Telophase’s latest manga column is up at the Tokyopop site, and it’s a brief history of Osamu Tezuka.
MangaCast checks this week’s comics list. Read it before you head to the store!
PW Comics Week explains what Broccoli is all about. The article notes in passing that Yoki, Koto, Kiku goes into wide release next month, and I’d definitely recommend picking it up if you think manga noir would be to your tastes. It’s wicked funny, emphasis on the wicked.
Also at PWCW, Kate Culkin writes about Mangaka America, due out in November from HarperCollins. Editors Tania del Rio and William Staehle went to 11 artists working in manga-influenced styles and asked each to put together a tutorial about how they handle a particular task. Contributors include Rivkah Greulich, Svetlana Chmakova, and Lindsay Cibos and Jared Hodges.
The Japanese-American newspaper Nichi Bei Times interviews cartoonist Jason Shiga. My favorite quote:
Libraries are great! Can you imagine if they had libraries of any other consumer item? Like a car library where you could borrow a car for three weeks? The American library is like some nutty communist experiment that actually worked.
There’s more to love at Shiga’s website. (Via Andre’s blog.)
Anthology update: Although we’d love to have ’em here, manga magazines are in a slump in Japan. ComiPress translates an article about the publisher Shogakukan’s plans to create online versions of two of its magazines. They will be available on the web using a manga viewer from the U.S. company Zinio. It looks like the folks at Shogakukan have been thinking about the issues we have been discussing, such as cost, convenience, and the desire to hold a physical book in your hands, so the article is worth a click.
Also on ComiPress, a discussion of the U.S. manga market that helps put things in perspective: In 2005-2006, the 8 volumes of Fullmetal Alchemist released in the U.S. sold a total of 348,000 copies, while the 14 volumes of that same series sold over 20,000,000 copies, admittedly over a longer time period.
At Manga Talk, Lillian DP has found some videos about drawing manga.
Basically, it’s an older guy with an overhead projector and a nodding panel of spectators, breaking down how popular manga work visually and storytelling-wise.
Now the bad news: They’re in Japanese. But still possibly worth a look.
Reviews: At TokyoSpace, ChunHyang72 hearts Sorcerors and Secretaries. Over at the MangaCast, Jack takes on three shonen titles and Ed counters with some shoujo. And Johanna at Comics Worth Reading reviews the first volume of Queenie Chan’s The Dreaming.
Yoko, Koto, Kiku is the fluffiest, cuddliest noir ever. I’m kind of smitten with it.
I didn’t realize you were a New Englander until I read the bit about Broccoli Books. Wicked cool!
Actually, I’m originally from Indiana, but I’ve lived in or near Boston for 16 years so I’ve sort of gone native. I even say “so doesn’t he” on occasion. But I still pronounce my R’s!
Okay, David, you sold me on “cuddliest film noir” so it’s only a matter of remembering the title (always a challenge for me).
Wow, thanks for linking to my blog again :) Kooky. I promise I’ll update with more stuff soonish…..