Borders lament, pretty shoujo, and Christian manga

Check out this week’s PWCW, where I interview Christian manga publishers Buzz Dixon and Marlon Schulman.

Yamila Abraham of Yaoi Press fears that Borders’ troubles spell bad news—and a possible acquisition by Barnes & Noble could be even worse:

It’s not just the fact that stores would close, but B&N is overly conservative and does not capitalize on the graphic novel boom. B&N stores treat graphic novels like any other small section, like travel books or cook books. At the New York Comic Con GN conference last year the buyer said they saw no reason to change their graphic novel acquisition strategy. B&N currently only buys 3% of the amount that Borders buys of our books (less than 100 copies per title). I’ve discussed promoting Yaoi Press books more aggressively to B&N with my distributor. My rep says it’s a lost cause. They don’t buy many graphic novels. They especially don’t buy the ‘mature readers’ ones. I’m sure there are single stores out there that are exceptions to this, because B&N does buy some copies of our books. I’m telling you what I see overall.

David Welsh and Tom Spurgeon are less negative (but not exactly more positive). My local B&N must be one of the exceptions, as they have expanded their graphic novel section to cover an entire wall (although I admit I have never seen YP manga there).

Three reliable sellers make their showing on the USA Today best-seller list this week: vol. 19 of Fruits Basket moves up from number 112 to 34, vol. 28 of Naruto slips from 26 to 39, and vol. 16 of Fullmetal Alchemist debuts at number 149.

The girls are minding the store at MangaCast, where Khursten posts this week’s new manga.

David Rasmussen interviews Seven Seas editor Adam Arnold at Manga Life. And Fruits Basket translators Alethea and Athena Nibley fact-check themselves in their latest column.

Viz has a preview up of Slam Dunk, and John Jakala likes what he sees, although he liked Gutsoon‘s translation a little more. Broccoli Books has posted a preview of vol. 2 of My Dearest Devil Princess. Don’t worry if you haven’t read vol. 1 yet; this isn’t one of their more cerebral titles.

It takes a real man to admit he likes his shoujo manga better in pink, and that’s just how Dave White feels.

The Manga Recon team files their Anime Boston report, and Cape Cod Today checks in as well.

ComiPress analyzes the new magazine PiQ.

Report from the front: Katie Ackley of Cooper City (Florida) High writes about the popularity of Bleach and Naruto.

Found via When Fangirls Attack: R.E. Silvera reflects on some issues regarding Fruits Basket’s Akito at Prepare for Trouble; prepare for spoilers before you click. And Bollywood Girls’ Guide To Life has some thoughts on feminism and Nana. Gia Manry writes about mangaka Arina Tanemura at Fanboy.com.

Back at her blog, Gia picks up on an article I missed, about the booming demand for information presented as manga.

Tiamat’s Disciple tries to order some manga and runs into problems once more, this time because of a shipment of books that ended up where they shouldn’t be, and a wrong ISBN.

News from Japan: ANN has the Japanese comic rankings for the past week.

Reviews: At Anime Sentinel, James Fleenor posts his impressions of vol. 1 of Gimmick! and vol. 1 of Blood+. Ferdinand finds vol. 1 of The Third rather ho-hum at Prospero’s Manga. Tangognat enjoys SOS. At the Manga Maniac Cafe, Julie takes a look at vol. 2 of Orfina. Danielle Van Gorder enjoys vol. 1 of V.B. Rose at Anime on DVD. At Slightly Biased Manga, Connie checks out vols. 8 and 9 of Moon Child. Holly Ellingwood reviews vol. 1 of Heroes Are Extinct and Rachel Bentham takes an advance look at the yaoi anthology Sugar Milk at Active Anime. Lori Henderson’s daughter Jenny really likes vol. 4 of Dragon Drive at Manga Xanadu. Michelle enjoys vol. 11 of xxxHOLiC at Soliloquy in Blue. Ed Sizemore checks out vol. 1 of Gun Blaze West at Comics Worth Reading. At Manga Life, David Rasmussen explores the outer limits of what we call manga with reviews of the Harlequin Ginger Blossom Violet manga Response and the Tokyopop Cine-Manga Spongebob Squarepants: Bikini Bottom’s Most Wanted, and Shannon Fay reads vols. 1 and 2 of Our Everlasting. Erica Friedman reviews Yuri-iro Rasen at Okazu and finds it just as junky as she expected. Kethylia gives passing marks to vol. 1 of Heroes Are Extinct. Leroy Douresseaux reviews vol. 1 of Shin Megami Tensei KAHN for the Comic Book Bin.

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Comments

  1. There actually /is/ only one volume of SOS. :)

  2. Thanks! I fixed it—now I only look like an idiot to people who bother to read the comments!

  3. danielle leigh says

    well, then I hate to add to your troubles but “Our Everlasting” is a two-volume yaoi series from DMP/June (I think you meant to link to something involving “Sponge Bob” there?)

  4. Ah, coding glitch. Thanks for spotting it!

    And now you have me thinking about SpongeBob yaoi—noooooo!

  5. That’s a very frightening thought.