Normal blogging resumes

OK, I have arrived safely in the outskirts of Chicago and will be blogging from here for a few days. The train trip was great—the scenery was beautiful, the train crew were very nice, the food was good, and we arrived more or less on time. I got into interesting conversations with several people, including a software guy who did lunar module landing simulations for the Apollo program and a woman who was hiking the entire Appalachian Trail, one segment at a time. If you have the time, the train is definitely the way to go!

Back to the news: I was in transit Wednesday, but fortunately the MangaCast crew were there to discuss this week’s new titles. Looking ahead, Ed has info on new titles from Viz and Del Rey and a con alert about SDCC.

He also has more on the Japanese edition of MegaTokyo.

Anime on DVD talks to Dark Horse Director of Asian Licensing Michael Gombos about how their various titles are doing. And here’s a good followup, now that you’re in the mood: Same Hat posts an article by Philip Simon, the editor of MPD Psycho, along with all the Japanese covers of that series.

David Welsh contributes an I (heart) comics column about characters who are “intermediaries” for the dead and others at Blog@Newsarama.

Jason DeAngelis has his latest post up on the Seven Seas blog. He talks about cons a bit and drops an interesting hint:

I strongly suspect that we will have our first title licensed by a Japanese publisher. We’ve shown it to a number of major and minor Japanese publishers and they’re showing big interest. There’s even a Japanese video game company that asked if they could make a game of it.

And then he links to a page of 11 new manga and says it’s one of them. Hmmm.

Shaenon Garrity has a new Overlooked Manga Festival up, and this week she considers the merits of the badass, batshit insane JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure.

At the Vertical Blog, Anne Ishii rounds up some recent reviews of Apollo’s Song, and Shizuki does the same for some Broccoli titles at the Broccoli Blog.

And if you haven’t been over to One Potato Two lately, go check it out: Blogger Satsuma has photos and anecdotes about Anime Expo and a post about a Japanese manga, Kiyoku Yawaku.

At Shuchaku East, Chloe looks at the Tokyopop/Kaplan test prep books. The Christian Science Monitor has a nice article on them as well.

LJ-er thenakedcat discusses why women might like Bleach.

T Campbell has some promo art for vol. 2 of Divalicious up at his blog. And TrekWeb has the cover and info for vol. 2 of the Star Trek manga.

ANN reports that printers in Japan are requiring doujinshi creators to provide contact information on the book and label doujinshi with adult content.

This article about the uptick in webcomics and cell phone comics includes this tidbit:

Tokyopop will soon introduce their iManga service, featuring motion graphics and sound.

I think we saw a sneak preview of this at NYCC.

Comic Book Resources has a forum thread going about manga that are adapted from anime.

Reviews: Kethylia is unimpressed by vol. 1 of Blame! At the BasuGasuBakuhatsu Anime Blog, Hung checks out vol 2 of Hayate the Combat Butler and vol. 1 of Le Chevalier d’Eon. Johanna reads vol. 4 of Absolute Boyfriend which confirms her decision to drop the series, at Comics Worth Reading. Tim Janson likes vol. 1 of King of Thorn a lot better than I did, but Michael Aronson gives vol. 3 of Key Princess Story: Eternal Alice Rondo a D, at Manga Life. Julie has an early look at vol. 19 of Hana-Kimi at Manga Maniac Cafe and she reviews vol. 2 of DVD at MangaCast. Tangognat enjoys My Heavenly Hockey Club. At the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Jessica Severs checks out vol. 1 of Kingdom Hearts II and vol. 1 of Dragon Eye. Katherine Dacey-Tsuei reviews vol. 1 of Hollow Fields, by International Manga Award runner-up Madeleine Rosca, at PopCultureShock. At Active Anime, Holly Ellingwood reviews vol. 8 of Girls Bravo and vol. 7 of Tsukuyomi Moon Phase. Comicsnob Matt Blind checks out vol. 1 of Avalon High: Coronation. At the Comic Book Galaxy blog, Alan David Doane gives his take on Alive. (Via Journalista.)

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