Michael Gombos, Japanese Licensing Manager at Dark Horse Comics, has revealed a number of new acquisitions to the Anime News Network and it is clear from the titles acquired that Dark Horse intends to focus on horror manga.  Dark Horse, which has scored major successes with the Hellsing manga and the Vampire Hunter D novels, has licensed a number of new manga titles including Juon (related to the Japanese horror film that was remade in the U.S. as The Grudge), Hideshi Hino's Lullabies From Hell, Kasua Umezu's Scary Books, Junji Itos's Museum of Terror, and Kanako Inuki's School Zone.

 

Dark Horse has also licensed the Old Boy manga by Garon Tsuchiya and Nobuski Minegishi, which was the basis for the award-winning live action Korean film of the same name.

 

Given the success of Dark Horse's Vampire Hunter D and Tokyopop's .hack//AI Buster novels (see 'Anime/Manga-Related Novels Boffo) it is no surprise that Dark Horse has also optioned the 3-volume Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex novel series by GIS:SAC scriptwriter Jun'ichi Fujisaku.