Friday links

Dark Horse has posted previews of a number of new titles, including one I’m looking forward to, Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service.

Seven Seas has an interview with Shiei, the artist for two of their OEL titles, Aoi House and Amazing Agent Luna.

At MangaCast, Ed Chavez gives his take on the new titles announced in Previews.

From ComiPress, two brief articles, one on an anime and manga research center starting up in Beijing and the other about Comic Valkyrie, a new bishoujo battle magazine (!) starting up in Japan.

Heading to Anime Expo? Go!Comi has a heap of freebies and they’re blogging about it just to torture the rest of us.

More signs of manga creep: the Los Angeles Times is publishing a guide to Anime Expo, the first time that august paper has published an advertising supplement focused on anime and manga.

In its farewell issue, Ninth Art, hands out The Ninth Art Lighthouse Awards: The Best Of The Best, and one of them goes to Tokyopop. I’m quoting the first graf for the sheer joy of the writing, and the second for the substance:

Mainstream comic publishers are like dinosaurs blinking at a meteorite crackling through the sky. Its smoke trails are spelling out the letters M-A-N-G-A, and it’s the last thing they’ll see before they’re obliterated.

A new breed of comics publisher has emerged, and Tokyopop has led the way. The new breed won’t necessarily all publish manga, but they’ll be using the same tactics. They’re going to sidestep the direct market ghetto and go straight to the bookstores; they’re going to publish in black and white, and offer comics at a low price point; and they’ll vie for the attentions of a broader audience beyond fanboys and schoolgirls. In short, the new publishers are going to be everything that the current publishers are not.