A Filipino American’s Journey in the Manga Industry
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Mark De Vera
Perhaps you were a Voltes V fan, when this first vast wave of Japanese animation dominated the television screens of Filipino households in the late 1970s. Anecdotal evidence shows that Filipino artists and illustrators started experimenting more with Japanese-style storytelling, learning about the drama and energy of manga, with its visual mastery of dynamic action sequences, expressive eyes, and emotional close-ups.
What’s in a name? While it may sound like the Cebuano word for the sweet fruit, "mangga," manga is a cultural phenomenon told through art.
These influences, from the pages of Darna to the battle cries of Voltes V, have shaped a new generation of Filipino creatives. But few have reached the heights of Mark de Vera, a 36-year-old manga and manhwa publishing executive who has risen to a distinguished position in this transformative industry. His journey over the last 14 years proves a powerful point: that you don't have to be Japanese or Korean to not only enter this niche but to lead it. Mark is the Sales and Marketing Director of New York-based Yen Press, LLC.
“Manga literally just means ‘comics’ in Japanese,” Mark de Vera explains. In English, however, “graphic novel” is the broader term, and manga is a subset of comics, distinguished by its unique storytelling style and dominant global reach. Typically published in black and white in magazines and then curated into paperback editions with some pages in color, it is also known for its traditional right-to-left reading layout.
Manhwa comes from South Korea. Its most significant difference from manga is the left-to-right orientation in reading, just like English-language comics. The books, in full color, are adapted from the vertical-scrolling digital webtoon format. Ize Press is described as an imprint of Yen Press dedicated to publishing Korean content.
California-Born
Born and raised in Hercules, California, Mark’s love for sequential art began with the Sunday edition’s comics of the San Francisco Chronicle. He would later discover a different kind of magic during visits to the Philippines, when his cousins introduced him to anime.
“I found it was the coolest stuff out there,” he recalls. That fascination soon led to a new obsession when one of his twin brothers borrowed a pile of manga books from the Pinole Public Library. Hooked instantly, Mark plunged into a new world of visual storytelling. In high school, when manga became more widely available in the U.S., he would regularly spend his lunch money at Barnes & Noble, feeding a love for the medium that would eventually become his career.
“In college, I considered Hollywood, but by junior year, I was buying and studying manga seriously,” Mark continues. “My parents suggested I earn a business administration and management degree at the University of San Francisco before considering art school. Little did I know I would end up loving business!”
Although his LinkedIn profile would eventually disclose that he is “always on the hunt to marry passion for the arts with competency and commerce,” Mark de Vera’s earlier work experiences gave him newfound skills in the arts and entertainment environment. Mark worked as a cross-promotions intern at the California Film Institute and a vendor coordinator for the J-Pop Summit Festival. Yet, his career radar was always on the lookout for a job inside the manga world.
Mark De vera at Yen Press
Top Manga Publisher
Viz Media is considered the largest and most dominant manga publisher in the United States. “I discovered Viz Media was based in San Francisco, so I checked their job postings constantly,” Mark reveals. As a marketing assistant at Viz Pictures, New People, he would occasionally meet employees from Viz Media. “A friend, Audrey, and her Filipino partner, Jerome, at Viz, helped connect me to an opportunity --- and that’s how I entered the industry.” Almost 10 years later, Mark was the Senior Publishing Sales Manager at Viz Media.
During his college years, Mark started teaching kung fu. “Manga inspired me to pursue kung fu,” Sifu Mark notes. “It let me live out larger-than-life fantasies I grew up reading.” After he moved to New York City in 2020, he gave up teaching kung fu, but not his weekly training.
When Yen Press recruited Mark, it was not a straightforward decision for him to leave Viz Media. “I loved that place, and I loved the people. I was learning a lot at Viz, yet I knew I was ready for a bigger challenge,” Mark admits. “Two months after I arrived in New York City, we were on COVID-19 lockdown.” His learning curve during the next few years tested his creativity and resilience to continuous change.
Today, Mark de Vera handles the company’s sales and marketing campaigns across three brands, including advertising, publicity, events, and social media. He is very proud that his oversight of Yen Press’s social media resulted in a dramatic growth of over 150 percent. Yen Press’s website update, which he led and managed, required massive internal and external communications, and the creation of over 600 website assets and images.
Aside from his convention management duties of three to five shows each year, Mark’s travels also involve hands-on details, such as taking care of major Yen Press artists and authors at festivals and conventions, an effort, he maintains, “requires significant communication with oversees licensors, coordination with event staff, and a strong sense of hospitality.”
