While Yen Press generally frowns upon piracy, it’s hard not to make an exception for the crew of Aron’s Absurd Armada (not that they’d be much of a threat anyway). They may not have the looting and pillaging thing down just yet, but their antics will have you yo-ho-ho-ing (the pirate equivalent of LOL) as you sail into this month’s YEN PLUS! What better way to kick off the new year than with new chapters of your favorite series, including the final chapter of the first volume of Soulless (available in paperback March 2012), a hard-rockin’ Witch & Wizard, and our newest member, The Infernal Devices. (If you haven’t already checked out this dark steampunk fantasy based on Cassandra Clare’s amazing novels, subscribe this month and you can still read the first chapter from last month’s issue! Or, READ A SAMPLE ON FACEBOOK!)

This month is also a momentous occasion for YEN PLUS: We are now caught up to the Japanese release of Soul Eater NOT! Beginning in February, brand-new chapters of Soul Eater NOT! will appear in YEN PLUS simultaneously with the Japanese release date! We hope you are as excited about this as we are, and that you will look for Tsugumi and her friends in the next issue!

Don’t forget, the NEW TALENT SEARCH is on! And there’s still plenty of time to submit!

As always, we welcome your magazine feedback below! Thanks for reading!

2011 is rapidly coming coming to a close, but there’s still time for one last issue of YEN PLUS before we ring in the new year! And what an issue it is! Just who is that dapper young man on this month’s cover, you may be wondering. Why, it’s Mr. William Herondale, scoping out the streets of London for any foul beasties lurking in the night. In Cassandra Clare’s The Infernal Devices: Clockwork Angel, sixteen-year-old Tessa Gray travels to London to reunite with her brother but is instead swept off to the darkest haunts of London’s most merciless Downworlders. Will and the rest of the Shadowhunters have set themselves against these demons and vampires that lurk in the night, but for Tessa, a handsome face may be more dangerous than anything else hunting her in the dark! We are so pleased to have Tessa, Will, and the rest joining the YEN PLUS lineup this month, brought to life by YP veteran HyeKyung Baek!

This month’s issue also includes new chapters from all the rest of your YEN PLUS favorites, including Soulless, Witch & Wizard, and FOUR chapters of Soul Eater NOT! Plus, read the final chapters of K-ON! Volume 4 and Maximum Ride Volume 5 before the collected volumes hit stores later this month. Have you checked out that Gazzy cover yet? Amazing!!

As always, thank you so much for reading! We hope you’re all able to enjoy some time off this holiday, visiting friends and family…and curling up with the latest volumes of your favorite YEN series. ^_^
See you in 2012!!

We’ve given our loyal YEN PLUS subscribers a bit of a head start, and we are now ready to open the NEW TALENT SEARCH to everyone!

CLICK HERE FOR THE COMPLETE DETAILS

Please make sure you’ve read everything carefully!
We look forward to seeing what you come up with!

Can we all utter a collective “Awwwww” over this month’s YEN cover? Milkyway looks so warm and comfy~ The only thing missing from this picture is her laptop so she can read the latest chapters of her favorite YEN PLUS series! You’d better get cozy in front of your monitors this month, because the November issue is packed with so much action and awesome! After Alexia and Lord Akeldama’s evening was so rudely interrupted in the last chapter of Soulless, they meet the masterminds behind the supernatural disappearances in London…and must take care lest they are made to “disappear” themselves! Max Ride and the Flock are facing their own brand of evil mastermind as the traitor among them is revealed and exposes the truth! Meanwhile, Witsy and Whit, witch and wizard extraordinaire, are trying to escape their local sinister institution, and Daniel X has his hands full with a particularly distasteful alien vampire! Not to mention THREE chapters of Soul Eater NOT! as we draw nearer to simultaneous serialization beginning in 2012!

And if that weren’t enough, this month we are also launching our second annual New Talent Search! As before, we are giving our loyal subscribers an early look at the details, so make sure you check out page 14 for more info! To the rest, you’ll have to wait just a bit longer~

Thank you so much for reading! As always, we appreciate your thoughts below!

Ding-dong! DEAD-dong! Class is about to start, and you don’t want to be late on your first day of school! Join new student Tsugumi Harudori in the NOT class at Death Weapon Meister Academy, a school dedicated to training transforming Weapons like Tsugumi and the Meisters who will wield them. Tsugumi is super-nervous about enrolling at DWMA—and even more anxious about choosing her p-p-partner! Featuring an all-new group of students as well as a few familiar faces, Atsushi Ohkubo’s SOUL EATER NOT joins the lineup in this month’s issue of Yen Plus! But that’s not all the news we have for you, dear readers. It’s Comic Con time, and you all know what that means… Soul Eater Not is but the first of our NEW LICENSE ANNOUNCEMENTS!!!

First up, Yen Press is thrilled to be bringing two graphic novel adaptations from a pair of powerhouse #1 NYT bestselling authors to the pages of Yen Plus in the coming months!

