Big ol’ catch-up post with lots of interesting links

Kristy Valenti reports in from Sakura-Con at comiXology, and her takes on the con as a whole and the Dark Horse panel in particular are pretty upbeat. Here’s Carl Horn on the manga market:

In regards to the Direct Market, Horn said that “what we’ve heard from [Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc.] is that there’s no evidence whatsoever that the readership for manga is declining or losing interest.” However, “the troubles with the manga industry are, again, I hate to pass on to the larger economy, but that’s what I’m going to do. Most manga is moved through bookstores […] and they’ve been having their own problems. So, any sales reduction in manga in bookstores is nothing personal against manga, it has more to do with the larger problems that bookstores have. On the other hand, we have been seeing market sales increase on Amazon.”

So, not entirely upbeat, but the world doesn’t seem to be coming to an end just yet. Also interesting is Roland Kelts’ comment that the Japanese are much less interested than Americans about marketing manga in the U.S. I think they’re starting to catch on, though. (Image: Vol. 3 of Bride of the Water God, due out from Dark Horse on May 13.)

The MangaCast team is back with their weekly selections from this week’s new manga, and Ed posts all the manga in the April Previews as well.

At Newsarama, Michael C. Lorah talks to Kim Dong Hwa about The Color of Earth.

The latest manga to migrate to the iPhone and iPod Touch is Vampire Hunter D; Uclick and DMP have put the first volume up at a cost of 99 cents per chapter.

WoW Insider interviews Dan Jolley, a writer for the World of Warcraft manga series.

Yamila Abraham of Yaoi Press explains how to print doujinshi at rock-bottom prices.

Christopher Mautner of Robot 6 goes to see Tekkonkinkreet and gets to hear about it from manga and anime scholar Frederick Schodt as well.

Jason Thompson, author of The Complete Guide to Manga, will be at the Stumptown Comics Fest this weekend.

Johanna Draper Carlson notes a cameo by Detective Conan in the latest volume of Hayate the Combat Butler.

ANN spotlights three new academic books about anime, manga, and otaku culture.

Over in Germany, Jonathan plays catch-up by posting February’s German manga releases and his own February shopping list at Manly Manga and More.

News from Japan: The first tankoubon of American artist Felipe Smith’s series Peepo Choo (cover at right) goes on sale in Japan next week. ANN posts this week’s manga charts, and they have plenty of other tidbits as well: Shuho Sato will post his New Say Hello to Black Jack online one month after it appears in print. (Canned Dogs has more on this.) Kazuo Koike is also going the digital route with his most recent Lone Wolf and Cub series, which is now being published in eBook Japan’s web magazine Katana. A 26-year-old woman has been arrested for breaking into the office of the late manga-ka Masamichi Yokoyama and stealing 800 of his original drawings for the erotic manga Yaruki Manman. The issue of Hana to Yume that ships on April 20 will include a one-shot Hana-Kimi story, and manga-ka Hisaya Nakajo will draw the cover as well. And We Were There will return from hiatus in the July issue of Betsucomi. Canned Dogs reports that Niwano Makoto is drawing a sequel to Majima-kun suttobasu!!, titled Majima, bazeru!! for Comic Break magazine.

Reviews

Julie on vol. 1 of Animal Academy (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Connie on vol. 10 of Bastard (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 1 of Captive Hearts (Slightly Biased Manga)
A Library Girl on vol. 2 of Chobits (A Library Girl’s Familiar Diversions)
Connie on vol. 2 of Croquis Pop (Slightly Biased Manga)
Marsha Reid on vol. 6 of Cynical Orange (Kuriousity)
James Fleenor on vols. 10, 11, and 12 of D.Gray-Man (Anime Sentinel)
Julie on vol. 1 of Future Diary (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 1 of Hey, Class President! (Kuriousity)
Justin Colussy-Estes on vol. 1 of Higurashi When They Cry: Abducted by Demons Arc (Comics Village)
Emily on Katakoi Triangle (Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Blog)
Barb Lien-Cooper on vols. 38 and 39 of Naruto (Manga Life)
Erin Finnegan on vols. 1 and 2 of Oishinbo: a la Carte (Manga Recon)
Connie on vol. 3 of One Pound Gospel (Slightly Biased Manga)
Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane on vol. 2 of Otomen (Manga Life)
Joy Kim on vol. 1 of Pig Bride (Manga Life)
Xavier Guilbert on Pluto (in French) (du9)
Park Cooper on vols. 26-31 of Prince of Tennis (Manga Life)
Snow Wildsmith on vols. 1-4 of S (yaoi novels) (Fujoshi Librarian)
Melinda Beasi on Solanin (Comics Should Be Good)
Leroy Douresseaux on Star Trek: The Next Generation The Manga: Boukenshin (The Comic Book Bin)
Matthew Alexander on vol. 10 of Suzuka (Mania.com)
Billy Aguiar on vol. 1 of Wolverine: Prodigal Son (Prospero’s Manga)
Diana Dang on vol. 1 of Wolverine: Prodigal Son (Stop, Drop, and Read)
Julie on vol. 1 of Wolverine: Prodigal Son (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Gizmo on vol. 2 of World of Quest (Kuriousity)

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