Flipped finds a new home, Infinity goes online

Here’s the best news of the day: David Welsh’s Flipped column has found a new home! He will be posting at The Comics Reporter now, and he jumps right in with a column about his favorite series.

Infinity is taking a huge step, for manga: Going forward, they will release all their books online, in PDF format. They won’t be free, but prices haven’t been released yet. And they will continue to publish print editions, but as Ed Chavez notes in his excellent commentary, distribution and print quality have been issues for Infinity, and ebooks get around both. Incidentally, Ed is seldom wrong, but when he says that translated Japanese titles cannot be found legally online, he’s not quite right: CPM has a couple of entire volumes up for free here.

Jake Forbes announces a new Tales of the Labyrinth anthology and provides graphic evidence of why he won’t be drawing for it.

Japanamerica author Roland Kelts takes an Asian-tinged tour of San Francisco and hears about Viz founder Seiji Horibuchi’s big plan for a Japanese popular culture center in the city’s Japantown.

At Manga Xanadu, Lori Henderson gets the latest Previews and has some tough decisions to make.

Canada always seems like a reasonable country, except for this: Their customs service just banned a number of erotic manga. (Check out this earlier story for more.)

Erica Friedman updates us with all the latest yuri news at Okazu. WaiWai offers a beginner’s look at lesbian manga, but Erica goes into greater depth in her informative review of Honey & Honey.

Christopher Butcher winds up his photo tour of Japan with pictures of Shibuya, Ginza, and the Ramen Museum.

At the Del Rey blog, Dallas Middaugh notes a literary device that works better in Japanese than in English.

News from Japan: ANN reports that Hajime no Ippo creator George Morikawa will draw a one-shot manga for the first issue of Kodansha’s Weekly Shonen Rival. Artists Cuvie, Morishege, and Tota Kisawa have launched new series in Akita Shoten’s Young Champion. And Ichiinsha has announced a new light novel line.

Tokyopop is offering its West Coast fans a chance to be a part of their Van Von Hunter movie on Friday. They’re even buying the pizza!

Reviews: Occasional Superheroine Valerie D’Orazio finds a lot to like about vol. 6 of The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service. Emru Townsend takes a look at vol. 2 of Mechademia, the academic journal of manga and anime, for Frames Per Second Magazine. Michelle enjoys vol. 18 of Fruits Basket at Soliloquy in Blue. At the Manga Maniac Cafe, Julie is disappointed by vol. 1 of Yozakura Quartet. Singaporean anime blogger dKiWi reviews vol. 1 of Aqua at 2D>3D. Katie McNeill checks out vol. 1 of Harukaze Bitter Bop for Blogcritics. Greg McElhatton is not impressed with vol. 1 of Hell Girl at Read About Comics. The blogger at Anime wa Bakuhatsu da! likes vols. 1 and 2 of Parasyte. Mangamaniac reviews Love Circumstances for MangaCast. Miranda checks out vol. 1 of Translucent and Ferdinand looks at vols. 1 and 2 of Variante at Prospero’s Manga. Matthew Alexander reviews the adult title Heat, which probably wouldn’t make it past Canadian customs, at Anime on DVD. Holly Ellingwood reviews vol. 4 of Yurara and vol. 11 of Skip Beat! at Active Anime. Erica Friedman reads Otome Cake with an editor’s eye. Kethylia jots a few quick reviews. Eric Turner reviews vol. 1 of Heaven!! and Xenith checks out vol. 1 of The Yagyu Ninja Scrolls at Manga Jouhou. At Slightly Biased Manga, Connie reviews vol. 2 of Presents, vol. 4 of Kashimashi, and vol. 5 of Golgo 13. Lissa Pattillo checks out vol. 1 of Level C and writes a thoughtful and non-spoilery review of Death Note at Kuriousity.