American manga publishing company
Yen Press is an American manga, graphic novel and light novel publisher co-owned by Kadokawa Corporation and Hachette Book Group. It published Yen Plus, a monthly comic anthology, between 2008 and 2013. In addition to translated material, Yen Press has published original series, most notably Svetlana Chmakova's Nightschool and a manga adaptation of James Patterson's Maximum Ride.
History
Yen Press was founded in 2006 by former Borders Group buyer Kurt Hassler and DC Comics VP Rich Johnson. In July 2007, it was announced that Yen Press was to absorb ICEkunion, a Korean publisher that had been publishing manhwa in the United States. While the manga titles bearing ICEkunion's label would continue to be sold in stores, subsequent printings would bear the Yen Press logo. Hassler assured fans, "We plan to pick up all the existing [ICEkunion] titles...We're going to continue everything, so fans shouldn't worry. None of these series are going to fall into a void."[2]
The first issue of Yen Press's comic magazine Yen Plus was published on July 29, 2008. The magazine became online-only in 2010 and was discontinued altogether in 2013.
In 2009, Yen Press announced that it had acquired the rights to Kiyohiko Azuma's manga Yotsuba&![3][4] and Azumanga Daioh[5] from their former licensee, A.D. Vision. In September 2009, Yen Press reissued the first five volumes of Yotsuba&!, in addition to publishing the sixth volume; Azumanga Daioh was reissued with a new translation in December 2009.
On April 11, 2016, it was announced that Yen Press would function as a joint venture between Hachette Book Group and major Japanese publisher Kadokawa Dwango, with Kadokawa owning 51% of the company.[6]
In 2017, Yen Press launched JY, an imprint for publishing graphic novels aimed at middle-grade readers.[7]
On April 15, 2022, Yen Press, in collaboration with REDICE Studio and RIVERSE, launched Ize Press, an imprint for publishing Korean webtoons and novels, with their first titles being, 7Fates: Chakho, Dark Moon, and The Star Seekers all written and illustrated by HYBE in collaboration with BTS, Enhypen, and Tomorrow X Together respectively. Other titles included were Tomb Raider King, The World After the Fall, The Boxer, My Gently Raised Beast, The Remarried Empress, and Villains Are Destined to Die.[8]
At Anime NYC 2022, J-Novel Club announced its partnership with Yen Press in order to print their titles.[9]
In June 2023, Yen Press began licensing novels from Kadokawa's Tsukasa Bunko novel imprint for its JY imprint.[10]
