Closing the books on 2007

Broccoli announced this week that they have licensed sola.

At Comicsnob, Matt Blind posts the online best-sellers for the week ending December 23, plus commentary on his methods and findings.

The 2007 retrospectives and best-of lists are still rolling in. At PopCultureShock’s Manga Recon blog, Katherine Dacey-Tsuei and
Erin F., who have already posted their favorites for the year, list the also-rans and must-read-it-this-years. Meanwhile, Precocious Curmudgeon’s David Welsh looks at the biggest stories of 2007 and rounds up critical praise for his pick for best graphic novel of 2007, Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms.

The voting is open for best josei manga of 2007 at Deb Aoki’s manga blog. It’s worth a look just to see the list Deb has compiled, especially if you’re running low on things to read.

Felicia J., blogger of Scaling Mount TBR, just started reading manga this year, and she posts a mini-retrospective.

Tokyopop editor Tim Beedle has some advice for aspiring manga writers.

Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page, which is a great if sporadically updated review site focusing on untranslated manga, celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2008. Watch for a revamp of her magazine page and more frequent updates. She starts off the new year with a review of Strobe Edge.

Comics are now respectable enough to be taught in college, thanks in part to the popularity of manga. But how will the “special panties version” go over in the ivory tower?

Same Hat blogger Evan recounts, with pictures, his personal experience with Tatiana the Tiger.

Tiamat’s Disciple vents about the Tokyopop website—the UK version, but U.S. readers, especially those with slow connections, may have some of the same issues. The good news is that another redesign is on the way, and user-friendliness is on the radar this time.

The blog Mutant Palm, which seems to be about Chinese culture, points out an Uighur separatist character in vol. 9 of Eden. And they link to some interesting shots of Chinese manhua.

The Daily Yomiuri reports that Tokyo University Hospital is helping with research for a new medical manga by Yakitate!! Japan creator Takashi Hashiguchi. (Via ComiPress, which fills in a few of the blanks.)

The latest installment of Manga Zombie is about “incredibly strange” artist Tokunan Seiichiro.

Registration is open for Anime Expo 2008.

Reviews: John T looks at vol. 2 of Gyo at Mecha Mecha Media. At the MangaCast, MangaManiac reviews Dash! Back at the Manga Maniac Cafe, Julie checks out vol. 1 of Operation Liberate Men, vol. 1 of Sand Chronicles, Warcraft: The Sunwell Trilogy Ultimate Edition, and vol. 10 of Skip Beat. Katherine Dacey-Tsuei enjoys Do Whatever You Want at PopCultureShock. Leroy Douresseaux reviews vol. 6 of Reborn! and vol. 1 of Sand Chronicles at The Comic Book Bin. At ComicMix, Andrew Wheeler cracks open The Mammoth Book of Best New Manga 2 and finds “Best” to be an overstatement. Ariadne Roberts checks out Your Honest Deceit at Anime on DVD. Michelle reviews vols. 22 and 23 of Basara at Soliloquy in Blue. Khursten starts the new year with vol. 1 of Welcome to the N.H.K. at Otaku Champloo. Billy Aguiar reviews vol. 1 of Tanpenshu at CBGXtra. Seemingly bent on reading every manga ever published in English, Connie posts reviews of vol. 15 of Astro Boy, vol. 29 of Dragon Ball, vol. 3 of Moon Child, vol. 21 of Jojos Bizarre Adventure, vols. 3 and 4 of Skip Beat, vol. 1 of Zombie-Loan, and vol. 11 of From Eroica With Love. At The Star of Malaysia, Pauline Wong reviews vol. 1 of S.A. AsianWeek looks at Manga: The Complete Guide. Terri Gudowicz checks out Azumanga Daioh: The Omnibus at PLAYBACK:stl.

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Comments

  1. Tiamat should check out Stu Levy’s blog— he just posted an entry saying that there will be “a brand new version of the site in Spring 2008.” (http://www.tokyopop.com/Stu/blog/1126041.html)

  2. Thanks for the link! It was my recounting, using Evan’s pictures and story about the tiger. I’ve turned into the sole blogger for our site, but he’s still doing the production and artistic stuff behind the scenes on our ongoing projects :)

    Happy New Year out on the chilly East Coast!

  3. Comics Village is posting manga reviews, y’all! Only four are up now, but more will be up in the future!!