News about stuff, most of it manga

Not manga, but interesting nonetheless: At Digital Strips, my colleague Jason Sigler (a.k.a. The Midnight Cartooner) talks to Michael Rouse-Deane about The Guest Strip Project, the latest creation of his fevered brain. Rouse-Deane is the creator of The Kid’s Book Project and the Tastefully Done calendar (which I’m in!), two projects that bring comics creators together on joint projects to benefit cancer research and the Make-A-Wish foundation.

Christopher Butcher surveys the graphic novel scene and concludes that Godwin’s Sturgeon’s Law applies there too: 95% is crap, and the manga is no exception. Choice quote:

Manga, especially manga, which despite being cherry-picked out off of a tree that includes some _truly_ wretched material, is often terrible thanks to its formulaic blandness. Even A Monkey Can Draw Manga was not funny, it was a warning.

And the National Post has a nice Q&A with Mr. Butcher as well.

Congratulations to Same Hat! Same Hat! on their third anniversary; they’re just a touch older than we are. Ryan just posted an update that includes their progress on the Secret Project, their con plans for this year, and more!

Here are some photos of the Manhua: Chinese Comics Now! exhibit in the UK (via ComiPress).

News from Japan: ANN has word of new manga from Kazuhiro Fujita (Ushio & Tora) and Nobuyuki Anzai (Flame of Recca).

Reviews: Carlo Santos reveiws vol. 1 of Love Attack and vol. 16 of Tsubasa, and Theron Martin reads the novel Dark Wars: The Tale of Meiji Dracula at ANN. Michelle gives vol. 10 of Ouran High School Host Club a passing grade at Soliloquy in Blue. Johanna Draper Carlson doesn’t have much to say about vol. 2 of Fool’s Gold except that she’s going to keep reading it, and she’s sticking with vol. 4 of Love*Com, too. Lori Henderson reviews vol. 1 of Phantom at Manga Xanadu. Kethylia takes a sharp look at vol. 1 of Honey and Clover and vol. 1 of Sand Chronicles. Lissa Pattillo reviews vol. 2 of Ordinary Crush and Kia Smalara checks out vol. 1 of Pumpkin Scissors at Manga Jouhou. Mangamaniac Julie reviews Everlasting Love at MangaCast, and back at the Manga Maniac Cafe she gives her take on vol. 1 of Crayon Shinchan. Tiamat’s Disciple posts his impressions of vols. 1-3 of Ray. At Active Anime, Margaret Viera looks at vol. 17 of One Piece and Holly Ellingwood moves on to vol. 19 of Fruits Basket. Connie has another manga-thon at Slightly Biased Manga, posting reviews of vol. 5 of Lunar Legend Tsukihime, Mr. Arashi’s Amazing Freak Show, vol. 2 of Let Dai, Comics Underground Japan, vol. 6 of Berserk, vol. 3 of Black Sun, Silver Moon, vol. 22 of Bleach, and vol. 6 of Click.

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Comments

  1. It’s Sturgeon’s Law (or Sturgeon’s Revelation) you’re referring to here, not Godwin’s Law (which is about mentioning Nazis during arguments).

  2. You know, I thought that was wrong but I went with the original source. I’ll fix it now.

    In fact, my husband always cites it as “95 percent of everything is crap. Except for crap. 100 percent of crap is crap.”

  3. Thanks Brigid! Start thinking about what omiyage you’d like from Japan :)