Japan’s first free manga magazine launches this week with an initial printing of 100,000 copies and a target audience of 20- to 40-year-old men. The magazine will have half as many pages as the standard magazine and will apparently be supported by advertising. I thought this was interesting:
The advantages of being free lie in the weekly not needing to secure a magazine code — in effect, a license — which is said to be difficult for new companies or magazines to obtain.
The Japan Times has an engaging article about the New York manga-ka who draws the English-language instruction strip collected as My Wife is a New Yorker.
At the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Wilma Jandoc and Jason Yadao read some new Tokyopop series and offer advice on what to pick up and what to skip.
Here is a list of what to expect at NYCC.
Reviews: Kethylia reviews vol. 2 and vol. 3 of Monster. At Active Anime, Holly Ellingwood reviews vol. 1 of Kamunagara: Rebirth of the Demonslayer and Christopher Seamann checks out vol. 3 of ES: Eternal Sabbath. At Mangamaniaccafe, Julie likes vol. 4 of Kamui but was less enthusiastic about vol. 1 of Goong. The Star of Malaysia’s Kurogane finds Legend to be nothing special, and Martin Vengadesan turns thumbs down on Star Trek: The Manga. Cheeky Monkey has slightly better things to say about vol. 3 of Skip Beat and vol. 13 of From Far Away. At The Yaoi Review, Sakura Kiss gives Lies and Kisses a ten. The Guardian rounds up some graphic novels, including Abandon the Old in Tokyo. At Slightly Biased Manga, Connie has brief reviews of vol. 1 of Ark Angel, vol. 23 of Oh My Goddess, vol. 2 of Revolutionary Girl Utena, and vol. 9 of Video Girl Ai.
I like that they praise Vampire Doll Guilt Na Zan for it’s stupidity in the Starbulletin’s reviews [in a positive way]. It’s the kind of stupid I like :) It has a wonderful smorgasbourg of manga steretypes crammed into it, which it then proceeds to mock, and has a nice sense of humour and charm to it. And of course, Guilt-Na-chan’s cake making occult powers, and her resignation to them are quite odd. But cute.
I agree, Andre. I really liked that book.