I’ve spoken quite a bit about the state of manga in the West such as how to read manga online legally and even what my favourite editions from English language manga publishers have been but I recently realised that I haven’t actually devoted an article to some of the most notable English language manga publishers. Therefore, I thought I’d rectify this and take a look at them while discussing a little of their history.
In my personal opinion, the most notable amongst all the English language manga publishers would be Viz Media. Within my own manga collection, Viz Media releases make up about half of all the manga that I own which I attribute to their numerous imprints such as Weekly Shonen Jump, Weekly Shonen Sunday, Shojo Beat, Viz Signature which cover a wide range of demographics and genres. Viz Media was originally founded as Viz Communications in 1986 in order to distribute manga in America and, since then, they’ve ended up becoming one of the largest, if not the largest, distributors of graphic novels in North America.
The next publisher that I tend to think of is Yen Press. Founded in 2006, Yen Press has made quite an impact since its inception, releasing predominantly manga but also releasing Manhwa, Manhua, OEL manga and, most notably, light novels. My favourite manga of all time, With the Light: Raising an Autistic Child, was released in English through Yen Press and, while lacking the number of imprints that Viz Media has, their catalogue includes a wide variety of titles with perhaps the most notable being their release of a number of josei titles.
I’m sure that many of you will be surprised to see Dark Horse Comics, a company that has produced comics such as Hellboy and Sin City, listed as one of the most notable English language manga publishers but their division, Dark Horse Manga, releases a wide variety of very important manga series. These titles include Lone Wolf and Cub, Samurai Executioner, Gantz, Hellsing, Oh My Goddess! and, their top property within the entire company between 2019-21, Berserk.
The next publisher will actually consist of two since they recently consolidated, Kodansha USA and Vertical. Kodansha USA was established in 2008 and acts as the American wing of the Japanese publishing titan Kodansha which grants them access to a massive catalogue including titles such as Sailor Moon, Attack on Titan, Fairy Tail, Ghost in the Shell etc. Vertical was established in 2001 and became my favourite manga publisher as they published a wide variety of Osamu Tezuka manga, Pink and Helter Skelter by Kyoko Okazaki, Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin etc. Since then, Vertical has become part of Kodansha USA who continue to release a variety of titles in Vertical’s catalogue.
There are many other great publishers of manga but I do believe that these companies are amongst the most notable when it comes to the English language market. Let me know your thoughts, what you think of each of these publishers, what some of your favourite titles have been from each company, other notable manga publishing companies and any additional information you might have on the topic.
Hopefully you have found this article interesting and informative and, if you wish to seek any of the works I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk or amazon.com for all of your needs!
For each notable publisher there’s probably 2 or 3 small press publsihers that release manga (in lesser quantities) that I would be interesting to hear your thoughts on if you have titles from any
I would definitely love to do that. As you said though, “For each notable publisher there’s probably 2 or 3 small press publsihers that release manga” so it would end up being a very long article. Doesn’t mean I won’t do it but I want to take my time and do it well.