WEEKLY ASTRO BOY MAGAZINE on iPhone in English!

You got that right! Finally, a dose of Tezuka goodness is coming to the iPhone and iPod Touch, officially in English!

Weekly Astro Boy Magazine is on its way to the US later this month thanks to D-Arc. The first volume will be free, and subsequent weekly volumes will cost 99 cents. This is huge news that might just mean some big exposure for Astro and the whole cast of Osamu Tezuka characters.

Pictured to the right is Tezuka Productions President and all around awesome guy, Takayuki Matsutani.

You can see more about this upcoming development here and check out the press release by clicking the link below. Thanks to Yoshihide Kinokawa for sending this to me!

Tezuka Manga to Deliver 'WEEKLY ASTRO BOY MAGAZINE' to the U.S. and Around the World Through iPhone.

Tokyo, Japan--October 20th, 2009--D-Arc, Inc.(CEO:Tsuneo Ishii) and Tezuka Productions Co. Ltd (President:Takayuki Matsutani) announced at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan that they will start delivering TEZUKA MANGA to iPhone/iPod touch users as 'WEEKLY ASTRO BOY MAGAZINE' through iTunes App Store.

One volume of the 'WEEKLY ASTRO BOY MAGAZINE', consisting of almost a hundred pages, will be published weekly. The first volume includes `ASTRO BOY', the most popular of Osamu Tezuka's MANGA, as well as 'PHOENIX', 'BLACK JACK' and more. The cover page depicts `ASTRO BOY'. The first volume is free, and each volume after that will be on sale for 0.99$ per week/one volume.

As the environment surrounding network infrastructure and information technology continue to change, Tezuka Produtions' publishng division has created a brand new style of enjoying MANGA. The main project is the 'Osamu Tezuka Magazine branding project, which carries the themes "reading, seeing, chatting, creating". These services have already been put in motion this past year, commemorating the 80th anniversary of OSAMU TEZUKA.

'WEEKLY ASTRO BOY MAGAZINE' is part of the project that aims to promote and spread TEZUKA MANGA and Japanese Manga culture around the world.

'WEEKLY ASTRO BOY MAGAZINE' is powerd by D-Arc Inc's D-Arc Viewer that has been developed for digital publishing on iPhone. Venture company VOICE-BANK, Inc. announced through Safari Web App "The start of the Manga delivers to US on iPhone" in July 2007", coinciding with the release of iPhone. The company has already started delivering the trial version as the "Digital Manga Project"(http://www.digitalmanga.org)

Since then joint venture company D-Arc Inc, that archives Manga and distributes it on iPhone, has been joined by VOICE-BANK, Inc. (March of 2009). After the start of "WEEKLY ASTRO BOY MAGAZINE" in October of 2009, D-Arc Inc. plans to distribute other manga created by popular authors on iPhone.

WEEKLY ASTRO BOY MAGAZINE http://astroboymagazine.com

Contact:
D-Arc, Inc.
Director:Yoshihide Kinokawa
Kinokawa@d-arc.biz

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