Central Park Media has announced two new manga series for April, Comic Party and Treasure Hunter.  Comic Party celebrates the world of doujinshi, amateur comics independently published by their creators, which often feature well-known characters from major properties such as Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball, or Yu-Gi-Oh engaged in hentai (erotic) or yaoi (erotic gay) relationships.  Needless to say such liberties with someone else's intellectual property is frowned on here in the U.S., but allowed in Japan, where popular doujinshi titles are often printed in fairly large numbers (10,000) and sold at major conventions.  Of course the Japanese manga industry benefits by plucking the best creators from the ranks of the doujinshi, which may explain why the powers that be don't crack down on it. 

 

In the Comic Party series a group of young creators attempt to create their doujinshi in time for the big festival wondering if they will be able to come up with a hit and which characters should get the yaoi treatment. The 168-page first volume of the lighthearted Comic Party is rated 13Up and will carry a cover price of $9.99.

 

Alien Nine is one of CPM's most popular series and the company hopes to reprise that series' success with Treasure Hunter, another series by Alien Nine creator Hitoshi Tomizawa.  Treasure Hunter is a boys' (shonen) action/adventure series featuring a young protagonist who lives for adventure.  Asked by a mysterious woman to retrieve a mystical life-prolonging food, young Jubei is in for a major surprise.  The 200-page Treasure Hunter Book I streets on April 7 and has a cover price of $9.99.