Here’s your standout story of the day: At Sleep Is For the Weak, Bad Jew takes a look at one of the more obscure corners of the comics world: North Korea, where the comics are blatant propaganda but interesting nonetheless. (Image from The Great General Mighty Wong, one of the comics, or gruim-chaek in question.)
ICv2 reports that sales of both periodical comics and graphic novels were down sharply in May, with the market as a whole falling by 18%. They also give Diamond’s top 300 graphic novels for May.
Danielle Leigh checks out the manga in the June Previews at Manga Over Flowers.
In case anyone is curious, I discuss the books on the top of my stack in this week’s What Are You Reading? column at Robot 6.
Manga artist Junko Mizuno will be in Toronto on Thursday to open a show of her work.
Reviews: Andrew Wheeler reviews three Chinese and Korean titles at ComicMix. Over at Manga Recon, the team turns in another handful of Manga Minis. At The Eastern Standard, Andrew Cunningham complains that Kino no Tabi is getting boring and Joe Iglesias says pretty much the same thing about vol. 10 of Battle Angel Alita: Last Order.
Connie on vol. 2 of Audition (Slightly Biased Manga)
Lorena on vol. 2 of Backstage Prince (i heart manga)
Lorena on vol. 1 of Blank Slate (i heart manga)
Michelle Smith on vol. 1 of Brilliant Blue (Manga Recon)
Connie on vol. 1 of Choco Mimi (Slightly Biased Manga)
Dave Ferraro on A Drifting Life (Comics-and-More)
Isaac Hale on vol. 4 of Flower of Life (Manga Recon)
Lorena on vol. 1 of Fullmetal Alchemist (i heart manga)
Danielle Leigh on vol. 1 of Gestalt (Comics Should Be Good!)
Connie on vol. 13 of Hoshin Engi (Slightly Biased Manga)
J. Caleb Mozzocco on Mijeong (Blog@Newsarama)
Laura on vol. 1 of NG Life (Heart of Manga)
Connie on vol. 1 of Orange Planet (Manga Recon)
Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of Rasetsu (Comics Village)
Connie on vol. 12 of Reborn (Slightly Biased Manga)
Erin Finnegan on The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya and vols. 1-3 of The Melancholoy of Haruhi Suzumiya (Manga Recon)
Lorena on vol. 5 of Skip Beat (i heart manga)
Connie on vol. 1 of Song of the Hanging Sky (Slightly Biased Manga)
A Library Girl on vol. 1 of Tramps Like Us (A Library Girl’s Familiar Diversions)
It’s Kino no Tabi. :o
Hi, Brigid! The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya post was actually written by Erin Finnegan. She just mentioned me in the first line because I wrote the review of the first light novel in the series.
Fixed x 2. Thanks!