 It's safe to say that manga and graphic novel publishing has exploded over the last few years, and everyone wants a piece of the pie. Traditional publishers have created imprints, new publishers have sprouted up, and other graphic novel publishers have created new imprints to segment their business and meet the demands of rabid readership. It can be challenging to navigate all of these different publishers and their imprints, particularly knowing which audiences publishers are targeting when they publish under a certain imprint. Below is an extensive (not exhaustive!) list of publishers and imprints that are currently active in the market. I will strive to keep this list updated as I become aware of new folks entering, folks leaving, and new imprints coming or going. This would be a great list to employ that Command/Control F search feature on your computer so you can find information quickly for your collection development needs. I'm sure I missed some! Feel free to let me know in the comments below and I'll add them to the list as I am able to. ABDO ABDO is a high quality educational publisher that publishes original graphic novels aimed at educational strategies like high interest-low reading level, history content, and other educational topics. Much of their graphic novel content is library-bound popular graphic novels. Often, these are single-issue comics, individual manga chapters, or portions of larger graphic novels broken into smaller sections. These hardcover versions may last longer in library binding, especially with younger grade levels, but purchasing comicbooks and manga in smaller chunks will cost more than a rebound complete volume from another vendor. Much of what ABDO publishes is for the K-8 audience, though you will find some graphic novels for the 9-12 grade audience level. Read more: ABDO's website for graphic novels ablaze ABLAZE publishes single-issue comicbooks, graphic novels, manga, manhwa, and has recently been publishing print forms of popular webcomics. Their storylines include titles from Europe, North America, and Asia. Much of what ABLAZE publishes is for grade 9-12 or adult audiences. Read more: ABLAZE's website abrams comicsarts
aloha comics  This small press publisher was established in 2020 as ParaBooks and is based in Honolulu, Hawaii. At ParaBooks, they focused on horror comics, in 2023, they established the imprint Aloha Books and began publishing manga, manhua, and manhwa. Read more: Aloha Comics' website capstone  Capstone is a leading educational publisher for grades K-5, but their various imprints do include graphic novels, especially Stone Arch and Capstone Editions. Capstone also has a partnership with DC Comics to provide original content, and supports the use of graphic novels for education with resources for teachers or families. Read more: Capstone's website Dark Horse  Dark Horse Comics was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson, and they publish creator-owned comics, a line of manga under the imprint Dark Horse Manga. Dark Horse usually publishes long-form, darker, and more mature storylines, and many of their stories are best suited for high school or adult collections. Read more: Dark Horse's website DC Comics DC is one of the largest and oldest publishers of comics in North America with a vast universe of superhero comics that include characters such as Batman, Harley Quinn, Wonder Woman, Superman, and more. Several companies have gone into creating the DC Comics we know and love today, but if we take the oldest of the companies that founded this group of stories, this publishing group has 90 years worth history in its vaults. DC has several imprints separating some of their content by age group:
Read more: DC Comics' Website Denpa Denpa is an American publisher of Japanese manga founded in 2018 that was established by Ed Chavez, formerly of Vertical Comics. They're based out of Portland, Oregon. Denpa also runs the imprint Kuma, which exclusively publishes Boy's Love storylines. Read more: Denpa's website, Kuma's website drawn & quarterly  Drawn & Quarterly was founded in 1989 and is based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. At first, the company specialized in alternative art and comic strips, but they have since grown to become known for high quality art graphic novels and award-winning material. Many of their books are aimed at adult audiences with their sophisticated storylines and art styles. Read more: Drawn & Quarterly's website dynamite entertainment  Dynamite was founded in 2004 in Mount Laurel, New Jersey and is home to popular titles like The Boys and Elvira. Many of their titles skew towards an adult audience with lots of graphic violence and some sexual content. However, recently Dynamite entered a partnership with Disney to create stories for popular villains like Scar, Cruella, Maleficent, and more. Their line of Disney stories also include nostalgia favorites like Gargoyles, Duck Tales, Darkwing Duck, and others. Read more: Dynamite's website Fairsquare graphics  FairSquare is a