CLAMP signs deal with Dark Horse to produce shoujo manga due to 2009

The American comics publisher Dark Horse announced today in a Press Release that, after 2 years of negotiations, they have signed a deal with CLAMP to produce a shoujo manga series beginning on 2009.

The manga will be serialized in small magazines of about 80 pages each, known as Mangettes. The name is a new term created by Dark Horse and CLAMP (more information on the press release).

The magazine will run monthly and will be simultaneously published on the United States, Japan and Korea. Just like a normal japanese manga, the Mangettes will be compiled into tankoubon format once it reaches a certain number of pages.

More information such as the story are yet to be announced.

Thank you for this information!

Excellent news! One more CLAMP shoujo on the way! This is definitely going to be their next project after they’re done with Tsubasa and XXXHOLiC. I just hope it’s a dark shoujo to contrast with Kobato.

2009 looks far, but it’ll coincide with CLAMP’s 20th Anniversary.

And well-done for CLAMP for experiencing new formats and tasting from different waters. Good luck with this new exciting project! ^__^


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78 thoughts on “CLAMP signs deal with Dark Horse to produce shoujo manga due to 2009

  1. Yay! It’s always great to know that Clamp are keeping themselves busy!
    Still… it’s kinda strange to think of what will be after TRC and Holic… Awwww… I can’t think of them ending, not after Harry Potter..ç___ç
    But we have time for this!XD

    I hope for some information about the story to be released soon!
    …so we can start wondering which character will loose his eye, which one will loose his mind and go for some mass distructions, which one will die and which one is a Clow descendant! XD Ok just joking, I just love too much Clamp and their little(???) obsessions!

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    • >Yay! It’s always great to know that Clamp are keeping themselves busy!

      Yeah! Makes us think that we have CLAMP until 2009, at the least XDDDDDDDDDDD

      >Still… it’s kinda strange to think of what will be after TRC and Holic…

      Really? Since I knew CLAMP before TRC and XXXHOLiC, to me is quite normal. In fact I’m really looking forward to it because I can’t wait to see what sort of new stuff they are planning for us.

      >I hope for some information about the story to be released soon!
      …so we can start wondering which character will loose his eye, which one will loose his mind and go for some mass distructions, which one will die and which one is a Clow descendant! XD

      HAHAHAHAHA !

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  2. That would be great, but it looks like it’s a new story.

    They will be working on Kobato. and this new manga. However, they have worked with more than 2 mangas at the time, so they might just fit X in their schedule too ^^

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  3. Ah… such a bright, bright light the future holds! *squee!* I can’t wait~! It’s almost a “How in the world will they be able to surpass themselves with a new series?!” haha Of course, if there’s that one, then surely there’ll be atleast two others, right? I can’t imagine CLAMP only doing one or two or three series at a one time (…Take a break before one (or four!) of you gets stomach ulcers! >

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    • Oh yeah, by that time they will be probably working on Kobato., Gouhou Drug and this new series. 3 shoujos, how amazing! *-*

      Hopefully, if they manage to solve X’s publishing issues, they’ll be able to fit it in their working schedule.

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  4. that is good news but 80 pages for month is quite challenging and sad because this mean Clamp never finish X o Gouho drugs or Clover and i’m really looking for they continue at least gouho drugs and X!!!!! ToT

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    • Yeah, 80 pages is quite a lot of pages. But it’ll be a monthly series, I think they can handle it. And the magazine is told to be 80-pages long, but maybe the manga will be slightly smaller than that.

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  5. WOWOW!! That’s really an unexpected news *O*
    Also, if you think, it’s from when Clamp started to draw shounen that they don’t start a real shoujo x3

    I got high expectation for this and can’t wait to see more news and I also agree with you, I hope it have a dark tone!

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    • Very unexpected news indeed, caught us all by surprise!

      I really miss their dark, adult shoujos… I think they’ll aim for something like that seeing how Dark Horse is known for publishing adult comics and since at the moment they already have Kobato. as the sugary shoujo manga ^^

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  6. ~squee!~ That is so f’n awesome! WOW!! I love that we’ll finally get to have a CLAMP release right when it comes out. (I’m speaking from the U.S.) Can not wait!! Thanks for the great news!!

