Stretch goal to publish Melody of Iron set at US$50,000

North American publisher Digital Manga Inc. (DMI)'s current Kickstarter campaign met its initial US$25,000 goal on Wednesday to publish Osamu Tezuka's Under the Air and The Crater manga.

As of press time, the project has earned US$26,522. DMI launched the campaign on October 27 and it will end on November 26.

DMI will also release Tezuka's Melody of Iron (Tetsu no Senritsu) if the campaign reaches a stretch goal of US$50,000. The Crater is an Add-On item in the campaign, and DMI plans to release the three-volume manga in a single omnibus volume.

Tezuka's Under the Air manga collects a series of 14 short stories that Tezuka drew between 1968 and 1970. The stories share no continuity or story, and are tied together only by themes of human nature and duality. Melody of Iron is also an omnibus of short story works, and features "a story of love, hate, revenge, and a pair of prosthetic metal arms." The Crater features "excruciating themes of horror, mystery, suspense and sci-fi, centering around the dark nature of man."

Kansai Club Publishing previously ran a successful Kickstarter campaign for The Crater in 2013, but the company never released the manga.

DMI told ANN regarding the previous license by Kansai Club Publishing that it has "no affiliation with, or connection to" Kansai Club Publishing, and that it has no "leverage within Kickstarter to issue any direct refunds to the previous backers" of the Kansai Club Publishing campaign. DMI added that "after the rights to [ The Crater ] became available, [DMI] pursued them in hopes of 'rescuing' it from the controversy that sprung up from that campaign and [DMI has] actively been in the works for a remedy to the situation as a way to give back to the community."

DMI said it will "[do its] best to reach out to all backers of the Kansai Club's campaign and offer them a special pricing for our current Kickstarter with the assurance of all our prior successful campaigns that, if funded, they will receive their product."

Thanks to Daniel Zelter for the news tip.