For those of you who are into the expanded universe of either (or both!) of the WarCraft and StarCraft universes Tokyopo & Blizzard Entertainment have quite the treat for you! Tokyopop announced today at the New York Comic-Con that they will be publishing more Manga in those universes in the upcoming months.
Manga, a Japanese word for comics and print cartoon, has gained popularity outside of Japan in recent years and this has expanded to Blizzard's rich stories of WarCraft and StarCraft. The first Manga volume that was released was The Sunwell Trilogy which was the backstory from when the Sunwell was destroyed in WarCraft III and set-up the storyline which is currently playing out in World of WarCraft with The Fury of the Sunwell.
No significant details were released about the content of the StarCraft manga, although Tokyopop said that they have slated releases through 2010. The first volumes should be showing up on store shelves in August (in the U.S., check with your local distributor for local release dates) with the release of StarCraft: Frontline and WarCraft: Legends.
A quote from Tokyopop's announcement today providing a little detail on the four volume initial StarCraft Manga:
In celebration of the 10th anniversary of Blizzard Entertainment's bestselling StarCraft real-time strategy game, this August TOKYOPOP will publish the first volume of the new manga series, StarCraft: Frontline, a collection of four stories set in the dark and gritty StarCraft universe. StarCraft: Frontline includes "Thundergod," by renowned writer Richard A. Knaak (Warcraft: The Sunwell Trilogy) and Naohiro Washio, and focuses on the new Thor heavy combat walker unit that will be appearing in Blizzard Entertainment's upcoming sequel, StarCraft II. Other artists and writers featured in this collection include Simon Furman (Transformers), Paul Benjamin (Pantheon High), Joshua Elder (Mail Order Ninja), and Ramanda Kamarga (Psy-Comm).
There was also a bit on the new WarCraft manga:
August also hails the debut of the first volume of the all-new manga series Warcraft: Legends. Some of the world's best manga creators join together to bring the world of Warcraft to life as never before! Warcraft vets Richard A. Knaak and Jae-Hwan Kim (Warcraft: The Sunwell Trilogy) team up again for "Fallen," which is the first of a three-part tale. Other global talent for Warcraft: Legends includes Dan Jolley (Warriors; JSA Liberty Files), Carlos Oliveros and Mi-Young No (Threads of Time).
These will be the first of a planned twenty-two volume series that spans both universes. Blizzard expanded universe story writer veteran Richard A. Knaak, who worked on 'The Sunwell Trilogy', is back at it again with this project with his writing.
Be sure to read more about the new deal and the full press release over at Kotaku.
Links
Kotaku - Source
Tokyopop - Publisher's Website
