Happy Birthday, Astro Boy

Astro BoyThat’s right, Tezuka’s creation was born on April 7, 2003, according to Ryan of Same Hat, and he has the Google.jp logo to prove it.

At About.com, Deb Aoki interviews Yuna Kagesaki, the creator of Chibi Vampire.

Doujinshi 101: David Smith explains it all to you at IGN. (Via ComiPress.) Also via ComiPress: Kodansha has set up a comic portal on the web.

Numbers, numbers, numbers: At Comicsnob, Matt Blind once again analyzes online manga sales to come up with the top 500 sellers, the midlist top 500, the top 50 series, and a publishers’ scorecard. Then he wraps it up with a post about global manga and how it is selling.

Erica Friedman rounds up the week’s yuri news at Okazu, including word of a new title.

John Jakala decides he may have been a bit harsh in his original reassessment of The Drifting Classroom.

Starving artist, manga-style: Canned Dogs reports on Shounen Sunday artist Wakaki Tamiki’s complaints about his low pay.

The Yaoi Review looks forward to some of this month’s new yaoi releases.

At Kuri-ousity, Lissa Pattillo spots the listings for some new manga: The Aoi House and Clover omnibuses (omnibi?) and the cover of Happy Yaoi Yum Yum.

At Comics Worth Reading, Johanna Draper Carlson notes the cancellation of the josei title Talking About, which was scheduled to be published by Netcomics in June.

ANN reports that the Japanse serialization of Beck is coming to an end.

Reviews: David Welsh devotes his Flipped column to a nice long look at Emma and reviews Wild Ones back at Precocious Curmudgeon. The Avid Book Reader just couldn’t put vol. 1 of Battle Royale down, despite the violence. At Active Anime, Holly Ellingwood reviews vol. 10 of Tsukuyomi Moon Phase, The First Stage of Love, and book 1 of the Psycho Busters novel, and Rachel Bentham reads vol. 29 of Boys Over Flowers. Greg McElhatton critiques vol. 1 of Metro Survive at Read About Comics. Michelle is disappointed by vol. 23 of Hana-Kimi at Soliloquy in Blue. At Manga Xanadu, Lori Henderson catches up with the last four issues of Shonen Jump. Briana Lawrence reads King of Debt and Matthew Alexander checks out vol. 28 of Oh My Goddess at Anime on DVD. Manga Maniac Julie reviews Hot Steamy Glasses at the MangaCast, and back at the Manga Maniac Cafe she checks out vol. 8 of ES: Eternal Sabbath and vol. 2 of Pumpkin Scissors. Erica Friedman reviews the lesbian Japanese manga KOOLS and digresses into a discussion of josei manga versus Ladies’ Comics. Sakura Kiss reviews vol. 1 of Yakuza in Love at The Yaoi Review. Anne Cain checks out vol. 1 of Sunflower at Manga Jouhou. At Slightly Biased Manga, Connie looks at vol. 11 of Skip Beat, vol. 16 of Fullmetal Alchemist, vol. 1 of Honey and Clover, vol. 1 of Devil’s Bride, vol. 15 of Berserk, and vol. 11 of XXXHolic. Ferdinand reads vol. 1 of Monkey High at Prospero’s Manga. Chloe Ferguson gives an A to vol. 6 of After School Nightmare at PopCultureShock’s Manga Recon blog. EvilOmar posts some brief manga reviews at About Heroes. Tiamat’s Disciple reviews vol. 3 of Spiral. Theron Martin reviews the novel vol. 2 of The Twelve Kingdoms at ANN.

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Comments

  1. mark thorpe says

    You know, when you write “Beck is coming to an end”, one might assume that Tokyopop is discontinuing the series. One might begin to panic as he looks at 11 volumes sitting on his shelf; volumes he paid lots of money for. One might begin to have an anxiety attack. One might begin to break into an uncontrolable weep before they click onto the link (whew). Good Morning.

  2. Sorry Mark! I’ll clarify it in the post. I just assumed “coming to an end” implied a natural ending, as opposed to something like “Tokyopop dropped the series.”

    I’d be more sympathetic, except I started my day with a full-color photo of a fresh pile of dog poop that had been left on someone’s front lawn. Such are the joys of working in a city office!

  3. Cool points for linking Kuri- she’s a smart anime fan ^_^
    Incidentally, RightStuf’s listing a new AstroBoy Vol.1+2 trade for 14.95 from Dark Horse, so I guess ol’DH is celebrating with a new omnibus edition of Astro Boy.

    Thanks for continuing to run the great blog Brigid! Fandom stupidity made me just kind of give up on my old TP one [that and the horrible site design]. It’s nice to see fans who put effort into keeping everyone informed :)