Milestones

Happy birthday to UK artists’ group Sweatdrop Studios which celebrates six years of making manga this week. They have become a fairly remarkable collective: Several of their members (Sonia Leong, Emma Vieceli, Fehed Said) have gone pro, and a large percentage have made it into the UK Rising Stars of Manga competitive anthologies. To celebrate, they’re having a prize draw and offering a 50 percent discount at their web store—plus free international shipping. (I reviewed their dual anthologies, Pink is for Girls and Blue is for Boys, last year.)

At the MangaCast, Ed Chavez spots some new titles from Viz on Amazon—Gimmick!, Mixed Vegetables, Black Lagoon—and posts cover images from some series licensed by Seven Seas.

Ryan at Same Hat is enthusiastic about another Viz title, Kazuo Umezu’s Cat-Eyed Boy. Click for freaky cat-eyed pictures!

Xavier Guilbert has translated his Myth Quest column into English. It’s an amusing critique of a comic that goes to great lengths to look Japanese when it’s not. Meanwhile, here’s the other side of the coin: At Comic Book Resources, Joe Casey talks about Krash Bastards, the global manga he’s writing for Image Comics:

“It’s not just the art style,” he said. “This is 100% authentic manga in its presentation. It reads right to left, it deals with sweeping emotions and white-knuckled angst, it moves fast, and it’s action-packed.”

“Manga rarely has anything to do with ‘art style. Japanese comics have just as diverse a selection of artistic approaches as Western comics do. I was interested in the form and the format, that’s why we did it as though it were an authentic, translated-from-Japanese manga.”

Shaenon Garrity posts the first half of her reader-generated Overlooked Manga Festival.

Tangognat lists all the manga she’s reading, and why.

ComiPress translates the epilogue to “The Reason I Quit My Job as a Manga Editor” and reports that the Guinness Book of World Records has decided that manga-ka Shotaro Ishinomori (Cyborg 009, Kamen Rider) is the most published manga-ka ever.

Attention journalists: Has your editor just assigned an article on this “women in comics” thing? David Welsh has some tips for you!

Web designer and comics artist Dave White writes about the visual side of comics at 741.5 Comics, which he has recently revived after a period of, uh, quietude. He writes about all kinds of comics and has a keen eye for manga—check out his review of vols. 1 and 2 of Kashimashi.

We see lots of articles about crimes that were supposedly caused by manga, so it’s refreshing to see this article mentioning a kid who goes back to school because of manga.

News from Japan: ANN reports that the manga magazine Monthly Dengeki Comic GAO! is wrapping up a dozen series in the March and April issues, including newly licensed series Inukami! (Seven Seas) and Honoka Lv. Up! (Broccoli). Click for lots more details. Also: D.N.Angel is back, and W-Juliet creator Emura has a new manga. On the business side, Animate and Broccoli have teamed up.

Erica Friedman rounds up some international yuri news, including the happy tidings that Rica Takashima (Rica ‘tte Kanji!?) plans on doing more manga featuring Rica and Miho.

German blog Manly Manga and More posts Tokyopop’s February releases and their own shopping list.

Reviews: It’s Shojo Beat Week at Manga Recon, where Erin Finnegan reviews vol. 1 of Honey and Clover, vol. 1 of The Sand Chronicles, and vol. 2 of Fall in Love Like a Comic. Ben Leary reviews vol. 1 of Yurara and Greg Hackman takes a look at the Demon Ororon Complete Collection at Anime on DVD. Ed Chavez podcasts his thoughts on Witchblade Takeru and Dorothy of Oz at the MangaCast. At the Manga Maniac Cafe, Julie checks out vol. 4 of Inubaka: Crazy for Dogs and I’ll Be Your Slave Tiamat’s Disciple enjoys vol. 1 of Black God but can’t even finish Pandora: A Death JR Story. Mely has lots to say about vol. 8 of Godchild at coffeeandink. At Active Anime, Holly Ellingwood reviews vol. 3 of Le Chevalier d’Eon and I’ll Be Your Slave, and Rachel Bentham has an early look at Party. Mahou Meido Meganekko reads Rosario + Vampire in scanlation and posts a lengthy critique. Jason Punda checks out vol. 1 of Hollow Fields at Manga Jouhou.