The Mangavore’s Dilemma

Today’s must-read: David Welsh interviews manga omnivore Jason Thompson, whose research for the upcoming book Manga: The Complete Guide required him to read pretty much every manga available in English. Good quote:

When I get the “what manga do you recommend?” question, there’s always the urge to straighten my tie and talk about some “respectable” manga like Osamu Tezuka, or Vagabond, or something. But I don’t want to do disservice to the good manga which are created under formulaic conditions.

A former Viz editor, Thompson is now the manga editor of Otaku USA and creator of the webcomic The Stiff.

There’s a new edition of the manga chat podcast Manga Curry no Maki up at the MangaCast, featuring Jump Squared, manga in the Philippines, and an interview with Tezuka: Marvel of Manga curator Philip Brody.

Tokyopop will be releasing the sequel to Pet Shop of Horrors and a new shonen title, Shin Megami Tensei. ICv2 has the scoop.

Also at ICv2: The Harvey Awards have been announced; the only manga on the list was Abandon the Old in Tokyo, which tied with Moomin for Best American Edition of Foreign Material.

Trouble in scanlationland? Tiamat comments on scanlation groups that try to impose rules on readers and aggregators.

ComiPress has an interactive report on Kumoricon. Also: Hobby Japan plans a collection of comics detailing the lives of fujoshi.

The Manila Sunday Times interviews two Filipino artists, Elmer Damaso (Ravenskull) and Jhomar Soriano (Mr. Grieves). Both artists work for Seven Seas.

The Manga Junkie orders some manga from Japan and jumps into a new series with vol. 4 of Hataraki Man.

The upcoming release of Tekkonkinkreet inspires John Jakala to create Team Mammoth Manga.

Becky Cloonan posts some more samples from the upcoming volume of East Coast Rising.

At the Icarus Comics blog (NSFW), Simon Jones muses about an incentive discount that had unexpected results, and the difficulty of getting any information about the retailers that buy his books. The latter post contains an interesting breakdown of where your manga dollars go.

The Canada-Japan Society of British Columbia will host a festival in honor of To Terra… manga-ka Keiko Takemiya, who will be their special guest. (Via ANN.)

Nissan designs a manga-influenced car.

Reviews: At Comics-and-More, Dave Ferraro dedicates Manga Monday to vol. 1 of MPD Psycho and vol. 2 of To Terra. Holly Ellingwood goes for the yaoi at Active Anime, with reviews of Freefall Romance and vol. 1 of Ordinary Crush. Leah checks out vol. 1 of Hayate the Combat Butler and Nick turns thumbs down on vol. 1 of Shutterbox at Hobotaku. At the Manga Maniac Cafe, Julie checks out vol. 2 of Buso Renkin. Erica Friedman reviews vol. 7 of Hayate x Blade at Okazu. Reviewer Serenity checks out Picnic for Manganews. At Anime on DVD, Danielle van Gorder enjoys Paradise on the Hill.

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Comments

  1. re: The Stiff, it says that Jason Thompson is the adaptor and translator of the manga, not the creator, at the link you’re pointing to.

    “The Stiff
    An intensely terrifying, yet strangely pandering horror series. Translated and retouched by myself from Japanese by special arrangement with the artist.”

  2. Fixed! Thanks for catching that.

  3. He translates and adapts the work… from his brain! Alter-ego coyness aside, Jason is a very talented comics artist and deserves full credit for his work – you were right the first time. :)

  4. Yep, it’s a red herring! The frame concept is that The Stiff is being translated from a recovered, ancient text… but it’s all JT’s creation (not to spoil the conceit!)

  5. I’m glad people are talking about the ridiculous policies of some scanlation groups these days. I sometimes like to download scanlations to help when I adapt manga professionally, and this one yahoo group I was a part of wouldn’t let anyone spread their scans AND would hunt down anyone who did. I ended up getting so frustrated that I blasted them at length and then left the community. A few people e-mailed me to tell me I “wasn’t respecting the hard work of the scanlators”…and others e-mailed me to thank me for saying what they were too scared to say. I swear, some groups like to hold the fans hostage with their scans. When you’re getting off on a power trip involving illegal scanlations, you need to take a long, hard look at your personal life, IMO.

  6. Nick’s review of ShutterBox is the most thoughtless review I have ever read — of anything. Why did he even bother to unfurl his fingertips and approach his keyboard if he wasn’t going to bother to read a book he got for free? Why is this even listed as a review anywhere, especially when there is no discussion of anything in the book? He writes: “Maybe it’s just me, but in my never humble opinion, unless you like stories involving inane girls arguing over their prom dresses … .” There is no prom dress argument scene. There isn’t even a prom! I love a good bad review, a thoughtful review, but Nick is not a reviewer, he’s just another lazy blogger with an overblown sense of where his “never humble opinion” fits in the ladder-rung of reviews. “Maybe it’s just me,” says nick, clutching to his pillow. Oh, yes, Nick.

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