In Memoriam: Matt Haasch
“Small hiatus update.” In his final official message on the Star Fruit Books blog, founder Matt Haasch was cheerful as always. Just a little setback, nothing to worry about. He assured fans that, while he had been diagnosed with lymphoma, it was “for sure curable. No issues there.” Just a small hole in his lung, but once that was patched up he’d be back to publishing small-press comics from Japan, as he had done since he launched Star Fruit Books in 2020.
That was on September 1, 2025. Less than one week later, on Sunday, September 7, Matt Haasch passed away.
If you’ve read manga on Azuki, you’ve no doubt come across some of the series and one-shots Star Fruit Books published. Matt founded Star Fruit with the goal of bringing more manga from outside the mainstream of the Japanese comics scene to English readers. Alongside publishers like Glacier Bay Books, Star Fruit served as an unprecedented window into the world of self-published manga or “doujinshi.” If you followed the publisher on social media, it quickly became impossible to keep track of all of the books Matt was putting out. Introspective josei from Minami Q-ta, pulp horror from Hideshi Hino and Noroi Michiru, and an avalanche of one-shots from rookie manga artists, among many more examples. He was an unstoppable force, driven by a passion and love for these books.
While Matt leaned on help from a network of friends and colleagues to keep it all running, in many ways he WAS Star Fruit Books. Matt picked the books to license, oversaw production, maintained the social media accounts, and distributed the books himself, with no help from a major book distributor. All while working as a middle-school teacher! That sometimes meant production delays and hectic schedules as Matt raced against his own ambition to put out more and more manga.
Matt was also a longtime supporter of us here at Azuki. Star Fruit and Glacier Bay were the first two indie publishers to release their books on Azuki, and Matt kept up a steady stream of new digital titles on Azuki over the years. As a personal fan of what Star Fruit was doing for the manga community, it was an honor to be able to feature Matt’s books on our service, especially when we were such a new platform with such a short track record.
More importantly, through that relationship I was able to call Matt my friend. We had a long running DM thread where we’d plan out new digital releases, commiserate about licenses we were working on, or ask each other for advice (though if I’m being honest, it was mostly me learning from Matt’s experience). At Anime NYC 2022, Azuki’s Abbas Jaffery and I got to spend time with Matt in person, including seeing him present his Star Fruit Books industry panel.
Matt was warm, friendly, and endlessly positive, with an infectious energy. When talking with him it was hard not to get caught up in his whimsy and optimism, his insistence on doing cool stuff that he liked, even if it seemed impossible. I was always excited to chat with him about what we were up to, and to hear what wild new license he was working on for Star Fruit. Even in the face of an illness that he must have known put him in real danger of dying, and even when I asked him point blank in private if he was OK, Matt continued to insist that everything was fine. “I’m not gonna die so that’s good,” he told me.
In my final chat with Matt, on September 3, he texted me this: “Had a dream tonight and you’re in it. Getting a cool license.” I used to dream about what Matt would be doing five, 10, or 20 years from now. If this is what he could pull off shipping books out of his house, what could he do with more resources and experience? We’ll never get to see that future. I can only imagine the grief Matt’s family is going through right now, having lost a loved one so young and so suddenly. But the outpouring of grief and appreciation from his many fans in the manga community speaks volumes about what kind of person he was. Matt impacted so many lives, from his manga publishing to his work as a teacher to his many friendships, and our lives are a lot less bright without him in it.
Rest in Peace Matt. I miss you.
Matt’s original GoFundMe collecting donations for his treatment is still up, and is a good way to send money to his family in this difficult time if you’re so inclined.
