A number of American manga publishers such as Tokyopop, Central Park Media and Infinity Studios have had considerable success publishing Korean manga in English, and now a consortium of Korean publishers including Sigongsa, Seoul Cultural and others have banded together to create the ICE Kunion imprint and bring their titles directly to the American market.  ICE Kunion plans to launch its line in October with four titles and follow up by releasing two new series titles per month for the rest of 2005. 

ICE Kunion is planning to support its titles with an aggressive marketing campaign including distribution of sneak peak samplers at conventions starting this week at San Diego's Comic-Con.  The samplers will also be made available in comic shops and in over 1,200 Borders and Waldenbooks bookstores.

Judging from the first four titles announced, all of which are top five or better sellers in Korea, the ICE Kunion line appears to be quite strong and ideally positioned to take advantage of the growing audience of female manga readers here in the U.S.  Angel Diary, touted as the #1 title in Korea, is a wacky comedy/fantasy from the same creative team responsible for Demon Diary, which performed very well here in the States for Tokyopop.  The second ICE Kunion title, Chocolat, is a romantic comedy about fan clubs and the idol singers they adore, while the third volume announced, The 11th Cat, is a magical girl saga about a young witch in training and her feline companion.  The fourth new ICE Kunion title, Bring It On, is the romantic story of a tomboy's first relationship.

Diamond Comic Distributors and Diamond Book Distributors will handle worldwide distribution of the English language ICE Kunion titles to bookstores, mass-market outlets, libraries, and comic shops.