Digital Manga Publishing are using "crowdfunding" in order to publish the first full colour release of a manga by Osamu Tezuka.


DMP, which is planning to publish the book under its Platinum Manga imprint, is seeking to get $20,500 or more from readers by 21st July in order to get the book out. People will be able to fund the project using the website Kickstarter. If the funding is successful, it will be released commercially in January 2013 as a single volume.

Those who fund the book will get full colour copies of the manga, as well as extra items including: "T-shirts, posters, stickers and a digital companion with educational games and bonus material for young readers and their parents and teachers".

A press statement from DMP describes the manga thusly: "The book opens in mythological Greece, where Psyche takes care of Unico, and in return he uses his magical powers to bring her happiness. Jealous of Psyche, the goddess Venus orders the West Wind to wipe Unico's memory and spirit him away where Psyche will never reach him. Unico's adventures eventually take him to the Wild West, medieval Europe, and even more fantastic locales. Along the way he makes friends and turns back evil with the power of love."

The editor of Platinum Manga, Ben Applegate, has said: "With Unico losing his memory every time he is transported to a new world, the book is not only a fun adventure for kids, it's also a moral story, with considered spiritual themes. <em>Unico</em> already has a small fanbase in the United States thanks to the animated films, which were first released here in the '80s and were recently re-released on DVD. However, we're not just trying to appeal to nostalgic grown-ups like me. We're doing the book specifically so that parents can read it with their kids. And teachers, too: We think this would make a great addition to primary school libraries and literature curricula."
This is the third Tezuka manga that DMP has tried to release via crowdfunding, the other two being <em>Swallowing the Earth</em> and <em>Barbara</em>.
<a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/digitalmanga/publish-osamu-tezukas-unico-in-english-in-full-col">Source</a>

Full colour spreads for Unico do look nice.

Probably won't be getting it myself, but it does look good and I like how they are making it accessible to everyone as was originally intended.

EDIT: Fundings at 60% already!

The Update on this is that they have reached the Funding goal for Unico after 5 days.

An even more interesting Update if that they have also announced their first stretch goal which will be for ATOMCAT!, Another Tezuka title, this time a family reboot of the Astro Boy manga about a little boy who has a cat that has Astro Boy's powers.

This will be released if they manage to hit $26,000 before the SATURDAY JUL 21, 9:00PM EDT. deadline. and it will see Release March 2013.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dig ... sts/254948

EDIT: Also another interesting update: if the $26,000 is reached before the deadline with time to spare, they will add a further stretch goal for something else which is said to be another Family Tezuka title.