What the groundhog saw

Forget spring—New York Comic Con is just around the corner, and preparations are well under way here at MangaBlog Central. If you’re only there for the manga, check out Deb Aoki’s list of the manga highlights at About.com. I’ll be there—look for a short woman wearing many different hats, except the hats are figurative, as I’ll be covering the con for MangaBlog, PWCW, Good Comics for Kids, Digital Strips, and anyone else who will pay me. If you will be there on Friday morning, be sure to stop by the panel Newsflash! Teen Girls Read Comics, which will be moderated by Robin Brenner and feature Kate Dacey, Del Rey’s Tricia Narwani, and yours truly. If you would like to meet up during the con, drop me an e-mail at the address on your left. Not going? Check this space for frequent updates.

At Precocious Curmudgeon, David Welsh goes through this week’s new releases and finds a few things to read. God Len runs through this week’s new manga and anime as well at Japanator.

Here’s an odd twist in a case that has attracted a lot of attention in the comics community: The trial of Christopher Handley, who faces up to 20 years for the “crime” of owning obscene manga, has been postponed due to “convenience of counsel,” whatever that means. ICv2 speculates that the trial may be rescheduled to late March. Here’s the backstory, in case you missed this when it first came out.

Deb posts the results of her readers’ poll for best manga magazine at About.com, and the result may surprise you.

Indefatigable manga reader and commentator Oyceter posts her sequential art list for 2008 at her LJ, Sakura of DOOM. Click for pithy commentary and a series or two you might have missed.

News from Japan: Ed Chavez posts Taiyosha’s weekly manga rankings at MangaCast. At Anime Vice, Gia reports that Hetalia creator Hidekazu Himaruya has been getting death threats on message boards because of his depiction of South Korea. And the doujinshi chain Toranoana seems to be doing pretty well despite the tough economic times. Because we all know that comics will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no comics.

Reviews: The Manga Recon team serves up a fistful of Manga Minis, including quick looks at vol. 2 of Captive Hearts, vol. 3 of Two Flowers for the Dragon, and more. At MangaCast, Jack Tse returns from a lengthy hiatus to post an appreciation of a book that’s been around for a while, Del Rey’s one-volume shoujo version of Train Man, while Ed devotes his latest podcast to vol. 2 of Translucent. And the scales fall from Alex Hoffman’s eyes as he reads vols. 3 and 4 of Rosario + Vampire at Manga Widget. Other reviews of note:

Connie on vol. 4 of Banana Fish (Slightly Biased Manga)
J. Caleb Mozzocco on Cowa!, vols. 1-2 of Dororo, and vol. 5 of Yotsuba&! (Every Day Is Like Wednesday)
Julie on vol. 1 of Happy Happy Clover (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Melinda Beasi on vols. 1-3 of Legal Drug (there it is, plain as daylight)
Connie on vol. 15 of Let Dai (Slightly Biased Manga)
Kris on vol. 2 of Loveholic (Manic About Manga)
Dan Polley on vol. 2 of Me and the Devil Blues (Comics Village)
Derik Badman on Mushishi (Madinkbeard)
Connie on vol. 6 of One Thousand and One Nights (Slightly Biased Manga)

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Comments

  1. NYCC: 99.99% convinced that I’ll run into you. Probably on Thursday. ^_^

  2. Count on it. I’ll be at the ICv2 conference. Maybe we should try to get together for dinner afterwards?

  3. 100% sure I’ll run into you, except not at ICv2. :)

  4. Thurs.: Let’s make it a date. ^_~ Also, now that I’ve spend more *ahem* quality, school-related time in NYC, I can make more intelligent suggestions about where to eat.

  5. I’ll be in on Saturday – would love to catch up with everyone.

    Cheers,

    Erica

    Hungry for Yuri” Have some Okazu!
    http://okzu.blogspot.com

  6. “Because we all know that comics will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no comics.”

    Wow. That’s a flashback! (Word usage intentional.) Gotta dig up some Gilbert Shelton.

  7. Ha! You’re the first one to catch the reference. You win the internets!

  8. Erica: Definitely!