Publishers Weekly has some interesting info from the ICv2 Anime and Manga conference at the first annual New York Anime Festival.

Apparently, incredibly enough, manga sales are continuing to grow. However, sales of manga’s historical cousin in success, anime, are going south. Maybe folks are finally getting tired of the incredible price gouging that goes on there. Or perhaps they’ve had enough shrill yelling and clunky, plotless storytelling.

But I digress!

While manga sales and releases are projected to continue growing, Griepp noted that there are questions around the category. In a market dominated by material for teens, particularly teen girls, can publishers introduce material for adults? And while Griepp noted that new manga publishers continue to enter the market, he also said that shelfspace is bookstores is not growing as fast as the increase in titles. “There’s not enough space to support 1,700 titles. Some titles will get bookstore distribution and some won’t,” said Griepp.

Perhaps the most eyebrow-raising tidbit:

…all the representatives on the panel (which also included DC Comics v-p John Nee) said they were taking a serious look at the Kindle, Amazon.com’s new digital reading device, to determine its suitability for reading black and white comics material.

Hrmm…

In other manga news from PW, science fiction and fantasy publisher Tor now has a manga line, which will include the first (official) stateside translation of Afro Samurai.

Spread the word!