State of Vertical 2014

[Vertical Inc]

State of Vertical 2014

Let’s see…
So this year was much better than last. Significantly better actually. Sales were up big time. We were on time with the vast majority of our titles - especially with our manga releases. And we were able to not only launch a number of new titles but our new imprint - Vertical Comics.
New titles (bold are titles that continue in 2015):
What Did You Eat Yesterday?
Insufficient Direction
Cardfight!! Vanguard
In Clothes Called Fat
Witchcraft Works
AJIN
Garden of Words
Prophecy
Our best new series for 2014 were: AJIN and Cardfight!! Vanguard. Witchcraft Works and In Clothes Called Fat also performed quite well.
Continuing titles (bold are titles that continue in 2015):
Flowers of Evil
Mobile Suit Gundam: THE ORIGIN
Knights of Sidonia
Chi’s Sweet Home
From the New World
Wolfsmund
Our best backlist and continue properties were: Gundam THE ORIGIN and 5 Centimeters per Second. Chi’s Sweet Home and Flowers of Evil were also pretty good. Knights of Sidonia had its moments around the anime’s launch also.
New titles for 2015:
My Neighbor Seki
Satoshi Kon’s Dream Fossil
Makoto Shinkai’s A Sky Longing for Memories (art book)
New Series X
New Title Y
New Series Z
I’m hoping to announce the three new manga titles sometime this winter; most likely at either KatsuCon or KamiCon. We are also looking to acquire up to two more titles for very late 2015.
Vertical also started working on light novels again, such as the Attack on Titan: Before the Fall series. We’ll be doing more Titan light novels in 2015 but we may also have up to two more yet unannounced titles that may potentially be slotted in for the end of the year.
In 2014 we were really fortunate to have a few strong titles that appeared to have found a foothold within manga circles. I think our mix of new and old, seinen and josei, with a dash of shonen seems to be working. I hope to someday do some more shojo again, but that category seems to just not click for us yet.
We seem to also be making a niche for ourselves at events, where I am seeing many faces, new and familiar, at panels and the booth. I honestly was shocked to see panels at NYCC and Otakon at near capacity given where we were just a few years ago.
Social engagement continues to improve. Our tumblr in particular really took off over this year. The @vertical_ed twitter still appears to be the preferred way for people to get in touch with us, but this tumblr feed is not too far behind. I will say that the Facebook feed while not very active does attract its own readership - mainly for very specific titles (Vanguard and Chi do well there). We also started playing with VINE this fall. Some of those videos seem to get a lot of plays. Let me know if you’d like to see more of those. I hope to do more during con season and some more over future trips to Japan.
Moving on to the future… Our 2015 is going to be a little different. In 2014 we launched a pretty high number of new series for us. It truly was a year of expansion. And in meantime, we only had a handful of continuing titles. Well most of those 2014 works will continue to run through most of 2015. That will limit our number of new debuts until we get to the 2nd half of the year. So outside of My Neighbor Seki most of what you’ll see from us are titles mid-run. Thankfully though there will be a few projects that might bump up the interest for at a couple of those continuing titles - Knights of Sidonia season 2 debuts this spring; while Gundam THE ORIGIN part 1 launches in Japan on Feb 28th. We hope both will be hits and that they’ll be available in English soon after their Japanese release.
The summer should bring some excitement in the form of new releases from Makoto Shinkai and Satoshi Kon, along with a new Titan novel! We’ll then hit the road for our annual summer con tour! This year we’ll have stops in Anime Central, Anime Expo, SDCC, and Otakon (maybe A-Kon if I can find a way to fly from Dallas to Vancouver for the opening of the FIFA Women’s World Cup).
Fall will see trips to AWA, NYCC and maybe even back to California for Japan Expo USA. During this season fans should be treated to the launches of all of our unannounced titles. As these titles have repeatedly popped up in our surveys over the years, we are pretty sure some of you all will be pretty stoked to read these!
As this year comes to a close we would like to thank all of our readers for their support. While we understand that the content is what motivates you all, we equally are aware of how much your efforts as customers and fans have done for our change of fortunes over the past 16 months or so.
So we hope to continue to earn your support and encouragement. And we hope to be introduced to even more readers in the new year!
Standing for some of the best manga has to offer,
-Vertical Comics 2014 & 2015