This article doesn’t really offer any numbers, but it does make the claim that “ShojoBeat” is achieving sales that are pretty close to those for the new “Harry Potter” novel. I’m not sure if that’s true or not, but with the kind of growth the manga titles have been showing over the last few years, it may be an inevitability that’s not far off.

Usually, the publication of a new comic book is not news.

But, gadzooks! The July launch of “Shojo Beat” comic book for young women is up there with the latest Harry Potter sequel as one of the year’s biggest publishing stories.

A thick, square-bound magazine published by Viz, Shojo Beat collects six English-language manga (Japanese comic books) and publishes them in monthly installments and distributes them at retail outlets such as Wal-Marts and bookstores–territory long ago lost by American comics. Manga are among the most vital sector of U.S. publishing, showing double-digit growth for the past three years. In the U.S., manga is a $110 million a year industry, but in Japan the manga market grosses approximately $4.7 billion each year.

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