Weekly Recon writer Katherine Dacey looks forward to the week ahead in manga.
Editor extraordinaire Dallas Middaugh blogs about how he got hooked on comics.
At the MangaCast, Ed supplies cover images for the manga announced by Tokyopop at NYAF.
Bloomberg goes to Winter Comiket, and they find the usual cliches: big eyes, big boobs, and cell phone manga on the train. Bonus vocabulary word: “therianthropic,” a handy descriptor for the Sohma family. You can read the whole thing, or you can skip directly to Zero-chan’s dissection of it on Japanator, which is much better. (Second link via Simon Jones.)
At One Potato Two, translator Satsuma blogs a bit about the Code Geass manga and gives us a peep at the art.
Did Akira inspire an Italian murderer? The British tabloid The Sun wants you to think so. After all the suspect’s computer password was “Akirafuga.” (Via Blog@Newsarama, which has better art.)
News from Japan: ANN reports on Kodansha’s Shonen Rival, a manga magazine pitched at junior high students that replaces Comic BonBon, which skewed younger. The new magazine launches with a print run of 300,000 copies. And Shueisha’s Jump Square, which occasionally features one-shot manga by well-known artists, will run one-shots by Hideaki Sorichi, creator of Gin Tama, and Akiko Higashimura. Not to be outdone, Shogakukan’s Weekly Shonen Sunday will feature a one-shot by Law of Ueki mangaka Tsubasa Fukuchi.
Gia Manry links to all her underrated manga posts for Fanboy.com.
Free manga: King Tractor Press is posting its manga backlist on Wowio.com for free download.
Manga academy: There’s going to be an academic conference on gender roles in manga and anime at McGill University this weekend, with some interesting guests and scheduled talks.
Coming this weekend: Phoenix Cactus Con. Svetlana Chmakova is going to be there, and so is Yaoi Press.
Reviews: It’s a Manga Bible smackdown at About.com, where Deb Aoki contrasts Doubleday’s The Manga Bible and vol. 1 of Zondervan’s Manga Bible. Deb also skewers vol. 1 of Hell Girl. New reviews are up at Comics Village: John Thomas on vol. 1 of Psycho Busters, Lissa Pattillo on Love Me Sinfully, Sabrina on Harlequin Pink: A Prince Needs a Princess, Charles Tan on vol. 1 of Apollo’s Song, and Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of The Guin Saga: The Seven Magi. Ben Leary reviews vol. 1 of Legends of the Dark Crystal and the staff chips in with some Small Bodied Manga Reviews at Anime on DVD. In case you missed the Shoujo Manga issue of The Comics Journal, back in 2005, Jog reprints his review of Here is Greenwood. At Okazu, Erica Friedman is way ahead of we mere English speakers with a review of vol. 11 of Aria. M. Jules Michel reviews Sensitive Pornograph at Manga Jouhou. Michelle enjoys vol. 2 of Boys Over Flowers at Soliloquy in Blue. Nick gives his take on vol. 1 of Alice on Deadlines at Hobotaku. Julie checks out The Prime Minister’s Secret Diplomacy at the Manga Maniac Cafe. Holly Ellingwood also reviews The Prime Minister’s Secret Diplomacy at Active Anime, as well as vol. 1 of From Up Above; also checking in are Davey C. Jones on vol. 8 of School Rumble, Scott Campbell on vol. 4 of Kamiyadori, and Sandra Scholes on vol. 1 of Trinity Blood. At the UK graphic novel blog Grovel, Andy reviews vol. 1 of The Guin Saga Manga: The Seven Magi.
Code Gease manga should be interesting, since they shift the emphasis of the series entirely. The anime was a typical shonen/mecha story (bad one aswell), but the manga they’re doing as a shojo. Should be interesting to see how well the story can play out, especially without the mecha.
Also, as a brit, don’t put much stock in what the Sun reports :) they aren’t exactly a credible newspaper. I mean this is a newspaper that had alien abductions on it front page recently :)
It’s good for a laugh, but nothing else.
The Seven Magi looks awesome, i’ve ordered mine just waiting for it to arrive. I hate waiting >.