• THE INFERNAL DEVICES by Cassandra Clare, art by HyeKyung Baek
  This prequel to Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments series, The Infernal Devices is the story of Tessa Gray, a sixteen-year-old American girl traveling alone to Victorian London who runs afoul of the city’s sordid supernatural underworld. Rescued by the Shadowhunters of the London Institute, Tessa quickly finds herself caught up in an intrigue that may very well destroy her new friends – including the two enigmatic young men, Jem and Will, who have taken her under their wing…
• DARK-HUNTERS: INFINITY by Sherrilyn Kenyon
  Yen Press will be releasing a two-volume adaptation of Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Chronicles of Nick series, a prequel to the immensely popular Dark-Hunter novels. A young, streetwise Nick Gautier meets Dark-Hunter Kyrian of Thrace, who shows Nick a world of vampires, demons, and zombies far more dangerous than the mean streets of New Orleans. A must-read for existing fans and those new to the supernatural world of the Dark-Hunters!

Look for The Infernal Devices and Dark-Hunters: Infinity in bookstores Fall 2012!

Aaaaand…

• ALICE IN THE COUNTRY OF HEARTS art by Soumei Hoshino, story by Quinrose
  Take heart, Alice fans! Yen Press will be releasing the COMPLETE Alice in the Country of Hearts series in June 2012 as three omnibus editions each collecting two volumes of the original series!
• THE DISAPPEARANCE OF NAGATO YUKI-CHAN story by Nagaru Tanigawa, art by PUYO, characters by Noizi Ito
  This spin-off takes place in the world of the “Disappearance” arc of the Haruhi Suzumiya novels, focusing on the high school life (and romance!) of a tentative and bashful Yuki Nagato quite unlike the one you’ve come to know and love through the usual exploits of the SOS Brigade…but no less charming!
• UNTIL DEATH DO US PART story by Hiroshi Takashige, art by DOUBLE-S
  Haruka is a young girl with precognitive abilities that allow her to predict the future with incredible accuracy. Unfortunately, these powers have made her a target for greedy corporations. Haruka uses her power to seek the one who can offer her protection, singling out Mamoru Hijikata, a blind man whose inability to see belies his skill with a sword!
• PUELLA MAGI MADOKA MAGICA story by Magica Quartet, art by Hanokage
  Madoka had always thought magic was the stuff of her dreams…until she encounters an unreal cat-being at her totally normal school! The cat offers her a choice — Will Madoka become a Puella Magi in exchange for her dearest desire?

That’s it for new licenses…this time! We hope you are as excited as we are for the year ahead!

For those of you planning to attend NEW YORK COMIC CON this weekend, be sure to visit the Yen Press team at Booth #939 for our usual array of exciting giveaways!

The Yen Press Panel will be held Friday, October 14, in Room 1A02 from 12:15 to 1:15. Join us for some very~ very~ exciting new announcements and for a Q & A session with Svetlana Chmakova (Nighschool, Witch & Wizard: The Manga) and Rem (Soulless: The Manga)!!!

Immediately following the Yen Press panel, Svetlana and Rem will be signing at Autographing Table 1 from 1:30 to 2:30! Svetlana will be signing copies of Witch & Wizard: The Manga, Vol. 1, and Rem will be signing a special sample of the first chapter of Soulless: The Manga!

We look forward to seeing you there!

We are looking for two people to join the awesome Orbit/Yen Press team in New York. To apply to be a Publicist, click here. If Online Marketing is your thing, click here. We look forward to hearing from you!

Important note: Please read the job descriptions carefully and confirm that you have the required experience, skills, and attributes before you apply!

The Yen Press Team

Hey there, manga fans! Did y’all have a good summer? Were you sad when the commencement of school shattered your beach bum bliss? Don’t despair! The new issue of YEN PLUS is now live~! Kicking off our roll call is Witch & Wizard, with that lovely new color cover and the beginning of a new story arc! Daniel X is also rejoining the team with a brand-new chapter featuring color pages and the start of a new story arc as well! Plus, things are heating up in both Maximum Ride and Soulless, the Pop Music Club is up to their usual after school shenanigans, and Jack Frost’s trouble-making is about to land him in detention…AGAIN.
This month we also bid a fond farewell to The Innocent as Johnny’s story of vengeance and redemption concludes with the final chapter. Be sure to look for The Innocent available as a collected edition in stores this November!

Thanks for reading this month’s YEN PLUS!

Three years ago, Yen Press was a young publisher with only a handful of titles…and a dream. We wanted to give our fans a monthly magazine where they could read chapters of their favorite series and discover new titles among the varied content within. Over the past few years, YEN PLUS has done just that: from Yotsuba&! and One Fine Day, to Pig Bride and Time and Again, to Black Butler and Soul Eater, to K-ON!, to James Patterson… There have been some changes along the way, most notably our digital jump last year, but our mission remains the same: we want to give you, our readers, the chance to enjoy a wide variety of titles each month, to sample the range of stories and styles available through comics. We hope that you continue to enjoy YEN PLUS for many years to come, and we thank you for your continued support!

I understand the third (wedding?) anniversary is meant to be the “leather” anniversary, but some of the YEN PLUS kids got it wrong…
Sorry, Yotsuba, I’m pretty sure Danbo falls under the “paper” category…
And Alexia, that frilly petticoat is lovely, but we’ve a few more years to go until our “lace” anniversary…
Aron and crew, I appreciate your efforts in trying to secure the Crown of the Ant Queen, but…
And Jack…yeah, I don’t think “blood” is a category for any gift-giving. Ever.

While this month we embark on our fourth year of YEN PLUS, this month also marks the end of Gossip Girl with a special chapter featuring Chuck! We hope you enjoy these and all of your favorite series in this month’s issue! Thanks for reading!