Japan loves comics, too! If you doubt it, consider their largest fan convention, a self-publishing event that 500,000 people attend (imagine Stumptown, APE, or SPX, only three times the size of San Diego, and, oh yeah, this thing in Japan is held twice a year). It isn't called "Manga Market." No, it's called "Comic Market," Comiket for short. Looking for comics in a Japanese bookstore? It's pronounced komik'ksu . . . and it's where they keep all their manga. How about picking up one of those thick, phone-book-size magazines that practically every manga first appears in (the way B.P.R.D. or Conan first appears as a comic before being collected in graphic novel form)? The tender Translucent ran in a magazine called Comic Flapper; the tough Lone Wolf and Cub and tripped-out Domu ran in a magazine that labeled its graphic-novel line -- are you ready? -- Action Comics. I can just picture Itto Ogami raising that baby cart above his head, while panicked Yagyu flee the scene.

You get the idea, brah! The Japanese have no problem calling what they draw "comics" as well as "manga" -- in most circumstances, they use them interchangeably. It doesn't mean they think their comics are the same as our comics . . . but who said comics had to be the same? Dark Horse never did -- look at our catalog. Recently president Mike Richardson and director of Asian licensing Michael Gombos were in Japan. We were honored to hear many positive things from the publishers and creators, but one interesting detail stood out for me above all. It seems that several years back, when the manga bookstore boom was in full fireball, there was some doubt in Japan as to whether Dark Horse, despite its long history with manga (dating to 1988!) was well positioned to take advantage of it. After all, Dark Horse's strength selling manga had traditionally been in the direct market, not the bookstores.

But now, it's the incredible future year 2010, and even as the manga bookstore boom has receded, we're still strong selling manga in the direct market -- and reaching further than ever into bookstores with our omnibus program collecting the classic works of CLAMP. The initial title, last spring's Clover, was the first time Dark Horse had ever published a manga the Japanese would consider shojo. The truth is, we've wanted to publish shojo manga for years -- the Dark Horse way. CLAMP is working directly with us to remaster their manga from their own original artwork; you're seeing their work exactly how they intended, and you're going to be seeing a lot more of it soon with this month's Chobits, this July's Cardcaptor Sakura, and this September's Magic Knight Rayearth.

What's most exciting of all is that Clover has been bought by people who say they've never purchased a Dark Horse book before -- in some cases, they hadn't heard of Dark Horse before. We're hoping that now they're here, they'll get to know us the way you already do. That brings us back to our catalog. I was just helping to proof the summer 2010 edition, and I couldn't help but notice it's in alphabetical order -- Chobits and Conan share the same page. Now that's Dark Horse as it enters a new decade. We love comics, too!

Carl Horn
Editor