    ~^___^~

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    • *SHOCK SHOCK SHOCK* a SHOUJO *___* May it be bloody and toned and eye-watering *sways*

      >Does this mean we’ll get solid, solid translations if CLAMP means intentionally to reach their international readers? *crosses fingers* XD

      I’m pretty sure, yeah. For that reason, their deadlines are gonna be really tight. They have to send the manuscript in time to translate it for the foreign languages plus editing, printing and distributing, just wow…

      None of the CLAMP members know english enough for proofing the final result, but maybe they’ll get to have their own translator?

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  7. Ooh, I’m especially pleased to hear it’s from Dark Horse, their books are excellent excellent quality. Unfortunately, they’re quite pricey.
    Does that mean TRC and Holic are going to be finished in 2009? Eeek.

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    • Really? Great to have such a positive review! Tokyopop must be eating their nails off xD

      How do you think it ought to be a shoujo published by Dark Horse?

      >Does that mean TRC and Holic are going to be finished in 2009? Eeek.

      According to my counts, they should be over by the beginning of 2009. This announcement only confirms my thoughts ^^

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    • GD is planned to be 15-volumes long, so it’s not going to end so soon. As for X, I highly hope they will resume it after TRC and XXXHOLiC are over, even though they’ll be beginning a new series.

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    • Me neither! Find out about the story, the characters, the first image, who’s gonna draw it *-* Awww, new CLAMP manga is ALWAYS so exciting!!

      You’re welcome ^___^

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  8. Yeah, go for it CLAMP! I am soo happy that they are doing this! I also signed up for their mailing list.

    Thank you soo much, chibiyuuto-kun!

    Arigatou Gozaimasu!
    Minako-chan

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  9. That sounds very promising, and I’m certainly happy about it, but…
    But I’m kinda sad that “Gohou Drug” is still on hiatus, the same with X. I’m a mad fan when it comes to their works, but sometimes I’d really like them to stay with their project till the end before they start a new ones ;_;

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    • I’m pretty sure that they haven’t forgotten about those series, and starting new ones will not prevent them from continuing them later.

      We don’t know yet the complexity of this new series in drawing terms, but I think they can handle Kobato., Gouhou Drug, X and this new shoujo.

      Kobato. has only 14 pages per month, it’s quite an easy job.

      Gouhou Drug is drawn by Nekoi, mainly. Mokona only assists her.

      We don’t know who will draw the new shoujo nor the complexity of it, but I think they can squeeze X in and draw more 20 pages for it.

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      • Then I would be very happy fangirl, and if I remember correctly they said themselves about having no free time at all :((

        But well, this new shoujo sounds interesting. If I may be honest, there aren’t many shoujo mangas I like, but Clamp’s mangas are incredible, they always make them so awesome 😀

        Which reminds me I need to read Kobato’s chapters I’m behind with.

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  10. OOOhh, nice!! Thanks for the news! I hope it’s dark shoujo as well, nobody does that as well as CLAMP, and I’ve been longing for them to delve into shoujo waters again. 😉

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    • Indeed, it’s been years since we don’t get a dark shoujo from theirs. Ever since X went on hiatus, I think CLAMP themselves must be missing working on a dark series too.

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  11. It’s great hearing that they’ll be doing a new Shojo, but I would like to see Gouhou Drug finished before that or have them do it at the same time =/ Same goes for X.

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    • I think they’ll do GD at the same time… they can’t finish it since the series will be 15-volumes long, but I think they can work simultaniously, sure ^^

      X as well, hopefully =\

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    • I hope the “Dark” on the publisher’s name suggests that it’s going to be a dark series. Unless they will go for the whole “attract new readers” thing. Hopefully not x_X

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      • I gave a look at their website and their comic titles seem to be not too kiddish at least. I hope it will be a good title, I hope we’ll get something in the Shinshoukan fashion, everything they published at shinshoukan was outstanding, even among Clamp’s title (Rg Veda, Tokyo Babylon and Hidarite).

