Dark Horse signs CLAMP to produce new shoujo manga

[nokiirat.livejournal.com]

Publishers Weekly reports Dark Horse Books signing a deal with CLAMP to produce a new shoujo manga in 2009 which will be published simultaneously in Japan, USA and South Korea.

ETA:
Dark Horse's official press release!

CLAMP's original manga with Dark Horse will be launched simultaneously in the United States, Japan, and Korea. The story will come out in a small digest consisting of about eighty pages each, which will then be collected into trade paperbacks with bonus material. CLAMP and Dark Horse are coining the bilingual term Mangettes to describe this innovative new format for manga distribution. This digest format, or Mangette, signifies CLAMP's personal wish to reach their large international readership by now speaking to them directly as artists through Dark Horse, and on a basis of equality with their Japanese fans.

CLAMP and Dark Horse chose the term Mangettes to describe this revolutionary format, whose Japanese pronunciation, mangetsu, means "the full moon." The two kanji in mangetsu also have the individual meanings of "fulfilled" and "monthly," reflecting what will be a monthly appearance of each CLAMP Mangette.

According to CLAMP, "Mangettes are a completely brand new experience for us, too, and we're really happy to be working on this. And we're really looking forward to the day when we can bring you this new story from CLAMP, and the day when we can meet our fans face-to-face to hear what you think about Mangettes!" --DH

ETA again:
Dark Horse's director of Asian licensing Michael Gombos told ANN that CLAMP will have complete creative control, which is rare for a serialized title in North America but not for Japan. The simultaneous release will be limited somewhat by the time differences between North America and Asia, but Dark Horse is planning its mangette release date to be roughly the same day as the Japanese serialization's. "That's what we're aiming for," Gombos said. The mangettes will be "perfect bound" and 5 by 7 inches in size.--ANN

Sounds great to me! YAY!
...now we know what they are doing in 2009...will the other series finish up by then? haha. ^_^