Black Jack going Out of Print

[Marc]

Figured this was worth posting here.

According to Vertical, . Earlier I asked them if they have any plans to reprint it at the moment (soon, I know), and the person running Vertical's blog said "No" without further elaboration. They have since deleted that ask, so perhaps this has changed in the past few hours? There was some strong negative feedback in the notes I got in a post that they reblogged , so it's possible that they're rethinking keeping it permanently OOP (or whatever).

So far there's no word regarding why Black Jack is going OOP, but my guess is that the series simply wasn't profitable enough to maintain. Nevertheless, if anyone hasn't picked up the copies of Black Jack that you want, I recommend you do so now. Currently prices are going up for volumes 8 and 9 in particular (~$34 and $70 respectively), and there's no telling how high they will get in the future or if they will ever even out. Hopefully this won't be Phoenix 2.0. :/

ETA: , so perhaps they'll be re-releasing Black Jack in a cheaper format as well?

[strobe_z]

This is interesting, albeit in a disappointing way. Vertical has been pretty committed to keeping all their Tezuka titles in print. As far as I know, only HC versions of their books have been allowed to go OOP. If the Black Jack trades go, it'll be a first, and I have to admit I'm not sure I'll believe it until we see some corroborating evidence.

I doubt there's another, cheaper, format in the foreseeable future though. So now would be a good chance to finish up theories for anyone on the fence.

[Sevi]

[Marc]

According to recent posts on their tumblr blog, Vertical's in debt and they're looking to get out of it. Perhaps keeping Black Jack in print was just too expensive. It is strange, though--I was under the impression that Black Jack was one of their most popular, successful titles but I could be wrong.

With that being said, anyone have spare copies of volumes 8 and 9 that they'd be willing to let go of for a reasonable price?

[Sevi]

[Marc]

Aw, that's too bad. I really wish Black Jack had sold better here in the States--of all the series out there, it really deserved to (lmao there's my bias speaking). I wonder if that's in part because when they were publishing the manga in Japan, Tezuka changed the order of the chapters so the best would be compiled in 12 volumes, and then they went ahead and continued publishing them. Perhaps a lot of readers overall thought the chapters in the last few volumes weren't as entertaining, so they decided to do without them?

Personally I think most chapters are really good. I mean there are definitely some duds for me but Cat Island was a real gem of a chapter, and I THINK that was in vol. 15.

I managed to swipe vol. 9 for ~$20 just now, but the other night when I ordered vol. 8 from the BN Marketplace, it ended up being out of stock (and still listed/purchasable, for some reason). So, until it's actually in my grimy little hands, I'm going to be on-edge for a while. :I (Vol. 9's one of my favorites because of the Sun Dolls chapter. Plus it's also the most expensive currently.)

But thank you, Sevi! I found a website that searches just about every online book seller at once (even sellers from overseas), so I think I'll be checking that daily!

[strobe_z]

I'm out of the country at the moment, but I'll check the shelf at my local comic store, there's a good chance they'll have the BJ volumes in stock.

As for the overall issue here, I don't think that Black Jack was a poor seller, I suspect it has more to do with the market being saturated. Hard to believe, but I'd bet that BJ sold really well at the beginning, but now that most BJ/Tezuka fans have he set, there's not a lot of people that are lining up behind them. I love Vertical's BJ set, but I bought the three HC volumes as well as all 17 softcovers as soon as they came out... And haven't bought another volume since (why would I?).

People either don't want, or don't know they want BJ. Also, unlike the rest of Vertical's Tezuka series, they pretty much have to commit to either keeping the whole thing in print, or dropping the whole thing. 17 volumes is a lot for people who know nothing about Tezuka/BJ to commit to, so they'll probably just pass on the series altogether.

[strobe_z]

I suppose tis means we'll do what we always do, which is help find good homes for unloved copies

[Tetsuwan Atomu]

I'm really sad and angry at the same time this also means that vertical will never publish works like three in the sun, Three eyed one etc at least not in the near future (with exception of Phoenix which they are interested in but since it already got released they most likely won't ever do it)

The thing that i'm angry about is that things like Sailor moon and Naruto are even beating many American comics in there first weeks and actual good stuff can't, real Tezuka fans bought BJ and after that they din't even sold a 100 copies a month .... it's really sad to see mojority of american anime fans doesn't have a very open mind.
Only for stuff that is new and has mindless action i heard on ANN cast they sad that everthing made before 1984 isn't marketable in the US and they probably mentioned that year because DragonBall started that year just look at Funimation have they ever released something older ...
So one has to wonder what kind of amount the Manga Department of Draw & Quarterly makes if Vertical is in troubble ....

Still letting BJ go as far as out of print seems a bit far for having put so much effort into it they could just reprint a few thousend copies when they actually sold everthing they have, doesn't seem likely that they will release it in a diffrent format now because they sad the same thing about another title that was like 12 volumes.

[astarisborn94]

[strobe_z]

[astarisborn94]

[Marc]

[Sevi]

[astarisborn94]

Already did. I was wondering why Wikipedia had seveteen volumes listed and Tezuka Osamu Magazine Club had twenty-two, so it makes sense.