Behind-the-scenes surprises come with every great publishing venture, and we deal with all kinds of surprises—good and bad—as we nurture and then push projects out of their nests here at Dark Horse. As a comic and book editor, I shepherd projects through every stage of production—as ideas germinate and then solidify into budgets and then a string of deadlines and eventually a fine printed object—and all kinds of changes and surprises along the way are quite common. Necessary fine-tuning and trajectory-changing surprises can happen at every stage, and it is an editor’s job to see how all the unexpected hurdles can be kept from snowballing and stalling a project. But sometimes we encounter good—even GREAT—surprises in the book-publishing trenches, and I’m here to talk about a few awesome surprises that hit me while working on our first Gate 7 volume.
When marketing maestro Spencer Newlin-Cushing asked me what was the most surprising thing about Gate 7, an answer came right away: the history lessons packed within each volume, in the story itself. Gate 7 Volume 1 delivers action, mystery, and romance—and you can’t be a manga fan without absorbing and enjoying a certain degree of Japanese history in your readings—but the way CLAMP has integrated Japanese history into their new series is quite clever and entertaining.
After our main character—self-professed history buff Chikahito Takamoto—is invited to live with a group of young, magic-wielding warriors in Kyoto’s geisha district, he meets the group’s leader. Chikahito learns a bit about the geisha district, before being introduced to “boss man” Hidetsugu Toyotomi, and this begins a run of appearances by famous Japanese historical figures in Gate 7. It seems that Hidetsugu is actually the same historic Hidetsugu who fought in the late 1500s against the first shogun of Japan! As Chikahito learns about Hidetsugu’s current goals, we’re given a bit of a history lesson on Hidetsugu’s dark past and horrific sixteenth-century death. With reincarnation now in the mix, readers will also be surprised by the real-life characters who show up by the first volume’s end and throughout volume 2!
Along with giving readers some tantalizing historic elements, CLAMP is brewing up some interesting relationships in their story. CLAMP will have readers wondering how the historic figures they introduce will relate to each other in the world of Gate 7—and if they will react to each other in the story the same way they reacted to (and fought with) each other in the past. In Gate 7 Volume 1, a playful romance begins to develop between Chikahito and Hana, the group’s small but powerful female warrior. Or is Hana female? CLAMP continues to explore gender expectations and roles, as they’ve done in some of their other works, and readers may be surprised by all of the dichotomies and contradictions that surround Hana.
I think longtime fans will be pleased with the first Gate 7 volume, which will launch them into a new CLAMP adventure, and readers new to both CLAMP and manga in general will enjoy entering an exciting fantasy series from the “ground up” and relishing all of the magical surprises, nail-biting battles, and unfolding mysteries right along with shy high-schooler Chikahito Takamoto!
—Philip Simon
Editor, Dark Horse Manga