Raijin Comics
Raijin Comics was a manga anthology published in North America by the now-defunct Gutsoon! Entertainment and largely backed by the Sega Corporation at its inception. The collected volumes of Raijin Comics titles were published under the Raijin Graphic Novels imprint.
The comics were aimed at an older audience. The magazine's first issue was published with the cover date of December 18, 2002. Raijin Comics was initially a weekly publication, but it later became a monthly magazine on issue #37 (the October 2003 issue).[1] In July 2004, the magazine stopped circulation with issue #46 and the brand was put "on hiatus". Raijin Comics' failure to break in the U.S. market has been attributed to competition (indirect or otherwise) with the North American version of Shonen Jump, which launched at the same time as Raijin Comics, although both magazines were aimed at different audiences. Also, unlike Jump, many of the titles in Raijin lacked general brand awareness amongst casual American manga fans.
On May 5, 2005, Raijin lost control of the raijincomics.com domain name to domain squatters. The corporate website, gutsoon.com remained in operation for many years but wasn't updated after June 2004,[2] and as of mid-2010 has been taken over by domain squatters. Since the folding of Raijin Comics, two of its titles (Slam Dunk and Guardian Angel Getten) have since been licensed to other companies.
Series published by Raijin
The following series were serialized in Raijin Comics, with the issues they appeared in parentheses:
- Baki the Grappler (2-46)
- Bomber Girl (1-11)
- Bow Wow Wata (14-21, 23-33, 35-41, 43-46)
- City Hunter (1-46)
- The First President of Japan (2-18, 20-23, 25-29)
- Fist of the Blue Sky (1-31, 34-35, 37-46)
- Guardian Angel Getten (4-7, 9-20, 22-32, 34-46)
- Nemuri Kyoshiro (33-46)
- Hana no Keiji (19-34, 36-45)
- Mountain Climbers Saga (5, 13, 46)
- Revenge of Mouflon (4-18, 30-36, 38-46)
- Slam Dunk (1-14, 16-46)
Imprinted manga series
| Title | Author/Illustrator |
|---|---|
| Fist Of the North Star | Art: Tetsuo Hara, Story: Buronson |
| Twisted Tales | Art and Story: Tsukasa Tsuji |
| Irasshaimase, Japan! | Art and Story: Jun Hanyunyu |