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Barbour Publshing pulls the plug on Serenity

PostPosted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 11:07 am
by Gypsy
As of last Thursday (the 15th) Barbour publishing has cancelled their contract they had with Realbuzz Studios for the Serenity manga series. Previously they had advertised that they'd be releasing other titles from Realbuzz, but they told me in no uncertain terms that Barbour will have nothing more to do or say about the Serenity series.


However, upon futher research, I found out that Westbow Publishing (a division of Thomas Nelson Publishers), the same guys that bring us Peretti, Dekker, and Lawhead, has scooped up the contract with Realbuzz. They're really excited about this new venture and have slated a re-release of the first 6 volumes of Serenity, as well as other titles from Realbuzz early this spring.


Quality wise, Westbow has stronger bindings, bolder ink, and better paper, so we're probably going to be looking at a small price change. We're all used to the standard $10 a pop for manga, and that's what I imagine the books will now be. It's too bad - although they are full color, they can easily be read in 20 minute sittings at the most (making them very easy to burn through even while hanging around the store) which hardly makes them worth $10. However, it's a start.


Here's the link to Realbuzz (never count on them to have up-to-date info, though) http://www.realbuzzstudios.com/


and the link to the article about Westbow signing on Realbuzz http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/10066.html

PostPosted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 11:34 am
by Yeshua-Knight
well, all i can say is razzberries to barbour and spiffy points to westbow, and since westbow already has a rep for publishing that's a bit more cutting edge, it's probably a good move for realbuzz as well

PostPosted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 11:53 am
by Gypsy
That's what I was thinking as well. Point for the good guys, in my opinion.

PostPosted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 6:15 pm
by uc pseudonym
Has any information been released regarding why the contract was canceled? I'm keeping fairly close tabs on the beginning of the Christian manga industry, but I haven't seen this yet.

I suppose it's good that the quality has improved, though I'm not particularly looking forward to the increased price on future volumes. It's the writing quality that matters to me anyway.

PostPosted: Tue Feb 20, 2007 3:12 pm
by Gypsy
Your guess is as good as mine - I try to keep up on the press releases for this area as well, not to mention with my job I had some inside leads. As for this particular event, Barbour was being really tight lipped to the point of being rude. And it could be months before we hear the Realbuzz side of things. I think their site is on a time delay of 1.5 months.