imprint of Marvel Comics. This colorized version ended its 38-issue run in 1995. Delays in the English publication were caused by Otomo's retouching of artwork for the Japanese collected volumes. It was these collections that formed the basis for translation, rather than the initial magazine serialization. The Epic version suffered significant delays toward the end, requiring several years to publish the final 8 issues. Marvel planned to collect the colorized versions as a 13-volume paperback series, and teamed with Graphitti Designs to release six limited-edition hardcover volumes; however, these ceased in 1993, so the final 3 paperbacks and planned sixth hardcover volume were never published. British publisher Reed began releasing full color versions of the six Akira volumes in 1994. A partially colorized version was serialized in British comic/magazine Manga Mania in the early to mid-'90s. A new edition of Akira was published in six paperback volumes from 2000 to 2002 by Dark Horse Comics in North America and Titan Books in the UK. This version is in black-and-white with a revised translation, although Otomo's painted color pages are used minimally at the start of each book as in the original Japanese volumes. In 2003, Tokyopop published the anime comic version in North America. The English-language rights to Akira are currently held by Kodansha Comics, who re-released the manga from 2009 to 2011 through Random House. Kodansha's version is largely identical to the Dark Horse version. In honor of the 35th anniversary of the manga, Kodansha released a box set in late October 2017, containing hardcover editions of all six volumes, as well as the Akira Club art book, and an exclusive patch featuring the iconic pill design. This release was presented in the original right-to-left format, with unaltered original art and Japanese sound effects with endnote translations. Volume list Reception Sales and awards The first tankōbon volume, which was released on September 14, 1984, significantly exceeded sales expectations, with its print run increasing from an initial 30,000 copies up to nearly 300,000 copies within two weeks, becoming the number-one best-seller in Japan before eventually selling about 500,000 copies. By 1988, Akira had sold approximately 2 million copies in Japan, from four volumes averaging about 500,000 copies each. The manga was published in the United States in 1988, followed by Spain in 1990, France and Italy by 1991, and then Germany, Sweden, South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia and Brazil. It was