It lives
The first issue of the online version of Yen Plus is now live.
I haven’t been able to dig too far deep into it, but apparently, the “August issue” will only carry domestic and manhwa titles; the Japanese titles will join the magazine next month, for some reason. Daniel X is added to the lineup on the A side, and they’ve hinted that “a certain little green-haired girl” will make an appearance next month (probably Yotsuba).
More later. Being a web developer myself, and having been none too impressed with Yen Press’s current web ventures from a technical standpoint, I’m especially interested in how the “online reader” and copy protection and stuff is going to work. They say that they’ll only ever have the last two issues available… Hmm.
Update: Well, it doesn’t seem to work. After logging in, I see a message telling me to “Please check you Yen Plus membership. .” (sic), and the button which would apparently launch the comic viewer doesn’t do anything. I’ve tried in a couple different browsers without success. This was obviously timed to launch coinciding with Yen Press’s panel at San Diego Comic-Con, but it doesn’t seem ready for prime time.
But anyway, I can get as far as to see a list of available comics, and they are: Max Ride, Nightschool, Gossip Girl, the aforementioned Daniel X, Time and Again, Jack Frost, and two I hadn’t heard of before; Aron’s Absurd Armada, and a “Special Short Story” (so a one-shot?) titled Haunted House Call. Aron’s Absurd Armada is a Korean title, though I’m struggling to find any information about it beyond that.
Check out ANN’s coverage for a little more info on Yen Press’s SDCC announcements.
Update 2: Others in the comment thread of the aforementioned ANN story are reporting not being able to view the comics either.
Update 3: The reader seems to be working now, though not in “full screen” mode, apparently. It’s… well, an in-browser reader. It seems to work well enough, but at the end of the day, you’re still reading print-oriented comics inside of a browser, which really, really, really, really sucks.
Aron’s Absurd Armada turns out to be a four-panel comic about bumbling pirates. Like most four-panelers, it’s short on humor and even shorter on narrative. Go read One Piece instead. Haunted House Call, by Madeleine Rosca (who I’m 90% certain is the same Australian Madeleine Rosca as mentioned in this Wikipedia article, though I’ve yet to find a definite link), is a cutesy one-shot about the daughter and apprentice of a famous London ghost hunter who takes her first case. The charming characters and European-style artwork will push your cute button, even if the story isn’t going to win many points for originality.
Comments
Do you happen to know if this magazine will actually feature translated versions of current chapters from Japan/Korea or not?
By “current,” do you mean feature chapters at around the same time they are printed in Japanese or Korean magazines?
If so, then I doubt it. Translation takes time, especially if it is to be done well. Plus, generally, domestic licensors like Yen Press aren’t going to license a Japanese or Korean title until it has proven itself successful in its respective home country first, and hopefully built up some hype in the Anglosphere as well.
Yes, specifically for items they already licensed for distribution in English speaking markets. I didn’t mean just Japenese/Korean stuff in general.
I had several technical issues with the reader the first couple of days. (You may have seen my comments on YP itself.) But now that everything seems functional, I found the browser fairly easy to deal with. The text on the pirate chapter was a little hard to read. But that was the only one so far. I’ve only read the magazine’s new titles at this month because I’m a couple of issues behind on the print run. I don’t want to skip those chapters. Of the three new titles, Daniel X impressed me the most. I hope this venture proves successful for YP and paves the way for more legal online content.
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