Digital Manga Inc. Launches in Lighting Speed— Smaller, Quicker, and Affordable—The Tezuka Requiem Kickstarter Campaign
Gardena, CA (November 26, 2014)
Digital Manga Inc. (DMI), a long-time publisher of manga, launches a new Kickstarter campaign for their new Osamu Tezuka title, Ludwig B. With other successful Tezuka Kickstarter campaigns such as Barbara, Captain Ken, and Unico, DMI looks to crowd funding once again to help release a manga classic into English. The 2 volume series release date is set for July 2015.
Ludwig B [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/digitalmanga/publish-osamu-tezukas-ludwig-b-vol1-2]
Ludwig B is a bio-manga about music prodigy, Ludwig van Beethoven. With a focus on Ludwig's younger years, Tezuka depicts what life was like for a young, struggling artist in a time when those in a higher social class used and abused those of lower class. Born in an era of great composers, Johann (Ludwig's alcoholic father) forces the young Ludwig to take piano lessons and often acts the dictator. Miserable from his father's constant abuse, Ludwig hated music, but then he is taken under the tutelage of Christian Gottlob Neefe who nurtured Ludwig's natural talents. One day, Franz Creutzstein (an aristocrat who hates anyone with the name Ludwig) canes Ludwig Beethoven in the ear which causes internal bleeding. This in turn causes Ludwig to slowly lose his hearing. From abuse by people he trusted, to the death of his parents, to the loss of his hearing, Ludwig continues to compose music because it is the only way for him to connect to people and the world.
Ludwig B [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/digitalmanga/publish-osamu-tezukas-ludwig-b-vol1-2]
"Readers can hear a lot of valuable messages from Osamu Tezuka in this story … ." - Hikaru Sasahara - Digital Manga Inc. – President
Check out more Q&A with the president of Digital Manga, here. http://www.dmpplatinum.com/ludwigQA.html
Ludwig B is one of the three last manga Tezuka had worked on while in the hospital. He connected deeply with Beethoven's drive and passion for art which is reflected in the panels of the manga, from explosive waves of piano music to a calm melody of flowers, Tezuka pays homage to Beethoven and the beauty of art in this unfinished manga opus.
Ludwig B
Pages: v1:256pgs; v2:256pgs
MSRP: $15.95
Kickstarter Release date: Vol.1-2: 7/2015
The campaign has a more reachable goal of $21,600 to publish this two volume series and has more simplified rewards focusing mainly on backer demand of book based tiers. Planned release date for this series is set for summer 2015. Digital Manga's ambitious endeavor is to still deliver all the remaining unpublished Tezuka titles to the English market, but with an adjusted campaign speed of releasing 10 to 12 series titles per year. Moving forward with more campaigns designed to succeed in reaching its goals, DMI hopes the planned and continued momentum of the campaigns will snowball enough to one day able to support and sustain large scale campaigns in the future.
Digital Manga Inc. has over 20 years of experience publishing manga, and president and founder, Hikaru Sasahara, personally knew Tezuka and his dreams of world unity. Hikaru had created Digital Manga, Inc. in order to bring about his concept of "East meets West," and has published many manga including other Tezuka titles like Barbara, Unico, Triton of the Sea, and the upcoming Captain Ken.
Tezuka Productions has brought to the anime and manga industry controversial books that always pushed the boundaries of what it means to be human. Tezuka does not shy away from showing all the facets of humanity, whether it be sorrow, joy, humor, tragedy, these things encompass what it means to live no matter what type of skin, color, shape, or gender others have. Some famous books Tezuka and his production company have published are Astro Boy, Blackjack, Unico, and Buddha.
Questions? Contact us at: [email protected]
About Digital Manga Inc.
Located in Gardena, CA, Digital Manga Inc. is one of the industry's most unconventional and innovative companies, specializing in building corporate and cultural bridges from Japan to the West - specifically through the licensing, importation, and preparation of anime (Japanese animation), manga (Japanese comic books) and related merchandise for North America's mainstream and niche markets. In this capacity, DMI serves as a catalyst for the spread of Japanese pop culture institutions into the global arena. The company's imprint lines include DMP (its mainstream imprint), DMP Platinum (its classic manga imprint), JUNÉ (its boys love imprint), 801 MEDIA (its adult boys love imprint), DokiDoki (its exclusive co-publishing imprint with Shinshokan Publishing), DH/DMP (a co-publishing venture with Dark Horse Comics, Project H (its Seinen Hentai manga imprint) and DMG (a new forefront for its digital distribution initiative).
For more information about Digital Manga Publishing, visit http://www.digitalmanga.com as well as:
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