Taiyo Matsumoto’s BLACK AND WHITE to return…
From an interview with Viz EiC Alvin Lu in today’s Publisher’s Weekly Comics Week:
“We’re looking to continue in other areas as well, like the Viz Signature line [a new line for older and more adventurous manga readers]. We’re looking to continue pushing that, and we’re looking to acquire titles this year and next. We’ve got Uzumaki and Gyo by Junji Ito and we’re excited about that. We’ve also got a new title this fall—a repackaging of Black and White [by Taiyo Matsumoto]. That’s the old title. The new title is Tekkon Concrete, which is [also] the title of the anime that will be coming out. That’s being released by Sony. It’s making the festival circuit now and will be released on DVD by fall.” - Alvin Lu.
Yes.
Alvin told me about this at New York and I (quite surprisingly) kept my big mouth shut about it. But yeah, a new edition of Matsumoto’s Black and White this fall and, if what we talked about is correct, it’ll be a single-edition, and probably in the “Phoenix” size rather than the standard-format manga size. Which is goddamned awesome. Buy it. Buy it. Buy it.
- Christopher
[Image from the Tekkon Concrete Japanese Movie Website.]
April 3rd, 2007 | by Chris
9 Responses
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April 3rd, 2007 at 6:27 pm
God, I hope they don’t flip it back to being “unflipped,” like I heard is happening with the Uzumaki reprint.
April 3rd, 2007 at 9:01 pm
Awesomeness. Please let this sell and inspire Viz to release the rest of No.5…
April 3rd, 2007 at 10:38 pm
Brian- See the thing is, I heard both things about Uzumaki. I know it’s definitely going down to the standard manga trim (digest? Tokyopop size?) in the new edition, but I think flipped/unflipped is up in the air. It would make sense for them to print it flipped–the work is already done and a borderline title (ie: no anime tie-in) needs to be as economical as possible. Holding out hope…
April 3rd, 2007 at 10:40 pm
Huff- I’m doing my part! Heh. I feel like we should be mocking up “Rosie The Rivetter”-type signage or something.
April 3rd, 2007 at 11:16 pm
There is no way that I will not be buying this.
That’ll be one more off my “people keep telling me to read this, but I can’t find it” list. And I think that’s the one with the most checkmarks beside it, so to speak.
Although, honestly, I’d much rather own something titled “Black and White” than “Tekkon Concrete”. It doesn’t influence my decision at all, but there it is.
April 4th, 2007 at 7:03 am
I’ve got the earlier 3 volumes of Black & White that Viz published. Is this new volume gonna have anything new? I can’t remember if the story was finished.
Did Viz ever put out a 3rd volume of No. 5? I think that was even better than B&W, I really like the fact that it was standard comic book size. Matsumotos art looks great at that size.
April 5th, 2007 at 4:19 am
Yes. Yes. Yessssss!
I´ve been looking for Vol.1 for ages. I gave mine to a friend a while back and he lost it during a move…
April 9th, 2007 at 4:49 am
[…] In the letters section of the recently released Optic Nerve #11, a reader challenged Adrian Tomine to writing a compelling comic book tale about beekeeping. For starters, Tomine may have some competition to deal with from the countless addicting Japanese manga stories that revolve around subjects as mundane and singular as sushi-making, bread-baking or the board game Go. Taiyo Matsumoto’s reportedly offbeat and hilarious manga Ping Pong (see today’s featured picture) is no exception, though I’ve only watched the movie adaptation that was finally released in the U.S. last week. But Matsumoto’s wonderful contribution to the world of manga, and the subsequent movie adaptations, hardly end at Ping Pong. Matsumoto receives a much deserved “public service announcement” from Comic212’s Christopher Butcher. Among Matsumoto’s best known work is his cult manga Black and White (the Los Angeles Times has a write up about its movie adaptation, Tekkon Kinkreet). From the movie adaptation trailer, it seems to have something to with screaming homeless boys rampaging and flying though a vast, decaying, amusment park-like cityworld. If that description doesn’t quite do it for you, here’s the the Youtube clip. Butcher also informs us that Viz is getting ready to re-release the Black and White mangas re-titled as Tekkon Concrete. […]
August 31st, 2007 at 2:47 am
I have a second volume one for sale if anyone’s interested.
anyone know a way to contact matsumoto?