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Dark Horse Plans to 'Increase Output of Japanese Titles At Least 25% in 2016'

North American comics and manga publisher Dark Horse Comics announced on September 11 that Dave Marshall has replaced Scott Allie as the company's editor in chief. Marshall had served previously as a senior editor at the company.

Allie will assume the title of executive senior editor. Additionally, editorial coordinator Freddye Miller is also adding the position of editor to her title, and the company has hired Cardner Clark as an assistant editor. Dark Horse Comics president and publisher Mike Richardson said in the announcement, "Scott will refocus his efforts as executive senior editor to do what he does best: serve as one of the best editors in the business, while helping to curate and develop new content."

ANN reached out to Dark Horse's manga editor Carl Horn regarding the change and how it might affect the company's manga division, and he provided ANN with the following statement:

Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra are not Japanese series, but they have many crossover fans in the anime community; our books from these series always sell well at anime cons, and I've noticed that our local Japanese bookstore, Kinokuniya, carries them. I bring it up because if you have any of these books, you're likely already familiar with Dave Marshall's work. He was the editor of Dark Horse's original Avatar comic series The Promise and The Rift, as well as our four-volume The Legend of Korra: The Art of the Animated Series. Dave was also editor of The Art of The Evil Within, which, as many will know, is the English title of the Japanese game Psycho Break, from Resident Evil/Biohazard creator Shinji Mikami. As with our recent Dragon Girl and Monkey King: The Art of Katsuya Terada, The Art of The Evil Within was an example of a new book that Dark Horse originally designed and published in English working with the Japanese creators, and which was then later published in Japan itself, in a Japanese-language edition. At present, Dark Horse plans to increase its output of Japanese titles (manga, novels, and art books) by at least 25% in 2016 compared to this year, and it's possible that might rise a bit, as we are still finalizing our 2016 schedule.

Dark Horse Comics announced in May that it will release Kentarō Miura's Giganto Maxia, CLAMP's RG Veda, Spike Chunsoft and Takashi Tsukimi's Danganronpa: The Animation, and Kengo Hanazawa's I am a Hero manga starting in 2016. I am a Hero marks the first time that Dark Horse has licensed a manga from Shogakukan since the company began releasing manga in 1988.

[Via The Beat]