GEN Manga, a print and digital publishing venture specializing in doujinshi, or Japanese self-published and indie manga titles, announced an agreement with Editora Abril to distribute its titles in print in Brazil. Portuguese versions of GEN Manga titles will be available in Brazil beginning this summer.
GEN Manga is a New York-based publishing venture that distributes Japanese alternative or indie manga worldwide. The company also specializes in simultaneous publication of its books in English and Japanese, a critical strategy to both satisfy the global fans of manga and the best safeguard against digital piracy. The company has a small office in New York with two full-time employees and about 5 freelancers who work on translation and production.
GEN Manga publisher Jonathan Sirota said, “Our worldwide publishing and licensing program is quickly expanding. It’s exciting to know our wide range of popular story genres and fun characters will now be distributed directly to manga fans via Editora Abril’s impressive distribution channels across Brazil.”
In an interview at the PW offices, Robert McGuire, editor-in-chief of GEN Manga, said the first specializes in manga aimed at adults that is out of the mainstream of commercial Japanese manga. Doujinshi is Japanese indie comics, although the category in Japan has a reputation for copyright infringement, since fans often create “fan fiction” versions of their favorite manga titles. However McGuire emphasized that GEN goes direct to professional manga creators in Japan to license the rights to “idiosyncratic works that these artists create on the side.” McGuire emphasized that GEN Manga is focused on publishing ligitimate original manga and not manga fan fiction.
“We only published original stories and independent manga titles,” McGuire said, emphasizing that while the works are often eccentric they “can be more mainstream.”
“We are thrilled to partner with Editora Abril to bring Portuguese translations of our stories to manga fans all over Brazil,” McGuire. “We’re always doing our best to get closer to our readers and deliver what they love most in the formats they enjoy.”
