published in the US, and in 2008 that number is predicted to be 1731. That's volumes, not individual titles. Most ongoing titles have 4 to 12 individual tankobon releases in a year.

Despite his obvious cold, Horn's presentation was flawless and the audience hung on his every word. Having an insider make jokes about the title acquisition of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (which Dark Horse didn't get) and talk about his disappointment in the forced cancellation of Satsuma Gishiden was like getting a rare look into the unique world of manga publishing in English. Carl Horn' presentation was not only funny, but his mind is like a manga history encyclopedia. He answered questions from the audience directly and with honesty, only hiding the title of a new acquisition that he is majorly excited about, but hasn't hit the press yet.

Attendees were especially excited to hear about the mangettes that Dark Horse will be releasing in English and Japanese at the same time (an industry first) with mega-manga team CLAMP (xxx-Holic) in Japan. The plan is to have 80-page monthlies released in English, and at the same time have these stories appear in Japanese at the same time in larger collections. The idea is to have Japanese and American (and possibly Korean) audiences reading the same manga at the same time.

Horn also talked about the increasing interest in light novels, which he called the "last frontier" of Japanese media, because it was the only media the truly required an understanding of Japanese to enjoy untranslated (unlike anime, games and manga, which are visual media). The audience was thrilled to hear about future fiction releases by Hideyuki Kikuchi of Vampire Hunter D fame. Mention of Blood+ manga and novels was also met with approval.

The workshop ended with a cos-play contest and a handful of attendees dressed up for the event and then a social with staff from Dark Horse and PSU Center for Japanese Studies staff.

If you get chance to hear Carl Horn speak, take it. The poor guy was obviously ill, but his intelligence, knowledge and humor kept the audience (yours truly included) at the edge of their seats and truly entertained and informed. Sometimes insiders can be a little elitist, but Horn is a (self-proclaimed) otaku first, and insider second. He was happy to be there and excited to give manga fans and students of Japanese a clear look at the interior workings of the industry.