At the San Diego Comic-Con Viz Media announced that it would be combining three volumes (tankoubon) of some of its best-selling manga series into 600 to700-page omnibus editions that will retail for $17.99.  The first Shonen Jump series to get this treatment will be Nobuhiro Watsuki's 28-volume samurai manga Rurouni Kenshin.  The first three-volume Kenshin omnibus is slated for release in January.  The second series in the Viz Big line will be Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball (and Dragon Ball Z), a mammoth 42-volume series that displays Toriyama's dynamic art and relentless sense of humor.  The first Viz Big volume of Dragon Ball is due out in May of 2008.

With the enormous growth in the number of new manga and graphic novel releases omnibus editions of classic backlist titles make a lot of sense both from the point-of-view of consumers, who get a price break for buying the jumbo volumes, and retailers, who have fewer skus to keep in stock.