small-scale publisher that came into creation in 2019 with the mission to promote "immigrants, minorities, and under-represented creators". These creator-owned stories are for a variety of age groups and, are full of beautiful human-created illustrations. They publish OEL manga, series-based stories, and one-shot graphic novels. Read more: FairSquare Graphics's website Fanbase Press Fanbase Press was established in 2010 and is based in Los Angeles, California. This small, independent graphic novel publisher brings a handful or fewer projects to market every year, but the focus is on quality of story, not quantity. Their titles are often nominated for comics awards, including the library favorites 2023 Eisner and Harvey Award-nominated Ripple Effects and 2018 Eisner Award-nominated Quince. Read more: Fanbase Press' website fantagraphics Founded in 1976 and based in Seattle, Washington, Fantagraphics is a publisher that predominantly focuses on non-superhero stores, primarily comic strip anthologies and long form graphic novel storytelling, Much of their catalog is aimed at adult audiences. Their titles generally receive multiple comics awards nominations and wins per year. Read more: Fantagraphics' website First Second (:01) Macmillan First Second was founded in 2006 and is a publisher based out of New York City that publishes graphic novel stories for a variety of audiences. They hit the ground running with some fantastic, award-winning stories, and have lived up to their reputation for providing quality storylines and good bindings for libraries. Read more: First Second's website glacier bay books  Glacier Bay was founded in 2019 in Oregon but relocated in 2022 to Manitoba, Canada. They are a small manga publisher best known for their manga anthology, Glaeolia. In addition to the anthology, Glacier Bay focuses on contemporary indie and alternative manga titles. Read more: Glacier Bay's website graphix  An imprint of Scholastic founded in 2005, this powerhouse had a slow start but now enjoys around 50% of all graphic novel sales year over year with flagship stories like Dog Man, Drama, and Amulet. They have also brought to market extremely popular graphic novel adaptation of beloved classics like The Baby-Sitters Club, new favorites like the Wings of Fire series, and are home to student favorite stories and award winning titles. They have ventured into the manga market with Unico: Awakening and the award-nominated title, Hikaru in the Light. Read more: Graphix' website HarperAlley HarperAlley is an imprint from HarperCollins. HarperAlley began publishing graphic novels in 2020, and, boy what a year to enter into the year of graphic novel publishing. At that point, they focused on graphic novels for kids and teens, primarily. In 2024, they expanded into adult graphic novels, manga, and manhwa. Read more: HarperAlley's website ID (Idea and Design Works)
Image Image is another creator-owned comicbook company that was founded in 1992 and is based in Portland, Oregon. They are one of the largest publishers of comicbooks in North America. Image Comics usually publishes long-form, darker, and more mature storylines, and many of their stories are best suited for high school or adult collections. Read more: Image Comics' website Kodansha Kodansha is one of the oldest publishers on this list with its founding in 1909 in Japan. Consistently, Kodansha has been the second largest publisher of English titles in North America for the past several years. They predominantly publish titles for high school audiences, but their range spans all audience levels. In 2011, Kodansha purchased Vertical books, and occasionally this imprint's name pops up, but most books are published under Kodansha's singular banner now. Read more: Kodansha's website Mad Cave Studios
Manga Mavericks Manga Mavericks started as a manga news podcast and website in 2016, but they since have added manga publishing to their portfolio as of the Summer 2025. Their publishing partner is Red String Manga, which helps with localization, publication, and distribution. Read more: Manga Mavericks' website Marvel Marvel is one of the largest comics creators in North America, and also has a long history with company roots tracing back a little more than eighty-five years ago. Their character library includes favorites such as Spider-Man, Iron Man, The X-Men, and Doctor Strange. Their comics have become the inspiration for a large universe of movies, but creative liberties have been employed, and the "Marvel Cinematic Universe" is a different world than that of the comics. Read more: Marvel's website NBM Publishing  Nantier Beall Minoustchine Publishing Inc. was established in 1976, and they are based in New York City. They focus mainly on publishing European comics, adult erotica, award-winning biographies, and classic comic strips. Read more: NBM's website one peace books  One Peace was established in 2006 by Japanese publishing company Sanctuary Books, and as an arm of a Japanese publisher, they not only localize manga for North American audiences. Their catalog includes light novels, children's books, craft & cooking books, lifestyle & motivational books, and literary graphic novels. Read more: One Peace Books' website Oni Press Oni Press was established in 1997 in Portland, Oregon as a graphic novel publisher. In 2019, it merged with Lion Forge comics to become Oni-Lion Forge Comics, which is now owned by Polarity Media, a conglomerate of media producer David Steward II. During this time, Lion Forge discontinued its many imprints, which included Caracal, CubHouse, Quillon, and Roar. Read more: Oni Press' website Random House
