And now for something completely different…

Love Manga has this week’s treasures from the comics store. I picked up Kurogane already and was impressed by the art, if not the story.

At あいとゆうきのおとぎばなし blogger JP Meyer starts off dissing the new ANN blog but has a more serious point to make: ANN is about American fandom, not English-language fandom. The discussion continues into the comments, and I think many of the points may be applicable to the manga blogosphere as well. Even more so, in fact, as we have sites like Manganews that have a lot of info about manga that aren’t translated yet, even by scanlators. I’ve written for international audiences before, and it’s not easy, no matter where you are, because even in the most international city in the world (Meyrin, Switzerland, outside of Geneva—I lived there) you’re still only in one place at one time. Nonetheless, I try not to be too parochial here at MangaBlog.

Comic Book Resources has an interview with Fred Gallagher of Megatokyo. Gallagher talks about moving from Dark Horse to CMX, what sets volume 4 apart from the first three volumes, and how he draws the comic. A good read for fans and non-fans alike.

I’ve only recently discovered Tina Anderson’s blog, subtitled “Guns, Guys, and Yaoi,” but I’ve become a frequent lurker. Tina has just finished the script for a BL comic, and her submission letter is up. In this post, she distinguishes between true yaoi fans and those who are putting their own spin on everything else.

Livejournal poster Thomas Yan picked up the first volume of Hot Gimmick and doesn’t like where it’s going. “Is this series any good?” he asks. If only there were a simple answer to that question!

At The Comics Reporter, Tom Spurgeon lists all the things he hates about “comics for your girlfriend” articles, and makes a good point:

I don’t think you can always trust the assumption that if there is a comics reader in a couple that it’s the male. Where are the “comics for your boyfriend” articles? Why do these articles assume different-sex couples?

In fact, I’m the comics reader in my marriage, although I have managed to draw my husband in. His interest has grown from almost none to the point where I keep him in mind when I’m on a buying spree. With shoujo manga so popular among girls, and yaoi and josei picking up steam, getting your boyfriend interested in comics may be the next trend.

This news article is actually about the Flight anthology, but it includes a brief interview with Sorcerers and Secretaries creator Amy Kim Ganter, who is the fiancee of Flight editor Kazu Kibuishi.

Here’s jog on the glut of Death Note spinoffs:

Over in Japan, part 1 of Death Note: the Movie has been quite a success, handily fending off The Da Vinci Code in theaters. Stay tuned for Death Note: the Anime, Death Note: the Video Game, Death Note: the Prose Novel, and (seriously) Death Note: the Tribute Album! The sooner I hear of Death Note: the Soft Drink the better, because I need the refreshment of mass-murder in my throat.

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Comments

  1. I was really entertained by this entry! thx

  2. What I want to know is why there aren’t more ‘get your boy into manga’ articles. I’ve heard so many cases of males who read comics, watch cartoons and drool over sci-fi but absolutely refuse to touch anything with produced in the East.

    I don’t think this is because of regional prejudice. I suspect such boygeeks blanche in the face of something they perceive as being more popular than it deserves to be. The logic being that if girls like shojo and kids like Toonami, then they can’t possibly be ‘legitimate’ forms of geekdom.

    Its come to a point where there’s a His and Hers divide of geekdom where the guy drowns himself sci-fi badassery while the girl huddles with her manga, and frankly that upsets me everytime I get funny stares for reading shoujo on the train.