Sunday morning news

Anime Boston was great! I wasn’t sure if it was worth going, as I don’t watch much anime, but there was enough of a manga and webcomic presence there to make it more than worthwhile. I didn’t go to any panels but I did get some good interviews, had lunch with Dave Roman and Raina Telgemeier, and got to hang out with Robin Brenner, Erin F, and some crazy webcomickers. Watch for writeups shortly.

Meanwhile, the news marches on.

Vertical is launching a new shoujo manga line in 2008. Editorial Director Ioannis Mentzas seems to realize he’s swimming upstream here: “It’s nearly impossible to get good licenses now, but we’ll do it.” Vertical has done well over the past year by publishing classic manga, and they will contine to do so under the Vertical name.

Vertical will publish about 30 books in 2007 and expects to eventually publish around 60 books a year once the new imprint is fully operational. Most of the increase will be manga.

Ryan and Evan from Same Hat were at APE this weekend, and they’ve done a little alternative publishing of their own: They have compiled all their scanlations into a single volume, which they are making available through the blog.

Blog@Newsarama links to a Japanese-American magazine’s special issue on manga.

David Welsh has no complaints about the Eisners, but he wonders if there should be a Hall of Fame for individual works.

LJ’er Sparklyfanta discusses feminism and CLAMP, with special attention to the ickiness of Chobits. (Via When Fangirls Attack.)

Deutsche Mangaka has the latest news from German publishers.

If you’re going to be in London in May, the Daiwa House is hosting a manga workshop led by Rising Stars of Manga winners Paul Duffield, John Aggs, Sonia Leong, and Emma Viceli. Artist Eric Wight (My Dead Girlfriend) will also be there, and it all seems to be affiliated somehow with Tokyopop. (Via Otaku News.)

It’s somewhat OT, but I found this article on Japanese school lunches utterly fascinating.

Job board: Newtype USA is looking for a translator. It’s in-house, and they’re located in Houston, Texas.

Reviews: Ed Chavez has an audio review of vol. 3 of Category: Freaks and vol. 1 of JUNK at the MangaCast. At Active Anime, Holly Ellingwood reviews the yaoi one-shot Fake Fur and Davey C. Jones checks out vol. 2 of Gacha Gacha The Next Revolution. At the Mangamaniaccafe, Julie is reading vol. 2 of Kashimashi ~Girl Meets Girl~, vol. 2 of Utopia’s Avenger, and vol. 10 of The Devil Does Exist. Precocious Curmudgeon David Welsh likes vol. 2 of Train + Train more than he liked vol. 1. Connie knocks down the stack a bit at Slightly Biased Manga, with reviews of vols. 17 and 18 of Dragon Ball, vol. 8 of Sorcerer Hunters, vol. 6 of Dragon Head, and Solfege. At the Star of Malaysia, Cheeky Monkey reviews vol. 1 of La Corda d’Oro, Kitty Sensei checks out vol. 1 of Flower of Life, and Kadzuki reviews The Kouga Ninja Scrolls, the novel that was the basis for Basilisk. And at The Comic Book Bin, Leroy Douresseaux reads the latest issue of Shojo Beat.

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Comments

  1. They have compiled all their scanlations into a single volume,

    Got my copy yesterday… But looks like the batteries in my voice recorder died in the middle of our interview T-T.

  2. I read Chobits #1 this weekend and have to agree with her assessment of “icky.” There’s one part where one of the female friends — either the teacher, or the landlady — comes over and observes how “cute” Chi is and comments, “No wonder men prefer personocoms over real women.” But it is said in a longing kind of way, and after Chii is doing Hideki’s wishes. It was just icky. And the landlady, is she some kind of madamme or something? She keeps giving Chi these sexy clothes, and Chi looks like she is about 12 years old :/ I bought this book without knowing much about it – I guess I was expecting that this personocom would throw off that subserviant label and be truly “different” than the run of the mill personocom. Maybe it changes in following books?

  3. Ed: Oh man, bummer :( But it was awesome to get to chat with you —- we should do it again sometime soon :)

    I’m posting our thoughts/pictures on APE later this afternoon

  4. I have the first two volumes of Chobits.. I thought Chi was personally rather adorable, if the posing and such is a bit over the top. She IS still learning after all.. I’m told that in later volumes get a bit more serious, but I’ll have to find out. What CLAMP made Chi do was CREEPY though, in volume 2.. ugh.