About a week ago, TOKYOPOP announced that they were launching a new line of manga they’re referring to as Sports Manga. The press release stated:

TOKYOPOP Inc. and the National Basketball Association (NBA) have given basketball a new way to transcend the court. The companies have teamed up to develop a first-of-its-kind series of NBA Sports Manga? - the signature moves and greatest moments of basketball’s top stars captured in an awesome visual format for readers. Using full-color digital images freeze-framed into action-packed spreads and peppered with manga-style word balloons and captions, each book highlights the career of a different player. The debut series - titled Greatest Stars of the NBA - features Shaquille O’Neal, Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan and Jason Kidd. Each NBA Sports Manga carries the suggested retail price of $7.99, and all four volumes are slated to hit stores this winter.

I thought this sounded pretty interesting, especially when you consider TOKYOPOP’s tradition of successfully marketing new things to the youth of the US. I looked around the web to see if I could find any information beyond the press release. I’m sure someone covered it somewhere, but the major comic book news sites didn’t seem to have anything other than the press release itself, if even that. So Andrew and I talked about it and decided to fire off a few questions to TOKYOPOP ourselves, and thanks to the help of Kristien Brada-Thompson via their media relations email, our questions were answered by the editor of the Sports Manga series, Jod Kaftan.

4CR - What led TOKYOPOP to choose to work with the NBA for your upcoming line of Sports Manga?
Jod Kaftan - We felt that basketball is such a popular, exciting, action-filled sport that it was a natural fit for the debut of the Sports Manga line.

4CR - How did the initial concept for this project come about?
Jod Kaftan - Our COO, John Parker, saw a story in the LA Times showing how basketball players pull off some of their best moves, and the idea for Sports Manga was born!

4CR - How involved will the various athletes be in the development of their manga?
Jod Kaftan - We are working with the NBA rather than directly with the players themselves, though the books will feature the players’ greatest moments, their history, etc.

4CR - If the NBA manga are successful are you planning on offering other sports or entertainment manga?
Jod Kaftan - Yes, definitely. We already have other projects in development.

4CR - What sort of demographic are you shooting for with this line of books?
Jod Kaftan - We are targeting tween and teen boys.

4CR - Who will be writing the initial line of titles?
Jod Kaftan - Jon Fawaz, who’s written more traditional basketball books in the past, and Jon Finkle, an accomplished sports writer with an entertainment background.

4CR - Manga has often dealt with themes that traditional American comics don’t (baseball, cooking, etc.) but why exactly do you think manga readers will be receptive to this sort of format?
Jod Kaftan - Cine-Manga’s fresh, vibrant look is a perfect fit for the fast-paced excitement of basketball. We think it will perform much better than traditional text-based sports books–we’re just the first ones to come up with it!
(FROM KRISTIEN: Keep in mind that TOKYOPOP’s Cine-Manga line differs quite a bit from traditional manga–it’s full-color, rather than black & white, and it’s usually geared toward younger readers. Also, the Cine-Manga format includes both fiction and non-fiction subject matter. What’s “manga” about it is the treatment… the look of the panels… the word balloons, etc.)

4CR - Do you think this will be a gateway for younger readers to more traditional manga?
Jod Kaftan - Yes. Cine-Manga features characters and personalities young readers are likely to already know; from there, once they’re familiar with the manga format, it’s a natural jump to traditional manga.

4CR - Will you be offering these in Japanese for the Japanese market? Any other languages?
Jod Kaftan - As we expand our market to worldwide, this is certainly a possibility.

4CR - Will TOKYOPOP be advertising the line in non-traditional venues like SI Kids, Rolling Stone, etc.?
Jod Kaftan - We will be advertising the line in our other Cine-Manga and on our Web site, but we think the books are so strong that they essentially sell themselves. With Cine-Manga (and in this case Sports Manga), we’ve been able to break into the mass market, so our books are available everywhere from Target to Wal-Mart to Scholastic Book Clubs. That, in itself, is tremendous exposure.

Spread the word!