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Digital Manga Launches Kickstarter to Print Tezuka's Clockwork Apple

North American publisher Digital Manga launched a Kickstarter campaign on Tuesday to localize and publish Osamu Tezuka's Clockwork Apple (Tokei-Shikake no Ringo) anthology of eight short stories in English. The campaign has a $13,500 goal, and will end on May 7 at 4:06 p.m. EDT.

Digital Manga describes the 248-page, A5-size anthology, which the publisher will print using the same thicker paper that it is using for Barbara and Alabaster:

In this collection of speculative fiction a man finds a wonder drug, a robot has a baby, a town is subjected to control by substance, a robber runs away from murder, a man searches for his Mysterious Love, American school kids are kidnapped, an activist takes part in political intrigue, and space hippies defy peace conventions.

Originally printed between 1968 – 1973, these speculative fiction short stories have similar tone and themes to Eerie and Creepy comics as well as the TV show The Twilight Zone. Though it has a similar name to Clockwork Orange, it is in no way related to the book or film.

Digital Manga successfully funded a print edition of Tezuka's Ludwig B manga last December. Digital Manga also used Kickstarter to raise funds to reprint Tezuka's Barbara, Swallowing the Earth, and Captain Ken manga. The English release of Barbara was nominated for an Eisner in 2013. Most recently, Digital Manga funded its release of Tezuka's Alabaster manga through Kickstarter.

Digital Manga's Kickstarter campaign to publish Tezuka's 13-volume The Three-eyed One manga and seven-volume Rainbow Parakeet manga failed to meet its US$380,000 goal last year. Digital Manga president Hikaru Sasahara said that he originally wanted to use Kickstarter to fund 50-70 books a year, but has switched to a goal of 20-30 volumes in order to lower the cost of publishing including licensing fees, advanced royalties, labor, and other expenses. He added that he would like to launch a new campaign for one to five books almost every month, with a week or two in between each campaign.

Thanks to Daniel Zelter for the news tip