ANS Exclusive Interview: Vertical Inc. Speaks Out On Buddha Eisner Win

By Jonah Morgan

Buddha In September 2003, ANS was one of the first to review newcomer Japanese to English publisher, Vertical Inc.'s initial public offering of manga in the American market. The company at the time had staked out some very interesting novelization properties including Koji Suzuki's "Ring", one of the best selling books in recent memory in Japan. Breaking out of the prevailing industry mold which almost always dictates a company chases after "cash-manga" based on a hot anime property, video game or one which was a pick of the draw from examining top weekly sales charts from Japan, Vertical's debut manga title in graphic novel format, Osamu Tezuka's Buddha, was first recieved with quite a mixed review by industry and fan alike. Upon release in October, one of the best manga releases of this past year hit the retail shelves with very little hype. Not a mass anime web ad campaign and nary a $20,000 convention booth tour could be found anywhere in sight.

But the people who do read an appreciate manga were reading and reading and reading..... And this past weekend in San Diego, the people who are widely accepted at picking the best comics released in America, the judges of the The Will Eisner Awards handed Vertical's release of Osamu Tezuka's Buddha Vol. 1-2 the award for "Best U.S. Edition of Foreign Material".

ANS contacted Vertical's Micah Burch for a brief bit of commentary on the Eisner Award win:

"Anne Ishii, our publicist, along with Chip Kidd, accepted for Vertical at the conference, and so I wasn't there to hear her reportedly tell the crowd that she almost peed her pants when they announced Buddha (I guess Persepolis really was kind of the conventional wisdom (it was, after all, very powerful).

It's certainly the highest honor a Vertical book has received to date, and we're amped. We're a little humbled by the recognition (on behalf of Tezuka-sensei, that is), and thankful. The universe of graphic literature is so amazingly rich these days. But, we always believed Buddha was one of the true classics - in some ways, perhaps THE classic of the genre - and it's nice that some experts also recognize its beauty, depth and humor.

This is of course Tezuka's success more than ours, but there are a few people on the Vertical side who deserve special recognition for their work on this project: Yani Mentzas, the editor, of course; Chip Kidd, for his beautiful design work and de facto publicity work; and especially Kenji Ishimaru and his team of graphic artists: they were the real 'translators'."

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