Mark reflects on being a rare Filipino American in the small and interconnected manga publishing world, within the larger comics and graphic novels industry. “I didn’t face many challenges that were specifically Filipino American. My ethnicity didn’t feel like a barrier, although people of color were noticeably few in publishing. The industry has since become more diverse.”
Mark considers Jaime Daez, the founder and managing director of Fully Booked, one of the most respected bookstores in the Philippines, to be a significant mentor and an aspirational model in his life. Jaime, a serious comics lover, personally selects imported titles for graphic novels and manga, which are scarce in the Philippines. A strategic collaboration with the popular bookstore chain Books Kinokuniya further solidified Fully Booked’s prestige as a top destination for manga and Japanese-language books.
“Fully Booked’s manga sales are impressive! Some pundits doubted manga could succeed there because of poverty and piracy issues,” Mark reports. “Globally, Jujutsu Kaisen, a manga series, is immensely popular, including in the Philippines. In the late 1990s, Flame of Recca was a monumental hit there, even inspiring a Cebuano band song, Chinita, by Assembly Language. Korean webtoons, such as Solo Leveling and Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint, became hits in Southeast Asia before going global. Our website traffic shows the Philippines is our number 2 market after the U.S. That’s a clear sign of the country’s passion for manga.”
Mark de Vera, Sales and Marketing Director of Yen Press, LLC with Morgana Santilli, a Yen Press Sales Specialist
Universal Themes
Manga and manhwa tap into universal themes that resonate with Filipinos: the underdog hero or heroine rising to power, overcoming incredible adversity, exhibiting strength, and pursuing success. Mark de Vera comments, “Filipinos like emotional depth, as seen in melodramatic storytelling. There’s visual appeal, expressive art styles. Digital platforms like Webtoon and translated editions showcase accessibility. Younger Filipinos see manga and anime as modern and cool, but there’s also a push to blend Filipino culture into manga-style or manhwa-inspired stories. That’s the exciting next step! Filipino stories with local themes and values.” Mark believes there is a growing market for titles translated into Tagalog and Cebuano, especially for popular series and comics with a uniquely Filipino cultural context.
“Two successful examples of Filipino creators using a global storytelling format,” Mark notes, “are Trese, written by Budjette Tan and illustrated by Kajo Baldisimo, and Mythology Class by Arnold Arre.” Published in the 1990s, Mythology Class is considered a pioneering and landmark Filipino graphic novel that blends Filipino folklore with the fantasy and adventure genres similar to classic manga and anime story arcs. Trese, initially self-published in 2005, is a Filipino comic series that blends Filipino folklore with an interesting horror-crime plot. Its serialized graphic novel format and art style cater to a global audience familiar with manga and manhwa. The series’ popular appeal led to a Netflix animated six-episode series in 2021.
Manga and manhwa tap into universal themes that resonate with Filipinos: the underdog hero or heroine rising to power, overcoming incredible adversity, exhibiting strength, and pursuing success.
Mark de Vera considers himself a very good mentor to newcomers in manga publishing, dispensing his advice to future creatives and executives. “Familiarize yourself with the industry. Go to the ICv2 website (a.k.a. International Correspondence version 2). It’s an online trade magazine that covers ‘geek culture,’ focused on comic books, anime, and other topics. There’s Publishers Weekly, another source for industry trends and data. This magazine features creator interviews and profiles of established artists and writers, including prepublication reviews of upcoming graphic novels and manga. From these vital resources, find out which leaders you would like to seek and interview.” Mark moves on to the importance of connecting with industry leaders on LinkedIn and seeking key players at conventions and panels. He says, “Introduce yourself! There aren’t many people in this industry.”
What’s next for Mark? He ponders, “There’s more for me out there. I feel I’ve made my bed in this amazing industry. I’m one of its leaders. Becoming the top executive in the company is something to aspire for. I’m also a creative person–and I’ve always dreamt of becoming a storyteller. It’s been put on hold, yet in my lifetime, I want to use this creativity. Even if I bring in titles from Japan and South Korea, I want to be more hands-on in story creation.”
Mark de Vera can be reached at https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-de-vera-04315540/. For Yen Press’s manga and manhwa offerings, go to https://yenpress.com/ and https://yenpress.com/imprint/ize.
Lorna Lardizabal Dietz is a Filipino community publicist and a cultural empowerment advocate. She is a member of the board of directors of Sentro Filipino: The San Francisco Filipino Cultural Center. Mark de Vera is her nephew.