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Viz Now Accepting Submissions for Comics Outside Japan (Updated)
posted on by Egan Loo
Eric Searleman, a senior editor at the North American publisher Viz Media, has announced in a staff blog entry on Wednesday afternoon that his company "is now accepting submissions and pitches for original comics." With this announcement, Viz has effectively confirmed that it is continuing its original comics initiative.
Marc Weidenbaum, the former editor-in-chief of Viz's manga magazines and vice-president of original publishing, spearheaded the initiative at New York Comic Con in April of 2008. At the time, he emphasized that his company was not soliciting submissions, so Wednesday's announcement is the first open call for submissions. Weidenbaum and Searleman did review portfolios at Comic-Con International last year, although Viz did not hold reviews at this year's event.
Viz declined to comment on the status on the original content line after Weidenbaum left the company this past February. However, Searleman appeared at the Editors Day event in Georgia's Savannah College of Art and Design to participate in a panel and a portfolio review with editors from other American companies in May.
[via Icarus Publishing]
Update: Viz posted the pitch submission release form for its original comics program in PDF format.
this article has been modified since it was originally posted; see change history