While Vertical has had its share of stellar comic properties in the company’s eight years of publishing, what’s been unique is a week like this where two prime-time titles land on bookshelves together with as much fanfare.
Fresh off an Eisner Award nomination, Nobuaki Tadano’s debut 7 Billion Needles comes to a dramatic conclusion this week. While there was no doubt that 7 Billion Needles was the sleeper hit of 2010 amongst manga circles, Tadano’s adaptation of Hal Clement’s classic equally captured the attention of the comics industry as his young heroine Hikaru has quickly emerged as the new face of Japanese science fiction.
Also debuting this week is Usamaru Furuya’s tragic masterpiece Lychee Light Club. Inspired by a stage performance by the same name, Furuya brilliantly melds visual humor with shockingly detailed panels to revive this deus ex machina tale for the twenty-first century. Lychee Light Club is often viewed as Furuya’s magnum opus, and it is for this work that he was selected as one of the guests of honor at this year’s Toronto Comics Art Festival.
Join Vertical along manga’s red carpet by picking up your copies of these acclaimed titles today. Our stars of manga await.
We would like to extend our deepest sympathies to the people of Japan who are affected by the recent crisis, and thank everyone who has expressed concern for our co-workers and loved ones in Japan. We are filled with great sadness, but also enormous admiration for the courage and sense of hope that the Japanese people have shown in the face of such overwhelming tragedy. If you would like to contribute to the disaster relief efforts in Japan, we suggest making donations to:
