Archives for September 2006

Jog has a post about the recent Air Gear controversy, in which he reflects on fans complaining about a bit of dialogue being altered in a book that shows four women (three underage) naked in the shower.

The quest for authenticity and the demands of fans and the power of success has lead to a new status quo, where plastic-wrapped books can indulge in such eyebrow-raising antics for better or worse, and still somehow prompt a minor controversy over tiny alterations. Wild days.

Well worth a read.

ANN has a brief interview with Kaoru Mori, the manga-ka of Emma.

Lyle wonders why Tokyopop is accused of flooding the market with manga when Viz releases just as many books.

Remember Mangaquake, the UK manga anthology that had to pull an issue because the cover turned out to be stolen art? They have re-released that issue, with a new cover.

Yaoi-Con 2006 announces its schedule.

The Nichi Bei Times (“Japanese American news since 1946”) takes a look at global manga. (Via Manganews.)

ChunHyang72 appeals to readers and fans to save CLAMP no Kiseki.

Volume 2 of Mark of the Succubus is due out this fall, and editor Lillian Diaz-Pryzbyl has some fun facts.

It’s a plot point that Maeve has gawdawful fashion sense.

Glad to hear it isn’t intentional. Also that Lillian quickly scotched one of the proposed titles for the series, “Get on the ‘Bus.”

Mangapunk takes a dim view of Borders manga buyer Kurt Hassler moonlighting as a manga-ka:

While Borders is a great avenue to sell manga, they only have so much shelf space to devote to all the Manga and Graphic Novels out there. So it’s very important to a company to get their titles onto that limited shelf space. So not only is Mr. Hassler able to fill those shelves with his manga he can also fill those same shelves with manga from the companies that gave him publishing jobs.

And even if that isn’t happening, there certainly is the appearance of a conflict of interest.

Tokyopop editor-in-chief Rob Tokar pimps Afterlife.

Well! This is interesting! Not only is King City going to be a Diamond exclusive, but commenters on the post below note that it has quietly disappeared from Tokyopop’s online exclusives page. And two other titles have disappeared as well: Heaven!! and Dragon Head. (Thanks to Dirk Deppey for pointing me toward this thread on the TCJ message board.)

For the record John Jakala called this over a week ago.

Is Tokyopop trying to make up to retailers for cutting them out with the online exclusives? Or is it just Opposite Day? Tokyopop editor Rob Tokar just mentioned on his blog that King City will be a Diamond exclusive:

I just learned that King City will be a Diamond-exclusive, which means you’ll be able to find it in finer comic shops and independent bookstores (where you can also pick up Brandon Graham’s other books, including Escalator.)

“Exclusive” must mean something different from what I’m used to, because Amazon has the book.

Hey everyone! Let’s all head over to GoManga.com! I hear they’ve got a Boogiepop Dual preview up!

This is a little old, but I just found it: A blogger at Tokyopop gives a primer on all the manga publishers.

Over on Guns, Guys, and Yaoi, Tina chats with ceena from Hatena about western manga in Japan. Ceena explains:

We Japanese consume fish a lot. And Japan is an island surrounded by seas in which we can fish. Still, we import a vast amount of fish from all over the world, because we love fish and enjoy the differences of tastes.

Good analogy.

Yotsuba&! fans, better get in line, if there’s anything to this post at Ikimashou,

According to my contact at Borders, the chain has over 50,000 people on a notify list for the fourth volume.

Maybe they should make it an online exclusive.

David Welsh looks over today’s comics list and finds a lot to love. And thanks to David for reminding me that the last volume of Hot Gimmick is out, and Mely has a wrapup.

Bless me, father, for I have sinned: Tina Anderson explains the appeal of the cosmetic clergy genre, which for some reason non-Japanese publishers are not rushing to embrace, although Tina’s own CC manga will be out soon. Images are SFW, but this isn’t a permalink so you may have to hunt a bit if you’re coming to this post late.

The Japan Times discovers scanlators and fansubbers. Nice lede on this story, about scanlators putting manga in the microwave to soften the glue in the binding. I didn’t know that!

The Toronto Star goes to the Shojo Manga exhibit and kind of gets it. But just kind of. The reference to the popularity of Sailor Moon makes it seem dated, and nobody told the author that the characters in manga are indeed supposed to be Japanese. (Paging Matt Thorn!) But he’s right about this:

Decades will have to pass before we’ll be allowed to see a little boy-on-boy action with Archie and Jughead in the Archie comics.

Archie/Jughead slash? Ow! My brain hurts just trying to picture it. (Tina, don’t even think of it!)

Takeshi Obata, artist of Death Note and Hikaru no Go, was arrested in Tokyo for possession of a knife. Obata says he left the knife, which sports a 3 1/2-inch blade, in his glove compartment after a camping trip.

Slightly off topic, but a possible treat for our Bay Area readers: Yohan, a Japanese publisher that already owns Stone Bridge Press, has bought Cody’s bookstore.

After just one chapter, Lyle is hooked on Beauty Pop. Cinescape gives Gerard et Jacques a good review. And Emily looks at a student-teacher manga, Sekai wa Bokura no Tameni (The World is For Us)

So what else is new: A week after volume 11 of Naruto hits an all-time high on the USA Today Booklist, Viz gets around to putting out a press release. ICv2 adds that Bookscan is showing that the volume sold 10,000 copies in the first two weeks. Which prompts this question over at The Hurting:

So what the hell is this Naruto crap that all the kids are into?

Of course a post like this is all about the comments:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles without the mutant turtles.

and my favorite so far:

You’ll never understand, Dad! This is my life, and if I want to dress up like an Orange Julius ninja then I will!