Manga publisher Go! Comi could have been another statistic, one of a growing number of recent casualties in the anime and manga publishing business.

But it isn't dead — at least, not yet. After several months of silence and missed publication dates, though, the concern was that it had gone in the direction of the recent Central Park Media and ADV failures — a long silent period followed by an “;Oops! They're bankrupt! Bye-bye!”; postmortem story on some manga news Web site.

Go! Comi's silence was broken Jan. 22 when a forum administrator posted an explanation of what was going on at the company. The economic downturn and “;digital theft”; — in essence “;scanlations,”; manga that's either fan-translated from the original Japanese or copied outright from the U.S.-published books and uploaded to the Internet — were cited as reasons for the publishing slowdown.

Ever since writers David Wise and Audry Taylor launched Go! Comi in 2005 as an avenue through which they could publish their (as yet unpublished) dream project “;The Almost Legendary Shannon,”; the company has emphasized close collaborations with manga creators and translations that stay faithful to the original Japanese while giving characters distinct voices.

The problem might be in raising awareness of books with a wider audience.

“;If it is available on our store, it is available in regular stores,”; the administrator wrote. Scanning the list of Go! Comi's 32 active series, though, your friendly neighborhood columnist found several series he had never even heard of. “;Bogle”;? “;Days of Cool Idols”;? “;Yggdrasil”;? You have me there.

It's not that they're terrible books per se. I love “;After School Nightmare,”; about a boy who turns into a girl in a world of nightmares; “;Crossroad,”; where a girl and her stepbrothers must make their way in the world with little help from their deadbeat parents; “;Cross,”; in which two pretty-boy bodyguards turn a girl's life asunder when she learns she's actually a princess; and “;Japan Ai,”; a foreigner's sketchbook of observations made during her trip to Japan.

It's just that they're not books casual readers would know about or be able to find on a trip to a bookstore, for that matter.

Perhaps now that manga fans know about the plight of Go! Comi, they'll turn out in greater numbers to support the publisher. What is clear is that trying times are ahead, and whether Go! Comi can finish the series it has in progress is not certain.

CATCHING UP WITH KAWAII KON

While I was absent from writing “;Cel Shaded”; — I was recovering from a cold, hence the reason there was no column last week — Kawaii Kon announced its newest guests for the April 16-18 event.

Returning for the second straight year is Shinji Aramaki, director of “;Appleseed”; and “;Appleseed Ex Machina”; and character/mechanical designer for anime including “;Bubblegum Crisis,”; “;Megazone 23”; and “;Fullmetal Alchemist.”; Voice actor Daisuke Kishio, the voice of Kaname Kuran in “;Vampire Knight”; and Imadori Kyousuke in “;School Rumble,”; is also coming, making his U.S. anime convention debut in the process.

For more information or to register, visit www.kawaii-kon.org. And remember, you can get a discount on three-day passes when you register by using the discount code “;celshaded 2010.”;

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Jason S. Yadao is the author of Rough Guides' “;The Rough Guide to Manga,”; now available. For more anime and manga news and commentary, check out “;Otaku Ohana”; at blogs.starbulletin.com/otakuohana. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/jsyadao or e-mail him at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).