Company details booth-exclusive Akira pins

Kodansha Comics announced at its panel at Comic-Con International on Saturday that Alex de Campi (No Mercy, Archie vs. Predator) and Max Gladstone ( Craft Sequence ) will contribute to its Ghost in the Shell: Global Neural Network comic anthology.

The anthology will be an "international collaboration between Shirow Masamune and Western comics creators." The anthology will include full color-stories featuring Ghost in the Shell characters as drawn by Western creators. Kodansha Comics compared the work to the company's previous Attack on Titan Anthology , where Western comic artists drew their takes on a Japanese-created universe. Shirow supervised the stories himself. The hardbook anthology is slated for spring 2018.

Kodansha Comics is featuring several exclusive items at its and Vertical's booth at this year's Comic-Con International event. The items include a limited-edition poster in collaboration with Mondo (at Mondo's booth), Ghost in the Shell T-shirts, Chi's Sweet Home pins, and Monogatari Series mini five-poster sets. Another exclusive is a discounted pre-order of the Akira 35th Annversary Box Set, featuring an enamel pin set (pictured below). The pin pictured at left features the word "Akira" based on calligraphy by Hiroshi Hirata.

Kodansha Comics announced the box set in April 2016, and the set will ship in October. The set will include a box set of volumes 1-6, plus the "Akira Club" art book, in large hardcover format. The art will be uncut and unaltered, and will be in the original right-to-left reading format for the first time with the original Japanese sound effects with endnote translations. The set normally retails for US$199.99.