Super Manga Blast! #1

Super Manga Blast! was launched by Dark Horse Comics in 2000 as a monthly anthology magazine designed to bring popular Japanese manga titles to a broader North American audience. This initiative reflected the late 1990s and early 2000s trend of mainstream American publishers attempting to capitalize on the growing domestic interest in Japanese pop culture by serializing chapters in a thick, black-and-white format similar to Japanese seinen magazines.

The first issue featured a variety of titles, including Masamune Shirow's Dominion and various works that highlighted the publisher's commitment to diverse genres, ranging from science fiction to slice-of-life. The publication was praised for its accessible format and for providing fans with a reliable monthly entry point into serialized manga, ultimately serving as a cornerstone of the 'manga boom' in the United States.