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        • I just hope that they didn’t approach CLAMP for a light shoujo in order to attract new readers, because that would mean 2 light shoujos running at the same time.
          And it’s Dark Horse’s first shoujo, who knows what they are aiming for.
          I hope it’s something challenging and different from what they have done so far.

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          • In the ad, they are talking of Rg Veda, X, Chobits, Tsubasa, and xxxHOLiC, all manga with quite dark parts to it, no mention of Card Captor Sakura or Wish, that bode well for a dark shoujo.

            It will be 80 pages each month, around the same as Tsubasa in the breakless periodes, I’m a bit concern it might slow down everything else, this one is better to be good.

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            • LOL at you highlighting the dark series XDD

              Do you think it’s going to be ALL 80 pages of manga? It seems like these Mangettes will have a total of 80 pages, maybe CLAMP’s manga will take up to 60~70 pages of it. The spokesperson from Dark Horse said they are hoping to join 3 Mangettes in order to form a tankoubon… 3 x 80 = 240, and we know a tankoubon is not that big.

              Do you reckon these Mangettes will contain ONLY CLAMP’s series? O.o A disgest with only one chapter… GOD, CLAMP is powerful!

              >I’m a bit concern it might slow down everything else

              You think so? I think they can easily handle these 80 pages + Kobato’s 14 (lame) pages + one more series (Gouhou Drug is appropriate since it’s drawn by Nekoi).

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              • Do you reckon these Mangettes will contain ONLY CLAMP’s series? O.o

                Right, I forgot we are talking about American comics. ^^;

                So a digest of 80 pages should be about 40 pages of comic and 40 pages of ads, sprend around inside the actual chapter (which thoroughly sucks).

                But I do believe it will be Clamp only:

                “CLAMP’s original manga […] will come out in a small digest consisting of about eighty pages each, which will then be collected into trade paperbacks with bonus material.

                “This digest format, or Mangette, signifies CLAMP’s personal wish to reach their large international readership by now speaking to them directly as artists through Dark Horse, and on a basis of equality with their Japanese fans.”

                To me it seems we are only talking of Clamp, there will be no other artist. Anyway, Dark Horse doesn’t have comic magazine running.

                Maybe I got it wrong … ^^;

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                • Wow, 40 pages of ads? That’s too harsh… maybe 10~20.

                  And I too think it’s going to be just CLAMP, I was too awestruck to believe. I’m still too awestruck to believe o___o

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                  • Wow, 40 pages of ads? That’s too harsh

                    The only original version american comic I have seen in my life where Tsutomu Nihei’s “Wolverine: Snikt” and for 48 pages there was nearly half of the pages in ads. And these ads were between the comic pages, you were lucky to get three comic pages in a row. That was quite bothersome, to say the least.

                    But we are talking of Dark Horse here, not Marvel, maybe they are less heavy handed with the ads.

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                    • I hope the ads won’t be inside the chapters, but I wouldn’t be surprise if aropund 30 pages are ads. It would be nicer if we get, say, two chapters of 25 pages and 10 pages of ads in the beginning of the mangette, in the middle and in the end.

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                    • And seeing how they placed it’s information on CLAMP-NET.COM, really made me think that the TITLE will be Mangettes xDDD

                      Maybe it’s just because they haven’t announced yet (or decided, we know some of CLAMP’s titles were created very near the release of the first chapter xD CCS, Chobits, Kobato)

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  12. I’m really interested in this simultaneous publication deal – and I’m also hoping for a darker series. I hope the “soon” in that “Soon to come, details on CLAMP’s exciting new story” at the end of the press release actually means “soon.”

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    • Thank god you didn’t miss it after all 🙂

      >It definitely sounds exciting! I’d like a dark shoujo too, so it’ll contrast with Kobato.

      Yes! It’s been a while now… since their last dark shoujo.

      You’re welcome!

