Here’s some good news for aspiring manga artists in the US. Recently, Viz Media announced that it will launch a new one-shot manga submission platform in the US, giving aspiring creators an avenue to get their works published.
This platform will be part of Viz Media’s Originals line, an imprint established a few years ago that launches titles from manga-inspired creators.
Viz Media’s new platform is part of the publisher’s expansion strategy that also coincides with efforts by Shueisha.
Viz Media and Shueisha Continue to Expand With New Platforms
Viz Media is an American media company that specializes in manga. It is owned by Japanese publishing giants Shueisha (of Weekly Shonen Jump fame) and Shogakukan (best known for Weekly Shonen Sunday).
Thus, Viz Media is the official distributor of many Shonen Jump and Shonen Sunday titles in the US and other English-speaking regions.
The company publishes manga volumes from these magazines in English, as well as online through its manga reading platforms.
Shonen Jump is Viz’s flagship manga platform as it features a subscription service where readers can access thousands of chapters. This year, Viz also launched Viz Manga, an equivalent service for Shonen Sunday titles.
Aside from Viz, one of its parent companies, Shueisha, is also keen on expanding its footprint with new platforms and services.
For starters, there’s the subscription service for Manga Plus that launched just recently. It’s a service similar to Viz’s Shonen Jump but has two tiers to choose from.
Then there’s the Jump Toon service, which is a platform for webtoon-stye comics, meaning the titles here will have a vertical format.
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Viz Media to Launch One-Shot Manga Platform in the US
Now, Viz Media is gearing up to launch its new one-shot manga platform. How it works is that aspiring manga creators in the US can submit their titles through the platform, and they will be reviewed.
Titles that are selected will then be put under the care of Hisashi Sasaki, Weekly Shonen Jump’s former editor-in-chief. Sasaki will work with the one-shot creators whose works are selected.
Once entries are selected and edited, Viz Media will publish the one-shots digitally. Some of these one-shots can even become established IPs, meaning they can potentially get anime and merch.
For now, there’s no word yet on when the platform will be officially launched. It probably won’t be long though, meaning aspiring US creators may want to get started right now.
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Source: Anime News Network
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