Tokyopop Goes Left
by Douglas Wolk -- Publishers Weekly, 3/18/2002
In an unusual publishing move, Tokyopop, the publisher behind the successful U.S. editions of the Japanese manga series Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura, will print all of its new graphic novel series "Japanese-style": with the spine on the right-hand side of the book, and each page reading right –to left.
Tokyopop isn't the first American publisher to print manga this way, but it is the first to plunge into it all the way for the nine new series the house is launching April 23 (among them Cowboy Bebop, a popular animated TV show). The publisher is also offering retailers a nine-pocket floor dump, bearing the slogan "Manga done the right-to-left way."
Marketing and communications manager Kristien Brada-Thompson told PW the move, "enables us to put out releases more frequently, because they're cheaper to make." Each book will be priced at $9.99, for anywhere between 172 and 260 pages. Five more series start in May, and another four in June, including Initial D, which is likely to appear on American television soon.
