ADV Manga’s track record

Honolulu’s Star-Bulletin takes an accounting of ADV Manga’s release record, and the results aren’t pretty:

Analysis of an animeondvd.com database and Diamond Comics shipping lists shows that out of 79 series the company has announced since 2003, 43 have been canceled outright or put on indefinite hiatus. Another 11 were announced in 2004 but never released.

Was it a case of too much too soon, or a gross overestimation of what the market could bear? We can neither confirm nor deny what exactly happened, and repeated efforts to contact the company were unsuccessful.

MangaBlog digs a little deeper, and refers to ADV as “a company that is becoming notorious for never finishing a series”:

Communication seems to be a big part of the problem. The ADV manga home page was last updated in September 2004. (The anime section does get more attention.) Yotsuba&! isn’t even listed. Their catalog only lists the first volume of Cromartie High School, arguably their hottest selling property, and that listing bears the discouraging words “sold out.” And unlike other publishers, who have spokespeople that answer the phone and even drop in on forums, ADV wouldn’t even talk to a reporter.

On the origins of Jessica Jones

Girl-Wonder.org updates with a paper by Karen Haley titled, “The Secret Origins of Jessica Jones: Multiplicity, Irony and a Feminist Perspective on Brian Michael Bendis’s Alias.”

Other links of note:

Underground cartoonist Jack “Jaxon” Jackson dies

The Vancouver Sun profiles Sean O’Reilly of Arcana Studios

The Baltimore Sun chats with Diamond’s Steve Geppi

This entry was posted on Monday, June 12th, 2006 at 7:43 am and is filed under Fandom, Independent, Industry, Internet, Manga, News & Views. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.