From ANN:

Manga creator AKAMATSU Ken (Mahou Sensei Negima!, Love Hina) announced on Monday that he is launching a "J-Comi" website that will eventually post out-of-print manga for free with advertising support. He is working with DEGUCHI Ryusei (Abenobashi Magical Shopping Arcade) and other fellow manga creators, in part to deal with the current situation of manga being scanned and uploaded without authorization.

Under the proposed plan, the site will distribute out-of-print manga with the creators' permission and with advertising. The advertising revenues will then be split among the creators. The site will use PDF (Portable Document Format) files without DRM (digital rights management).

A beta version of the site will launch on November 26 with 14 volumes of Akamatsu's hit manga Love Hina, and the site will tally the number of downloads and clicks as a test of the business model. The site will formally launch on January 10, 2011. Akamatsu will post more information on the official J-Comi blog and on his own Twitter account.

A just ruler amongst tyrants

well, but it still in Japanese...
I guess I have to learn that language soon....
is there any possibility to launch that way but in English? I wonder.....

ꉂꉂ(ᵔᗜᵔ*)笑

I said that a few time they could make a site with ad support it's not impossble i heard One manga in the good day was making like 10k a days in advertisement if they were to release a official site to read manga with ads i'm sure they could make much more then that.

This is actually an awesome idea. Especially if it comes in different languages, ie English.
A nice evolution to the manga world. Perhaps this could catch on for out of print works everywhere, like novels and such. The authors still get paid and stuff and everyone can read their work.

That is awesome! really really great, i can't wait!

I'm more interested about the launch of an English manga portal by those 37 Japanese publishers.

To the point where scanlators will start linking to the original online version and ask readers to click an ad or two to support the author.

Damn irony.

a manga site is a advertisement goldmine

each page means 3~4 ads show, someone reading a typical 15 page chapter will see at least 45 ads
about time someone in the legal side of things noticed it

i just hope this don't evolves into region locked english mangas, which will make people stop scanlating and keep me without manga >_<

I love you, Ken-sama. <3

Well, has better potential than the other things!

And lol, he has a Twitter!

[img]https://i.imgur.com/cWeUK2w.png[/img]

Quote from LawX

You are like the dense main character in a shoujo manga.

Quote from Crenshinibon

And you will murder someone one day, pika. If you're my daughter.

Sounds like a really good idea, actually. Fans get free manga, and creators get a way to introduce their works to younger generations that might have missed out on a series when it was first in print (while making a small profit). I hope it works out. 🙂

I love this idea. Shipping costs is one of the biggest reasons I can't buy as much Japanese manga as I'd like. Now if only I can get a paid online reading subscription to some of my favorite Jp magazines...

although i'm at all not impressed by his manga, i'm impressed with his idea. i wonder, when their release will number as much as current scanlations, and the quality will be on par with the most notable scanlators. if they need a whole lot of time, i guess mangaupdates can live a whole lot more.

grammar mistake is intentional, grammar nazis need their entertainment.

Fantastic idea, love it!

It's for FREE!!! $$$$ And it's out of print anyway so it's not hurting the industry.

I say it's all good. Spread the love~ Akamatsu-sensei's fantastic!

it's a good start, albeit it is only a small step forward. if this kind of business model actually works we might actually see cheap/free manga for everyone legally. but we need them in english!

I'm an ecchi fan! How about you?
[img]http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f239/ChiriacMarius/forumbanner.jpg[/img]