Good advice

Not manga, but well worth a read for anyone trying to make money in a creative endeavor: Dave Roman’s Advice on building a career as a freelance artist and/or paid cartoonist. His pithiest piece of advice—”Don’t be a jerk”—is already being quoted around the blogosphere, but it’s worth taking a few minutes to read the whole thing. Dave writes from the perspective of someone who is an editor as well as a creator, which makes the advice particularly useful. Plus it’s from Dave, so it’s well written and the illustrations are super-cute.

At MangaCast, the motley crew lists their picks of this week’s new releases.

Japanamerica author Roland Kelts visits the new Kinokuniya bookstore in New York.

The Canadian magazine Quill and Quire has an interesting article contrasting the Marvel online initiative and the Japanese doujinshi model.

Booklist report: As usual, since the invasion began, the three latest Naruto titles are the only manga on the USA Today Booklist: vol. 24 at number 57, vol. 22 at number 65, and vol. 23 at number 67.

Business as usual or the beginning of a witch hunt? Heisei Democracy rounds up recent efforts to suppress “indecent” materials in Japan. (Via ComiPress, via Icarus.)

Blog makes the leap to manga: Tonari no 801-chan is a Japanese blog that takes the form of a four-panel manga and tells the story of a fujoshi-otaku couple. The strips have already been collected into two books, and now it will become a regular manga feature in Kodansha’s Bessatsu Friend magazine.

At About.com, Deb Aoki looks at military-themed manga.

A quintet of Tokyopop creators will be making appearances in Southern California this weekend. Details here.

Here’s a nice writeup on Nanocon, in case you missed it.

Your manga news oddity of the day: Man caught stealing 101 volumes of manga. You know, people tell me manga is even cheaper in Japan than it is here, and he was planning to resell the volumes to a secondhand bookstore, which probably would pay bottom dollar, so it seems like he was working pretty hard for not a lot of money—maybe $200. Wouldn’t it have been more efficient to just rob a bank?

Reviews: Jog has a comprehensive review up of MW. Kethylia has some kind words for vol. 1 of Bride of the Water God. David Welsh is growing impatient with vol. 2 of King of Thorn. Ouch! Nick gives vol. 1 of Bombos vs. Everything an F at Hobotaku. Lori Henderson takes a look at vol. 1 of King of Cards at Manga Life. Ferdinand reviews vol. 1 of Uzumaki at Prospero’s Manga. At Okazu, Erica Friedman reviews a title that is only available in Japanese, the Perfect Edition of Cutey Honey a Go Go. Julie reads vol. 25 of Boys Over Flowers and finds that the magic is still there, at Manga Maniac Cafe. Jiji checks out vol. 1 of Kingdom Hearts II at Manganews. The staff puts up some more Small Bodied Manga Reviews at Anime on DVD, and over at ANN, Carlo Santos has posted his latest Right Turn Only!! column.

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Comments

  1. it’s hard to rob a bank with a knife.

  2. True! But most bank robbers just use a note and make vague I-have-a-gun gestures. Tellers are trained to give them the benefit of the doubt.

    I’m not advocating this, you understand. Just sayin’.

Trackbacks

  1. […] [Profile] Japanamerica author Roland Kelts pays a visit to the newly opened New York City outlet of Japanese bookstore chain Kinokuniya, where manga and anime are the prime movers of growth. (Link via Brigid Alverson.) […]