Coming Soon: New Tezuka Manga Kickstarter from Digital Manga

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Over the past weekend, Torrance, California-based manga publishers Digital Manga Publishing announced via Twitter their plans to launch a new Kickstarter campaign to publish more manga by the godfather of manga, Osamu Tezuka.

#Tezuka Update Teaser: Kickstarter is for 6 Tezuka Series = Grand total of 31 vols. Main Goal: 3-eyed one + Rainbow Parakeet. More tmrw-10am

— Digital Manga, Inc. (@digitalmanga) October 17, 2014

#Tezuka Update Teaser: Once we reach our main goal, we move on to Stretch Goal #1: Publishing Wonder 3 + Alabaster!! 🙂 More tmrw -10am

— Digital Manga, Inc. (@digitalmanga) October 18, 2014

#Tezuka Update Teaser: After we complete our Stretch Goal #1, we move on to Stretch Goal #2: Publishing Vampires + BirdMan Anthology!! — Digital Manga, Inc. (@digitalmanga) October 19, 2014

The initial campaign will be the publish Three-Eyed One (13 volumes) and Rainbow Parakeet (7 volumes) with a goal amount that hasn’t been announced yet. Once that initial goal is met, then the next stretch goals are to publish Wonder 3 and Alabaster, each 3 volume series. And if THAT goal is met, then the next stretch goals will be to publish The Vampires and The Birdman Anthology, 4-volume and 2-volume series respectively. Put it all together, and that’s six series with 32 volumes worth of manga content.

As of Monday afternoon, the Digital Manga website and Twitter feed does not have updates on the launch date of the Kickstarter.

UPDATE: The Kickstarter is now LIVE — and they’re looking to raise a whopping $380K to meet their INITIAL goal. That’s right. If they don’t raise at least an average of $12K per DAY, they won’t be able to publish the first two series on their list, much less all six (that’ll take $589K). Go check it out DMP’s latest Kickstarter, “Tezuka’s World Release – Publishing Osamu Tezuka Manga,” I wish them well, but their plans are pretty… ambitious!

Anyway, here are a few details about the six series that are being promoted in this publishing campaign:

Three-Eyed One (Mitsume ga Tōru / 三つ目がとおる) 
13 volumes, 1974-1978, Originally featured in Weekly Shonen Magazine
Three-Eyed One is a shonen manga supernatural adventure following the adventures of Hosuke Sharaku, the heir to a now nearly forgotten race of demons. While he keeps his third eye often covered by a bandage on his forehead (and he’s a little derpy when he’s like that), Hosuke occasionally uncovers it, and this gives him the power to see what others can’t –- a talent that allows him to solve mysteries… or in some cases, create problems. Three-Eyed One was also adapted into an anime series. Read the full series description (with some spoilers) and see page previews from Three-Eyed One at Tezuka in English.

Rainbow Parakeet (Nana-iro Inko / 七色いんこ)
7 volumes, 1981-82, originally published in Weekly Shonen Champion
Described by website Tezuka in English as “a straightforward ‘cops-and-robbers’ action manga,” Rainbow Parakeet about a clever master thief, and features largely stand-alone stories that have narratives inspired by famous stage plays. See the full series description, plus page previews of Rainbow Parakeet at Tezuka in English.

Wonder Three a.k.a. The Amazing 3 (Wandā Surī/ワンダー3)
3 volumes, 1965-66, originally published in Weekly Shonen Magazine and Weekly Shonen Sunday
Three emissaries from the Milky Way Confederation come to Earth to determine whether Earth, a planet that has alarmed them from afar with its wars and destructive tendencies, should be destroyed for the good of the universe. These three agents from outer space take on the form of Earth creatures to blend in with the natives, so that’s why the Wonder 3 are basically a trio consisting of a cute bunny, a horse and a duck. The trio meet a boy named Shinichi, and his older brother Koichi, who is a manga artist, but is actually an undercover agent for an organization called Phoenix.

Wonder 3 was adapted into an anime series in 1965-66 too. See the series description, plus the background story on how the anime inspired the manga, switched magazines in mid-run, and more on Tezuka in English’s Wonder 3 page.

Alabaster (Arabastaa / アラバスター)
3 volumes – 1970-71, originally published in Weekly Shonen Champion
After being spurned by his lover, James Block is sparked into a fit of homicidal rage, which lands him in jail. While incarcerated, this former athlete turned con meets a scientist who has developed an invisibility ray. Thinking that invisibility would be a boon to criminal activity, Block seeks out this scientist’s lab, only to have the experiment backfire and turn him into a monstrous man whose skin is invisible, but the veins under his skin are not. He gives himself a new name: Alabaster, and embarks on crime spree that no one seems to be able to stop.

Described by Tezuka in English as “one of Tezuka’s most dark and controversial manga series,” Alabaster is definitely a series that’s geared for older readers. See story summaries and page previews on Tezuka in English’s page for Alabaster.

The Vampires (Banpaiya / バンパイヤ)
4 volumes – 1966-69, originally published in Weekly Shonen Sunday
An unusual story where Tezuka himself does more than make a cameo appearance – he’s one of the main protagonists. Toppei, a shape-shifting “vampire” who can turn into a wolf, shows up at Tezuka’s animation studio looking for a job – but his real goal in Tokyo is to find his long-lost father. But this being a Tezuka tale, things get pretty complicated pretty quickly, as plans are hatched for a vampire-led revolution, and murder, numerous political twists and betrayals are set in motion.

While it sounds like the “vampires” in this series are more like werewolves than the usual “I vant to suck your blood” types, Tezuka in English has an explanation for this, along with page previews and story summaries on their page for The Vampires.

Birdman Anthology (Chōjin Taikei / 鳥人大系)
2 volumes – 1971-75, originally published in SF Magazine
A dark, somewhat strange sci-fi tale of a future society where humans are controlled by super-intelligent bird creatures. It’s kind of hard to summarize neatly, so I’ll just give you what the official Osamu Tezuka website has to say about this series:

Birdman Anthology is a science fiction Manga depicting an imaginary future society in which evolved birds control humans. One day, the birds on the Earth suddenly gain intelligence and attack humans so that they may rule the Earth.

It is the plot of advanced bird-like aliens of a faraway planet. The birds deal with humans as livestock. They succeed the human civilization and build a more advanced world with countries, laws, currency systems and class. But all this means that the birds are following the same path that humans have. Then confrontation between the meat eating birds and the insect-and-grain-eaters. Their societies begin an endless war against each other.

In the meantime, on another planet, aliens start discussing which creature should replace the birds, the current ruler of the Earth. What will their conclusion be?

Digital Manga just tweeted today that they’ll be launching this new Kickstarter campaign “sometime this week.”

#Tezuka Update Teaser: Kickstarter campaign page being finalized & finishing up the small things. Will officially launch sometime this week!

— Digital Manga, Inc. (@digitalmanga) October 20, 2014

Stay tuned for more news on this. In the meantime, if you’re not already following Digital Manga on Twitter (@digitalmanga), follow ’em to get the latest updates on their latest Tezuka publishing effort. You can also check out some of their other Kickstarter-funded Tezuka manga titles, both in print on DigitalManga.com and their digital comics storefront, Tezuka World on eManga.com.