Following last week's news that Viz Media had cut its staff by 40 percent, hard times for the manga industry continued today with word that DC Comics' CMX imprint is shutting down entirely on July 1.

While a list of titles will see final releases in May and June, many items beyond those months have been canceled. Fred Gallagher's "Mega Tokyo" is the only title currently slated to live on as a DC book.

Robot6's Brigid Alverson got a hold of DC for an official statement:

Over the course of the last six years, CMX has brought a diverse list of titles to America and we value the books and creators that we helped introduce to a new audience. Given the challenges that manga is facing in the American marketplace, we have decided that CMX will cease publishing new titles as of July 1, 2010.

The shuttering of the CMX line does not affect the best-selling series Megatokyo which will continue publication, now as a DC Comics title with story and art by Megatokyo's award-winning creator Fred Gallagher.

We'd like to take a moment to acknowledge the efforts and dedication of the CMX staff and to thank our fans who have supported CMX.

- DC Comics Co-Publishers Jim Lee and Dan Didio
It's way too soon to say whether any of CMX's licenses will live on at another publisher, but given the state of the niche, the outlook seems pretty murky.

[Via The Beat]