The Sad Story Of Vagabond In Brazil

Sup, Inn. Let me tell you a story.

In 2002, Conrad Editora, a Brazilian publisher, started releasing Vagabond monthly. Each volume was half the size of a Tankōbon (around 120 pages), which is how they usually sell some manga here in Brazil (like Berserk, for example). Small in size, with no color pages, but very decent nonetheless.

conradvagabond04.jpg
conradvagabond22.jpg
conradvagabond40.jpg

The covers were pretty sweet. :carcus:

It was very well received and became pretty popular. The same publisher even started releasing Slam Dunk (this time, a full 240 paged Volume per month), which also became very popular. I remember seeing a lot of teenagers reading Slam Dunk on the subways. I was one of them!

imgnx.jpg

Check out all the covers. (This isn't my pic, by the way.)​

When the Brazilian edition reached Inoue's pace (I'm not sure which Tankōbon exactly, but my guess is 22), they stopped publishing it for a while. After a few months, they started releasing the Vagabond Luxury Edition to boost sales. Which is pretty identical to Viz Media's releases, but in brazilian portuguese and with...

...these covers.
vagabonded.jpg

conradvagadef12.jpg
conradvagadef11.jpg

I have mixed feelings about them.​


They released fourteen of these, until the publisher once again had to stop and wait for Inoue. The thing is, they were in some deep financial problems when this happened... and never again have we seen a new Vagabond release in my country's book stores. It's been more than two years now, so all hope of the releases being continued is gone. :void:

img1a.jpg

:azan:
These "luxury" editions were pretty expensive. A bit too much, maybe. I actually pay about the same price importing Viz Media's editions nowadays, taxes included and everything.



Well, that's all. It's pretty sad having two sets of abandoned Vagabond publishings on my shelf, so I thought I'd share my grief with you guys.


Thanks for reading. :troll:
 

Th3Branded0ne

I'll be back.
It's pretty bad they stopped publishing them. I hope they start doing it again so your collection gets completed to where it is now. Those covers sure look nice too.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
You're welcome, Eluvei, thank you for sharing and welcome to the Inn!

conradvagabond40.jpg

I wondered where this awesome cover was from!​

My condolences on not one, but freakin' two different editions of Vagabond being cutoff on you. That is lousy to hear, it's always been one of my irrational fears with Viz or any series being localized here, so I'm actually not happy when things like VizBig editions come out because, though I should take it as a sign the series is healthy, I'm worried they're biting off more than they can chew. I guess that wasn't really the case with Conrad Editora either, but still, it makes me think, "If they'd just been patient and released the new material in the format they'd been using, the fans would have waited, the new episodes come out so frequently, and they were only doing half volumes..." etc. Of course, they had to wait to purchase the rights to full JP volumes, but still, very unfortunate. Anyway, I'm glad you're still able to import the Viz editions, sounds like you're quite dedicated, as are we, so I hope you'll stick around and lick your wounds here with some more Vagabond discussion!
 
Th3Branded0ne said:
It's pretty bad they stopped publishing them. I hope they start doing it again so your collection gets completed to where it is now. Those covers sure look nice too.

Thanks, but I've pretty much given up hope now. You can check out most of the covers here. Some of the illustrations aren't even on Water, I think. Not sure, though.

グリフィス said:
You're welcome, Eluvei, thank you for sharing and welcome to the Inn!

Thank you!

グリフィス said:
My condolences on not one, but freakin' two different editions of Vagabond being cutoff on you. That is lousy to hear, it's always been one of my irrational fears with Viz or any series being localized here, so I'm actually not happy when things like VizBig editions come out because, though I should take it as a sign the series is healthy, I'm worried they're biting off more than they can chew. I guess that wasn't really the case with Conrad Editora either, but still, it makes me think, "If they'd just been patient and released the new material in the format they'd been using, the fans would have waited, the new episodes come out so frequently, and they were only doing half volumes..." etc. Of course, they had to wait to purchase the rights to full JP volumes, but still, very unfortunate.

Well, most publishers here don't seem to have much trouble when they reach the Japanese editions, it's just that Conrad Editora is really disorganized. They have stopped publishing a lot of titles that came out monthly, like Blade Of The Immortal, Vagabond and Monster (which they released ten of the eighteen existing volumes), yet they continue releasing new series of comics and manga. They never specified if it had to do with these specific series' sales or anything. Actually, no official statement was made at all, these manga just stopped being released and that's it. I probably shouldn't even buy it if Vagabond ever gets continued here as a means of not supporting a company that clearly has no respect for the fans! :puck:

グリフィス said:
Anyway, I'm glad you're still able to import the Viz editions, sounds like you're quite dedicated, as are we, so I hope you'll stick around and lick your wounds here with some more Vagabond discussion!

Thanks, I will! :troll:
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Eluvei said:
Thanks, but I've pretty much given up hope now. You can check out most of the covers here. Some of the illustrations aren't even on Water, I think. Not sure, though.

Thanks again, and you're indeed correct, some of these I haven't seen anywhere before, and they're quite cool:

Conrad_Vagabond_04.jpg
Conrad_Vagabond_06.jpg
Conrad_Vagabond_12.jpg
Conrad_Vagabond_22.jpg
Conrad_Vagabond_24.jpg
Conrad_Vagabond_35.jpg
Conrad_Vagabond_38.jpg
Conrad_Vagabond_40.jpg

And look at how much more you get to see of the image from some of the existing covers:
Conrad_Vagabond_15.jpg
Conrad_Vagabond_23.jpg


And this one I love because it's such a cool contrast with the cover of Volume 1:
Conrad_Vagabond_44.jpg

All grown up and badass!

Eluvei said:
Thank you!

You're welcome!

Eluvei said:
Well, most publishers here don't seem to have much trouble when they reach the Japanese editions, it's just that Conrad Editora is really disorganized. They have stopped publishing a lot of titles that came out monthly, like Blade Of The Immortal, Vagabond and Monster (which they released ten of the eighteen existing volumes), yet they continue releasing new series of comics and manga. They never specified if it had to do with these specific series' sales or anything. Actually, no official statement was made at all, these manga just stopped being released and that's it. I probably shouldn't even buy it if Vagabond ever gets continued here as a means of not supporting a company that clearly has no respect for the fans! :puck:

Yeah, it's obviously a systemic problem with this company, and you can't feel safe investing your money into an organization with that kind of track record anyway.

Eluvei said:
Thanks, I will! :troll:

Awesome, see you around! :badbone:
 
I was looking for images for a different cause and stumbled upon similar format/ version of the manga as what Eluvie shows in the first post, in English. So I picked these Viz versions released between 2001 - 2002.

20130828_223034_zpsfce673aa.jpg


20130828_223145_zps231f9731.jpg


It's good fun reading it in larger format. Need to get around picking up those VizBig editions (sigh) ... soon. I'm missing 1, 3, 13 and 16 from the current set.
 
After an approximate 7 year gap or wait, Brazilian editions of volumes 17 and 18 are now published -

10408154_649366918475775_1057707767988612763_n.jpg


Depending on how well they do, the publisher may publish beyond 18. Good luck, Brazil!
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Doesn't the Kojiro arc end at 20 though? Man, it'd be terrible to be stuck 2 volumes away from an arc's conclusion...
 
Top Bottom