Viz Media announced today at Comic-Con that it has licensed 20th Century Boys and Pluto, by renowned creator Naoki Urasawa (Monster).
The two titles will be released bimonthly beginning in February.
The publisher initially licensed 20th Century Boys in 2005, but Urasawa reportedly requested it be delayed until after Monster finished its English serialization because his art style had progressed between the two works.
In the award-winning science fiction/mystery series, a man and his childhood friends are drawn into a conspiracy that could threaten the world.
Urasawa’s most recent project, Pluto is a murder mystery that reinterprets Tezuka’s Astro Boy, specifically “The Greatest Robot on Earth” story arc.
Between Slam Dunk, announced last year, Black Lagoon, revealed in January, and now 20th Century Boys, I’m very happy.
July 26th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Gloom and doom decreasing… decreasing…
July 26th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
Wait–I thought Viz had the license for 20th Century Boys for a while now, but were waiting for Monster to finish serialization before starting it up. Or maybe that was just a rumor?
July 26th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
Oh wait, didn’t read it carefully enough. Whoops.
Still, good to have these in fully legal, non-scanlated format.
August 15th, 2008 at 12:21 am
I can’t wait for their release. I read a fan-dub of Pluto onlie and I thought it was great. I’m in the middle of reading 20th Century Boys, but I think it’s even better than Monster, probably because I love Stephen King and this reminds me a lot of the writing style used in IT.