VEIL by Kotteri, in English - A brief history

TL;DR: Veil is a series MSX Produced for UDON, and Veil volumes 1-4 are out now, but also sold-out at the distributor. Fourth printings of volumes 1 and 2 and second printings of volumes 3 and 4 are already underway, arriving in Spring 2026. In this overview, we’re focusing on its publication history, not the actual content of the series.

Before Mangasplaining was a thing, a book that Deb and I (hi, it’s Christopher) both agreed was a gorgeous and wonderful (and a damned shame that it wasn’t in English) was Veil by Kotteri!. Published in Japan by Jitsugyo no Nihon Sha, Ltd. and serialized digitally, not to mention a stunningly beautiful full color manga, Veil fell through the cracks of North American manga licensing for YEARS. Deb and I were in a (now closed) bookstore in Tokyo on that fateful trip that birthed Mangasplaining, back in 2019, and we both turned and pointed at VEIL on the shelves at the same time and said it needed to be published. We didn’t know at the time that we’d be some of the people helping to make that happen.

So when MSX: Mangasplaining Extra became a thing thanks to Substack, well, let’s just say that Okinawa was our first project (already underway!) but VEIL was definitely in the first round of titles that we brainstormed.

We approached UDON with it because Deb and I both like UDON Chief Erik Ko quite a bit, and they were one of the only pubs doing high-spec, full-color manga at the time. I have to assume that the costs associated with full-color printing are why it wasn’t a licensing priority for other publishers for so long, but Erik took one look at it and said it was beautiful. “Let’s do it.”

At that meeting, we also agreed to Giga Town and No Roses Without Thorns (more on that in a future post), and history was made. We asked our friend Jocelyne Allen (who wrote up this awesome recommendation) to translate it, and we were able to work with the letterer of the French edition of Veil, Kevin Druelle, to letter our version since we liked the French version so much. Andrew (my partner and husband) leapt in to edit and project-manage, and the whole team knocked it out of the park. I love what they’ve produced and I’m incredibly proud of the whole team.

We handed the completed files to UDON for pre-press and publishing…

…at the worst possible time. Y’see, the largest distributor of comics in English, Diamond, had a sort of… cascading implosion for several years that ended with a full-on bankruptcy in 2025. It screwed everything up for pretty much every comic publisher in English to varying degrees, and caused tremendous market uncertainty. Amidst this, UDON was caught in the crosshairs. I’m not really allowed to talk about what I know due to confidentially agreements with publishers and decorum with friends, but please believe me when I say it was a bad time.

Luckily UDON was well-positioned and able to move to a great new distributor, Simon & Schuster, but it still screwed a lot of stuff up and it made things difficult for a couple years there. Well, that’s not entirely accurate, because it’s STILL making things difficult. More on that at the end.

But the good news is that in June, Veil Volumes 1 & 2 were released in English, published by UDON, produced by MSX.

Veil volumes 1 and 2 immediately sold out. What was supposed to be a six-month supply basically sold out at the distro level before they hit stores. This is sorta great news because it meant that the book was a hit, and sorta awful news because there weren’t enough to fill all the distributor orders that came in after.

Y’see, enough were printed to fill the orders Diamond had received, but when Simon & Schuster offered it to retailers, a LOT more orders came in. Like, a LOT more. Then, uh, this happened again, and again, over the next few months. UDON would reprint more Veil volume 1s and 2s (always more than the initial print run and on the advice of their distribution partners), more than enough to cover demand for backorders, except the backorders would increase at a rate not really seen in UDON’s history. But again and again, they’d be sold out on arrival at the Simon and Shuster warehouses.

So today, we’re thrilled to announce that UDON Entertainment’s English editions of Veil Volumes 3 and 4 have begun arriving in stores and from online retailers. And they, alongside the new third printings of Veil Volumes 1 and 2, are all sold out at the distributor level again. This means plenty of stores have copies available RIGHT NOW, but unfortunately not every store got their full order of copies, and there aren’t anymore available immediately.

But the good news is that UDON started a new printing of all four volumes, again more than the previous printings of all of volumes, and they SHOULD arrive in a few months. I mean, who knows, right? Things are completely wild in the world, and there’s some truly awful stuff going on, but ink is hitting paper at the printers, and bound books will be loaded onto a cargo ship soon. We’re all doing our best and glad so many people are so in love with these books, just like we are.

So that’s what’s been up with VEIL, the fourth MSX: Mangasplaining Extra title to see print (but sadly, not serialized due to licensing restrictions). We haven’t talked a lot about it here on the newsletter because it seemed silly to promote a book that most people couldn’t get their hands on, though we have been talking about it in Notes and over on the social media, like this photo above that I shared of The Beguiling in Toronto which has VEIL Volume 1 on their bestseller rack, with plenty of copies in stock in January.

So, what’s next for VEIL? Well this is already a bit long, but without explaining book distribution any further, let me say that VEIL Volumes 5, 6, and 7 will be solicited from Simon & Schuster in a way so as to properly collect all orders before they are printed, and then released on time (long-lead vs. drop-in, for folks in the biz).

This should mean no more on-release sell-outs for these upcoming volumes, but because of the switchover in distribution it will mean a bit of a wait for volume 5 to properly solicit orders, and when we have firm dates we’ll share here. I can say Veil volumes 5 and 6 are done, and volume 7 is in progress. And as I said above, Volumes 1-4 have already begun reprinting. We’ll mention here when they arrive.

On a final note, since is the first time I’m writing at length about Veil, I want to say that the prices and format of these full color books (US$15.99) were at my urging. I appreciate Erik and UDON pricing them that way at my request.

Originally the book was announced as a two-in-one hardcover (because I really wanted to spec it out!) but with the significant inflation of the past few years AND the worsening economic outlook, those hardcovers would have come out to around $60 USD. That honestly just didn’t sit right with me from a consumer PoV. I wanted these books to be accessible, and at $16 (when most other color manga is $20+) I think we did that.

We’re grateful that so many folks have bought in to this series as well at that price. UDON took a chance AND a financial hit pricing it 20% cheaper than their competitors and holding that price through multiple reprints. I’m truly grateful… This is rare in publishing anywhere. That’s not to say it’ll stay that price forever (holy shit the world is crazy, and it impacts a lot of things that are out of control, like paper supplies, currency conversion rates). The hardcover 2-in-1 edition of Veil could still happen some day (I mean, I wanna own ’em), but I’m glad we were able to provide this gorgeous story where we did at this time, and I thank you for your support in picking it up. - CWB

If you’d like to order or pre-order Veil volumes 1-4, please check with your local comic shop or bookstore — it makes a difference! You can also visit Simon & Shuster’s page for Veil to stay on top of the upcoming releases.

* The actual quote is "The only way to get a thing done is to start to do it, then keep on doing it, and finally you'll finish it, even if at first you think you cannot do it at all." It comes from Queer author, poet, and activist Langston Hughes 1 2 . It’s very good life advice, even though it’s not really about manga per se, but about much weightier things.