The works of celebrated manga creator Naoki Urasawa are finally being released in digital formats.

Urasawa announced the new digital versions of his work on his website and through a video posted to his personal YouTube channel. The first batch of Urasawa's works to be digitized will include his currently on-going manga series, Asadora!, 20th Century Boys and its sequel, 21st Century Boys, the short story anthology Sneeze, and Urusawa's sports manga Jigoro!. A second batch of Urusawa's work, which contains the critically acclaimed thriller Monster, will be released in February. So far, the releases have been announced for Japanese e-book retailers only, with no announcements made regarding an international release for these new digital versions.

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Urasawa is begrudgingly making the leap to digital distribution, as the author made it clear that he still prefers printed books, and expressed some concern that his two-page spreads won't be viewed properly on a smartphone or e-reader screen. "Manga is to be read two pages at a time," he said. Urusawa even went as far as to add a disclaimer to the new digital releases, which reads "This work is produced to be read two pages at a time with a certain intention." Urusawa encouraged other manga artists who are also worried about their two-page spreads being split up in digital releases to also use the disclaimer in their works.

While the video was ostensibly created to promote the digital releases of his work, Urusawa also announced a rather passive-aggressive contest for Japanese readers who pick up physical copies of the latest volume of Asadora!. Readers can send in a special proof of purchase that reads "We love paper books!" for a chance to win personalized art hand-drawn by the author himself.

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Despite the stress over his layouts being ruined by a smartphone screen, Urusawa did acknowledge the advantages of the digital medium, and also announced that some of these digital releases will also contain additional full color pages. "I have deeply considered how digital comics can be read at its best condition," he said, adding "A digital comic is excellent at original picture reproduction."

Many of Urasawa's works, including the critically lauded Monster and the Eisner Award-winning 20th Century Boys, are available in print and have been localized into English by VIZ Media.

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Source: YouTube