Denpa is a Japanese word that can mean “frequency” or “connection.” As of this summer, it is also the name of a new American manga publisher bringing eclectic titles to fans from Japan.
I found out about Denpa from its founder, Ed Chavez. Formerly of Vertical Inc., Chavez is harnessing his connections in the manga world to begin releasing a boutique mix of indie darlings and cult classics that skirt the usual topics of manga offerings in the west.
Some of the titles we know Denpa has so far:
- Nobuyuki Fukumoto‘s Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji. This classic hit is a shonen-style anime about cheating, er, I mean gambling really well.
- Shūzō Oshimi‘s Inside Mari. You can read this on Crunchyroll Manga now, but Chavez says Denpa’s release will be a more polished version.
- Asumiko Nakamura‘s Maiden Railways. Beautiful art and a story targeted at adult women may make this unknown a josei favorite.
Check Anime News Network for the complete list of Denpa titles.
Even in 2018, the North American manga world is fairly sparse. According to Wikipedia, there are just as many defunct U.S. manga publishers as there are active ones. As a fan, I’m excited about a new entrant into the field, especially one as enthusiastic about manga as Chavez.
I had the opportunity to send Chavez some questions about Denpa, its mission, and what we can expect in the near future. Read on to learn about western manga’s newest publisher:
Lauren Orsini: What is there a need for a new publisher like Denpa?
Ed Chavez: To be honest, this is more a question for the consumer than for us. For Denpa, our mission is to release some of the best works from within Japan’s comics scene. And that means creating a catalog that is more substantial than simply releasing action-heavy comics for boys and sexually-tinged fantasies where the lead character is teleported into orc/dragon-filled worlds.
Japan’s manga market is as broad as America’s television market, as there are comics for almost every genre and demographic. Unfortunately, until recently, we have mostly seen content that is based on what can fit into Cartoon Network or Saturday morning cartoon blocks. With the advent of streaming services like Crunchyroll, Netflix, and HiDive, the manga market in the US has seen a bit of a growth period and that has brought over a little more diversity.
See also: Why Netflix Making More Anime May Not Be A Good Thing For Fans
However, it is our belief that there is still more room for titles like PEZ or An Invitation from a Crab. The fact that a title with such a pedigree as Kaiji was never available in print is indicative of the limitations of this market, and we wish to challenge the status quo.
We hope that readers will agree with us. Especially since one thing I have heard from readers throughout my career in manga is that they want more diversity. Now diversity is a broad thing. That could mean classic works (Kaiji), adult woman-focused josei (Maiden Railways), indie comics (Crab), adult man-focused seinen (Inside Mari) or something else we have yet to have discovered or announced. Still, we hope our launch titles can provide a taste of what we can provide to the market from Day One.
Orsini: What is the biggest challenge about entering the manga publishing space?
Chavez: There are many challenges. As a company with a full-time staff of two people, there really aren’t enough hours in the day to handle all the work required to launch a line, let alone produce two books a month.
But in our case, the biggest challenge is really ahead of us. Sure, acquisitions were a challenge. But I feel I’ve made many good connections in Japan that greased those wheels nicely. (We have signed contracts with six Japanese publishers already.) And yes, finding printers in the US that can handle the rigors of the manga we want to create—right to left printing, 5-to-6 color printing, French flaps, etc.— was not easy.
The greater challenge is finding a distributor. As a new publisher, especially one without sales numbers, it is hard to onboard with a distributor that handles more than a specialty market or two. Our books will be available through Powell’s, Right Stuf, Diamond, and Amazon from the get-go, but getting books into places like Barnes & Nobles, Books-a-Million, Indigo (in Canada), or Waterstones (in the UK) will be a challenge until a distributor picks us up. While we will be selling physical and digital editions of our books directly through our website later this year, the convenience and ease of being able to grab a book at a local indie bookstore or chain cannot be ignored. Putting books into libraries will be a challenge also. So while we’ve been talking to wholesales companies like Ingram or Baker & Taylor, once again not having a sales history has made them hesitant until they see real demand.
See also: These Women Are Making Indie Bookstores Great Again
Orsini: What is your biggest success so far?
Chavez: I would possibly say our acquisitions. Going into this project, my biggest fear was whether or not my old licensing connections were still intact. And even if they were, I was not certain whether they would be willing to collaborate with me with a project like this. The manga market in the US has seen many publishers come and go. While we have seen some stability recently, we really have not seen a new publisher who survived the Borders bubble since Yen Press in 2006. And overall, Kodansha USA is the youngest licensee right now. But they are a subsidiary of Kodansha, Ltd. in Japan. So we are not only a new publisher, but we are a publisher that is not connected to a Japanese publisher.
Being able to work with major players such as Hakusensha, Futabasha, Kodansha, Kadokawa, SquareEnix, and Wanimagazine from the start is far beyond what my expectations were a year ago when I began researching this project. Being able to work with their deep catalogs, some of which include decades of history going back to the early days of modern seinen, josei, and girl-focused shojo still makes me blush.
Orsini: When and how will customers be able to purchase manga from you? What will it cost?
Chavez: Books should be available starting this November. You’ll be able to find them through the Diamond Previews catalog, Amazon, Powell’s Books, Right Stuf, and some bookstores.
Prices will start at $13. Obviously, a 500-page edition of Kaiji will be more than that. And so will a full-color limited edition of PEZ (featuring a brand new dust jacket and debossed cover casing). But the base price for a 180 to 220-page book will be $13 and I think that’s competitive with the market right now. eBooks will start at around $8.
Orsini: In a time that print books are said to be dying, why is Denpa offering print manga?
Chavez: Well, “said” is the key point there, I suppose. There was a recent report published by Publishers Weekly stating that the Association of American Publishers have seen trade paperback sales (which includes all of DENPA’s launch titles) have seen a 3.4% increase in the past 4 years. Furthermore, during the same time period, eBook sales declined by 36.7% (to about 13% of the books market). Now, that report did not specifically drill down into the manga segment, or even the greater comics segment. Around the same time, comics industry trade journal ICv2 noted that in 2017, digital sales for comics were almost 12% of a $1.01 billion-dollar US comics market.
As a publisher, I have been in this industry since before Amazon sparked the eBook boom. I have seen its heights and have been aware of its limitations for a while. I am also quite aware that readers prefer reading manga and graphic novels in print. Manga especially, with its paneling and layout, is more conducive to the print medium as it is hard to properly get spreads and page flow in digital editions (though DENPA is working on solutions for that).
That said, we do know that manga customers do not have an endless supply of space or financial resources. We are also aware of the environmental impact of printing. And we know digital distribution is the future of practically all forms of media. So we are embracing that as much as our print editions. With our business partners, we have developed our own eReader that works well on desktop and mobile. We hope to eventually have an app with our content also. For the foreseeable future, some of the best in digital and print hand-in-hand is where we’d like to make our mark.