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  13. I have very mixed feelings about this. Overall, I’m glad to hear that CLAMP will be doing more work and the project certainly sounds interesting (despite my having no knowledge of Dark Horse, what have they done?) But. At the same time, I really want CLAMP to finish up their old works before moving on. X was so close to being done, why not just finish the damn thing? It had what, two and a half volumes left? That’s not bad, that would be finished in less than a year. Gouhou Drug was just starting to get into the plot when it stopped, we still have no answers to any questions at all. Kobato has just kicked off, and hey, wouldn’t it be nice to even maybe see Clover finished. I don’t know, it just feels like with every new project they take on, the less likely it seems that they’ll finish their old ones. I fear even for the completion of Kobato at this point. I don’t know, I’d just much rather see them finish up these other series, some of which we’ve been waiting on for years before they keep up yet another new project. Every day, I’m resigning myself to the fact that we’ll never see the end of X. However, if we never see anymore of Gouhou Drug, I think I might cry. SO MUCH HAS YET TO BE EXPLAINED WTF CLAMP. NEEDS MOAR KAKEI.

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    • Hi alice!

      Well, first of all, let me say that I understand you completely, and I, like anybody else, wants nothing more than to see the continuation of the works in hiatus, specially X.

      I am not a CLAMP member and unfortunately I don’t know any of them closely XD, but if you want my opinion on this, I think that they starting new project won’t affect the production of the dropped ones.

      It’s been over 4 years since the last X chapter came out, almost the same period since the last GD chapter was published. It’s too much and I think CLAMP acknowledge that. These two works have very big fandoms, especially X, I don’t believe they are starting new projects for the sake of not continuing them.

      When this new manga starts, TRC and XXXHOLiC will be either finished or very close to. Then what will remain is only Kobato. and it’s poor 14 pages per month. Say this new manga runs in a schedule of 80 pages per month, that leads us to a total of 94 pages. Okay, let’s round that up to 100 pages.

      Now, CLAMP can do more than that. Back when CLAMP worked on CCS, X, CLOVER and Wish simultaneously, they easily over-passed that mark. Not to mention that after working under the tight schedule of 2 weekly magazines at the same time must have taught them a lot.

      My point is, I find it hard to believe that CLAMP will have only Kobato. and this new manga after TRC and XXXHOLiC are done, which means they can resume one of their works that are on hiatus. They said on AX that GD will be resumed in the near future, for example.

      Also, I honestly believe that they want more than anyone else to resume their dropped works. It must be harder than we believe to do so, and I think that they’ll definitely resume them when they solve everything getting in the way.

      They can’t wait to finish their dropped works in order to start new projects, they have to keep working, I think.

      That’s my humble opinion, and that’s what I tend to cling to avoid getting completely desperate for the lack of my favorite series xDDDDD

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  14. *__________* that’s exciting!!!
    even if it’s until 2009 *———* omg omg xD new project new project
    wahhhh *dies* wanna know more but XDDD as there’s still one year and a half to go….I suppose they’ll take it slowly ;3;…but I’ll be patient! go clamp! go! *—*
    *dies again*
    thank you so much for making us know chibi yuuto-san!! thank you! x333 take care and do well!!

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  15. 2009 will be a great year thanks to this new dark shojo, another thing to break my poor brain with, dark horse are my favorite comics & manga publishers and I love everything that they can put their hands on. (Vampire hunter D for example or the comics of Hellboy) ^_____^

    I hope they will end X after finishing TRC and xxxHOLiC and starting the work on this new manga, so goes for GD and clover I think we all want them continued.

    Dear CLAMP, I really want to know the end of X before I get to see my grandsons having grandsons!

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  16. THAT ROCKS!seriously since i live in greece my comic store has some shipping problems with manga companies first Viz now Tokyopop resdulting in non available titles but Dark Horse is part of DC so i can breath easy(viz went into a non europe shipping policy for around a year when i put down X 8!imangine my angst)

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  17. 209 they shouldnt annouce that now to big a wait they should finsh x clover and legal drug . Kobato should hurry to finish its first volume the american release is around the corner .

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