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Digital Manga's Clockwork Apple Kickstarter Reaches Stretch Goal to Reprint Swallowing the Earth
posted on by Karen Ressler
North American publisher Digital Manga's Clockwork Apple Kickstarter campaign reached its third stretch goal of US$28,400 to reprint Osamu Tezuka's manga Swallowing the Earth on Wednesday.
The Kickstarter's initial goal was to publish Tezuka's short story collection Clockwork Apple in English, its first stretch goal was to publish Tezuka's Brave Dan, and its second stretch goal was to reprint Tezuka's Barbara. As of press time, the Kickstarter has earned US$29,349 with 20 hours remaining.
Digital Manga published Swallowing the Earth for mature readers in 2009, and used Kickstarter in 2011 to reprint the book.
Digital Manga describes Swallowing the Earth:
Amidst the chaos of World War II, two Japanese sailors hear of Zephyrus, an utterly captivating woman in the South Pacific. Many years have since passed, and now Zephyrus has resurfaced in Japan, wielding her mysterious power over all men to exact revenge for their crimes against women since the beginning of time! Gohonmatsu Seki is the only man with the ability to resist her allure, but even he seems ill-equipped to save his gender!
The stretch goal titles will be printed on the same higher quality paper as Clockwork Apple.
Digital Manga also used Kickstarter to raise funds to print Tezuka's Ludwig B and and Captain Ken manga. 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.