Saturday AM Saturday AM is a publisher focused on uplifting diverse manga creators from around the world. The stories are based on diverse mythologies, include diverse characters, and appeal to a wide range of audiences. The books are printed on high quality and with sturdy spines, which is great for library collections. The stories themselves are highly entertaining, and the diverse voices and representation of the characters and creators is a worthy inclusion for every library collection. Recently, Saturday AM has partnered with Lerner to make their stories available in library-bound hardcovers. These chop the story up a bit more, offering 4 hardcover books for the span of one paperback volume, but some libraries with high circulation may see the value in having library-bound hardcovers that will last a lot longer. Read more: Saturday AM's website Seven Seas Seven Seas is a manga, manhwa, manhua, light novel, and audiobook publisher based in Los Angeles, CA. Their large variety of offerings makes them a staple in library collection development, and their series are often among reader favorites. Their imprints include:
Read more: Seven Seas' website Square Enix Manga & Books The Manga & Books arm of the immensely popular video game conglomerate began releasing & distributing books in English in 2020 (wow, how many publishers started and came out of that crazy year?!) Since their baptism by fire, this company has brought us treasures like My Happy Marriage, The Apothecary Diaries, and A Man and His Cat. In addition to publishing new and fascinating stories, there is a fair amount of familiar Final Fantasy video game adaptations to round out their publishing library. Read more: Square Enix's website Star fruit books Star Fruit Books is a very small, independent manga publisher based in Palm Harbor, Florida. The company publishes a handful of books per year, and does not do distribution through any major networks. At this time, their books are mainly only available to be purchased through their website or in person at trade shows or conventions. Read more: Star Fruit Books' website TokyoPop TOKYOPOP was established in 1997 and was part of the manga boom of the 1990s. They were instrumental in localizing some quintessential titles like Sailor Moon, and they also introduced the "unflipped" version of manga in 2002, which preserved manga in its original right-to-left orientation that has now become the industry standard. TOKYOPOP has titles under the imprint LoveLove, which publishes romance stories, especially Boys' Love and Girls' Love titles. Read more: TOKYOPOP's website VIZ Media VIZ Media is currently the largest manga publisher in North America, outpacing all other manga publishers combined. VIZ has many imprints:
Read more: VIZ's website Udon Entertainment UDON is a manga publisher that was establish in 2000 and is based in Ontario, Canada. They often licenses video game tie-ins such as Street Fighter and popular Capcom titles, but they also run the highly collectable Manga Classics imprint, taking classic literature and beautifully adapting it to curriculum-connecting volumes of manga. Read more: UDON's website, Manga Classics' website WEBTOONS unscrolled  WEBTOON Unscrolled began in 2021 as an imprint of the Wattpad WEBTOON Book Group. They publish highly successful online WEBTOONS from the app into book form. These stories are for YA and Adult audiences, and usually already have millions of dedicated fans, but publishing them in this Unscrolled form capitalizes on the hype and brings the story to a new audience that may not want to read on their phones. There's also opportunity for established fans to build community with new fans, and lots of opportunities for conversations about differences of format and reading experience. Yen Press
3 Comments
iurgi
6/18/2025 05:34:43 pm
Hi Sarah. Here are some that I missed in the list:
Sara Smith
6/23/2025 11:31:17 am
Thank you for all of these! And I promise, the GIANT that is Scholastic/Graphix honestly slipped my mind. It was not an intentional omission. They will make it into the revision. Leave a Reply. |
Info PostingsThis section is where I will post general information about graphic novels, lists, news, or other things I feel are relevant to the development of graphic novel sections in libraries.
About MeI've been reading Manga and comicbooks for years. Now, it's time to share my knowledge with you.
Categories
All
SEARCH THIS SITE
|
© 2025 Sara Smith |
|
|
