Bad boys and good art

The Manga Bible blitz continues, with Clint Rainey of World on the Web, R. Scott Clark of Heidelblog, and Glob-a-log weighing in today with cute headlines but varying degrees of enthusiasm. Slightly related: Calvin Reid writes about Christian publisher Thomas Nelson’s foray into graphic novels.

In another direction entirely, reporter Sean Thomas seems somewhat shocked by this new yaoi thing:

Yaoi is the name of a bizarre sex phenomenon sweeping Asia: girls who are devoted to comics and pornography which focus on love, sex and romance – between men.

And it’s coming to the UK! Quick, Mildred, the smelling salts! (Via Journalista.)

News from ComiPress: Shojo Beat announces its March art issue, and Del Rey is giving away just one advance copy of its new title, Fairy Tail, which is set to debut in March.

It’s old but it’s good: We’re having a slow news day, so check out this interview with Carl Horn from last year, which I think I’m seeing for the first time. (Hat tip: Charles Tan.)

Over in Japan, the monthly manga magazine Comic Flapper is celebrating its 100th issue with some new manga by famous artists, including Hiroaki Samura (Blade of the Immortal).

Cliffs Notes jumps on the bandwagon with their own manga editions of Shakespeare.

Reviews: Dave White is doing some very nice reviews with an eye to design and art at 741.5 Comics; check out his take on Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms, and his explanation of the “Shonen Jump slowdown” in this review of vols. 7-12 of Eyeshield 21. Katie McNeill checks out vol. 1 of Trinity Blood at Blogcritics. Holly Ellingwood has a busy day at Active Anime, posting reviews of Love Training, vol. 7 of Enchanter, vol. 1 of I Wish…, and In the End. The theme of About Heroes’ Monday Manga Reviews this week seems to be Girls Gone Wild. Connie enjoys vol. 3 of Apothecarius Argentum at Slightly Biased Manga. D.M. Evans checks out vol. 1 of Spiral: The Bonds of Reasoning at Manga Jouhou. Ed Sizemore looks at vols. 1 and 2 of Narration of Love at 17 at Comics Worth Reading. At Soliloquy in Blue, Michelle gives a solid B to vol. 26 of Basara. Dave Ferraro devotes Manga Monday to vol. 8 of Nana at Comics-and-More. At Anime on DVD, Patricia Beard reviews Love Share and Duetto. Julie reads vol. 6 of After School Nightmare and vol. 2 of Camera Camera Camera at the Manga Maniac Cafe. Occasional Superheroine’s Valerie D’Orazio, whose street cred on the superhero side is as solid as it gets, is taking a walk on the manga side, starting with a review of vol. 4 of Pretty Face. Readers chime in in comments to suggest other titles for her to read; this should be fun. (Via Journalista.)

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Comments

  1. Wow, talk about late to the party. The genres been losing steam in Japan for some time now, and Yaoicon’s been held annually since 2001. :/ And it allows us to ‘enjoy male sexuality’?? 0_o…*sigh*

    Yaoi began with Manga comics called shonen-ai, which depict, in a rather softcore way, intimacy between young men and originally aimed at gay men.

    Zowie, too much for me to chomp on there-

    Will it take off in Europe? If the next boy band in the pop charts is suspiciously gay, you’ll know the answer is Yes

    Dear Sean Thomas, let me introduce you to ‘Germany’, oh, and his friend, ‘Stage Gay’ aka My Chemical Romance/Green Day/few others I don’t care about…

    ^_^
    Hi Manga Blog!